100+ Inspirational Quotes for Teens to Empower and Motivate

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

- Arthur Ashe

"Courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."

- Nelson Mandela

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going."

- Yasmin Mogahed

"Tough times never last, but tough people do."

- Robert Schuller

"You are enough just as you are."

- Meghan Markle

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

- Oliver Goldsmith

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

- Nelson Mandela

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."

- Walt Disney

"The people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do."

- Steve Jobs

"Hard days are the best because that’s when champions are made. If you push through the hard days, then you can get through anything."

- Gabby Douglas

"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen."

- Michael Jordan

"I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

- Michael Jordan

"The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

- Thomas A. Edison

"I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work."

- Thomas Edison

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."

- Albert Einstein

"Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other."

- Walter Elliot

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."

- Albert Einstein

"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

- A.A. Milne

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."

- Confucius

"Do not judge me by my success. Judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again."

- Nelson Mandela

"Fall seven times, stand up eight."

- Japanese Proverb

"Courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it."

- Nelson Mandela

"Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"If you are always trying to be normal, you’ll never know how amazing you can be."

- Maya Angelou

"Don't let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game."

- Babe Ruth

"The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking."

- Albert Einstein

"It doesn’t matter how strong your opinions are. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are indeed part of the problem."

- Coretta Scott King

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."

- Aesop

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."

- Mark Twain

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

- E.E. Cummings

"We rise by lifting others."

- Robert Ingersoll

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world."

- Gandhi

"The only way to have a friend is to be one."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life."

- Steve Jobs

"You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."

- Buddha

"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

- Steve Jobs

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Believe you can, and you’re halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it."

- Charles R. Swindoll

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you."

- Walt Whitman

"Personal growth is not a destination, it's a journey."

- Zig Ziglar

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul."

- Swami Vivekananda

"The greatest investment you can make is in yourself."

- Warren Buffett

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."

- Helen Keller

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."

- Henry Ford

"Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people."

- Steve Jobs

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."

- Michael Jordan

"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."

- Phil Jackson

"I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles."

- Nelson Mandela

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow."

- William Shakespeare

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else."

- Judy Garland

"You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"You will always pass failure on your way to success."

- Mickey Rooney

"It is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate."

- George Burns

"If you’re making mistakes, it means you’re out there doing something."

- Neil Gaiman

"Don’t be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed."

- LeBron James

"The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well."

- John D. Rockefeller

"My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time."

- Charles Dickens

"It is what we make out of what we have given, not what we are given, that separates one person from another."

- Nelson Mandela

"Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

- John R. Wooden

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

- Anne Frank

"Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious."

- Stephen Hawking

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

- Albert Einstein

"It isn’t where you came from. It’s where you’re going that counts."

- Ella Fitzgerald

"Don’t listen to the person who has the answers; listen to the person who has the questions."

- Albert Einstein

"The darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow."

- Norman Vincent Peale

"In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t."

- John Green

"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves."

- Henry David Thoreau

"There is no normal life that is free of pain. It’s the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth."

- Fred Rogers

"We are not our trauma. We are not our brain chemistry. That’s part of who we are, but we’re so much more than that."

- Sam J. Miller

"Take pride in how far you’ve come. Have faith in how far you can go. But don’t forget to enjoy the journey."

- Michael Josephson

"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you."

- B.B. King

"I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy — I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it."

- Art Williams

"Life is very interesting. In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths."

- Drew Barrymore

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

- Robert Collier

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny."

- C.S. Lewis

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Keep true to the dreams of your youth."

- Friedrich Schiller

"We must tell girls their voices are important."

- Malala Yousafzai

"Friendships in childhood are usually a matter of chance, whereas in adolescence they are most often a matter of choice."

- David Elkind

"As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too."

- Johnny Depp

"I think there's a time in your life where you don't feel like you fit in. I think everyone has that when you're a teenager, especially, and especially in the society we live in."

- Matthew Vaughn

"Being a teen can be tough. Just try to surround yourself with really good friends that really have your back, and also be a really good friend to those who really care about you. If you're not sure about certain things, talk to your friends that you trust and your family."

