Deep Quotes and Sayings

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Looking for words with deeper meaning to ponder? These deep quotes are the place to start.

Some of the most profound quotes are not necessarily long, but packed with meaning. A short deep quote can often stimulate us more than a long one.

Sometimes a simple phrase contains enough meaning to change our day, or even our life.

So enjoy reflecting on these deep words to gain the perspective, insight, and mental stimulation that makes life more interesting.

Top 10 Deep Quotes

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

George Eliot

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Oscar Wilde
Alexandre Dumas quote "The merit of all things lies in their difficulty"
“The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.” – Alexandre Dumas

The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others.

Aesop

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Life is too deep for words, so don’t try to describe it, just live it.

C.S. Lewis

He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because he fears.

Michel De Montaigne
Cesare Pavese quote "We do not remember days, we remember moments"
“We do not remember days, we remember moments.” – Cesare Pavese

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.

Harper Lee

More Deep Quotes and Sayings

People do not lack strength; they lack will.

Victor Hugo

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

Lao Tzu

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

Soren Kierkegaard

I want to be like water. I want to slip through fingers, but hold up a ship.

Michelle Williams

To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Euripides deep quote "Cleverness is not wisdom"
“Cleverness is not wisdom.” – Euripides

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

John A. Shedd

Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.

G.I. Gurdijieff

Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots.

Rumi

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

George Bernhard Shaw

The most important things are the hardest to say because words diminish them.

Stephen King

There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.

Thomas Jefferson

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

George Bernhard Shaw

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

Teddy Roosevelt

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

Rita Mae Brown

If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.

T. Harv Eker
"What makes night within us may leave stars"
“What makes night within us may leave stars.” – Victor Hugo

Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.

Neils Bohr

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Winston Churchill

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

Frederick Douglass

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.

Maya Angelou

It is better to have a meaningful life and make a difference than to merely have a long life.

Bryant H. McGill

Consciousness is only possible through change; change is only possible through movement.

Aldous Huxley

Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend?

Abraham Lincoln

The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.

Michel de Montaigne

It is the pursuit of happiness that makes people unhappy.

Piero Scaruffi

Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.

Martin Heidegger
Seneca quote "We suffer more often in imagination than in reality"
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca

Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.

Erol Ozan

If an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends. If broken by an inside force, life begins. Great things always begin from the inside.

Jim Kwik

We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

Henry David Thoreau

The oak sleeps in the acorn. The bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of reality.

Napoleon Hill

Deepness of Self Quotes

It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.

Francis Bacon

To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered.

Oscar Wilde

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him discover it in himself.

Galileo Galilei

If you’re not comfortable enough with yourself or with your own truth when entering a relationship, then you’re not ready for that relationship.

Steve Maraboli

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.

Jane Austen

The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.

Stephanie Perkins

Your mind can be either your prison or your palace. What you make it is yours to decide.

Bernard Kelvin Clive

If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are a slave.

Dr. Wayne Dyer
Shakespeare quote "Conscience doth make cowards of us all"
“Conscience doth make cowards of us all.” – William Shakespeare

Passion is born deaf and dumb.

Honoré de Balzac

Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.

Albert Camus

The only reason we get lost in thought, is because it is unfamiliar territory.

Ashton Leinen

No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.

William Hazlitt

A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart.

Rumi

A friend to all is a friend to none.

Aristotle

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

Plato

Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids.

John Steinbeck

An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.

Eric Hoffer
Kim Kwik deep quote "The fears we don’t face become our limits"
“The fears we don’t face become our limits.” – Jim Kwik

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.

Soren Kierkegaard

Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us.

Oscar Wilde

You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things; to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.

Sir Edmund Hillary

I am not young enough to know everything.

Oscar Wilde

Too many people buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t like.

Dave Ramsey

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

Lao Tzu

I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life.

Corazon Aquino

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

Stephen Covey

Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.

Arthur Rimbaud

I think, therefore I am.

René Descartes
Ayn Rand quote "I am, therefore I think"
“I am, therefore I think.” – Ayn Rand

What matters isn’t what a person has or doesn’t have; it is what he or she is afraid of losing.

Nicholas Nassim Taleb

On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a playful, joyous energy behind what you do.

Eckhart Tolle

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

Oscar Wilde

Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.

