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
1.) Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi
2.) Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
Mother Teresa
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3.) As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.
Leonardo da Vinci
4.) The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt
5.) A happy family is but an earlier heaven.
George Bernard Shaw
6.) The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
Nelson Mandela
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
8.) Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
9.) Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas Edison
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
11.) You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
12.) In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.
Robert Frost
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
14.) Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
Helen Keller
Life-Changing Sayings
15.) Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
Albert Einstein – See 150 Good Einstein Quotes.
Inspirational Quotes Meme
16.) Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
Roald Dahl
17.) What You Can Do, or Dream You Can, Begin It; Boldness Has Genius, Power, and Magic in It.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
18.) A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.
Ingrid Bergman
Best Quotes Images
19.) True love begins when nothing is looked for in return.
The Little Prince
20.) There is nothing so horrible in nature as to see a beautiful theory murdered by an ugly gang of facts.
Benjamin Franklin
21.) It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus
The Best Things Ever Said
22.) Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.
Henry David Thoreau
23.) Love the life you live. Live the life you love.
Bob Marley
24.) It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
Howard Ruff
25.) Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.
John Wooden
26.) Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
Albert Einstein
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.
— Clair Adams and Mike O’Halloran
Clair writes about family, pop culture, and books. Mike is the founder and editor of Greeting Card Poet.
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