Best Short Positive Quotes & Sayings
When you need a little boost of inspiration, check out this collection of quotations to lift your spirits.
Looking for short positive quotes for business, life, and relationships? We’ve put together a list of some of the best quotations to motivate and inspire you. Take a few minutes to read all of the short uplifting quotes and try to both understand its meaning and apply the lesson to your own life. Think, reflect and act.
Short positive quotes to inspire and motivate
As William Shakespeare once wrote, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” In that spirit, we present these short positive quotations:
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- Uplifting quotes
- Motivational quotes
- Inspirational quotes about life
- Aspirational quotes and sayings
- Short meaningful sayings
- Bonus: more quotes
- Best quotations for motivation and achievement
- More positive sayings to live by
- Maya Angelou
- Oprah Winfrey
- Abraham Lincoln
- Mister Rogers
- Winnie the Pooh
Uplifting quotes
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.
Maya Angelou
What we think, we become.
Buddha
The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.
Anais Nin
Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there.
Thomas Fuller
No greater gift there is, than a generous heart.
Yoda
Today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.
Bil Keane
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
William Blake
The best short positive quotes
The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.
Alexandre Dumas
Mistakes are part of the dues that one pays for a full life.
Sophia Loren
There is no substitute for hard work.
Thomas Edison
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.
Helen Keller
Have enough courage to start and enough heart to finish.
Jessica N. S. Yourko
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo da Vinci
If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.
Napoleon Hill
Short positive quotes to live by
Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.
John W. Gardner
Knowing what must be done does away with fear.
Rosa Parks
Together we can face any challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky.
Sonia Gandhi
Every moment is a fresh beginning.
T.S Eliot
Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.
Dalai Lama
Vulnerability sounds like truth and looks like courage.
Brené Brown
Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.
Robert Schuller
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.
Robert Louis Stevenson
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
Reflect on Each of These Short Positive Quotes
As you read through each insight on this page, please take some extra time to think about what message the author is trying to communicate. You may choose to review only a handful of quotes at a time to think about and analyze the meaning behind the words. Or you may decide to read through all of the offerings and identify the quotations that you find deeply meaningful. Perhaps one really hits home. It resonates.
Whichever path you pursue, don’t hesitate to come back to this page of short positive quotes over time for additional inspiration.
Short motivational quotes
To thine own self be true.
William Shakespeare
Life is the flower for which love is the honey.
Victor Hugo
Whatever you feel, you become. It is your responsibility.
Osho
Change the world by being yourself.
Amy Poehler
Check out these short love quotations and sayings.
Always go too far, because that’s where you’ll find the truth.
Albert Camus
The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
Epicurus
Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.
Rumi
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
Lao Tzu
The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes.
Mark Nepo
Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.
Robert Schuller
The man on top of the mountain did not fall there.
Unknown
It’s never too late to be who you might have been.
George Eliot
When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.
Maya Angelou
Rest in reason; move in passion.
Kahlil Gibran
There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.
Henry Ford
Believe in the you who believes in yourself.
Unknown
Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change.
Dr. Wayne Dyer
Short inspirational quotes about life
Having a soft heart in a cruel world is courage, not weakness.
Katherine Henson
May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.
Nelson Mandela
If you want to change the world, first change your heart.
Confucius
A happy soul is the best shield for a cruel world.
Atticus
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Albert Einstein
There’s a rebel lying deep in my soul.
Clint Eastwood
If you’re not willing to be a fool, then you can’t be a master.
Jordan Peterson
Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.
Aristotle
The fears we don’t face become our limits.
Jim Kwik
Looking for humorous quotes? Check out these short funny quotations.
More life sayings
The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
William Faulkner
As long as I am breathing, in my eyes, I am just beginning.
Criss Jami
You can tell a pioneer by the arrows in his back.
Beverly Rubik
If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.
Seth Godin
Be – don’t try to become.
Osho
Not being heard is no reason for silence.
Victor Hugo
If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it.
Toni Morrison
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it.
Charles R. Swindoll
Everything you can imagine is real.
Pablo Picasso
Life does not owe you anything because life has already given you everything.
Ralph Marston
The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it.
Henry Ford
Inspirational short sayings
Have patience with all things but first of all with yourself.
Saint Francis de Sales
Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.
Omar Khayyam
Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.
Grace Hansen
More inspirational quotes about butterflies.
All limitations are self-imposed.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer.
Terence McKenna
Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.
Harper Lee
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao Tzu
Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
J.K.Rowling
Tough times never last but tough people do.
Robert Schuller
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.
Albert Schweitzer
Courage is knowing what not to fear.
Plato
> Interesting Chinese Proverbs and Idioms
Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.
Euripides
The wind howls, but the mountain remains still.
Japanese proverb
I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.
Confucius
Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln
When love is deep, much can be accomplished.
Shinichi Suzuki
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
Aristotle
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
Short meaningful sayings
Life begins where fear ends.
