What is it about statements that are inspirational that makes them so likable? Every motivated person realizes that there are many enjoyable distractions out there that take up our time because they feel like an effort, and surfing endless collections of inspirational quotes is no exception. Finding a succinct phrase that precisely encapsulates one of our own views, though, has hidden worth.
Quotes frequently have the effect of our own opinions returning, only heightened by a gifted writer. Words matter and inspiring sayings can inspire us to get up, take action, give up making excuses, leave our comfort zone, and do the difficult task that has to be done. The perfect quote at the right time can alter things.
Here are some encouraging quotes and sayings to lift your thoughts and mindset:
- Believe in Yourself: “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
- Positive Thinking: “Your mind is powerful, fill it with positive thoughts.” – Unknown
- Resilience: “It doesn’t matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it’s important to realize that whatever you’re doing, it’s your first attempt at it.” – Wally Amos
- Creativity: “Creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen, and thinking what no one else has thought.” – Albert Einstein
- Attitude: “A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes.” – Wade Boggs
- Change: “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent Peale
- Inspiration: “Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.” – Garrison Keillor
Even those who are genuinely successful have a favorite inspirational saying or two that they turn to when they are going through a difficult moment, need to keep in mind a core value, or are simply getting ready for the day. Quotes are succinct statements of wit and insight that are useful in both business and daily life.
In light of the foregoing, listed below are a few of our favorites from a range of sources. We hope you come upon a few you enjoy and can visit frequently.
Best Encouraging Quotes and Sayings
1. “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.” – Rosa Parks
2. “You cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind. To begin, begin.” ―Gordon B. Hinckley
3. “Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them.” —Mia Hamm
4. “If the decisions you make about where you invest your blood, sweat, and tears are not consistent with the person you aspire to be, you’ll never become that person.” ―Clayton M. Christensen
5. “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” – Oprah Winfrey
6. “Keep your sunny side up, keep yourself beautiful, and indulge yourself.” – Betsey Johnson
7. “Someone will declare, “I am the leader!” and expect everyone to get in line and follow him or her to the gates of heaven or hell. My experience is that it doesn’t happen that way. Others follow you based on the quality of your actions rather than the magnitude of your declarations.” ―Bill Walsh
8. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.“ – Frederick Douglass
9. “The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept.” —David Hurley
10. “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” ―Theodore Roosevelt
11. “I tell myself, ‘You’ve been through so much, you’ve endured so much, time will allow me to heal, and soon this will be just another memory that made me the strong woman, athlete, and mother I am today.’” – Serena Williams
12. “I will not lose, for even in defeat, there’s a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me.” —Jay-Z
13. “Doubt is a killer. You just have to know who you are and what you stand for.” —Jennifer Lopez
14. “Don’t aim for success if you want it, just do what you love and believe in and it will come naturally.” – David Frost
15. “Champions come and go, but to be legendary you got to have heart, more heart than the next man, more than anyone in the world.” – Muhammad Ali
16. “We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action.” – Dr. Henry Link
17. “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.” – Jon Acuff
18. “True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.” ―Mortimer J. Adler
19. “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.” ―Vernon Sanders Law
20. “People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you’re lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life.” – Carrie-Ann Moss
21. “No one changes the world who isn’t obsessed.” —Billie Jean King
22. “It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always.” – Oprah Winfrey
23. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart
24. “Worry is a misuse of imagination.” —Unknown
25. “It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.” —Lucius Annaeus Seneca
26. “For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.” —Vincent van Gogh
27. “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” —Warren Buffet
28. “Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.” – Victor Kiam
29. “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
30. “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.” – Helen Keller
31. “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” —Vince Lombardi
32. “Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement—and we will make the goal.” – Jerome Fleishman
33. “When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up.” – Les Brown
34. “Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.” – Steve Martin
35. “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
36. “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” —Anaïs Nin
37. “As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” —Henry David Thoreau
38. “Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” – Napoleon Hill
39. “Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” – Wayne Dyer
40. “You do not find the happy life. You make it.” – Camilla Eyring Kimball
41. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” —Amelia Earhart
42. “Don’t count the days, make the days count.” – Muhammad Ali
43. “Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” – Napoleon Hill
44. “Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt
45. “A year from now you will wish you had started today.” —Unknown
46. “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” —Dolly Parton
47. “I have stood on a mountain of no’s for one yes.” —Barbara Elaine Smith
48. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them—that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao Tzu
49. “More is lost by indecision than wrong decision.” —Marcus Tullius Cicero
50. “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” – Ernest Hemingway
51. “I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing the goal, and that’s not pulling the trigger.” —Mia Hamm
52. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” —Frederick Douglass
53. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
54. “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” ―Arthur C. Clarke
55. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible!’” – Audrey Hepburn
56. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” —Dale Carnegie
57. “No matter what you’re going through, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” – Demi Lovato
58. “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
59. “Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.” —Pablo Picasso
60. “There is in every true woman’s heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.” – Washington Irving
61. “A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.” – Anonymous
62. “You carry the passport to your own happiness.” —Diane von Furstenberg
63. “Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how precious is the time you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored.” – Earl Nightingale
64. “Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.” ―Anne Lamott
65. “I just want you to know that if you are out there and you are being really hard on yourself right now for something that has happened—it’s normal. That is what is going to happen to you in life. No one gets through unscathed. We are all going to have a few scratches on us. Please be kind to yourselves and stand up for yourself, please.” – Taylor Swift
66. “You can be everything. You can be the infinite amount of things that people are.” – Kesha
67. “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” – Maria Robinson
68. “Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” —Steve Jobs
69. “Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
70. “There’s a reason for everything. This one may look like a setback. It doesn’t mean you’re failing but that God is growing you in a new way.” – Brittney Moses
71. “I think it’s intoxicating when somebody is so unapologetically who they are.” —Don Cheadle
72. “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ―Winston Churchill
73. “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” – Richard Bach
74. “If it makes you nervous, you’re doing it right.” —Childish Gambino
75. “There is nothing impossible for those who will try.” – Alexander the Great
76. “Relentlessly prune bullshit, don’t wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That’s what you do when life is short.” —Paul Graham
77. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
78. “A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.” —Sonia Sotomayor
79. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy
80. “Be gentle with yourself. You’re doing the best you can!” – Anonymous
81. “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller
82. “Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.” —Isabel Allende
83. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain
84. “Be courageous. Challenge orthodoxy. Stand up for what you believe in. When you are in your rocking chair talking to your grandchildren many years from now, be sure you have a good story to tell.” – Amal Clooney
85. “Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.” —Raymond Joseph Teller
86. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” —Albert Einstein
87. “Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. Don’t sell out.” – Christopher Reeve
88. “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” – Beverly Stills
89. “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” – Albert Einstein
90. “Just be yourself. Let people see the real, imperfect, flawed, quirky, weird, beautiful, magical person you are.” – Anonymous
91. “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – A.A. Milne
92. “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
93. “All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them.” – Viola Davis
94. “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10
95. “Always keep your eyes open. Keep watching. Because whatever you see can inspire you.” – Grace Coddington
96. “Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” – Benjamin Franklin
97. “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
98. “Live out of your imagination, not your history.” —Stephen Covey
99. “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
100. “People’s passion and desire for authenticity is strong.” —Constance Wu
101. “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth
102. “It doesn’t matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it’s important to realize that whatever you’re doing, it’s your first attempt at it.” – Wally Amos
103. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” —Michael Jordan
104. “Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.” – Alice Walker
105. “Often we women are risk-averse. I needed the push. Now, more than ever, young women need more seasoned women to provide that encouragement, to take a risk, to go for it. Once a glass ceiling is broken, it stays broken.” – Jennifer Granholm
106. “Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow’s reality.” – Malala Yousafzai
107. “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
108. “Resilience is when you address uncertainty with flexibility.” —Unknown
109. “Do not wait for the perfect time and place to enter, for you are already onstage.” —Unknown
110. “There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” —Mister Rogers
111. “The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.” —Steve Furtick
112. ““Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.” —Laird Hamilton
113. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
114. “In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life— it goes on.” – Robert Frost
115. “You make a choice: continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it. You draw your own box.” – Meghan Markle
116. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
