50 Inspirational and Motivational Quotes
from The TeachThought staff
What are some of the most inspirational quotes about life? Well, that depends on what kind of inspiration you’re looking for.
Life quotes range in the human condition, from suffering to opportunity, hope to sacrifice, love to loss. The best quotes about life are often the ones that contain truth, motivation, and insight into some concept that at this point in your life seems poignant, helpful, and just the little bit of wisdom you need.
50 inspirational quotes
“You must not wish for another life. You don’t have to want to be someone else. What you must do is this: Rejoice always. – Wendell Berry
“Live, travel, adventure, bless and have no regrets.” – Jack Kerouac
“Each one of us is cosmically valuable. If a person disagrees with you, let them live. You won’t find another in a hundred billion galaxies.” – Carl Sagan
“The purpose of human life, no matter who controls it, is to love everyone around in order to be loved.” – Kurt Vonnegut
“Self-improvement is retarded by the establishment of social regulation of education, by the diffusion of true knowledge, and by the improvement of mental faculties.” – Nietzsche
“Every act of perception is to some extent an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some extent an act of imagination.” – Oliver Sacks
“Men must not only know, but act.” – WEB Du Bois
“You don’t find the happily ever after. You succeed. – Camilla Eyring Kimball
“Act as if what you do matters. It is.” – William James
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: what matters is the courage to continue.” – Winston Churchill
See also 50 of the best quotes about teaching
“Never bow your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye. – Helen Keller
“Instead of love, than money, than fame, give me the truth.” – Henry David Thoreau
“Do not go where the path may lead, go where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Change will not come if we wait for another person or another time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” – Barack Obama
“Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.” – Ray Kroc
“The real horror is waking up one morning to find your high school class running the country.” – Kurt Vonnegut
“Courage is the first of human qualities, because it is the quality that guarantees all the others.” – John F. Kennedy
“Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length.” – Robert Frost
“Live for yourself and you will live in vain; Live for others and you will live again.” – Bob Marley
“Mind is everything. What you think, you become.” – Buddha
“The only people to me are the crazy, those who are crazy to live, crazy to talk, crazy to be saved, wanting everything at the same time…” – Jack Kerouac
“Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it.” – Joe Clark
“He who loves much accomplishes much and can achieve much, and what is done with love is done well.” – Vincent Van Gogh
“The only way to find the limits of the possible is to exceed them into the impossible.” – Arthur C. Clarke
See also 40 of the best quotes about critical thinking
“Be happy not because everything is good, but because you can see the bright side of everything.” – Unknown
“The will must be stronger than the skill.” – Muhammad Ali
“One of the happiest moments in life is when you find the courage to let go of what you cannot change.” – Unknown
“Love does not begin and end as we think. Love is a battle. Love is war. Love grows.” – James Baldwin
“Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.” — Carlos Castaneda
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” Henry David Thoreau
“When one door to happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one that is open to us.” – Helen Keller
“You have a brain in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in whatever direction you choose.” — Dr. Seuss
“A sad soul can kill faster than a germ.” – John Steinbeck
“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is that which dies from within while it is still alive.” – Tupac Shakur
“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Your work will take up a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
“Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.” – Allen Ginsberg
“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you should create a life you don’t need to run from.” — Seth Godin
“Everything there is but love leaves rust on your soul.” – Langston Hughes
“The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” — Lily Tomlin
“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours in a day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein. — H. Jackson Brown Jr
“Someone once told me that ‘time’ is a predator that stalks us throughout our lives. But rather, I believe that time is a companion that walks with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish each moment because it will never happen again.” — Jean-Luc Picard
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but that which is most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” — Thomas Edison
“If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows that he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost himself—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.” – Oliver Sacks
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t make.” — Wayne Gretzky
“Failure is simply the opportunity to start again, this time smarter.” – Henry Ford
“Do or don’t. No experience.” – Yoda
“Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who do. — A Chinese proverb
“Self-improvement is retarded by the establishment of social regulation of education, by the diffusion of true knowledge, and by the improvement of mental faculties.” – Nietzsche
