38 Positive Life Quotes to Shift Your Mindset
Read on to discover positive quotes for all facets of life.
To get the most from positive quotes, you can try to include more of them in your life. For example, if you find a quote that sparks joy and helps you maintain a positive attitude, you can print it and hang it around the house or use it as your smartphone screen. If you think a quote will help you be more motivated at work, you may choose to display it in your office and read it before you start each day. No matter how you choose to display positive quotes—on a post-it note, on a phone case, or on a picture frame—having positive quotes around you can shift your mindset and help you achieve your personal goals.
Positive Quotes
Positive quotes and daily affirmations rely on the power of positive thinking. Although positive quotes and daily affirmations are different, the idea behind them is similar: they help shift your mind in ways that can hopefully improve your life. There are also known benefits to positive affirmations and positive thinking.
In one study about the psychological impact of the September 11th terrorist attacks, researchers found that positive thoughts and positive emotions buffered against depression and helped with resilience (Fredrickson et al., 2003). Also, positive thinking can be beneficial for your overall well-being, which includes less depression, a reduced risk of cardiovascular-related death, and even an increase in life expectancy (Buigues et al., 2021).
If you’re looking for positive and inspirational quotes about life, here are a few:
"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light" – Albus Dumbledore
“You have power over your mind–not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung
“The most effective way to do it is to do it.” – Amelia Earheart
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”– Marcus Aurelius
“Today is a good day to try.” – Quasimodo
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” – William Shakespeare
“You always pass failure on the way to success” – Mickey Rooney
No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” – Madam C.J Walker
“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
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
“I can’t think of any better representation of beauty than someone who is unafraid to be herself.” – Emma Stone
“You define beauty yourself. Society doesn’t define your beauty.” – Lady Gaga
“People often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder.” – Salma Hayek
“I’ve made peace with the fact that the things that I thought were weaknesses or flaws were just me. I like them.” – Sandra Bullock
“I’m excited about the aging process. I’m more interested in women who aren’t perfect. They’re more compelling.” – Emma Watson
“Say goodbye to your inner critic, and take this pledge to be kinder to yourself and others.” – Oprah Winfrey
“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” – Margaret Thatcher
“I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not. It is the story of many girls.” – Malala Yousafzai
“I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves.”- Mary Shelley
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn't be that women are the exception.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“I can resist anything except temptation.” – Oscar Wilde
“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.” – Oscar Wilde
“My mother always used to say: The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana.” – Betty White, The Golden Girls
“Never follow anyone else’s path. Unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path. Then, by all means, follow that path.” – Ellen DeGeneres
“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” – Steve Martin
Change can be hard and frightening. These positive quotes about change may help you move in the right direction:
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” – James Baldwin
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
“If you do not change direction, you might end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu
“There is nothing permanent except change.” – Heraclitus
“If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” – Rumi
References
● Buigues, C., Queralt, A., De Velasco, J. A., Salvador-Sanz, A., Jennings, C., Wood, D., & Trapero, I. (2021). Psycho-Social Factors in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease Attending a Family-Centred Prevention and Rehabilitation Programme: EUROACTION Model in Spain. Life, 11(2), 89.
● Fredrickson, B. L., Tugade, M. M., Waugh, C. E., & Larkin, G. R. (2003). What good are positive emotions in crisis? A prospective study of resilience and emotions following the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11th, 2001. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 365.