Discover a powerful collection of 300+ inspirational quotes by great minds like Albert Einstein, Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King Jr., and more. Find deep meaning quotes about life, love, success, failure, leadership, and self-worth—all in a beautifully styled format.
Famous Inspirational Quotes About Life
Life is a journey full of joy, sorrow, growth, and change. At different stages, we often look for guidance, clarity, or a spark of motivation to keep us going. That’s where powerful life quotes come in—brief yet impactful lines that open our minds and uplift our spirits.
In this collection, you’ll discover famous inspirational quotes about life shared by world-renowned thinkers, authors, and visionaries—including Albert Einstein, Maya Angelou, and Martin Luther King Jr. Their words don’t just inspire; they awaken something deeper within us.
These quotes touch on love, pain, courage, purpose, and the art of living meaningfully. Whether facing a challenge, feeling lost, or simply seeking encouragement, the right quote can offer the strength to move forward.
Life isn’t always easy, but with wisdom from great minds, we can find hope and direction. Let these quotes guide your journey and remind you that you are never alone in your struggles or dreams.
Famous Inspirational Quotes About Life
Life is full of twists, turns, lessons, and opportunities. The following famous quotes about life by great thinkers and leaders offer timeless wisdom, motivation, and deep insight. Whether you’re going through a tough phase or simply seeking clarity, these quotes remind us of what truly matters in life’s journey.
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
— Albert Einstein“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
— Maya Angelou“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”
— Theodore Roosevelt“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
— C. S. Lewis“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
— Abraham Lincoln“A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.”
— Ruth Graham“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
— C. S. Lewis“I never think of the future — it comes soon enough.”
— Albert Einstein“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
— Mark Twain“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”
— Francis Chan“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
— Henry Ford“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words.”
— Victor Hugo“Good actions are a guard against the blows of adversity.”
— Abu Bakr“Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.”
— Zig Ziglar“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
— Zig Ziglar“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
— Winston Churchill“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
— Albert Einstein“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”
— Willie Nelson“All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.”
— Marie Curie“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.”
— Zig Ziglar“Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.”
— John Lennon“Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.”
— Max Lucado“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
— Maya Angelou“People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.”
— Nelson Mandela“I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder.”
— Salma Hayek“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl — but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.“The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
— Douglas MacArthur“I am a soldier. I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.”
— George S. Patton“Sports for me is when a guy walks off the court and you really can’t tell whether he won or lost, when he carries himself with pride either way.”
— Jim Courier“Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you’re supposed to.”
— Susan Cain“Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.”
— Zig Ziglar“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”
— Edgar Allan Poe“Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.”
— Zig Ziglar“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
— Stephen Covey“Life doesn’t run away from nobody. Life runs at people.”
— Joe Frazier“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.”
— Pablo Neruda“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”
— Bill Cosby“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”
— Les Brown“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
— Muhammad Ali“This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
— Neil Armstrong“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you,’ it will be enough.”
— Meister Eckhart“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.”
— John C. Maxwell“Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.”
— Ronald Reagan“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
— Thomas A. Edison“Failure is not the opposite of success; it’s part of success.”
— Arianna Huffington“No one has ever become poor by giving.”
— Anne Frank“It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts.”
— Corrie Ten Boom“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”
— Robin Williams“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”
— John F. Kennedy“A man should never neglect his family for business.”
— Walt Disney“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.”
— Martin Luther“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.”
— John Stott“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president.”
— Theodore Roosevelt“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
— Mark Twain“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”
— Satchel Paige“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”
— Maya Angelou“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
— Steve Jobs“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”
— Bill Vaughan“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
— Hunter S. Thompson“If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
— Roald Dahl“God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.”
— Mother Teresa“Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others. It is not an opportunity to satisfy personal greed.”
— Mwai Kibaki“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”
— Corrie Ten Boom“Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring?”
— Neltje Blanchan“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”
— Norman Vincent Peale“I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.”
— Arthur Rubinstein“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”
— Saint Augustine“To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”
— George Mason“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.”
— Margaret Fuller“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”
— Colin Powell“It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.”
— Elizabeth Kenny“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”
— Richard Branson“Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.”
— Albert Einstein“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
— Henry Ford“The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.”
— Walt Disney“Resolution one: I will live for God. Resolution two: If no one else does, I still will.”
— Jonathan Edwards“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
— Frederick Douglass“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
— J. R. R. Tolkien“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”
— Bertrand Russell“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
— Benjamin Franklin“Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.”
— David Frost“Love yourself. It is important to stay positive because beauty comes from the inside out.”
— Jenn Proske“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”
— Mother Teresa“Nothing will work unless you do.”
— Maya Angelou“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
— Mother Teresa“Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”
— Milton Friedman“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
— Confucius“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?'”
— Martin Luther King Jr.“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
— Winston Churchill“An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.”
— Victor Hugo“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
— Colin Powell“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.”
— Dean Karnazes“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you.”
— Mother Teresa“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
— Nathan Hale“When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.”
— C. S. Lewis“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
— Dalai Lama“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
— Maya Angelou“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
— Vince Lombardi“The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.”
— Charles Spurgeon“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”
— Dalai Lama“You are responsible for your life. You can’t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on.”
