In need of a quick pick-me-up? Try drawing some motivation from the powerful life quotes listed below. Seriously, no need to be shy. People seem to be getting so much out of these one-liners that tons of new online communities are popping up around them. Packed with meaning and significance, these remarks can be found scattered around social media and other areas on the web. But who has the time to jump from one source to another, especially when you're already in need of inspiration? Not a lot of us, which is why we decided to organize everything all in one place. Read on for the very best advice the internet has to offer!
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Inspirational Life Quotes
Shutterstock / G-Stock Studio- “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” — Vince Lombardi
- "You're going to go through tough times—that's life. But I say, 'Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.' See the positive in negative events." — Joel Osteen
- “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Confucius
- “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford
- “Morale is when your hands and feet keep on working when your head says it can’t be done.” — Ben Morrell
- "Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts." — Winston S. Churchill
- “Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.” — Kyle Chandler
- "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." — Thomas Jefferson
- "Change your thoughts and you change your world." — Norman Vincent Peale
- "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." — Confucius
- “For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.” — Vincent van Gogh
- “If you can't yet do great things, do small things in a great way.” ― Napoleon Hill
Road to Success Quotes
Shutterstock / Sergey Tinyakov- “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” — David Brinkley
- "The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity." — Amelia Earhart
- "First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end." — Aristotle
- “One of the differences between some successful and unsuccessful people is that one group is full of doers, while the other is full of wishers.” — Edmond Mbiaka
- “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” — Henry Ford
- “Not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do is the secret of happiness.” — J.M. Barrie
- "I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse." — Florence Nightingale
- "If you genuinely want something, don't wait for it—teach yourself to be impatient." — Gurbaksh Chahal
- "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." — Colin Powell
- "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." — Thomas Edison
- "Make space in your life for the things that matter, for family and friends, love and generosity, fun and joy. Without this, you will burn out in mid-career and wonder where your life went." — Jonathan Sacks
- "It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation." — Herman Melville
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Short Quotes About Life
Shutterstock / Khosro- “In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: 'it goes on.'”— Robert Frost
- "Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not." — Oscar Wilde
- "Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments." — Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
- "Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans." — John Lennon
- "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." — Helen Keller
- “Opportunities don't happen, you create them.” — Chris Grosser
- The purpose of life is to believe, to hope, and to strive. — Indira Gandhi
- "When you cease to dream you cease to live." — Malcolm Forbes
- "The purpose of our lives is to be happy." — Dalai Lama XIV
- “Live out of your imagination, not your history.” — Stephen Covey
Beautiful Quotes for Living Your Best Life
Shutterstock / Det-anan- “The two most important days in your life are the day you’re born and the day you find out why.” — Mark Twain
- "Keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.” ― Marilyn Monroe
- "I've been around a long time, and life still has a whole lot of surprises for me." — Loretta Lynn
- "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." — Anne Frank
- "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." — Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Everything you've ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear.” — George Addair
- “Having a young child explain something exciting he has seen is the finest example of communication you will ever hear or see.” — Bob Talbert
- “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” — Oscar Wilde
- “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” — Fred Rogers
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Funny Quotes About Life
Shutterstock / Max kegfire- “The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.” — Mark Twain
- “What on earth would a man do with himself if something did not stand in his way?” — H.G. Wells
- "I didn't fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong." — Benjamin Franklin
- “I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.” — Lily Tomlin
- “People will find transformation and transcendence in a McDonald's hash brown if it's all they've got.” ― Patton Oswalt
- "The advice I would give to someone is to not take anyone's advice." — Eddie Murphy
- “I'm sick of following my dreams, man. I'm just going to ask where they're going and hook up with ’em later." — Mitch Hedberg
- "If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat! Just get on." — Sheryl Sandberg
- “Luck is what you have left over after you give 100 percent.” — Langston Coleman
- “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?” — Steven Wright
Sad Life Quotes
Shutterstock / SakSa- “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us—and sometimes, they win.” — Stephen King
- "It's sad when someone you know becomes someone you knew." —Henry Rollins
- "There are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but I have the feeling that if I did, the joy would be gone as well." — Nicholas Sparks
- "Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect." — Margaret Mitchell
- "It's amazing how someone can break your heart, and you can still love them with all the little pieces." — Ella Harper
- “You are not alone. Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” — Priyanshu Singh
- “The saddest realization I’ve had in my life is that my parents are people. Sad, human people. I aged a decade in that moment.” — Amy Schumer
- “Melancholy is the happiness of being sad.” ― Victor Hugo
- "Things change. And friends leave. And life doesn't stop for anybody." — Stephen Chbosky
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Best Quotes About Life Said by Famous People
Shutterstock / Yuganov Konstantin- "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take." ― Wayne Gretzky
- "You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space." — Johnny Cash
- “The minute that you’re not learning I believe you’re dead.” — Jack Nicholson
- “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” —Dolly Parton
- "We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams." — Jimmy Carter
- "Your image isn’t your character. Character is what you are as a person." — Derek Jeter
- "There are no regrets in life, just lessons." — Jennifer Aniston
- “As a young man I prayed for success. Now I just pray to be worthy of it.” — Brendan Fraser
- "Fear is going to be a player in your life, but you get to decide how much." — Jim Carrey
- “Don’t spend any time whatsoever thinking about what might have been.” — Alex Trebek
What Are Life Quotes So Impactful?
It may not seem like much, but a powerful quote can really help turn things around. While it's hard to quantify just how much impact these lines have on their audience, we can draw some conclusions from the trends we see unfolding around us.
Social media sites are flooded with this kind of material, and those responsible for pumping it out are seriously capitalizing on its popularity. Quote accounts attract thousands of followers, allowing the administrators to pocket high earnings acquired through advertising.
If you don't believe us, just check out the personal essay published by Talking Shrimp founder Laura Belgray. The title? I Get Paid $6,000 a Day to Write Inspirational Quotes for Instagram.
And it doesn't just end with social media. Quote-heavy sites like Goodreads and BrainyQuote continue to attract tons of visitors, with the former having acquired over 90 million members. We all go through hard times, and it seems like a good majority of us are turning to the same elixir to help get us through it: inspirational quotes.
But what exactly is it about quotes that have this kind of hold on us? For starters, these mantras remain incredibly accessible and easy to digest—which is more than we can say for other kinds of coping plans (as a reminder, we'll note that therapy in the United States costs about $100-200 per session).
Not only that, but they can actually help reaffirm certain beliefs about ourselves. If all goes well, the process can even help elevate how others perceive us, and that's usually a pretty tall order.
Similar dogmas exist across other kinds of self-help systems. While some remain pretty controversial, experts typically offer these groups the same kind of feedback they would the quote-loving community: It might not be the cure-all you're craving, but it probably can't hurt, either.
Wrapping Up
That's it for our list of life quotes, but be sure to check back in with us soon for more inspiring words! You can also sign up for our newsletter to enjoy hit pieces on health, entertainment, and travel.
