Inspirational sayings and quotes are one source of inspiration for people. Some folks look to the heavens for inspiration. Others look to nature. While others look to the thoughts and insights of influential people – both those that came before them and their contemporaries.
In this collection of inspirational sayings and quotes, we’ve gathered some great insights from some well-known, and not so well-known folks. Take a read-through and see if there’s a phrase or two that you can use. If we inspire you with our inspirational sayings, we’ve done our job.
Great Inspirational Quotes
They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.
Napoleon Bonaparte
The greatest men sometimes overshoot themselves, but then their very mistakes are so many lessons of instruction.
Tom Browne
He that is down needs fear no fall.
John Bunyan
Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.
William Henry Channing
The only people who never fail are those who never try.
Ilka Chase
A man’s life is interesting primarily when he has failed — I well know.
For it’s a sign that he tried to surpass himself.
Georges Clemenceau
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Inspiring Sayings
Failure is just another way to learn how to do something right.
Marian Wright Edelman
Experience teaches slowly, and at the cost of mistakes.
James A. Froude
A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.
Charles de Gaulle
Best
Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Oliver Goldsmith
One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.
Henry Ford
There is no impossibility to him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard.
The fearful are failing.
Sarah J. Hale
Apparent failure may hold in its rough shell the germs of a success that will blossom in time, and bear fruit throughout eternity.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.
Napoleon Hill
Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach.
Napoleon Hill
Failure is blindness to the strategic element in events; success is readiness for instant action when the opportune moment arrives.
Newell D. Hillis
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.
Elbert Hubbard
12 Funny Inspirational Sayings
Better days are coming. They’re called Saturday and Sunday.
When everything is coming your way; you’re in the wrong lane.
Be a fruit loop® in a world full of cheerios®.
When life gives you lemons, bite them and make a funny face.
Only the mediocre are always at their best.
Like a glow stick, sometimes we must break before we shine.
“I can’t believe I did that,” is more interesting than, “I wish I did that” in your rocking chair after you’ve retired.
When nothing goes right…go left!
If you fall, I’ll always be there for you. Sincerely, “The Floor.”
If people are talking behind your back, be happy you’re the one in front.
Life always offers a second chance; it’s called tomorrow.
Life is not about how you survive the storm, it’s about how you dance in the rain.
Inspiring Words
There is no failure except in no longer trying.
Elbert Hubbard
Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
James Joyce
I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not be among the best.
John Keats
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
John F. Kennedy
Failure is the foundation of success; success is the lurking-place of failure.
Lao-tzu
Actions, looks, words, and steps form the alphabet by which you may spell character.
Johann Kasper Lavater
It is the want of diligence, rather than the want of means, that causes most failures.
Alfred Mercier
Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
Babe Ruth
What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
Vincent van Gogh
Good Inspiring Sayings
Disappointments are to the soul what thunderstorms are to the air.
Johann C. F. von Schiller
Failure teaches success.
Unknown
Experience is by industry achieved And perfected by the swift course of time.
William Shakespeare
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.
Benjamin Franklin
Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.
François Auguste René Rodin
The education of circumstances is superior to that of tuition.
William Wordsworth
Experience is a grindstone, and it is lucky for us if we can get brightened by it, and not ground.
Josh Billings
Knowledge gained through experience is far superior and many times more useful than bookish knowledge.
Mahatma Gandhi
The experience of others adds to our knowledge, but not to our wisdom; that is dearer bought.
Hosea Ballou
All truly wise thoughts have been thought already, thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take firm root in our personal experience.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Short Inspirational Sayings
He knows the water best who has waded through it.
Unknown
All experience is an arch to build upon.
Henry Brook Adams
Experience is a jewel, and it had need be so, for it is often purchased at an infinite rate.
William Shakespeare
Experience is a safe light to walk by, and he is not a rash man who expects to succeed in future from the same means which have secured it in times past.
