Some life experiences are simple, and some are so difficult that it is hard to move on. During these tough times, it’s nice to turn to short life quotes to keep you on track. Short powerful quotes can provide you with a quick boost of morale and help you make the right decision about anything that is troubling you. Sometimes, all it takes is reading some pithy short sayings to put your life in perspective and change your attitude about the situation. These short phrases from experts, authors, and thought leaders can often be applied to so many challenges and used as motivational tools to support you through any of life’s hardships. I’ve put together a big list of great short quotes and sayings to spark a positive attitude about life and keep you moving through the tough situations. Some of these famous quotes may be familiar to you, but others may surprise you with a new perspective that you haven’t considered before.
99 of the Best Short Quotes of All Time
Short Inspirational Quotes
Reading inspirational quotes about life can help you get through the ups and downs that are bound to happen as the years go by. Use these simple quotes to help find the extra push that you may need to get where you are going.
- “How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.” – Coco Chanel
- “Imitation is suicide.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Flatter yourself critically.” – Willis Goth Regier
- “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain
- “Don’t look for society to give you permission to be yourself.” – Steve Maraboli
- “If things go wrong, don’t go with them.” – Roger Babson
- “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin
- “Be there for others, but never leave yourself behind.” – Dodinsky
- “Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.” – Elbert Hubbard
- “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.” – Lou Holtz
- “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” – Albert Camus
- “He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.” – Marcus Aurelius
- “My life is my message.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela
- “Go forth on your path, as it exists only through your walking.” – Augustine of Hippo
- “Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third.” – Marge Piercy
- “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” -Euripides
- “It is better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand days as a lamb.” – Roman Proverb
- “Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
- “Life is fragile. We’re not guaranteed a tomorrow so give it everything you’ve got.” – Tim Cook
Famous Short Quotes
Famous quotes about life are always helpful because they have stood the test of time and many have been passed down for generations. 25. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss 26. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” – Eleanor Roosevelt 27. “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.” – Mahatma Gandhi 28. “We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us.” – Virginia Satir 29. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt 30. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde 31. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Ludwig Jacobowski 33. “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. 34. “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley 35. “I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.” – Abraham Lincoln 36. “Our greatest fear should not be of failure… but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” – Francis Chin 37. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison 38. “In heaven, all the interesting people are missing.” – Friedrich Nietzsche 39. “Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.” – Will Rogers 40. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.” – Steve Jobs 41. “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” – Thomas A. Edison 42. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” – Bil Keane 43. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.” – Robert Frost 44. “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson 45. “The person who reads too much and uses his brain too little will fall into lazy habits of thinking.” – Albert Einstein 46. “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw 47. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Gandhi 48. “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 49. “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.” – Maya Angelou
Short Quotes About Love
Whether you are newly in love, have been married for decades, or are looking for love, short quotes to live by can help you keep that light alive in your heart that is always seeking to be loved or have someone to love. 50. “We must be our own before we can be another’s.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson 51. “Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.” – Henry David Thoreau 53. “Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever – only, nothing is eternal.” – Audre Lorde 54. “Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each include the other, each is enriched by the other.” – Felix Adler 55. “Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery 56. “Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you.” – William Arthur Ward 57. “We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.” – William E. Gladstone 58. “Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” – Washington Irving 59. “You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.” – Barbara De Angelis 60. “I know of no greater happiness than to be with you all the time, without interruption, without end.” – Franz Kafka 61. “The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” – Vincent van Gogh 62. “Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.” – St. Augustine 63. “Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.” – Sir Arthur Pinero 64. “Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.” – Karl Menninger 65. “The minute I heard