— Oprah Winfrey“With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end.”
— Henry Ford“Luck is predictable; the harder you work, the luckier you get.”
— Brian Tracy“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”
— John F. Kennedy“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
— Benjamin Franklin“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”
— Ronald Reagan“There is no substitute for hard work.”
— Thomas A. Edison“When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go.”
— Carol Burnett“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.”
— Corrie Ten Boom“He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe“Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.”
— Douglas MacArthur“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”
— Oprah Winfrey“The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.”
— Robert Kiyosaki“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven not man’s.”
— Mark Twain“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
— Maya Angelou“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”
— David Brinkley“If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.”
— Bill Gates“Love begins by taking care of the closest ones — the ones at home.”
— Mother Teresa“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”
— Ronald Reagan“Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.”
— John Wooden“That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.”
— Walt Disney“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
— Robert Louis Stevenson“You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward.”
— Conrad Hall“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
— Napoleon Hill“No person is your friend who demands your silence or denies your right to grow.”
— Alice Walker“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.”
— Marilyn vos Savant“Real loss is only possible when you love something more than you love yourself.”
— Robin Williams“When a woman becomes her own best friend, life is easier.”
— Diane Von Furstenberg“Women are made to be loved, not understood.”
— Oscar Wilde“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”
— C. S. Lewis“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.”
— W. E. B. Du Bois“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”
— George Bernard Shaw“One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.”
— Mother Teresa“Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.”
— Mary Lou Retton“I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.”
— Robert H. Schuller“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
— Thomas A. Edison“Whatever you want in life, other people are going to want it too. Believe in yourself enough to accept the idea that you have an equal right to it.”
— Diane Sawyer“All great achievements require time.”
— Maya Angelou“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
— Jim Rohn“Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important — although difficult — is the highroad to pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction.”
— Margaret Thatcher“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
— Martin Luther“Don’t find fault, find a remedy.”
— Henry Ford“Friends and good manners will carry you where money won’t go.”
— Margaret Walker“A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.”
— John Lubbock“If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you!”
— T. Harv Eker“Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.”
— Jim Valvano“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
— Albert Einstein“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”
— Farrah Gray“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
— John Quincy Adams
Motivational Quotes About Success & Failure
Success and failure are two sides of the same coin. Every successful person has faced setbacks—what makes the difference is their mindset, persistence, and courage to keep going. These motivational quotes about success and failure from famous leaders, thinkers, and achievers will inspire you to embrace failure as a stepping stone and fuel your passion to succeed.
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
— Helen Keller“Intense love does not measure, it just gives.”
— Mother Teresa“All of our dreams can come true.”
— Walt Disney“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
— Thomas Jefferson“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
— George Bernard Shaw“A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”
— B. F. Skinner“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
— Bill Gates“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
— Maya Angelou“I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone.”
— Robin Williams“Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.”
— Albert Einstein“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”
— Albert Einstein“Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.”
— Wayne Dyer“Baseball was, is, and always will be to me the best game in the world.”
— Babe Ruth“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt“Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.”
— Nelson Mandela“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.”
— Benjamin Disraeli“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
— Henry Ford“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.”
— Stephen King“Delete the negative; accentuate the positive!”
— Donna Karan“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
— Walt Disney“Boys, you must strive to find your own voice, because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all.”
— Robin Williams“Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.”
— Washington Irving“Don’t waste a minute not being happy. If one window closes, run to the next window — or break down a door.”
— Brooke Shields“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
— Marcus Aurelius“A good conscience is a continual Christmas.”
— Benjamin Franklin“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”
— Mother Teresa“Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.”
— Anne Frank“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”
— Alexander Graham Bell“A mother’s arms are more comforting than anyone else’s.”
— Princess Diana“Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.”
— Johnny Cash“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
— Lyndon B. Johnson“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”
— Dale Carnegie“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.“No one remembers who came in second.”
— Walter Hagen“If you take responsibility for yourself, you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.”
— Les Brown“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”
— Warren G. Bennis“Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world — except money.”
— Johnny Cash“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.”
— Earl Nightingale“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
— Dolly Parton“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
— Jim Rohn“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
— Winston Churchill“The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.”
— Caroline Myss“Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get, you’ve got to make yourself.”
— Alice Walker“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.”
— William Arthur Ward“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
— Albert Schweitzer“There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.”
— Booker T. Washington“The amount of good luck coming your way depends on your willingness to act.”
— Barbara Sher“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
— Winston Churchill“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.”
— George S. Patton“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
— Confucius“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
— Helen Keller“If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
— Vince Lombardi“Live without pretending, love without depending, listen without defending, speak without offending.”
— Drake“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
— Jim Rohn“Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.”
— Mother Teresa“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”
— Beverly Sills“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.”
— Wayne Dyer“Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson“The Marine Corps has just been called by the New York Times ‘the elite of this country.’ I think it is the elite of the world.”
— William Halsey“I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”
— Benjamin Franklin
READ MORE: –Inspirational Quotes by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”
— Dalai Lama“We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.”
— Stevie Wonder“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower“Our life is frittered away by detail… Simplify, simplify.”
— Henry David Thoreau“Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.”
— Ann Landers
