Stay Strong: A Collection of Inspirational Quotes to Empower You

"When you wake up every morning, let thanksgiving be your first thought."

- Lailah Gifty Akita

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

- Nelson Mandela

"This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure."

- Winston Churchill

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."

- Maya Angelou

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."

- Ambrose Redmoon

"Don't despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don't – surrender to events with hope."

- Alain de Botton

"It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous – even death is terrible only if we fear it."

- Epictetus

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

- Drew Barrymore

"No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear."

- Greg Kincaid

"We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided."

- J.K. Rowling

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars."

- Kahlil Gibran

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."

- Ernest Hemingway

"You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice."

- Bob Marley

"Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly."

- Robert F. Kennedy

"Courage isn't having the strength to go on, it is going on when you don't have the strength."

- Napoleon Bonaparte

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."

- Peter Marshall

"You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."

- Marcus Aurelius

"We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't."

- Thomas A. Edison

"It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done."

- Vincent Van Gogh

"Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time."

- Maya Angelou

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."

- Lao Tzu

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

- Jodi Picoult

"It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment."

- Bram Stoker

"We don't even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward."

- Isabel Allende

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'"

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"We are stronger, gentler, more resilient, and more beautiful than any of us imagine."

- Mark Nepo

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

- Oliver Goldsmith

"There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast."

- Charles Dickens

"I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles."

- Audrey Hepburn

"We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free."

- Kavita Ramdas

"Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat."

- Ralph Ellison

"What makes you different or weird, that's your strength."

- Meryl Streep

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

- Albert Camus

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

- Dale Carnegie

"Out of difficulties grow miracles."

- Jean de La Bruyère

"Where there is no struggle, there is no strength."

- Oprah Winfrey

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

- J.K. Rowling

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"We will either find a way, or make one."

- Anibal Barca

"Grief and resilience live together."

- Michelle Obama

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"A brave man acknowledges the strength of others."

- Veronica Roth

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."

- Edmund Hillary

"Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power."

- Lao Tzu

"If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it."

- Toni Morrison

"Courage is found in unlikely places."

- J.R.R. Tolkien

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."

- Abraham Lincoln

"Remember: Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up."

- Rocky Balboa

"Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems."

- Gever Tulley

"Nothing is more beautiful than the smile that has struggled through the tears."

- Demi Lovato

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."

- Christopher Reeve

"And one has to understand that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear."

- Paulo Coelho

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained."

- Marie Curie

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"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

"Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong."

- Muhammad Ali

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

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it."

- Michael Jordan

"The sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on."

- Charles Dickens

"The struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need tomorrow."

- Robert Tew

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

- Dolly Parton

"If you want the light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining."

- Guy Finley

"Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later."

- Bob Goff

"Before you act, listen. Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try."

- Ernest Hemingway

"If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A ship is always safe at the shore – but that is NOT what it is built for."

- Albert Einstein

"Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing."

- L.M. Montgomery

"Rise above the storm and you will find the sunshine."

- Mario Fernandez

"Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up."

- Brené Brown

"There are no great people in this world, only great challenges which ordinary people rise to meet."

- William Frederick Halsey Jr.

"Problems are not stopped signs; they are guidelines."

- Robert Schuller

"You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be somebody who hates peaches."

- Dita Von Teese

"If you’re going through hell, keep going."

- Winston Churchill

"Feeling fear is human, but conquering it will make you feel empowered, courageous, and proud."

- Alex Niles

"Make up your mind that no matter what comes your way, no matter how difficult, no matter how unfair, you will do more than simply survive. You will thrive in spite of it."

- Joel Osteen

"No matter how hard the battle gets, or no matter how many people don’t believe in your dream, never give up!"

- Eric Thomas

"If you believe it will work out, you’ll see opportunities. If you believe it won’t, you will see obstacles."

- Wayne Dyer

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass."

- Maya Angelou

"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim."

- Nora Ephron

"The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within strength, courage and dignity."

- Ruby Dee

"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you."

- James Allen

"Sometimes it’s okay if the only thing you did today was breathe."

- Yumi Sakugawa

"In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on."

- Robert Frost

"The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests."

- Epictetus

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently."

- Maya Angelou

"I am not what happened to me. I am what I chose to become."

- Carl Gustav Jung

"Hope is the only thing stronger than fear."

