100 beautiful quotes to inspire your life
“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
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” | Mahatma Gandhi
“Imperfection is
beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous
than absolutely boring.” | Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn
“Listen to
the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the
impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close
to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” | Shel Silverstein
“I believe in pink.
I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in
kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems
to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I
believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.” |
Audrey Hepburn
“Our
deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most
frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?” | Marianne
Williamson, Return to Love
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” | Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
“the only
people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to
talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones
who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like
fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” |
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.” | Emily Dickinson
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” | Ralph Waldo Emerson
“None but ourselves can free our minds.” | Bob Marley
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” | F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.” | Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” | William G.T. Shedd
“Meditate.
Live purely. Be quiet.
Do your work with mastery.
Like the moon, come out
from behind the clouds!
Shine.” | Siddhārtha Gautama
“Is it so
bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and
Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and
Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great
is to be misunderstood.” | Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Be patient toward
all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions
themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very
foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you
because you would not be able to live them. And the point is,to live
everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you win then gradually,
without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” |
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
“I don’t
think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and
nothing to regret. I don’t like people who have never fallen or
stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn’t
revealed it’s beauty to them.” | Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?” | Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” | T.S. Eliot
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” | Lou Holtz
“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.” | Langston Hughes
“Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” | J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
“Your life is an occasion. Rise to it.” | Suzanne Weyn, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
“It is not revolutions and upheavals
That clear the road to new and better days,
But revelations, lavishness and torments
Of someone’s soul, inspired and ablaze.” | Boris Pasternak
“It’s so
hard to forget pain, but it’s even harder to remember sweetness. We have
no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.” | Chuck
Palahniuk, Diary
“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” | John Lennon
“With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.” | Max Ehrmann, Desiderata
“Believe in
yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you
that is greater than any obstacle.” | Christian D. Larson
“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.” | J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” | Friedrich Nietzsche
“I do not believe this darkness will endure.” | J.R.R. Tolkien
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” | Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods
“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.” | Friedrich Nietzsche
“Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is within you.” | Rumi
“All we have is all we need. All we need is the awareness of how blessed we really are.” | Sarah Ban Breathnach
“The bad news is
you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The
good news is, there’s no ground.” | Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
“In the midst of winter, I found there was within me an invincible summer.” | Albert Camus
“be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.” | Max Ehrmanm, Desiderata
“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” | C.S. Lewis
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost” | J.R.R Tolkien
“The most beautiful people we
have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known
struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These
persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of
life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving
concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” | Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
“Whatever you are, be a good one” | Abraham Lincoln
“Promise me you’ll always
remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think.” | A. A. Milne
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”| Kahlil Gibran
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” | Samuel Beckett
“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” | Jack Kerouac
“We
work in the dark – we do what we can – we give what we have. Our doubt
is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of
art.” | Henry James, The Middle Years
“If
you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is
where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” | Henry David Thoreau
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” | Anton Chekov
“When it’s over, I want to say: all my
life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking
the world into my arms. When it is over, I don’t want to wonder if I
have made of my life something particular, and real. I don’t want to
find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument. I don’t want to
end up simply having visited this world.” | Mary Oliver
“Don’t step into lives that
aren’t yours, make choices that aren’t nourishing, or dance stiffly for
years with the wrong partner, or parts of yourself.” | SARK
“Emotional discomfort, when accepted,
rises, crests and falls in a series of waves. Each wave washes a part of
us away and deposits treasures we never imagined. Out goes naivete, in
comes wisdom; out goes anger, in comes discernment; out goes despair, in
comes kindness. No one would call it easy, but the rhythm of emotional
pain that we learn to tolerate is natural, constructive and expansive…
The pain leaves you healthier than it found you.” | Martha Beck
“There shall be an eternal summer in the grateful heart.” | Celia Thaxter
“Never stop dreaming of moonbeams and
fairy dust, shiny stars and the wonder of the heavens, a happier life
and a better world.” | James J. Gormley
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the
misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square
holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules…
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the
only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they
push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy
ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that
they can change the world, are the ones who do.” | Steve Jobs
“We are repeatedly what we do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” | Aristotle
“Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.” | Elizabeth Gilbert
“Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.” | David Whyte
“There will always be suffering. But we must not suffer over the suffering.” | Alan Watts
“I can give you my loneliness, my
darkness, the hunger of my heart, I am trying to bribe you with
uncertainty, with danger, with defeat.” | Jorge Luis Borges
“You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
Except the one in which you belong.” | David Whyte
“If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing it badly.” | Martha Beck
“Owning our story can be hard
but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it.
Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as
giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the
most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness
will we discover the infinite power of our light.” | Brené Brown
“Your life is not a problem to be solved but a gift to be opened.” | Wayne Muller
“Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.” | Rumi
“Think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” | James Joyce
“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.” | Virginia Woolf
“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers
But above all the world needs dreamers who do.” | Sarah Breathnach
“Nothing, Everything, Anything,
Something: If you have nothing, then you have everything, because you
have the freedom to do anything, without the fear of losing something.” |
Jarod Kintz
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” | Ernest Hemingway
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” |Confucius
“The one who asks questions doesn’t lose his way.” | African proverb
“Love everyone. Trust few. Paddle your own canoe.” | Anonymous
“There’s always a little truth behind
every “just kidding”. A little knowledge behind every “I don’t know”. A
little emotion behind every “I don’t care”. And a little pain behind
every “it’s okay”.” | Source Unknown
“Ready, aim, fire? Fire. Fire. Fire.” | Peter Senge
“If consensus is overrated, I think balance is, too.
I have no interest in living a balanced life.
I want a life of adventure.” | Chris Guillebeau
“Enough of these phrases, conceit and metaphors,
I want burning, burning, burning.” | Rumi
“I thank god for this most amazing day:
for leaping greenly spirits of tress
and a blue true dream of sky;
for everything which is natural
which is infinite
which is yes.” | e.e. cummings
“If you want to reach the sky, you better learn how to kneel.” | Bono
“Remarkable is a choice.” | Seth Godin
“To be great, be whole;
Exclude nothing, exaggerate nothing that is not you.
Be whole in everything. Put all you are
Into the smallest thing you do.
The whole moon gleams in every pool.” | Fernando Pessoa
“
Loneliness is the human condition.
Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow.
Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will
understand you, someone to fill that space. And intelligent, sensitive
person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find
people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with
disappointment. The best you’ll ever do is to understand yourself, know
what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way.” |
Janet Fitch
“Some feelings sink so deep into
the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some
truths are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. Some
things are so sad that only your soul can do the crying for them.” |
Gregory David Roberts
“Holy is the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul.” | Allen Ginsberg
“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.” | Emily Dickinson
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.” | William Blake
“If your daily life seems poor,
do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet
enough to call it forth its riches.” | Rainer Maria Rilke
“I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable,
I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.” | Arthur Rimbaud
“Our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable.” | Twyla Tharp
“I believe that everything happens for a
reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong
so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you
eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things
fall apart so better things can fall together.” | Marilyn Monroe
“The only way to stay sane is to go a little crazy.”| Susanna Kaysen
“I went to the woods because I wished to
live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see
if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.” | Henry David Thoreau
“Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.” | Robert M. Pirsig
“You may not be her first, her last, or
her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now,
what else matters? She’s not perfect – you aren’t either, and the two
of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh,
cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes,
hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking
about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her
that she knows you can break – her heart. So don’t hurt her, don’t
change her, don’t analyze and don’t expect more than she can give. Smile
when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss
her when she’s not there.” | Bob Marley
“To love at all is to be
vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly
broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it
to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and
little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket
or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark,
motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will
become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be
vulnerable.” | C.S. Lewis
“Do not let your fire go out, spark by
irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the
not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in
lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to
reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is
possible.. it’s yours.” | Ayn Rand
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” | Siddhārtha Gautama
“Love is what we are born with. Fear is
what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and
prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the
essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of
it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life.
Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.” | Marianne
Williamson
“Another year is fast
approaching. Go be that starving artist you’re afraid to be. Open up
that journal and get poetic finally. Volunteer. Suck it up and travel.
You were not born here to work and pay taxes. You were put here to be
part of a vast organism to explore and create. Stop putting it off. The
world has much more to offer than what’s on 15 televisions at TGI
Fridays. Take pictures. Scare people. Shake up the scene. Be the change
you want to see in the world.” | Jason Mraz
“The really important kind of freedom
involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being
able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over
and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.” | David Foster
Wallace