150 Best Short Quotes to Quickly Inspire You

Nicole Penn

March 26, 2023 at 11:30 PM·15 min read

These short quotes may not have a ton of words, but they have a big impact.

We can all use a dose of wisdom every so often, and what better way to learn and get inspired on the go during our oh-so-busy lives than with short quotes?

We have quick, deep nuggets and positive, profound sayings to easily share, rapid-fire, heartfelt thoughts about family and friends and so much more. Whether you're looking for a simple quote for your vision board, a quick quote to add to your Instagram post, short and sweet messages to write in a text or card, or whatever the case(!), you'll find everything you need here in one place.

From inspirational to love to motivational, here are 150 of the best short quotes for when you need an extra boost of encouragement.

150 Best Short Quotes

1. “Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.” ― Andy Rooney

2. “Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” ― George Lucas

3. “Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.” ― Madeleine L'Engle, The Summer of the Great-Grandmother

4. “Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.” ― Tchaikovsky

5. “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.” ― Ruth Bader Ginsburg

6. “I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” ― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

7. “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” ― Malala Yousafzai

8. “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

9. “When someone tells me "no," it doesn't mean I can't do it, it simply means I can't do it with them.” ― Karen E. Quinones Miller

10. “Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” ― George Lucas

11. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ― Oscar Wilde

12. “Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.” ― Salvador Dali

13. “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” ― Marilyn Monroe

14. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” ― Oscar Wilde

15. “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” ― Thomas A. Edison

Short Inspirational Quotes

16. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” ― George Eliot

17. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou

18. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ― Winston S. Churchill

19. “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” ― Lewis Carroll

20. “You can't live your life for other people. You've got to do what's right for you, even if it hurts some people you love.” ― Nicholas Sparks

21. “Well-behaved women seldom make history.”― Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

22. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!” ― Audrey Hepburn

23. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

24. “I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.” ― Herbert Bayard Swope

25. “Peace begins with a smile.” ― Mother Teresa

26. “Always do what you are afraid to do.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

27. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

28. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

29. “Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson

30. “None but ourselves can free our minds.” ― Bob Marley

Short Deep Quotes

31. “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.” ― Isaac Asimov

32. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” ― Socrates

33. “The price of greatness is responsibility.” ― Winston Churchill

34. “What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.” ― Confucius

35. “Life is and will ever remain an equation incapable of solution, but it contains certain known factors.” ― Nikola Tesla

36. “The trouble is if you don’t spend your life yourself, other people spend it for you.” ― Peter Shaffer, Five Finger Exercise

37. “If you love deeply, you're going to get hurt badly. But it's still worth it.” ― C.S. Lewis

38. “I used to think the worst thing in life is 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

39. “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens” ― Jimi Hendrix

40. “Angry people are not always wise.” ― Jane Austen

Short Quotes About Life

41. “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

42. “People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

43. “Crying does not indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you are alive.” ― Charlotte Bront?, Jane Eyre

44. “Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

45. “The life you have left is a gift. Cherish it. Enjoy it now, to the fullest. Do what matters, now.” ― Leo Babauta

46. “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” ― William Faulkner

47. “You may delay, but time will not.” ― Benjamin Franklin

48. “Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time.” ― Jorge Luis Borges

49. “Time can be a greedy thing-sometimes it steals the details for itself.” ― Khaled Hosseini

50. “Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.” ― Hans Christian Andersen

51. “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” ― William Faulkner

52. “Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.” ― Margaret Mitchell

53. “There is nothing like a dream to create the future.” ― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

54. “With every mistake, we must surely be learning.” ― George Harrison

55. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” ― Mae West

56. “Punctuality is the thief of time” ― Oscar Wilde

57. “Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.” ― Benjamin Disraeli

58. “Time moves slowly, but passes quickly.” ― Alice Walker

59. “When you are measuring life, you are not living it.” ― Mitch Albom

60. “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you will ever have.” ― Eckhart Tolle

61. “Time, as far as my father was concerned, was a gift you gave to other people.” ― Michelle Obama

62. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” ― Albert Einstein

63. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ― Oscar Wilde

64. “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” ― Allen Saunders

65. “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” ― Mother Theresa

66. “You can have it all. Just not all at once.” ― Oprah Winfrey

67. “Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. ” ― Coco Chanel

68. “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” ― Charles Darwin

69. “Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” ― Cormac McCarthy

70. “Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” ― George Bernard Shaw