Wendell Phillips
Quotes on Life
Experience is not what happens to a man: it is what a man does with what happens to him.
Aldous Huxley
Experience is the universal mother of sciences.
Miguel de Cervantes
There is no royal road to anything. One thing at a time, all things in succession. That which grows fast, withers as rapidly. That which grows slowly endures.
Josiah Gilbert Holland
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
William James
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.
A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.
To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.
Motivational Quotes
Look at the sparrows; they do not know what they will do in the next moment. Let us literally live from moment to moment.
Mahatma Gandhi
Live each day as if your life had just begun.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
It is with many enterprises as with striking fire; we do not meet with success except by reiterated efforts, and often at the instant when we despaired of success.
Francoise de Maintenon
Act as if it were impossible to fail.
Dorothea Brande
You may find the worst enemy or best friend in yourself.
English Proverb
Goodness consists not in the outward things we do, but in the inward thing, we are.
Edwin Hubbell Chapin
Every noble work is at first impossible.
Thomas Carlyle
A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner.
Unknown
Sayings About Life
Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
Joshua J. Marine
If you would live your life with ease; do what you ought, not what you please.
Unknown
He who lives without discipline dies without honor.
Unknown
Let him that would move the world first move himself.
Socrates
Notable Inspirational Messages
Real glory springs from the silent conquest of ourselves.
Unknown
You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.
Shira Tehrani
Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
Soren Kierkegaard
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
Anais Nin
The storm also beats on the house that is built on the rock.
Unknown
Don’t ask for a light load, but rather ask for a strong back.
Unknown
Famous Quotes
Who indeed can harm you if you are committed deeply to doing what is right?
I Peter
Accept challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.
George S. Patton
Adventure is worthwhile.
Amelia Earhart
Motivational Sayings
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
William Ellery Channing
In order to be walked on, you have to be lying down.
Brian Weir
We are like tea bags – we don’t know our own strength until we’re in hot water.
Sister Busche
There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them.
Phyllis Battome
Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.
John Heywood
The question should be, is it worth trying to do, not can it be done.
Allard Lowenstein
What happens to a man is less significant than what happens within him.
Louis L. Mann
There are times when a man should be content with what he has, but never with what he is.
William George Jordan
Your thoughts are the architects of your destiny.
David O. McKay
Motivating Sayings
When a man finds no peace within himself, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
L. A. Rouchefolicauld
One cannot think crooked and walk straight.
Unknown
There is nothing as remarkable as learning how to think better.
Unknown
Are you fit company for the person you wish to become?
Unknown
If you don’t learn from your mistakes, there’s no sense making them.
Unknown
Look within, for within is the wellspring of virtue, which will not cease flowing, if you cease not from digging.
Marcus Aurelius
There is no strength without unity.
Irish Proverb
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
Abraham Lincoln
Enriching Quotations
Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed and not defeated.
Ernest Hemingway
If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.
Anna Quindlen
Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed.
Emily Dickinson
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
G. K. Chesterton
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thoreau
People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.
Dale Carnegie
Inspiring Sayings For Work and the Office
From success to failure is one step; from failure to success is a long road.
Yiddish Proverb
We mustn’t let our passions destroy our dreams.
Unknown
It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow.
Unknown
Keep trudging or you’ll never reach the top
Unknown
A chain is as strong as its weakest link.
Unknown
A strong person and a waterfall always channel their own path.
Unknown
A gentle breeze blowing in the right direction is better than a pair of strong oars.
Unknown
What is strength without a double share of wisdom?
John Milton
Only when all contribute their firewood can a strong fire be built.
Unknown
The strongest among the weak is the one who doesn’t forget his weaknesses.
Unknown
The strength of the heart comes from the soundness of the faith.
Unknown
Meaningful Sayings
To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan but also believe.
Anatole France
Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more wisely.
Unknown
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.
John Quincy Adams
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
By Sara Vanran
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