Good quotes about life do one thing well. They say in one line what takes most of us a whole paragraph to explain. Below you will find over 120 quotes about life, sorted by type, so you can find one that fits what you are feeling or what you are writing right now.
Short Quotes About Life
- “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon
- “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius
- “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” — Dalai Lama
- “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” — Mae West
- “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” — Oscar Wilde
- “Life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we react to it.” — Charles R. Swindoll
- “Whatever you are, be a good one.” — Abraham Lincoln
- “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” — Anaïs Nin
- “Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.” — Seneca
- “Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet.” — Sarah Louise Delany
Famous Quotes About Life
- “The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates
- “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” — Søren Kierkegaard
- “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert Frost
- “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” — Helen Keller
- “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born, and the day you find out why.” — Mark Twain
- “It is not length of life, but depth of life.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.” — Grandma Moses
- “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” — Aristotle
- “The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” — William James
- “Life is a comedy for those who think, a tragedy for those who feel.” — Horace Walpole
A quote often said wrong: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” People credit this to Aristotle. It was actually written by historian Will Durant in 1926, summing up Aristotle’s ideas in his own words.
Quotes to Live By
- “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey
- “Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” — Walt Whitman
- “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” — Maya Angelou
- “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” — Alan Kay
- “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe
- “Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.” — Lao Tzu
Deep and Meaningful Quotes About Life
- “Experience is the teacher of all things.” — Julius Caesar
- “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” — Epictetus
- “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” — Rumi
- “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
- “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” — Henry David Thoreau
- “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” — Japanese Proverb
Quotes About Life Lessons
- “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow.” — Lao Tzu
- “You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.” — Oprah Winfrey
- “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
- “The mind is everything. What you think you become.” — Buddha
- “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” — George Addair
Quotes About Life and Love
- “Where there is love, there is life.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” — Audrey Hepburn
- “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” — David Viscott
- “Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
- “Life is the flower for which love is the honey.” — Victor Hugo
- “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Positive and Happy Life Quotes
- “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” — Dalai Lama
- “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” — E. E. Cummings
- “For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” — Marcus Aurelius
- “Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.” — Alice Morse Earle
- “Choose to be optimistic. It feels better.” — Dalai Lama
Motivational Quotes About Life
- “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela
- “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
- “Believe you can, and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “Well done is better than well said.” — Benjamin Franklin
Funny Quotes About Life
- “The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.” — Abe Lemons
- “I intend to live forever. So far, so good.” — Steven Wright
- “Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you’re riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind.” — Bob Marley
- “Age is of no importance unless you’re a cheese.” — Billie Burke
FAQs About Life Quotes
What is a good short quote about life?
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” by John Lennon, is one of the most quoted short lines about life. It fits in one sentence and needs no context to make sense.
Who is credited with the most famous quotes about life?
Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the Dalai Lama are among the most quoted sources on the topic of life, alongside older figures like Socrates and Seneca whose ideas have survived translation for centuries.
What is a good motto for life?
A good motto is short enough to remember under pressure. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are,” by Theodore Roosevelt, works well because it turns into an action instead of a feeling.
Are quotes about life copyrighted?
A short quote attributed to its speaker, used the way it appears in this article, is standard practice and widely accepted under fair use. Reproducing a large block of someone’s written work, like a full poem or song, is different and is not something this article does.
How do I know if a quote is misattributed?
Search the exact wording in quotation marks along with the name commonly attached to it, then look for the earliest dated source you can find, ideally a book or newspaper archive rather than another quote website. Sites like Quote Investigator specialize in tracing quotes back to their source.
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