Welcome to a carefully selected collection of 164 quotes that make you think about life, love, relationships, morality, karma, death and the many other aspects of human experience. These quotes are thought-provoking, offering you a chance to reflect on different perspectives and ideas. As you go through them, you might find insights that challenge your views or words that resonate deeply with your experiences.
They’re more than just sayings; they’re pieces of wisdom that can open your mind to new ways of seeing the world and understanding your place in it. Whether you’re looking for a bit of inspiration or just something to ponder on, these quotes are here to engage your thoughts and spark your curiosity.
164 Quotes That Make You Think
- “What we think, we become.” – Buddha
- “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin
- “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” – Albert Einstein
- “In order to write about life first you must live it.” – Ernest Hemingway
- “Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs
- “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin
- “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison
- “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau
- “Life is either a great adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller
- “The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
- “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde
- “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” – Albert Einstein
- “So many books, so little time.” – Frank Zappa
- “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
- “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” – Mae West
- “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.” – Allen Saunders
- “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
- “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain
- “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” – J.K. Rowling, ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’
- “Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” – Mark Twain
- “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” – William Shakespeare
- “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” – J.K. Rowling
- “The mind is everything. What you think you become.” – Buddha
- “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt
- “Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll
- “An unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
- “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair
- “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” – Babe Ruth
- “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth
- “Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.” – W. Clement Stone
- “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey
- “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” – Pablo Picasso
- “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou
- “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” – Rosa Parks
- “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” – Vincent van Gogh
- “A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.” – Unknown
- “I think, therefore I am.” – René Descartes
- “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
- “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
- “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.” – Albert Einstein
- “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” – Plato
- “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” – William Shakespeare
- “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
- “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anaïs Nin
- “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” – Elbert Hubbard
- “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” – Marcus Aurelius
- “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen R. Covey
- “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
- “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama
- “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
- “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” – Coco Chanel
- “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” – Albert Einstein
- “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll
- “We do not remember days, we remember moments.” – Cesare Pavese
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston S. Churchill
- “Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” – Charles Kettering
- “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
- “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart
- “Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.” – Vivian Komori
- “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford
- “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent Peale
- “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius
- “When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
- “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” – William Butler Yeats
- “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
- “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
- “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
- “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer
- “Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman
- “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” – Robert Frost
- “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost
- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
- “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
- “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
- “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
- “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein
- “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” – Francis Chan
- “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” – Mother Teresa
- “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Zig Ziglar
- “When you know better, you do better.” – Maya Angelou
- “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu
- “Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.” – Jim Rohn
- “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” – Tony Robbins
- “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
- “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
- “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot
- “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” – William James
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
- “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” – Tony Robbins
- “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Dr. Seuss
- “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” – Booker T. Washington
- “You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Christopher Columbus
- “Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” – Jamie Paolinetti
- “The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra
- “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller
- “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs
- “There is nothing permanent except change.” – Heraclitus
- “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” – Indira Gandhi
- “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality.” – Lao Tzu
- “There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.” – Jane Austen
- “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” – Edgar Allan Poe
- “The only journey is the one within.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
- “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” – Maya Angelou
- “Happiness can exist only in acceptance.” – George Orwell
- “Love the life you live. Live the life you love.” – Bob Marley
- “Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet.” – Sarah Louise Delany
- “Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.” – Khalil Gibran
- “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” – Helen Keller
- “Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.” – Charles Dickens
- “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best which is within us.” – Marianne Williamson
- “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – J.K. Rowling
- “My body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story.” – Johnny Depp
- “Life is a question and how we live it is our answer.” – Gary Keller
- “The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.” – William James
- “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein
- “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde
- “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.” – Seneca
- “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi
- “Everything you can imagine is real.” – Pablo Picasso
- “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” – Albert Einstein
- “The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.” – Chuck Palahniuk
- “Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs
- “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” – Leonardo da Vinci
- “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha
- “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates
- “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” – Ronald Reagan
- “Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” – Jim Rohn
- “Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.” – William James
- “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela
- “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” – Dalai Lama
- “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon
- “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
- “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle Onassis
- “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln
- “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
- “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
- “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
- “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
- “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X
- “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi
- “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
A Note from the Author
Thank you for taking the time to read through this list of 164 quotes that make you think about life. I hope you found them as inspiring and thought-provoking as I did. If you enjoyed them, please consider subscribing to my newsletter for more weekly inspiration. Please also share this article with others who might appreciate it. And don’t forget to bookmark SEFFSAID and visit us again! Looking forward to sharing more with you soon.
All the best,
Seff Bray
