Life can often be a roller coaster ride of highs and lows, with its fair share of ups and downs. Sometimes we seem to understand it and other times nothing makes sense in it. This is the volatile nature of life. One thing we are sure of though is that the older we get the clearer picture we have about life.
In this post, I compiled for you a collection of wonderful quotes about life that can help us all stay positive in the face of adversity and hardships. I curated 50 quotes from some of the most inspiring people to ever live—from authors to philosophers to entrepreneurs—that will lift your spirits and give you strength when you need it most.
1. “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” John Lennon
2. “Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.” —Barbara Johnson
3. “Every man dies. Not every man really lives.” William Wallace
4. “Not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do is the secret of happiness.” —J.M. Barrie
5. “If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” —Carl Sagan
6. “Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.” —Harry Emerson Fosdick
7. “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” Charles Darwin
8. “Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.” Henri Frederic Amiel
9. “It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.” Napoleon Hill
10. “Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing.” —Katherine Mansfield
11. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”Theodore Roosevelt
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12. “If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it! “—Jonathan Winters
13. “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow; it only saps today of its strength.” —A.J. Cronin
14. “Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.”Roy T. Bennett
15. “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”Søren Kierkegaard
16. “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties out of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities out of his difficulties.” —Robert Mansell
17. “The most sincere compliment we can pay is attention.” —Walter Anderson
18. “The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.” —Harry Ruby
19. “The greatest mistake you can make is to be continually fearing that you’ll make one.” —Elbert Hubbard
20. “My father used to say, ‘Don’t raise your voice. Improve your argument.’” —Archbishop Desmond Tutu
21. “You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again.” —Bonnie Prudden
22. “You are genuinely happy if you don’t know why.” —Joseph Mayer
23. “Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy.”Roy. T. Bennett
24. “Success isn’t about how your life looks to others. It’s about how it feels to you.Michelle Obama
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25. “Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.”Les Brown
26. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”Herman Melville
27. “The world is not yours for the taking, but for the trying. Try hard.” —Scott Galloway
28. “To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man’s life.”T.S. Eliot
29. “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.” —Henry Ford
30. “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”Wayne Dyer
31. “Life is too short for long-term grudges.” Elon Musk
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32. “Intelligence is when you spot the flaw in your boss’s reasoning. Wisdom is when you refrain from pointing it out.” —James Dent
33. “Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” Boris Pasternak
34. “There is only one certainty in life and that is that nothing is certain.” —G.K. Chesterton
35. “If you say you can or you can’t you are right either way.” Henry Ford
36. “The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.”William Hazlitt
37. “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”Henry David Thoreau
38. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” Buddha
39. The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much. William Hazlitt
40.“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” Scott Hamilton
41. “You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
Love like you’ll never be hurt,
Sing like there’s nobody listening,
And live like it’s heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey
42. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ― Oscar Wilde
43. “The best index to a person’s character is how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and how he treats people who can’t fight back.” ― Abigail Van Buren
44. “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”― Dr. Seuss
45. “Life is a book and there are a thousand pages I have not yet read.”― Cassandra Clare,
46. “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.”― John Greenleaf Whittier
47. “Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.” ― Stephen Chbosky,
48. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” ― George Bernard Shaw
49. “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”― Andre Gide, Autumn Leaves
50. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” ― Mae West
Final thoughts
To conclude, I hope this collection of life quotes has provided you with inspiration and comfort. Life is indeed a roller coaster, filled with unpredictable highs and lows. However, these wise words from some of the most influential figures in history remind us to stay positive and resilient, no matter what challenges we face. If you haven’t yet, take a moment to reflect on these quotes and let them guide you through life’s journey. As Oscar Wilde once said, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
