Some of the most important life lesson quotes are learned the hard way.
Sometimes, it is best to learn from the experiences of others instead of going through things yourself. Wherever you are, it pays to learn from those with the experience to teach. The more you learn, the better person you become. You’ll avoid mistakes and focus more on succeeding in life.
We’ve collected some of the most intriguing and captivating lessons learned in life from great men and women. Read them, reflect, and learn from them.
Quotes About Life Lessons
- Shortcuts make long delays.
J.R.R. Tolkien - It’s not the load that weighs you down; it’s how you carry it.
C.S. Lewis - A comfort zone is a wonderful place, but nothing ever grows there.
Unknown - Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Alexander Pope - You make mistakes. Mistakes don’t make you.
Maxwell Maltz
Knowledge is King Quotations
- Living your life is a task so difficult, it has never been attempted before.
Unknown - So far, you’ve survived 100% of your bad days. This, too, shall pass.
Unknown - People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for.
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird - Failure is a lesson learned. Success is a lesson applied.
Unknown - Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise.
Zig Ziglar - You only lose what you cling to.
Buddha - Seek to be worth knowing rather than well known.
Unknown - Never be a prisoner of your past. It was just a lesson, not a life sentence.
Unknown - To be successful, you must act big, think big, and talk big.
Aristotle Onassis - But one of the big lessons I have learned from my journey is you can’t please everyone, so don’t try.
Chris Colfer - You gotta stop watering dead plants.
Unknown
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Valuable Learnings
- What to do with a mistake – recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.
Dean Smith – More Dean Smith Quotations - Courage is the most important of all the virtues because, without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.
Maya Angelou - Be like a tree. Let the dead leaves drop.
Rumi - It’s the will, not the skill.
Unknown - Life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now.
Thich Nhat Hanh - I know I made a lot of mistakes, but they, in turn, were my life lessons.
Drew Barrymore - If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you’ Not much.
Jim Rohn - We all make mistakes; how we correct them is what makes all the difference between success and failure.
Zane Baker - It’s easier to ask forgiveness than to beg for permission.
Unknown - In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.
Eleanor Roosevelt - Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.
Paulo Coelho
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Life Lesson Quotes
- Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind.
Roy T. Bennett - Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals. If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.
Chico Xavier - Some of life’s best lessons are learned at the worst times.
Ani DiFranco - There are no passengers on spaceship Earth. We are all crew.
Marshall McLuhan - Doubt is wisdom. People are dangerous when they are certain that their cause is just and their facts are right.
Paulo Coelho - Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning… Anyone can start over and make a new ending.
Chico Xavier - Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - In every success story, you will find someone who has made a courageous decision.
Peter F. Drucker - Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way.
Al Franken
Experience – A Hard Teacher
- No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.
Haruki Murakami - Some people come in your life as blessings; others come in your life as lessons.
Mother Teresa - Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us.
Thomas L. Holdcroft - Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first and the lesson afterward.
Vernon Saunders Law - If you can dream it, you can do it.
Walt Disney - In this life, when you deny someone an apology, you will remember it at the time you beg forgiveness.
Toba Beta - In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.
Robert Frost - “You’re going to be happy,” said Life, “But, first, I’ll make you strong.”
Unknown - Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them ―that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
Lao Tzu - Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Steve Jobs - Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.
Zig Ziglar
Hard Work Sayings
- I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it but by working for it.
Estee Lauder - And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
Abraham Lincoln - If there’s a single lesson that life teaches us, it’s that wishing doesn’t make it so.
Lev Grossman - If there are things you don’t like in the world you grew up in, make your own life different.
Dave Thomas - Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.
Denis Waitley - Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.
Oprah Winfrey - The trouble is if you don’t spend your life yourself, other people spend it for you.
Peter Shaffer - Good times become good memories, and bad times become good lessons.
Unknown - Life happens at the level of events, not words.
Alfred Adler - God helps them that help themselves.
Benjamin Franklin - Between saying and doing many a pair of shoes is worn out.
Italian proverb - Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.
Irving Berlin
Teachable Moments Quotes
Here are some of our favorite life lesson quotes.
- Singleness of purpose is essential for success in life.
John D. Rockefeller – The Richest Person to Ever Live - You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.
Oprah Winfrey - Saddle your dreams before you ride ’em.
Mary Webb - To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
Benjamin Disraeli - Be like a tree; let the dead leaves drop.
Rumi - When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
Mary Angelou - Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass…it’s about learning how to dance in the rain!
Unknown - The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him, and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust.
Henry L. Stimson - Close some doors today. Not because of pride, incapacity, or arrogance but simply because they lead you nowhere.
Paulo Coelho - Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced.
Soren Kierkegaard - Grow through what you go through.
Unknown - Little by little does the trick.
Aesop - When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
Alexander Graham Bell
Words of Wisdom
- The best things in life are not things.
Ann Landers - Little strokes fell great oaks.