- Victoria Justice

"You have teenagers thinking they're going to make millions as NBA stars when that's not realistic for even 1 percent of them. Becoming a scientist or engineer is."

- Dean Kamen

"I'm a teenager, but I'm independent - I have my own apartment, I have my own life. And I think I have learned more than any of those teenagers have in school. I learned to be responsible, leaving my family and coming here alone."

- Adriana Lima

"My own experience being bullied - it made me a more compassionate person. It made me more sympathetic to the adolescent experience."

- Carolyn Mackler

"Being a teenager is an amazing time and a hard time. It's when you make your best friends - I have girls who will never leave my heart and I still talk to. You get the best and the worst as a teen. You have the best friendships and the worst heartbreaks."

- Sophia Bush

"When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free."

- Barack Obama

"The expert in anything was once a beginner."

- Helen Hayes

"There is no substitute for hard work."

- Thomas A. Edison

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

- Thomas Edison

"The best way to predict your future is to create it."

- Peter Drucker

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

- Walt Disney

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle."

- Steve Jobs

"Successful people are not gifted; they just work hard, then succeed on purpose."

- G.K. Nielson

"Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement."

- Arnold Palmer

"Perfection is boring. Constant improvement is beautiful."

- Misty Copeland

"Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

- Joshua J. Marine

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."

- James Joyce

"You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over."

- Richard Branson

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

- Henry Ford

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

- Dr. Seuss

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

- Sun Tzu

"The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice."

- Brian Herbert

"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right."

- Henry Ford

"You grow through what you go through."

- Tyrese Gibson

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter."

- Dan Reeves

"Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t."

- Rikki Rogers

"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life."

- J.K. Rowling

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."

- Helen Keller

"Resilience isn't a single skill. It's a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive."

- Jean Chatzky

"Fear of failure is the fuel of achievement. If you weren't afraid to fail, you probably wouldn't be highly motivated to work at the level that most of us have to work at to do well."

- Ruth Simmons

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

- Albert Einstein

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

- C.S. Lewis

"You are the hero of your own story."

- Joseph Campbell

"You have what it takes to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"You are capable of making a difference in the world."

- Malala Yousafzai

"You are enough. You are so enough. It is unbelievable how enough you are."

- Sierra Boggess

"You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop."

- Rumi

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Self-belief is the first secret to success."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy."

- Norman Vincent Peale

"Your success will largely depend on your belief in yourself and your determination to overcome every obstacle."

- John Di Lemme

"We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve."

- Bill Gates

"Mistakes should be examined, learned from, and discarded; not dwelled upon and stored."

- Tim Fargo

"True intuitive expertise is learned from prolonged experience with good feedback on mistakes."

- Daniel Kahneman

"I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better."

- Elon Musk

"Maturity is when you stop blaming others for your problems and take ownership of your own life."

- Brian Tracy

"Being born gay, Black, and female is not a revolutionary act. Being proud to be a gay, Black female is."

- Lena Waithe

"I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence."

- Robert Cormier

"I have this sense that I didn't really start growing up until my twenties."

- Winona Ryder

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit."

- Napoleon Hill

"United we stand, divided we fall."

- Aesop

"Many hands make light work."

- John Heywood

"Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results."

- Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

"Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned."

- Peter Marshall

"It is being honest about my pain that makes me invincible."

- Nayyirah Waheed

"The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison."

- James Cash Penney

"When you think you have made a mistake, think of it as an opportunity to make something new."

- Barney Saltzberg

"The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique."

- Walt Disney

"The very things that hold you down are going to lift you up."

- Dumbo

"Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness."

- Tyrion Lannister

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere."

- Chinese proverb

"Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"In union, there is strength."

- Aesop

"The human capacity for burden is like bamboo—far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance."

- Jodi Picoult

"But when I was a teenager, the idea of spending the rest of my life in a factory was real depressing. So the idea that I could become a musician opened up some possibilities I didn't see otherwise."

