When life gets tough or self-doubt strikes, a few words of inspiration can make an incredible difference. And who better to turn to for words of inspiration than gifted authors? In this collection of 40+ quotes from noted novelists, poets, and memoirists, you just might find the right inspiring words to lift your spirits and keep you shining.
Inspiration for Following Your Dreams
Even big dreamers sometimes need a little inspiration. When achieving your vision seems impossible, these quotes will help you to keep on believing and striving.
1. "If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is." -,
2. "Aim higher in case you fall short." -,
3. "Drive away and try to keep smiling. Get a little rock and roll on the radio and go toward all the life there is with all the courage you can find and all the belief you can muster. Be true, be brave, stand. All the rest is darkness." -,
4. "I assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude is very much against the trend of the times. But my world has become one of infinite possibilities." -,
5. "Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life." -,
6. "Maybe everyone can live beyond what they're capable of." -,
7. "If you don't try at anything you can't fail... it takes back bone to lead the life you want." -,
8. "And there's nothing wrong with being a lizard either. Unless you were born to be a hawk." -,
9. "It is the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting." -,
10. "Just think happy thoughts and you’ll fly." -,
Inspiration for Facing Your Fears
When you hit a wall, suffer a setback, or experience sinking feelings of failure, fear not! There's a quote for that.
11. "Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." -,
12. "A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a shortcut to meet it." -,
13. "Adversity is like a strong wind. It...tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be." -,
14. "Peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star." -,
15. "Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything. Nothing is static, everything is evolving, everything is falling apart." -,
16. "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." -,
17. "Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with a real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep." -,
18. "Life is made of so many moments that mean nothing. Then one day, a single moment comes along to define every second that comes after. Such moments are tests of courage, of strength." -,
19. "If a fear cannot be articulated, it cannot be conquered." -,
20. "If you're going through hell, keep going." -,
21. "Let's start with the end of the world, why don't we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things." -,
22. "Where there's life there's hope." -,
Inspiration for Doing What's Right
Kindness, sacrifice, forgiveness—sometimes doing what you know is right can be really hard. These inspirational quotes will give you strength and comfort.
23. "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right." -,
24. "You have to serve those who need to be served, not just the ones who make you feel good about yourself." -,
25. "Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, 'You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future.'" -,
26. "It is useless to meet revenge with revenge; it will heal nothing." -,
27. "And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good." -,
28. "Sometimes, a useful decision is better than a useless truth." -,
29. "One Choice, decided your friends. One Choice, defines your beliefs. One Choice, determines your loyalties—Forever. ONE CHOICE CAN TRANSFORM YOU." -,
30. "Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself." -,
31. "In the end you should always do the right thing even if it's hard." -,
32. "Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right." -,
Inspiration for Believing in Yourself
Nothing defeats success and crushes happiness like losing sight of your own power and value. Turn to these quotes whenever you need a jolt of self-affirmation.
33. "What's the greatest lesson a woman should learn? That since day one she's already had everything she needs within herself. It's the world that's convinced her she did not." -,
34. "If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself." -,
35. "I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning. I wished to find a warrant for being. I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction." -,
36. "You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate." -,
37. "You see they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that's the way I want to live." -,
38. "It was my life–like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me. How wild it was, to let it be." -,
39. "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." -,
40. "No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of theeworld. And normally he doesn't know it." -,
41. "It is far better to be taught to think critically and then be allowed to make your own decisions than to have someone else's notions thrust upon you." -,
42. "Don't let the bastards grind you down." -,