Benjamin Franklin - Why let go of yesterday? Because yesterday has already let go of you.
Steve Maraboli - Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.
Og Mandino - A very wise man once told me that you can’t look back-you just have to put the past behind you and find something better in your future.
Jodi Picoult - He who receives a benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca - The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which bridge to burn.
David Russell - Who seeks a faultless friend remains friendless.
Turkish Proverb - What you are must always displease you, if you would attain to that which you are not.
Saint Augustine - It’s always the simple that produces the marvelous.
Amelia Barr - Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.
C.S. Lewis - 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
Short Life Lessons Quotes
- It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
Henry David Thoreau - It is not death that a man should bear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
Marcus Aurelius - Be the change you would like to see in the world.
Gandhi - Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.
Ovid - Today is yesterday’s pupil.
Tobias Smollett - It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
Howard Ruff - The best way to save face is to keep the bottom half shut.
Unknown - Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.
Phaedrus - Deliberate often, decide once.
Latin Proverb - Experience is the best of schoolmasters, on the school fees are heavy.
Thomas Carlyle
On Success
- There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning, and yearning.
Christopher Morley - If a man wants his dreams to come true, he must wake up.
Unknown - The work praises the man.
Irish proverb - The secret of success is the constancy of purpose.
Benjamin Disraeli - Big shots are little shots who keep shooting.
Christopher Morley - Success is not a doorway; it’s a staircase.
Dottie Walters - Self-trust is the first secret of success.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John Steinbeck - Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed.
Emily Dickinson - A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
Francis Bacon - Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thoreau - Victory belongs to the most persevering.
Napoleon Bonaparte - High station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace.
Tennessee Williams - The reward of the general is not a bigger tent but command.
Oliver Wendell Holmes - To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.
William Shakespeare - The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Your goal should be out of reach but not out of sight.
Anita DeFrantz
Memorable Quotes on Life
- Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.
Plato - By three methods, we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; And third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius. - Time and tide wait for no man.
Geoffrey Chaucer - To distance yourself from another, give them unsolicited advice. To become closer, take theirs.
Unknown - Look deep into nature, and you will understand everything better.
Albert Einstein - Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear - We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.
Louise Gluck - Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.
Eleanor Roosevelt - Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.
Will Rogers - Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.
Suzy Kassem - A ship does not sail with yesterday’s wind.
Louis L’Amour, The Walking Drum - Common sense is not so common.
Voltaire - Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Life-Changing Quotes
These life lessons quotes can change your approach and attitude.
- Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.
Benjamin Disraeli - The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves lightly.
G.K. Chesterton - The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
Rob Siltanen - The things that we love tell us what we are.
Thomas Aquinas - Knowing is not enough; we must apply it. Wishing Is not enough; we must do.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe - The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley - Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.
Saint Francis de Sales - Creativity Is intelligence having fun.
Albert Einstein - In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Philosophy of Life Sayings
- When they close doors on you – buy the building.
Unknown - When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix - Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln - Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake.
Francis Bacon - Live each day as if your life had just begun.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe - The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.
Thomas Carlyle - Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself.
Rumi - The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand as in what direction you are moving.
Oliver Wendell Holmes - Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.
Rumi - And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
Frederick Nietzsche - Happiness is not the absence of problems; it’s the ability to deal with them.
Steve Maraboli
Heartwarming Insights
Here are some heartwarming life lesson quotes.
- A friend might well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - There is no better exercise for strengthening the heart than reaching down and lifting up another.
Unknown - The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough of is love.
Henry Miller - Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved.
D.H. Lawrence - Love doesn’t make the world go round; Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning - There is only one happiness in life: to love and be loved.
George Sand
Inspirational Life Lesson Quotes
- Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.
Lyndon B. Johnson - Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
Helen Keller - Forgive, but do not forget, or you will be hurt again. Forgiving changes perspectives. Forgetting loses the lesson.
Paulo Coelho - One of my biggest lessons in life is we heal at the speed of our forgiveness.
Romany Malco - The biggest lesson I learned this year is to not force anything; conversations, friendships, relationships, attention, or love. Anything forced is just not worth fighting for; whatever flows flows, what crashes crashes.
Amanda Rose - Remember that life’s greatest lessons are usually learned at the worst times and from the worst mistakes.
Unknown - Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
Rita Mae Brown
These life lessons quotes work great for emails, Facebook posts, Instagram captions, Twitter, letters, speeches, and more.
By Mike O’Halloran
Founder and Editor, Sports Feel Good Stories
Mike O’Halloran founded Sports Feel Good Stories in 2009. He co-authored four trivia books for kids under the Smart Attack line. Mike coached basketball for 15 seasons, taught tennis, and has written four books on basketball coaching. He has been a contributing writer for USA Football, the youth arm of the NFL. Mike is the founder of the Fantasy Football Team Names Hall of Fame.
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