my first love story – I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere – they’re in each other all along.” – Rumi 66. “To love unconditionally requires no contracts, bargains, or agreements. Love exists in the moment-to-moment flux of life.” – Marion Woodman 67. “I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart so long. If we’re in each others dreams, we can be together all the time.” – Hobbes 68. “Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.” – Barbara De Angelis 69. “Love is the strange bewilderment which overtakes one person on account of another person.” – James Thurber 70. “Love is a choice you make from moment to moment.” – Barbara De Angelis 71. “I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone.” – J.R.R. Tolkien 73. “You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.” – Oscar Wilde 74. “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” – Dr. Seuss
Short Sayings About Happiness
Sometimes, getting a little bit of perspective on life is only a quote away. When things in life are not going so great, everyone can use a reminder of the things that matter in life and that bring you happiness. 75. “Do your own thing on your own terms and get what you came here for.” – Oliver James 76. “Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are.” – Kurt Cobain 77. “We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh.” – William James 78. “Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” – Guillaume Apollinaire 79. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” – Helen Keller 80. “Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” – Joseph Addison 81. “It’s the moments that I stopped just to be, rather than do, that have given me true happiness.” – Richard Branson 82. “I am very happy because I have conquered myself and not the world. I am very happy because I have loved the world and not myself.” – Sri Chinmoy 83. “Our greatest happiness. . . is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.” Thomas Jefferson 84. “If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.” – Roy T. Bennett 85. “The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.” – Mark Twain 86. “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” – Mahatma Gandhi 87. “In our lives, change is unavoidable, loss is unavoidable. In the adaptability and ease with which we experience change, lies our happiness and freedom.” – Buddha 88. “The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.” – James Oppenheim 89. “Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?” – Hunter S. Thompson 91. “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie 92. “The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.” – William Saroyan 93. “Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.” – William Feather 94. “The hardest thing to find in life is happiness – money is only hard to find because it gets wasted trying to find happiness.” – Unknown 95. “You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent their making a nest in your hair.” – Chinese proverb 96. “If we would just slow down, happiness would catch up to us.” – Richard Carlson 97. “On the whole, the happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so.” – William R. Inge 98. “Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.” – Samuel Johnson 99. “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” – Buddha Short inspirational quotes about life, love, and happiness are a great thing to read to start your day or give you a boost when you’re feeling down. The benefit of reading short quotes is that they are easy to remember and can make a quick but powerful impact on your life. 13 Endearing Traits Of Someone With A Warm Personality 30 Love Quotes to Light Your Flame 101 of the Best Deep and Meaningful Quotes
What Is the Greatest Quote of All Time?
What’s the greatest quote of all time? It’s an impossible question to answer definitively. For starters, there are just too many that qualify. Plus, everyone’s taste varies. What works for Harry may be anathema for Larry. Despite the logistical hurdles, we’ve come up with five short witticisms that qualify as contenders for the greatest quote of all time.
“Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.”: This Dorothy Parker gem is a reminder that behaving like a pignut is never a good look. “There is no better teacher than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.” These motivating words from Malcolm X apply to everyone, from every walk of life, who is navigating a challenging time. “Don’t look at me in that tone of voice.”: Another whopper of a witticism by Dorothy Parker, this quote works so well because it mixes metaphors and speaks of something to which everyone over the age of 12 can probably relate. “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”: Oscar Wilde had it right: loving oneself is a precious gift with the power to shower you with decades of sustained contentment. “Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.“: Towering intellect Elenor Roosevelt — the Catherine the Great of the 20th Century and former First Lady of the United States — got right to the point with this quote. Adopt it as a guiding principle, and you may find that your life changes for the better in countless ways.
[Helpful Tip] Write down the short quotes that are amazing to you and keep them in a place that you can see every day. Hopefully, these quotes will bring you a positive perspective and motivate you to live a better life. Did you find any value from these short quotes? I hope you enjoyed these motivational quotes. I hope you’ll use these short sayings to help you to start your day with inspiration or when you’re having a challenging day. Which of these short words of wisdom were the most uplifting for you? Would you like to help others? It would be really great if you could help me spread these short quotes about life to others. Would you be willing to send out some love to your friends and family? Please share these life quotes on your preferred social media platform.
