Encouraging Quotes to Lift Your Spirits

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Feel like you need something to lift your spirits? Whatever you’re struggling with, these encouraging quotes remind us that we all take knocks in life, but the best things in life come through persistence.

Whether you’ve just had another setback chasing your dreams, been rejected by someone you care about, faced tragedy, or you’re just feeling drained from the ups and downs of this journey we call life, remember that things can turn around in an instant.

All you have to do is keep moving forward, even when it feels like it would be easier to just lay down and give up.

No matter what you’re going through in life, here are some encouraging quotes that will hopefully give you a boost when you need it. Many of these encouragement quotes come from individuals who have achieved incredible success in life, and just like you, they had low points where everything felt hopeless. So lift your spirits and turn things around today!

Quotes of Encouragement

A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.

Unknown

Everyone has inside them a piece of good news. The good news is you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is.

Anne Frank

Press on – nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.

Calvin Coolidge
Einstein encouraging quote "In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity"
“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

The best revenge is massive success.

Frank Sinatra

It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever – the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.

Vince Lombardi

Often we women are risk averse. I needed the push. Now, more than ever, young women need more seasoned women to provide that encouragement, to take a risk, to go for it. Once a glass ceiling is broken, it stays broken.

Jennifer Grahnolm

This too shall pass.

Persian Sufi Poets

I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it.

Audrey Hepburn

When you get to your wits end, you will find, God lives there.

Unknown

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Stephen King
The view of a Boeing 767 flying over downtown Chicago en route to O'Hare Airport
“Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.

Tony Robbins

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

Japanese Proverb

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Helen Keller

Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement – and we will make the goal.

Jerome Fleishman
Edmund Hillary encouraging quote "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves"
“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” – Edmund Hillary

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.

Garrison Keillor

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Encouragement to others is something everyone can give. Somebody needs what you have to give. It may not be your money; it may be your time. It may be your listening ear. It may be your arms to encourage. It may be your smile to uplift. Who knows?

Joel Osteen

When written in Chinese the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters – one represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

John F. Kennedy

Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.

Edwin Markham
Encouraging quote "Fortune knocks but once, but misfortune has much more patience"
“Fortune knocks but once, but misfortune has much more patience.” – Unknown

There is in every true woman’s heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

Washington Irving

God uses suffering as a whetstone, to make men sharp with.

Henry Beecher

Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.

Rainer Rilke

If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.

David Allen
Large cypress trees on top of a hill near Jackson, Mississippi
“The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.” – Bernard Baruch

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.

Latin Proverb

God brings men into deep waters, not to drown them, but to cleanse them.

John Aughey

Never regret something that once made you smile.

Amber Deckers

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always.

Oprah Winfrey

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

Edmund Burke
A mountain climber in a red parka scaling a granite rock face in Colorado
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” – Ben Spock

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

Richard Bach

If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you.You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.

Mary Pickford

It doesn’t matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it’s important to realize that whatever you’re doing, it’s your first attempt at it.

Wally Amos

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau
A couple sitting on a ledge overlooking a river in the Grand Canyon
“He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.” – William James

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality in the mind next to honor.

Aristotle

Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

Franklin D Roosevelt

If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again.

Flavia
A newly married couple in love on their wedding day near Inverness, Scotland
“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” – Mother Teresa

When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up.

Les Brown

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.

Corrie Boom

Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.

Charles Swindoll

Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.

Walt Disney
Encouraging-quotes
“Why should you continue going after your dreams? Because seeing the look on the faces of the people who said you couldn’t… will be priceless.” – Kevin Ngo

We hope you enjoyed these encouraging quotes. If you’re still looking for ways to lift your thoughts, check out our 101 Inspiring Words of Encouragement to find a mantra you can use every day.

If you have any words of encouragement to share that aren’t listed above, please feel free to mention them in the comments and encourage others too.

Photo of author

Quincy Seale

Quincy is KIM's editor, and has collected and shared inspiring quotes and stories since 2005. Quincy holds an MBA from the University of Dundee and an MSc from the University of Edinburgh, and lives in San Antonio with his wife Natalie, son Alex, and his dog Oban.

25 thoughts on “Encouraging Quotes to Lift Your Spirits”

  1. Becoming who you want to be in life lies within you, the next action depend on your decision today. Be wise in making decision today.

    Reply
  2. In the middle of every Crisis lies opportunity if we can keep our wits about us and visualize the Future half the battle is won.

    Reply
  3. My husband and I live in Independent Living. I’ve made it my responsibility to put encouraging sayings on the bulletin in our laundry room. Thanks for a number I’ve chosen from you. Have a wonderful day!!

    Reply
    • In my opinion to top this quote off, between “and determination” i feel as though putting if your qoute was written like ” What you want is in you. It takes the eye of faith to see and heart of determination to bring it out”. If written with more context in my opinion it would have been really good.

      Reply
  4. Indeed they help. Shakespeare said, “There is nothing either good or bad , but thinking makes it so.” Positive thinking , as in these quotes, makes good easier to see.

    Reply

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