71. “In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.” ― Robert Frost

Short Positive Quotes

72. “I would always rather be happy than dignified.” ― Charlotte Bront?, Jane Eyre

73. “When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” ― Maya Angelou

74. “The dream is to keep surprising yourself, never mind the audience.” ― Tom Hiddleston

75. “But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

76. “In a time of destruction, create something.” ― Maxine Hong Kingston

77. “The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it's all that matters.” ― Audrey Hepburn

78. “Sometimes it takes a good fall to really know where you stand.” ― Hayley Williams

79. “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.” ― Maya Angelou

80. “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” ― John Lennon

81. “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

82. “Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson

83. “Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.” ― Bob Marley

84. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” ― Marie Curie

85. “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” ― Helen Keller

86. “It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

Motivational Short Quotes

87. “You never fail until you stop trying.” ― Albert Einstein

88. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” ― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

89. “Do one thing every day that scares you.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

90. “Imagination is the highest form of research.” ― Albert Einstein

91. “The first and final thing you have to do in this world is to last it and not be smashed by it.” ― Ernest Hemingway

92. “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” ― Malala Yousafzai

93. “Visualize this thing you want. See it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin.” ― Robert Collier

94. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

95. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” ― Oprah Winfrey

Short Funny Quotes

96. “I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” ― Mark Twain

97. “Show me a woman who doesn't feel guilty and I'll show you a man.” ― erica jong

98. “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” ― Thomas A. Edison

99. “The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.” ― Voltaire

100. “The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept.” ― George Carlin

101. “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.” ― Dorothy Parker

102. “The world is a stage and the play is badly cast.” ― Oscar Wilde

103. “What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course.” ― Marilyn Monroe

104. “Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common.” ― Dorothy Parker

105. “You live but once; you might as well be amusing.” ― Coco Chanel

Short Love Quotes

106. “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ― Lao Tzu

107. “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

108. “Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.” ― Oscar Wilde

109. “You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not.” ― Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

110. “I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.” ― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

111. “I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

112. “One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

113. “We love the things we love for what they are.” ― Robert Frost

114. “Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it.” ― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

115. “Where there is love there is life.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

116. “Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven

117. “Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Airman's Odyssey

118. “Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.” ― Joan Crawford

119. “Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.” ― Zelda Fitzgerald

120. “It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.” ― Vincent Van Gogh

121. “The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.” ― Ernest Hemingway, Men Without Women

122. “I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” ― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

123. “You know how they say you only hurt the ones you love? Well, it works both ways.” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

124. “Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward.” ― E.E. Cummings

125. “Don't waste your love on somebody, who doesn't value it.” ― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Short Family Quotes

126. “I sustain myself with the love of family.” ― Maya Angelou

127. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

128. “When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family. ” ― Jim Butcher

129. “My dear young cousin, if there's one thing I've learned over the eons, it's that you can't give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it.” ― Rick Riordan

130. “Family is found...whether it be blood or circumstance or choice, what binds us does not matter. All that matters is that we are bound.” ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising

131. “Families break up when they get hints you don't intend and miss hints that you do.” ― Robert Frost

132. “If you live in each other's pockets long enough, you're related.” ― Jodi Picoult, The Pact

133. “Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future.” ― Gail Lumet Buckley

134. “Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark.” ― Pierce Brown, Golden Son

135. “Family isn’t something that’s supposed to be static, or set. People marry in, divorce out. They’re born, they die. It’s always evolving, turning into something else.” ― Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key

Short Quotes About Friendship

136. “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” ― Aristotle

137. “Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

138. “I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” ― Helen Keller

139. “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.” ― Muhammad Ali

140. “A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.” ― Jim Morrison

141. “The best mirror is an old friend.” ― George Herbert

142. “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” ― Elbert Hubbard

143. “There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” ― Linda Grayson

144. “Friendships between women, as any woman will tell you, are built of a thousand small kindnesses... swapped back and forth and over again.” ― Michelle Obama, Becoming

145. “Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” ― Mark Twain

146. “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” ― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

147. “Being in a relationship, that's something you choose. Being friends, that's just something you are.” ― John Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson

148. “If you care about somebody, you should want them to be happy. Even if you wind up being left out.” ― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

149. “One friend with whom you have a lot in common is better than three with whom you struggle to find things to talk about.” ― Mindy Kaling, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

150. “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.” ― Aristotle

Next, Time to Talk Trust and Commitment—We've Got the 125 Best Loyalty Quotes!

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