M. Scott Peck

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Anaïs Nin

We can see through others only when we can see through ourselves.

Bruce Lee

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Leo Tolstoy

Deep Paradox Quotes

Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.

Malcolm S. Forbes

Every strength is also a weakness. The opposite is true as well.

Neil Strauss

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.

Francis Bacon
"In contradiction and paradox, you can find truth"
“In contradiction and paradox, you can find truth.” – Denis Villeneuve

The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.

Voltaire

The paradox of simplicity is that making things simpler is hard work.

Bill Jensen

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.

Gustave Flaubert

Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.

Pablo Picasso

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

Friedrich Nietzche

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

Thomas Merton

Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.

Edgar Allan Poe

Love is the foolishness of men, and the wisdom of God.

Victor Hugo

If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.

Erica Jong
Pliny The Elder paradox quote "The only certainty is that nothing is certain"
“The only certainty is that nothing is certain.” – Pliny The Elder

A fear of weakness only strengthens weakness.

Chris Jami

Extraordinary men are always tempted by the most ordinary things.

C.G.B. Spender,
The X-Files

Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.

Anne Frank

The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.

Carl Jung

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

Bertrand Russell

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

Charles Darwin

He has the most who is most content with the least.

Diogenes

What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.

Mark Twain

He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.

Lao Tzu

The most selfish thing we can do is to be unselfish because it frees us.

Dean Ornish

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.

Carl Rogers

All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.

Alexandre Dumas
"Whoever is faced with the paradoxical exposes himself to reality"
“Whoever is faced with the paradoxical exposes himself to reality.” – Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Stupidity lies in wanting to draw conclusions.

Gustave Flaubert

Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

Nikola Tesla

When you’re young, you want to be rich. When you’re rich, you want to be young.

James Pierce

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

Kahlil Gibran

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

Albert Einstein

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.

Leo Tolstoy

Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.

Voltaire

Not until we are lost, do we begin to find ourselves.

Henry David Thoreau

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

Albert Einstein
Oscar Wilde deep quote "To define is to limit"
“To define is to limit.” – Oscar Wilde

A great man is always willing to be little.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

John F. Kennedy

A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

Michele de Montaigne

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

Mark Twain

Deeper Perspectives

Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

Oscar Wilde

A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.

Henrik Ibsen

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.

Robert Louis Stevenson

The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.

Bob Marley

Knowing what must be done does away with fear.

Rosa Parks

You are only as free as you think you are and freedom will always be as real as you believe it to be.

Robert M. Drake
Voltaire deep quote "Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers"
“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.” – Voltaire

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Voltaire

You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.

Tom Wilson

No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.

Anthony Robbins

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.

Isaac Asimov

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it.

Michelangelo

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

Mark Twain

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.

Bill Gates

Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.

Roy T. Bennett

Do not let your grand ambitions stand in the way of small but meaningful accomplishments.

Bryant H. McGill

For every minute you are angry you lose 60 seconds of happiness.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.

Henry van Dyke

You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.

Buddha
Edward Abbey quote "Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion"
“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.” – Edward Abbey

There is no truth. There is only perception.

Gustave Flaubert

Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.

Honoré de Balzac

We all have two lives. The second one starts when we realize we only have one.

Confucius

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.

Elie Wiesel

Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.

Phil Jackson

Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. It doesn’t have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world.

Albert Camus

All the problems of older times were scarcity… now they’re all abundance based.

Naval Ravikant

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

Leonardo da Vinci

Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.

Arthur C. Clarke

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

Aristotle

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

William Shaekspeare
"The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer"
“The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer.” – Terence McKenna

The reason why we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.

Stephen Furtick

Sometimes the best thing to do is to take a step back and get a little bit of a different perspective and re-evaluate things.

Austin Aries

In chaos, there is fertility.

Anaïs Nin

Someone I once loved gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.

Mary Oliver

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

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

David Allen

Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

Earl Nightingale

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

Thich Nhat Hanh

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

Abraham Maslow

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Bertrand Russell

We hope these deep quotes and sayings gave you a lot to consider and encourage you to look at the world in new ways.

The deep paradoxes we face are a key part of life, and understanding them is to understand ourselves and our existence better.

So whatever your outlook or philosophy is, never be afraid to expand it by thinking and feeling a little deeper than you’re used to. If we left off your favorite deep thought, let us know in the comments.

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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.