If you're like me, you appreciate quotes that are short yet impactful, making you pause and reflect. These quotes have the power to lift you out of a funk, shift your perspective, and reignite your motivation. In this post, I've compiled 54 of my favorite short, deep, and meaningful quotes that are sure to energize you and inspire you to keep going. I hope you find something here that resonates with you.
Short, Deep and Meaningful Quotes for Motivation
“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
– Jim Rohn
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
– Arthur Ashe
“It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”
– Confucius
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
– Stephen King
“A ship is always safe at shore but that is not what it’s built for.”
– John A. Shedd
“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”
– Dalai Lama
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
– Anaïs Nin
“Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
– Jim Rohn
“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”
– Dalai Lama
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
– Neale Donald Walsch
“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”
– Lao Tzu
“The only joy in the world is to begin.”
– Cesare Pavese
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
– Aesop
“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”
– Dennis Waitley
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
– Jack Canfield
“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
– John R. Wooden
“The road to success is always under construction.”
– Lily Tomlin
“Just because it didn’t last forever, doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth your while.”
– Unknown
“The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us the greatest delight.”
– Epictetus
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
– Soren Kierkegaard
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
– George Bernard Shaw
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
– Henry Ford
“Success is largely a matter of holding on after others have let go.”
– Unknown
“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
– Winston Churchill
“Action is the foundational key to all success.”
– Pablo Picasso
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.”
– Robert Collier
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”
– Oscar Wilde
“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”
– Dalai Lama
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“The fullness of life is only accessible in the present moment.”
– Eckhart Tolle
“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.”
– Buddha
“Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.”
– Malcolm S. Forbes
“A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.”
– Henrik Ibsen
“Good things happen to those who hustle.”
– Chuck Noll
“Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.”
– Heraclitus
“It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.”
– Seneca
“If you are too busy to laugh, you are too busy.”
– Proverb
“The best revenge is massive success.”
– Frank Sinatra
“It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.”
– W.C. Fields
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.”
– Florence Nightingale
“Most people would rather be certain they’re miserable, than risk being happy.”
– Dr. Robert Anthony
“Success comes in cans; failure in can’ts.”
– Unknown
“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.”
– Gilbert K. Chesterton
“The best way to succeed in this world is to act on the advice you give to others.”
– Unknown
“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
– Napoleon Hill
“Your problem is you’re… too busy holding onto your unworthiness.”
– Ram Dass
“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”
– Richard Branson
“For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.”
– Harry F. Banks
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
– Bruce Lee
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
– Winston Churchill
“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
– Marthe Troly-Curtin
“If you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way.”
– Napoleon Hill
“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
– Steve Jobs
“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
– Karen Lamb
Want more thought provoking and short quotes? Have a look at this post with short quotes and this one with deep quotes.