- Wayne Kramer

"There is a point in every young person's life when you realize that the youth that you've progressed through and graduate to some sort of adulthood is equally as messed up as where you're going."

- Jena Malone

"Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings."

- Samuel Johnson

"Growing up, I wanted desperately to please, to be a good girl."

- Claire Danes

"I wanted to be with the kind of people I'd grown up with, but you can't go back to them and be one of them again, no matter how hard you try."

- Ethel Waters

"A good friend is a connection to life: a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world."

- Lois Wyse

"Growing up, I didn't have a lot of toys, and personal entertainment depended on individual ingenuity and imagination - think up a story and go live it for an afternoon."

- Terry Brooks

"I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday."

- José N. Harris

"The most important role models should and could be parents and teachers. But that said, once you're a teenager you've probably gotten as much of an example from your parents as you're going to."

- Andrew Shue

"Friendships between women, as any woman will tell you, are built of a thousand small kindnesses … swapped back and forth and over again."

- Michelle Obama

"Never apologize for being sensitive or emotional. Let this be a sign that you’ve got a big heart and aren’t afraid to let others see it. Showing your emotions is a sign of strength."

- Brigitte Nicole

"Never dull your shine for somebody else."

- Tyra Banks

"I grew up in a house where nobody had to tell me to go to school every day and do my homework."

- Constance Baker Motley

"You've got to grow up sometime."

- Winona Ryder

"We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us."

- Virginia Satir

"Adolescence is when girls experience social pressure to put aside their authentic selves and to display only a small portion of their gifts."

- Mary Pipher

"To all those mothers and fathers who are struggling with teen-agers, I say, just be patient: even though it looks like you can't do anything right for a number of years, parents become popular again when kids reach 20."

- Marian Wright Edelman

"The toddler must say no in order to find out who she is. The adolescent says no to assert who she is not."

- Louise J. Kaplan

"I think growing up is difficult and it's a process that I'm always interested in, with kids and adults, they are often on two different universes."

- Alice Hoffman

"Adolescence is the conjugator of childhood and adulthood."

- Louise J. Kaplan

"Adolescents are not monsters. They are just people trying to learn how to make it among the adults in the world, who are probably not so sure themselves."

- Virginia Satir

"Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life."

- Samuel Ullman

"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!"

- Dr. Seuss

"Feedback is the breakfast of champions."

- Ken Blanchard

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose."

- Robert Byrne

"You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind."

- Joyce Meyer

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

- George Eliot

"You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

- Dr. Seuss

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you."

- A. A. Milne, "Winnie the Pooh"

"Love is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is."

- Duke Ellington

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."

- Henry Ford

"Peace begins with a smile."

- Mother Teresa

"Mental health is not a destination but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going."

- Noam Shpancer

"Talk not of wasted affection; affection never was wasted."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do."

- Mark Twain

"The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous."

- Maya Angelou

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra."

- Jimmy Johnson

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."

- Ayn Rand

"Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has."

- Anita Brookner

"Trouble is, kids feel they have to shock their elders and each generation grows up into something harder to shock."

- Ben Lindsey

"To an adolescent, there is nothing in the world more embarrassing than a parent."

- Dave Barry

"Female adolescence is - universally - an emotionally and psychologically intense period."

- Caitlin Flanagan

"Your modern teenager is not about to listen to advice from an old person, defined as a person who remembers when there was no Velcro."

- Dave Barry

"As I've said many times, the single most oppressed class in America right now is the teenager."

- Joe Bob Briggs

"When I look in the mirror I see the girl I was when I was growing up, with braces, crooked teeth, a baby face and a skinny body."

- Heather Locklear

"I was a quiet teenager, introverted, full of angst."

- Nigella Lawson

"Always admit when you’re wrong. You’ll save thousands in therapy… and a few friendships too."

- Harvey Fierstein

"I was a handful growing up."

- Olivia Wilde

"I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen."

- Winnie the Pooh

"Beautiful people are not always good, but good people are always beautiful."

- Imam Ali

"Time scoots along pretty fast when you grow up."

