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Health & Fitness

Inspirational Quotes: 25 Great Quotes to Make Your Day Better

Inspirational quotes are a fantastic way to motivate and inspire you. They help shift your focus--especially when you need that little extra push or positivity in your life.

Inspirational quotes are a fantastic way to motivate and inspire you.  They help shift your focus–especially when you need that little extra push or positivity in your life!  They are actually a great little tool to have in your life skills tool belt.  When you are feeling discouraged, down, frustrated, angry, stuck, unmotivated, confused (yeah, you get the picture!)…inspirational quotes are a great way to refocus yourself from feeling disempowered to feeling like, in some circumstances, you are right back in there and ready to take on the world! Woo hoo!

I (Nicole) love quotes and “collect” them for a rainy day–those days when I need a little extra ooomph! I keep them in a document on my computer and share them on Pinterest and Twitter.

Quotes are succinct life lessons that can have a profound impact on your learning and personal development.  One of the quotes I resonated with while going through a rather trying divorce process was something along the lines of “Suffering is not seeing things the way they are.”

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Here are 25 inspirational and motivational quotes to make your day:

  1. Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive. ~Howard Thurman
  2. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~Marianne Williamson
  3. Empathy is full presence to what’s alive in the other person at this moment. ~John Cunningham
  4. When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere. ~La Rochefoucauld
  5. To experience peace does not mean that your life is always blissful. It means that you are capable of tapping into a blissful state of mind amidst the normal chaos of a hectic life. ~Jill Bolte Taylor
  6. Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past can be changed. ~Oprah Winfrey
  7. We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have some power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.~Louisa May Alcott
  8. A lasting shift in spirit comes from improving your inner dialogue. ~Dr. Phil McGraw
  9. The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them. ~Stephen King
  10. There are glimpses of heaven to us in every act, or thought, or word, that raises us above ourselves. ~A. P. Stanley
  11. Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still. ~Chinese proverb
  12. The secret of happiness is freedom.  The secret of freedom is courage. ~Thucydides
  13. The happiest life is that which constantly exercises and educates what is best in us. ~Hamerton
  14. Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. ~Benjamin Franklin
  15. Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.  ~Anais Nin
  16. Let love lead your soul. Make it a place to retire to, a kind of cave, a retreat for the deep core of being ~Rumi
  17.  Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. ~Mother Teresa
  18. When it is dark enough, you can see the stars. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
  19. It’s the frame of mind that enhances the picture of our experience. ~Bill Truby
  20. Live like it’s your last day on earth, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching, work like you don’t need the money… Tony Robbins
  21. There will always be suffering. But we must not suffer over the suffering. ~Alan Watts
  22. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. ~Albert Einstein
  23. When we understand the needs that motivate our own and other’s behavior, we have no enemies. ~Marshall Rosenberg
  24. A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction. ~Rita Mae Brown
  25. The way you treat yourself sets the standard for others. ~Sonya Friedman

What are some quotes that you love? Have any helped you during a particularly challenging time? Are there any quotes you like to share with high school or college graduates? 

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