Looking for inspiration to start your next chapter in a positive way? Regardless of your goals, these words—from some of the most notable authors, scientists, philosophers, politicians, business professionals, and athletes—are sure to resonate.
Bookmark these top 50 personal growth quotes to take advantage of in the coming months:
1. “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – jane goodall
two. “Strive not to be a success, but to be of value.” – Albert Einstein
3. “Keep the fear, but do it anyway. The important thing is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the trust will follow.” – carrie fisher
Four. “You can choose to go backwards towards safety or forward towards growth. Growth must be chosen over and over again; fear must be defeated again and again.” – abraham maslow
5. “The fastest way to triple your success is to double your investment in personal development.” – sharma robin
6. “Don’t go through life, grow through life.” – Eric Butterworth
7. “We cannot become what we need to be if we remain what we are.” – Oprah Winfrey
8. “Life’s challenges aren’t supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” – Bernice Johnson Reagon
9. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is mere tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart
10 “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” – Rob Siltanen
eleven “If there is no fight, there is no progress.” – frederick douglas
12 “I would like to think that all my successes in life are really the fruit of my failures.” – yvie strangely
13 “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know more, do better.” – maya angelou
14 “I have a theory that if you give 100% all the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” – larry bird
fifteen. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the moorings. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Sleep. Discover.” – Mark Twain
sixteen. “There are two ways to diffuse light: be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” – Edith Warton
17 “By doing the work of loving ourselves more, I think we will love ourselves better.” – laverne cox
18 “We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point from which they started.” – Henry Ward Beecher
19 “Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” – Ella Fitzgerald
twenty “Take criticism seriously, but not personally. If there is truth or merit in the criticism, try to learn from it. Otherwise, let it slip away.” – Hillary Clinton
twenty-one “You can waste your life drawing lines. Or you can live your life through them.” – shonda rhymes
22 “Sometimes in life we take a leap of faith. Remember, the jump is not about going from one side to the other. It’s just about taking the leap… and trusting that the air, the universal breath, will hold your wings so you can fly.” – kristi archer
23 “Recognizing that you are not where you want to be is a starting point to start changing your life.” – Deborah’s Day
24 “Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you have power over instead of craving control of what you don’t.” – steve maraboli
25 “Be patient with yourself. You are stronger every day. The weight of the world will become lighter… and you will begin to shine brighter. Do not give up. – Robert Tew
26 “Allow yourself to change your mind when something no longer works for you.” – Nedra Glover Tawwab
27 “When you find yourself in a bind and everything is going against you… never give up, because that is the place and the time when the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher-Stowe
28 “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – babe ruth
29 “I’m a big believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more of it I have.” – Thomas Jefferson
30 “Pain, pleasure and death are nothing more than a process for existence. The revolutionary struggle in this process is an open door to intelligence”. – Frida Kahlo
31 “Don’t be afraid to grow up slowly; be afraid just to stay still.” – Chinese proverb
32. “You are the one who holds the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness.” – Diane von Furstenberg
33. “The thing we fear to do the most is often the thing we need to do the most.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. 4. “While no one can go back and make a new beginning, anyone can start from now and make a new ending.” – carl bard
35. “It’s never too late to be who you could have been.” – george eliott
36. “When the whole world is silent, even a single voice becomes powerful.” – Malala Yousafzai
37. “Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or whatever experience reveals the human spirit.” – ee cummings
38. “‘First things first’ may be a cliché, but it’s a helpful one that means prioritizing what matters most to you and believing there’s no wrong answer.” – stacy abrams
39. “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will open the door to personal excellence.” – Confucius
40 “We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” – Rick Warren
41. “If you don’t take the time to work on creating the life you want, you will eventually be forced to spend a lot of time dealing with a life you don’t want.” – kevin n go
42. “The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy is in not having any goal to reach.” – benjamin mayos
43. “When we’re growing up, there are all kinds of people telling us what to do when what we really need is space to figure out who we are.” – Elliott’s Page
44. “Be patient with yourself. Personal growth is sweet; it is holy ground. There is no further investment.” – Stephen Covey
Four. Five. “There is nothing noble in being superior to your neighbor; true nobility is being superior to your old self.” – Ernesto Hemingway
46. “The power of imagination makes us infinite.” – john muir
47. “When someone says ‘no’ to me, it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it just means I can’t do it with them.” – Karen E. Quinones Miller
48. “Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will take you where you want to go, no one else. – les brown
49. “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” – Warren Buffett
fifty “With self-discipline almost anything is possible.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Roosevelt’s words may well be the key to your success on your journey ahead. Whether he is pursuing a new dream, working hard to achieve ongoing goals, or making a plan to transform his life in some way, self-discipline will be an important component in seeing it through.
If you find any of these quotes particularly inspiring for your personal growth, consider printing them out and posting them in places you see often throughout the day. Sometimes a simple quote can impact your day in the most positive way.
Do you know someone who needs a little motivation? Please share these quotes and help them on their journey of personal growth.
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Rebecca LeBoeuf ’18 is a writer at the University of Southern New Hampshire. Connect with her at LinkedIn.