- Alan Ladd

"Maturity is only a short break in adolescence."

- Jules Feiffer

"A loss ain’t a loss, it’s a lesson."

- Jay-Z

"Everyone we meet, everyone we love, how we got here, what path we choose, and who we choose to remember, they are all a part of our story. But we cannot allow the story to be written for us."

- Natasha Kingsley

"Our fate lives within us; you only have to be brave enough to see it."

- Merida

"We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public."

- Bryan White

"Youth comes but once in a lifetime."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Adolescence isn't just about prom or wearing sparkly dresses."

- Jena Malone

"All teenagers have this desire to somehow run away."

- Joan Chen

"A fairly bright boy is far more intelligent and far better company than the average adult."

- John B. S. Haldane

"Nobody understands anyone 18, including those who are 18."

- Jim Bishop

"While you're tremblin', that's when the magic happens and the stars gather by your side."

- Beyoncé

"I'm gonna ride 'til I can't no more."

- Lil Nas X

"It may seem like a small role now, but it matters. In the end, everything matters."

- Jay Asher

"Yeah, I got boy problems, that's the human in me, bling bling, then I solve 'em, that's the goddess in me."

- Lizzo

"We grow through what we go through."

- Anonymous

"Everybody is a teenage idol."

- Barry Gibb

"Turn your wounds into wisdom."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Growing up, I've enjoyed hunting with my father."

- Dale Earnhardt

"Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other."

- Laurence J. Peter

"I want to be a part of the people that make meaning, not the thing that is made."

- Barbie

"Don't wait for opportunity. Create it."

- Chris Grosser

"Alone we are smart, together we are brilliant!"

- Steven Anderson

"Nobody normal ever accomplished anything meaningful in this world."

- Jonathan

"Use your gift for good, no matter how hard it gets."

- Indira Shetty

"If you believe in this story, finish it."

- Nancy's mom

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

- John Lennon

"Don't let yesterday take up too much of today."

- Will Rogers

"It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up."

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

"In a world where you can be anything, be kind."

"Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead."

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

"Effort is between you and you. Nobody else."

- Unknown

"The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday."

"You are capable of more than you know."

- Unknown

"You are worthy of love and happiness."

- Unknown

"The miracle is not some magic that you’ve got – the miracle is you."

"You are enough."

"Every challenge you face is an opportunity to grow."

- Unknown

"We're better together!"

- Unknown

"Your only limit is your mind."

- Unknown

"My future is bright."

- Unknown

"Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations."

"Find joy in the little things. They add up to a beautiful life."

- Unknown

"Tough times don't last, but tough people do."

- Unknown

"Your growth is limited only by how much you're willing to put in the effort."

- Unknown

"Together everyone achieves more."

- Unknown

"You are the artist of your own life. Don't hand the paintbrush to anyone else."

- Unknown

"Your imperfections make you perfect."

- Unknown

"Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success."

"Be your own kind of beautiful."

- Unknown

"The comeback is always stronger than the setback."

- Unknown

"You are strong because you've been weak. You are fearless because you've been afraid. You are wise because you've been foolish."

- Unknown

"Happiness is a choice. Choose to be happy."

- Unknown

"Your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change."

"Be grateful for what you have. It's more than you think."

- Unknown

"Smile. It's contagious."

- Unknown

"Wake up with determination, go to bed with satisfaction."

"Life is short, make it sweet."

- Unknown

"The only person responsible for your happiness, is you."

"Moving on does not mean quitting, it means you choose happiness over hurt."

"Failure is not fatal."

"You are exactly where you need to be."

"Be careful with your words; they can be forgiven, but not forgotten."

"Be the best version of yourself."

"Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will like the real you."

"The more you give, the more you get."

"Being different is one of the most beautiful things."

"Don’t waste your life trying to live someone else’s."

"It doesn’t matter how slow you go, just don’t stop. Pause, but don’t stop."

"Freedom isn’t the ability to say yes, it’s the ability to say no."

"Stop shrinking to fit into places you have outgrown."