50 Short Inspirational Quotes to Increase Motivation and Confidence
Updated December 1, 2024
These 50 short inspirational quotes offer quick encouragement when you need motivation, confidence, resilience, focus, or hope. Each quote is brief enough to remember and links to its primary source, so you can read the original words in context.
Find a line for a hard day, a new goal, or someone who needs encouragement, then copy it, share it, or save it for the day ahead.
Short Motivational Quotes About Time and Action
1. “God helps them that help themselves.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
2. “Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
3. “But, dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
4. “The sleeping fox catches no poultry.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
5. “Lost time is never found again.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
6. “Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
7. “He that riseth late must trot all day.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
8. “Laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
9. “Drive thy business, let not that drive thee.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
10. “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
Short Quotes About Work, Hope, and Perseverance
11. “Industry need not wish.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
12. “He that lives upon hope will die fasting.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
13. “There are no gains without pains.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
14. “Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
15. “One to-day is worth two to-morrows.”
— Benjamin Franklin, The Way to Wealth
16. “While you live, while yet you may, be good.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
17. “It is a man’s duty to stand upright, self-supporting, not supported.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
18. “Have you reason? I have. Why then do you not use it?”
— Marcus Aurelius, Medititations
19. “Be like a promontory against which the waves are always breaking.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
20. “This thing is not misfortune, but to bear it bravely is good fortune.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Short Inspirational Quotes for Strength and Perspective
21. “A prosperous life may be yours if only you can take the right path.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
22. “The wise man realizes it in his own work.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
23. “You have it in your power to form no opinion about this or that, and so to have peace of mind.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
24. “What profits not the swarm profits not the bee.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
25. “No man can prevent you from living according to the plan of your nature.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
26. “Love mankind, and obey God.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
27. “To-day I have escaped from all trouble; or rather I have cast out all trouble from me.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
28. “It is not in passive feeling, but in action, that the good and evil of the rational animal formed for society consists.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
29. “Another’s sin you must leave with himself.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
30. “Discourse no more of what a good man should be; but be one.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Short Inspirational Quotes About Believing in Yourself
31. “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series
32. “The way of life is wonderful; it is by abandonment.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series
33. “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series
34. “Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series
35. “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series
36. “Do your work, and I shall know you.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series
37. “Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series
38. “The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the Power.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series
39. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series
40. “To be great is to be misunderstood.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series
Short Positive Quotes About Hope and Light
41. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
— Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan
42. “Everyone is born a king, and most people die in exile—like most kings.”
— Oscar Wilde, Miscellaneous Aphorisms
43. “Beauty has as many meanings as man has moods.”
— Oscar Wilde, Miscellaneous Aphorisms
44. “It reveals everything, because it expresses nothing.”
— Oscar Wilde, Miscellaneous Aphorisms
45. “Things last either too long or not long enough.”
— Oscar Wilde, Miscellaneous Aphorisms
46. “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
— Edith Wharton, Artemis to Actaeon
47. “Truth’s way, not mine.”
— Edith Wharton, Artemis to Actaeon
48. “To scale the summit of some soaring moment.”
— Edith Wharton, Artemis to Actaeon
49. “To snatch the crown of life and seal it up secure forever.”
— Edith Wharton, Artemis to Actaeon
50. “Relive in my renewal, and become the light of other lives.”
— Edith Wharton, Artemis to Actaeon
Which short quote says what you need to remember today? Choose one, put it somewhere visible, and return to it when your attention starts to drift.
