We could all use a little pick-me-up from time to time, am I right?
Well, if you want to boost your mood and get motivated to reach your goals, there's nothing like some inspirational quotes about life!
Like most of us, I have experienced life's ups and downs.
I've been happy and heartbroken. Courageous and cowardly. Victorious and vanquished.
And I learned some hard-won, powerful life lessons along the way.
Sometimes, the best way to convey these important lessons about life is through quotes -words of wisdom we can all identify with and be inspired by.
So, I've compiled a list of 50 beautiful, positive inspirational quotes for you!
Many of them are by some of my favorite authors (epic fantasy, anyone?) and famous people whom I admire.
Here are 50 of my favorite inspirational quotes about life, love and happiness - I hope they give you the strength you need to pursue your definition of success!
*Some of these quotes come from favorite books of mine. I have linked to them on Amazon in case you would like to read them too. 🙂 As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, meaning that if you click on one of my Amazon links and make a purchase, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Please read the Disclaimer for more info.
Short Inspirational Quotes on Life
1. “You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.”
- Yogi Bhajan
2. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
3. “I have never tried that before so I think I should definitely be able to do that.”
- Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking
4. “Don't wait. The time will never be just right.”
- Napoleon Hill
5. “You must do the things you think you cannot do.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
6. “Bones mend. Regret stays with you forever.”
- Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles)
7. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
- Albert Einstein
8. “He who completes a quest does not merely find something. He becomes something.”
-Lev Grossman, The Magician King (Magicians Trilogy)
9. “The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
10. “Don't let schooling interfere with your education.”
- Mark Twain
11. “In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and wax melts.”
- Francis Bacon
12. “It is our choices ... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter series)
13. “We lost because we told ourselves we lost.”
- Leo Tolstoy
14. “Laughter is poison to fear.”
- George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
15. “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”
- Lewis Carroll
16. “This above all; to thine own self be true.”
-William Shakespeare
17. “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
- Walt Disney
18. “There is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure - it is, after all, what everybody does all the time.”
- Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
*Check out this post after if you're looking for motivational quotes to boost your confidence!*
Inspirational Quotes About Love and Happiness
19. “Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
- Joseph Campbell
20. “Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other – it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.”
- Charles Caleb Colton
21. “The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.”
- James Oppenheim
22. Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
- Dr. Seuss
23. “If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.”
- Epicurus
24. “The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.”
- Martha Washington
25. “Happiness is not by chance, but by choice.”
- Jim Rohn
26. “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
- Maya Angelou
27. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- Mark Twain
28. “Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.”
- Lao Tzu
29. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
30. “For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”
- Carl Sagan
31. “The mind is everything. What you think you become.”
- Buddha
32. “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
33. “Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
- Charles Dickens
34. “The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”
- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
35. “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
- Roald Dahl
Positive Quotes About Life and Success
36. “It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he'll look for his own answers.”
- Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear (Kingkiller Chronicles)
37. “On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a playful, joyous energy behind what you do.”
- Eckhart Tolle
38. “The truth is that as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing but does only and wholly what he must do.”
- Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle)
39. “We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
- Joseph Campbell
40. “Difficult" and "impossible" are cousins often mistaken for one another, with very little in common.”
- Scott Lynch,
Red Seas Under Red Skies, (Gentlemen Bastard Series) *If you're going to read this series, I suggest that you start with the first book, The Republic of Thieves ... sooo good!
41. “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.”
- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
42. “It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you who you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”
- Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
*I know I listed this book twice. It is one of the best books I have ever read ... and I have read thousands of books! If you love fantasy novels, here is a link to the entire Kingkiller Chronicle Series.
43. "It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default."
- J. K. Rowling
44. “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit or There and Back Again
45. “The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.”
– Oprah Winfrey
46. “Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable.”
- Roald Dahl, Matilda
47. “Sometimes the prize is not worth the costs. The means by which we achieve victory are as important as the victory itself.”
- Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings
48. “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature…. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
- Helen Keller
49. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
- Albert Einstein
50. "Smile, breathe and go slowly."
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Inspirational Quotes About Life, Love & Happiness
*Bonus Inspirational Quote*
“I hope that
in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world.
You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.
So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself.
Make New Mistakes. [G]lorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before.
Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”
- Neil Gaiman
Over to you ... got any inspirational quotes about life I didn't mention? Leave them in the comments!
Share this & help someone else!
