Sometimes, you need a little support – a little inspiration, if you will – to keep you motivated and balanced. But it can also be really hard to find just the right inspirational quote to cheer you up when you’re down. We’ve pulled together a master list of our favorite quotes and sayings to help you through.
Quotes for When Life is Hard
Life is not easy, not for any one of us. We each have our own battles to fight and hurdles to clear. As you push forward, keep these encouraging quotes in mind.
1. “We all want to be loved. We all want to feel accepted. We all want to feel content. And life is hard.” -Hayley Kiyoko
2. “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” -Jimmy Dean
3. “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” -Francis of Assisi
4. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” -Audrey Hepburn
5. “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” -Aristotle Onassis
6. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” -Albert Einstein
7. “Life is found in the dance between your deepest desire and your greatest fear.” -Tony Robbins
8. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” -Oscar Wilde
9. “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
10. “Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and the shadows will fall behind you.” -Walt Whitman
11. “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” -H.G. Wells
Quotes for Deployment
Military spoused know that deployments test a person like nothing else. Finding a few key quotes to help balance your soul and motivate you through hard moments is crucial for many of us. We love these particular quotes that are perfect for deployment.
12. “Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous or honest. – Maya Angelou
13. “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” -Thomas Jefferson
14. “Storms make tree take deeper roots.” -Dolly Parton
15. “If you are brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.” -Paulo Coelho
16. “While we may not be able to control what happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.” -Benjamin Franklin
17. “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
18. “The two most patient warriors are patience and time. ” -Leo Tolstoy
19. “Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.” -Dalai Lama
20. “A season of loneliness and isolation is when the caterpillar gets its wings. Remember that next time you feel alone.” -Mandy Hale
21. “Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.” -Aldous Huxley
Quotes for When Work is Tough
Work can be, well, a lot of work. Jobs, even ones that you love or are passionate about, can often be a struggle. If you are hitting a rough patch in your career, read these quotes to help you keep going.
22. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” -Helen Keller
23. “I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.” -Walt Disney
24. “Either you run the day or the day runs you.” -Jim Rohn
25. “Success is not the absence of failure; it’s the persistence through failure.” -Aisha Tyler
26. “Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.” -Steve Martin
27. “Failure is like a caterpillar before it becomes a butterfly.” -Peta Kelly
28. “Integrity is the essence of everything successful.” -R. Buckminster Fuller
29. “A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”- Duke Ellington
Quotes for When You Feel Discouraged
We all feel down sometimes, but what we do next is equally important. To help keep your head above water, read through these inspiring quotes that just might give you the positive push you need.
30. “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” -Nelson Mandela
31. “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” -Vince Lombardi
32. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I cannot accept not trying.” -Michael Jordan
33. “Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” -Oprah Winfrey
34. “You can never plan the future by the past.” -Edmund Burke
35. “Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.” -Jack Ma
36. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” -Maya Angelou
37. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” -Jim Ryun
38. “The greatest mistake you can make is to be continually fearing that you’ll make one.” -Elbert Hubbard
39. “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow; it only saps today of its strength.” -A.J. Cronin
Quotes to Build Courage
Life takes courage, in big and small ways. We love these quotes that remind us to take heart and push through!
40. “I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.” -Maya Angelou
41. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” -Helen Keller
42. “He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery.” -Anne Frank
43. “Sometimes painful things can teach us lessons that we didn’t think we needed to know.” -Amy Poehler
44. “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” -Wayne Dyer
45. “Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.” -Khalil Gibran
46. “Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.” -Gerard Way
47. “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” -Harper Lee
48. “Every exit is an entry somewhere else.” -Tom Stoppard
Quotes for When You Need Motivation
We all get stuck in a rut, and it can be hard to give ourselves the jolt we need to shake things up. Which is exactly what these motivational quotes provide!
49. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” -Theodore Roosevelt
50. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” -George Eliot
51. “Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” -Carol Burnett
52. “In order to succeed, you have to fail, no? You ride a bicycle, you fail; you try a few times, you succeed.” -Jacques Torres.
53. “Do the difficult things while they are easy and the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” -Lao Tzu
54. “It is incredibly empowering to know that your future is in your hands.” -Keanu Reeves
55. “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” -Bill Bradley
56. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decided not to surrender, that is strength.” -Arnold Schwarzenegger
57. “If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it!” -Jonathan Winters
58. “It’s a whole lot more satisfying to reach for the stars, even if you end up landing only on the moon.” -Kermit the Frog
Quotes to Help You Keep Going
The middle of the race is always the hardest part, but the reward is at the finish line. We pulled together these quotes to help you keep going to the end.
59. “Just keep swimming.” -Ellen DeGeneres in Finding Nemo
60. “We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” -Joseph Campbell
61. “Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow’s reality.” -Malala Yousafzai
62. “I’m a big cockeyed optimist. I try to accentuate the positive as opposed to the negative.” -Betty White
63. “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” -Sun Tzu
64. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” -C.S. Lewis
65. “There’s a rainbow in the sky, all the time, don’t be blind.” -Ziggy Marley
66. “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.” -Will Rodgers
67. “Genius is the ability to renew one’s emotions in daily experience.” -Paul Cezanne
68. “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” -Julie Andrews
69. “Even the worst haircut eventually grows out.” -Lisa Kogan
Quotes About Loving Yourself
It all starts with loving yourself–everything flows from there. But it can be hard to appreciate your own beauty and accomplishments in the middle of a rough period. Read these quotes to help remind you just how amazing you really are!
70. “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.” -Nelson Mandela
71. “I exist as I am, that is enough.” -Walt Whitman
72. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
73. “Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.” -Thomas Edison
74. “A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.” -Chinese Proverb
75. “Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.” -Aberjhani
76. “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” -Louisa May Alcott
77. “Believe in yourself. Stay in your own lane. There’s only one you.” -Queen Latifah
We love these quotes, but you might need something a little different – and that’s 100% perfect! We love the collection at BrainyQuote and Reader’s Digest to find inspiration. Or maybe you’ll pop over to Good Housekeeping for your next mantra.
When you find the perfect inspirational or motivational quotes, share them with us! We are always looking for new positive quotes and sayings to help uplift and inspire.
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Meg Flanagan is a teacher, blogger and military spouse. She owns Meg Flanagan Education Solutions, an education advocacy service dedicated to serving families on the K-12 journey. You can find Meg on Facebook. Meg is also available as a freelance writer and personal education advocate!