Osho
There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.
Richard Rorty
Believe deep down in your heart that you’re destined to do great things.
Joe Paterno
We all have a dinosaur deep within us just trying to get out.
Colin Mochrie
Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
J.R.R. Tolkien
Without deep reflection, one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.
Albert Einstein
Leave no stone unturned.
Euripides
Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy.
Robert A. Heinlein
Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.
Bernard Baruch
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.
Cicero
I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.
Euripides
Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.
Eleanor Roosevelt
A clever man commits no minor blunders.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Short positive quotes
As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears.
Rumi
Life is short. Live passionately.
Unknown
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
Neale Donald Walsch
Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free.
Eckhart Tolle
The best fighter is never angry.
Lao Tzu
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
Henry David Thoreau
Live for yourself.
Unknown
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
John Shedd
Don’t wait for miracles, your whole life is a miracle.
Albert Einstein
Whatever purifies you is the right path.
Rumi
Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.
Friedrich Schiller
Aspire to inspire before we expire.
Unknown
Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.
Albert Camus
Leap and the net will appear.
Zen proverb
The world is its own magic.
Shunryu Suzuki
The darker the night, the brighter the stars.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Kahlil Gibran
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
Seneca
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Best short quotes for motivation and achievement
It’s better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.
Unknown
Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.
Joseph Campbell
I don’t want to earn my living; I want to live.
Oscar Wilde
Awareness is the greatest agent for change.
Eckhart Tolle
Turn your wounds into wisdom.
Oprah Winfrey
If it doesn’t open, it’s not your door.
Unknown
Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.
Victor Hugo
No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.
Zen Proverb
All that you are seeking is also seeking you.
Franz Kafka
Just do your best and to hell the rest.
Unknown
The fullness of life is only accessible in the present moment.
Eckhart Tolle
To define is to limit.
Oscar Wilde
More short positive quotes
Life is in ourselves and not in the external.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain.
Unknown
My best friend is the one who brings out the best of me.
Henry Ford
I rebel; therefore I exist.
Albert Camus
It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
Paulo Coelho
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
Soren Kierkegaard
Arm yourself, my heart: the thing that you must do is fearful, yet inevitable.
Euripides
Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.
George Addair
Let the gentle bush dig its root deep and spread upward to split one boulder.
Carl Sandburg
Don’t raise your voice. Improve your argument. The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
Benjamin Disraeli
Short positive quotes to live by
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.
Oscar Wilde
To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.
Mark Twain
Do or do not, there is no try.
Yoda
The obstacle is the path.
Zen proverb
A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Note: If you have any short positive quotes you’d like to recommend, please let us know. Thanks.
Success is an iceberg.
Unknown
I’m not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.
Stephen Covey
The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.
Benjamin Disraeli
Sometimes you have to shut your eyes, so you can see the real beauty.
Kilian Jornet
What consumes your mind controls your life.
Unknown
Challenge yourself, jump off the deep end and learn to swim.
Carson Kressley
Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.
James Dean
You can’t live your life for other people. You’ve got to do what’s right for you, even if it hurts some people you love.
The Notebook
Maya Angelou short positive quotes
You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.
Determine to live life with flair and laughter.
Nothing will work unless you do.
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.
All great achievements require time.
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.
Life loves the liver of it.
If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.
Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world but has not solved one yet.
Oprah Winfrey sayings
You can have it all. Just not all at once.
Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.
The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.
Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you – always.
You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.
With every experience, you alone are painting your own canvas, thought by thought, choice by choice.
Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher.
The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.
Opportunity may knock only once but temptation leans on the doorbell.
You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.
The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
So go ahead. Fall down. The world looks different from the ground.
Abraham Lincoln positive sayings
I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.
I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.
That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.
Every man’s responsibility is his own responsibility.
The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.
When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.
You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.
Tip: These short positive quotes make great photo captions or email closers.
Mister Rogers short positive quotes
(also known as Mr. Rogers or just Fred Rogers)
How sad it is that we give up on people who are just like us.
Nobody else can live the life you live.
It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love.
The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile.
There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.
There is no normal life that is free of pain. It’s the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth.
One of the greatest dignities of humankind is that each successive generation is invested in the welfare of each new generation.
It always helps to have people we love beside us when we have to do difficult things in life.
In a way, you’ve already won in this world because you’re the only one who can be you.
I think of discipline as the continual everyday process of helping a child learn self-discipline.
Peace means far more than the opposite of war.
Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.
Solitude is different from loneliness, and it doesn’t have to be a lonely kind of thing.
Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people.
Winnie the Pooh wisdom
You’re braver than you believe and stronger and smarter than you think.
Some people care too much. I think it’s called love.
People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.
How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
‘We’ll be Friends Forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet. ‘Even longer,’ Pooh answered.
I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.
If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.
— Greg Johnson
Greg is a writer and co-founder of ListCaboodle.
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