80 Inspirational Quotes About Life to Brighten Your Day

Helen Keller, a deaf and blind author and lecturer, overcame immense challenges to become an inspirational figure. Keller once said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.”

Born in 1880, Keller lost her sight and hearing at a young age due to illness. Despite these obstacles, she went on to graduate cum laude from Radcliffe College and became an advocate for the deaf and blind. Keller’s story is a testament to the indomitable human spirit. Through the guidance of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, she learned to communicate and went on to inspire millions with her words and deeds. Helen Keller’s life teaches us the profound strength that lies within, encouraging us to focus on the beauty and possibilities that exist beyond our immediate circumstances. Her story is a reminder that determination, resilience, and the power of the human spirit can triumph over any adversity.

Inspirational Quotes About Life to Brighten Your Day

1. “Take the time to enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” —Robert Brault

2. “Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.” —Nikki Giovanni

3. “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s life in your years.” —Abraham Lincoln

4. “If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

5. “Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” -Dalai Lama

7. “Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” — William Faulkner

8. “You’re going to go through tough times—that’s life. But I say, ‘Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.’ See the positive in negative events.” — Joel Osteen

9. “Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.” —Alice Walker

10. “Be so happy that, when other people look at you, they become happy too.” — Anonymous

11. “Dream big and dare to fail.” —Norman Vaughan

12. “Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.” -Oscar Wilde

13. “Success is falling nine times and getting up ” —Jon Bon Jovi

14. “You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.” —Maya Angelou

15. “If everything was perfect, you would never learn and you would never grow.” — Beyoncé Knowles

16. “Life is very interesting…in the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.” —Drew Barrymore

17. “Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

18. “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.” —Vernon Sanders Law

19. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” —Albert Einstein

20. “The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create.” —Leonard I. Sweet

21. “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” —Malcolm X

22. “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

23. “We become what we think about most of the time.” —Earl Nightingale

24. “Life is either a great adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller

25. “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” -Tony Robbins

26. “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon

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

28. “We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” —Joseph Campbell

29. “Ignore your mistakes. The number one thing to worry about is: Am I doing what I’m good at?” —Max Levchin

30. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” —Lao Tzu

31. “Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” —Les Brown

32. “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” -Babe Ruth

33. “Each person must live their life as a model for others.” — Rosa Parks

34. “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.” -Mother Teresa

35. “You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.” —Oprah Winfrey

36. “It’s always better to shock people and change people’s expectations than to give them exactly what they think you can do.” —Jonah Hill

37. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” —Maya Angelou

38. “The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your joy.” — Eudora Welty

39. “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.” —Margaret Fuller

40. “Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.” — Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

41. “I’m not going to continue knocking on that old door that doesn’t open for me. I’m going to create my own door and walk through that.” —W.P. Kinsella

42. “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” — Babe Ruth

43. “I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.” — Maya Angelou

44. “Life just doesn’t hand you things. You have to get out there and make things happen. That’s the exciting part.” — Emeril Lagasse

45. “I’ve been around a long time, and life still has a whole lot of surprises for me.” — Loretta Lynn

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

47. “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” — Johnny Cash

48. “Life has got those twists and turns. You’ve got to hold on tight and off you go.” —Nicole Kidman

49. “And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.” —Paulo Coelho

50. “Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” —Gloria Steinem

51. “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” —Alexander Graham Bell

52. “Life is a daring adventure or it is nothing at all.” —Helen Keller

53. “So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.” — Helen Keller

54. “How dare you settle for less when the world made it so easy for you to be remarkable?” —Seth Godin

55. “For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.” —Vincent Van Gogh

56. “Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” —Joshua J. Marine

57. “Life is a long lesson in humility.” —James M. Barrie

58. “You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.” — Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut

59. “Don’t worry about failure, you only have to be right once.” —Drew Houston

60. “If you don’t have any shadows you’re not in the light.” —Lady Gaga

61. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” —Arthur Ashe

62. “You miss % of the shots you don’t take.” —Wayne Gretzky

63. “Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

64. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” —Herman Melville

65. “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” —Winston Churchill

66. “The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.” — Billy Graham

67. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

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

69. “We cannot solve problems with the kind of thinking we employed when we came up with them.” —Albert Einstein

70. “If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” —Jim Rohn

71. “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” —Bill Bradley

72. “There are no regrets in life. Just lessons.” —Jennifer Aniston

73. “The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything.” — Frank Sinatra

74. “Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.” — Rosa Parks

75. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” -Albert Einstein

76. “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” —Abraham Lincoln

77. “We should live our lives as though Christ was coming this afternoon.” — Jimmy Carter

78. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failures are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” —Dale Carnegie

79. “You have two choices in life; you can either like what you do or dislike what you do. I have chosen to like what I do.” — Barbara Bush

80. “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” —Henry Ford