- President Snow

"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

"I am strong because I’ve been weak. I am fearless because I’ve been afraid. I am wise because I’ve been foolish."

- Joker

"Sometimes you face difficulties not because you’re doing something wrong, but because you’re doing something right."

- Joel Osteen

"When things go wrong, don’t go with them."

- Elvis Presley

"Little girls with dreams become women with vision."

- Scarlett Curtis

"You were never created to live depressed, guilty, condemned, ashamed, or unworthy. You were created to be victorious."

- Joel Osteen

"Hope never abandons you; you abandon it."

- George Weinberg

"If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains."

- Anne Frank

"We always kept in our hearts the noblest, beautiful feeling that sets human beings apart: Hope."

- Manel Loureiro

"Hope itself is like a star — not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity."

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

"When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future."

- Robert H. Schuller

"I think it’s a mistake to ever look for hope outside of one’s self."

- Arthur Miller

"Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers."

- Robert Green Ingersoll

"Hope is a waking dream."

- Aristotle

"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness."

- Desmond Tutu

"All human wisdom is summed up in two words; wait and hope."

- Alexandre Dumas

"Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained."

- Seamus Heaney

"We must rediscover the distinction between hope and expectation."

- Ivan Illich

"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."

- Vaclav Havel

"Hope is not an emotion; it’s a way of thinking or a cognitive process."

- Brené Brown

"Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence."

- Lin Yutang

"Hope is the ocean for the river, the sun for trees, and the sky for us."

- Maxime Legacé

"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?"

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

"The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts."

- Alain de Botton

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."

- Marcus Aurelius

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

- Zig Ziglar

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."

- Benjamin Franklin

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the aeroplane takes off against the wind, not with it."

- Henry Ford

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."

- Lao Tzu

"Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions."

- Albert Einstein

"It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined."

- Henry James

"There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing."

- Aristotle

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

- Robert Schuller

"Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless."

- Jamie Paolinetti

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

- Jimmy Johnson

"Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude."

- Denis Waitley

"Be pleasant until ten o’clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself."

- Elbert Hubbard

"The best dreams happen when you’re awake."

- Cherie Gilderbloom

"For each new morning let there be the flow of love. Let there be the light of happiness in every direction."

- Amit Ray

"In the morning, wonder and be generous like the sun. In the evening, meditate and be kind like the moon."

- Debasish Mridha

"It's your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life's story will develop."

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life."

- Mark Twain

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

- Peter Drucker

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty."

- Winston Churchill

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

- Will Rogers

"I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time."

- Michael Phelps

"Today’s accomplishments were yesterday’s impossibilities."

- Robert H. Schuller

"You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."

- Zig Ziglar

"For every reason, it’s not possible, there are hundreds of people who have faced the same circumstances and succeeded."

- Jack Canfield

"To see what is right and not do it is a lack of courage."

- Confucius

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

- C.S. Lewis

"Anyone who has ever made anything of importance was disciplined."

- Andrew Hendrixson

"Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door."

- Coco Chanel

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."

- Albert Einstein

"Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other."

- Brian Tracy

"Always keep your eyes open. Keep watching. Because whatever you see can inspire you."

- Grace Coddington

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals."

- Zig Ziglar

"You cannot save people, you can just love them."

- Anaïs Nin

"There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration."

- Thomas Edison

"If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects."

- Albert Einstein

"Don't settle for average. Bring your best to the moment. Then, whether it fails or succeeds, at least you know you gave all you had."

- Angela Bassett

"The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself—the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us—that's where it's at."

- Jesse Owens

"First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice."

- Octavia Butler

"More is lost by indecision than wrong decision."

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

"You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it."

"Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won, and all the fears you have overcome."

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

"Do what you can with all you have, wherever you are."

"The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow. For every challenge encountered, there is an opportunity for growth."

"Take your dreams seriously."

"Be strong. You never know who you are inspiring."

"Be strong, things will get better. It might be stormy now, but rain doesn’t last forever."

"You learn more from failure than from success. Don’t let it stop you. Failure builds character."

"Small minds can’t comprehend big spirits. To be great, you have to be willing to be mocked, hated and misunderstood. Stay strong."

"Worry is a misuse of imagination."

"I don’t regret the things I’ve done, I regret the things I didn’t do when I had the chance."

"A year from now you will wish you had started today."