27 Best Quotes Of All Time

It’s a tall order to come up with the best quotes of all time.

It’s kind of like asking someone for their favorite movies or books. Just as with those media, certain quotations might have more meaning for us at various times in our lives.

And, yet, we feel very strongly about our 27 favorite quotes from notables like Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Helen Keller, and Leonardo da Vinci. These inspirational and motivational quotes stand the test of time.

Sure, some of these may resonate with you differently based on your current circumstances, but still, we think you’ll appreciate the brilliance of these thought-provoking sayings. Enjoy!

Inspirational Quotes

Live as if you were to die tomorrow - best quotes of all time

1.) Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi

Mother Teresa on spreading love

2.) Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
Mother Teresa

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da Vinci quote on a well-spent day

3.) As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.
Leonardo da Vinci

Beauty of their dreams - best quotes of all time

4.) The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

a happy family is an earlier heaven

5.) A happy family is but an earlier heaven.
George Bernard Shaw

Nelson Mandela quote

6.) The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
Nelson Mandela

Maya Angelou on people will not forget - best quotes of all time

7.) I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou

Best Quotations Of All Time

Oscar Wilde on being yourself

8.) Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde

Thomas Edison - best quotes of all time

9.) Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas Edison

Hunter S. Thompson - best quotes of all time

10.) Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow what a ride!
Hunter S. Thompson

You must be the change in the world quote

11.) You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi

Robert Frost on Life quote

12.) In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.
Robert Frost

Famous Leo Tolstoy - best quotes of all time

13.) If then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.
Leo Tolstoy

LIfe is either a daring adventure quotation

14.) Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
Helen Keller

Life-Changing Sayings

Living life for others - best quotes of all time

15.) Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
Albert Einstein – See 150 Good Einstein Quotes.

Inspirational Quotes Meme

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it - best quotes of all time

16.) Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
Roald Dahl

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it

17.) What You Can Do, or Dream You Can, Begin It; Boldness Has Genius, Power, and Magic in It.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Ingrid Bergman on a kiss - best quotes of all time

18.) A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.
Ingrid Bergman

Best Quotes Images

The Little Prince - best quotes of all time

19.) True love begins when nothing is looked for in return.
The Little Prince

See 73 Quotes on Greatness.

Benjamin Franklin on a gang of facts

20.) There is nothing so horrible in nature as to see a beautiful theory murdered by an ugly gang of facts.
Benjamin Franklin

Epictetus saying - best quotes of all time

21.) It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus

The Best Things Ever Said

Go Confidently quotation

22.) Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

Bob Marley on Love the life you live

23.) Love the life you live. Live the life you love.
Bob Marley

It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark

24.) It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
Howard Ruff

Things work out best John Wooden saying - best quotes of all time

25.) Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.
John Wooden

Life is like riding a bicycle

26.) Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
Albert Einstein

Henry Ford on confidence

27.) Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.
Henry Ford

Bonus Quotes

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston S. Churchill

Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.
Vince Lombardi

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
Martin Luther King

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller

Love is, above all else, the gift of oneself.
Jean Anouilh

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.
Dalai Lama

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.
John F. Kennedy

Motivational Quotes

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
Anne Frank

Turn your wounds into wisdom.
Oprah Winfrey

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
Napoleon Hill

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche

If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.
Morris West

It is never too late to be what you might have been.
George Eliot

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Albert Einstein

The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.
Chinese Proverb

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

A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it isn’t open.
Frank Zappa

Beautiful Life Quotes

In this life, we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.
Mother Teresa

A journey of a thousand leagues begins beneath one’s feet.
Lao Tzu

There are two days in the year that we can not do anything, yesterday and tomorrow.
Mahatma Gandhi

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
C.S. Lewis

Yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.
Bil Keane

You’re not defined by your past; you’re prepared by it. You’re stronger, and more experienced, and you have greater confidence.
Joel Osteen

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

Famous Quotes

That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
Neil Armstrong

Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.
John Lennon

This above all: to thine own self be true.
William Shakespeare

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Wayne Gretzky

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
Walt Disney (See 100 Magical Walt Disney Quotes)

Believe you can, and you’re halfway there.
Theodore Roosevelt

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas A. Edison

Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.
Maya Angelou

In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.
Anne Frank

Best Meaningful Quotes

In order to write about life, first, you must live it.
Ernest Hemingway

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

Life is short, and it is here to be lived.
Kate Winslet

The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.
Tony Robbins

If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.
Steve Jobs

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.
David Brinkley

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

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 that has opened for us.
Alexander Graham Bell

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill

All-Time Best Quotes

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

The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.
Epicurus

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
Eleanor Roosevelt

A great man is always willing to be little.
Ralph Waldo

The power of imagination makes us infinite.
John Muir

When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.
Paulo Coelho

If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.
Oprah Winfrey

Best Quotes To Inspire

The big lesson in life, baby, is never to be scared of anyone or anything.
Frank Sinatra

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

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Thomas Jefferson

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.
Jimmy Carter

The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity.
Amelia Earhart

People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
Rob Siltanen

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.
George Addair

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
Dolly Parton

Funny Quotes from Movies and TV Shows

My mama always said life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.
Forest Gump

I’m an early bird, and I’m a night owl, so I’m wise, and I have worms.
Michael Scott

I’m not good at advice. Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?
Chandler, Friends

A man who correctly guesses a woman’s age may be smart, but he’s not very bright.
Lucille, I Love Lucy

Put These Quotes To Use

We hope you enjoyed these inspirational quotes – the 27 best of all time. There are lots of ways you can use a good quote. For instance, share one of your favorites on social media – post it on your Facebook home page or your LinkedIn page.

Or, incorporate a motivational quote into your email sign-off. Use these fun quotes in conversation and letter writing. The options are endless, so please be creative.

By Michael O’Halloran

Michael is the founder and editor of Greeting Card Poet.

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