170 Wisdom Quotes & Sayings To Inspire A Better Life

By Norbert Juma | Published November 1, 2023

Why go through life struggling on your own when you can learn from these wisdom quotes and wise sayings from others?

Life isn’t always easy.

Creating the life you desire takes a lot of work, and it’s easy to think you have to figure it out yourself.

Share your favorite wisdom quote with us in the comment section below.

What are the benefits of reading these wisdom quotes?

However, many wise people have gone before you or have more experience and will share their life advice.

As you read the following wise quotes, see which ones you can learn from and apply to your own life.

Listening to the lessons that others have learned will:

save yourself a little time and hurt
help you make informed decisions
open your mind to a new perspective on life’s challenges

To gain even more wisdom, don’t forget to read our collection of Sadhguru quotes for an enlightening perspective on the world around you.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Check out our entire collection of motivational quotes here.

Wisdom quotes on the power of your thoughts

1. “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent

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2. “Very little is needed to make a happy life, it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” – Marcus Aurelius

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3. “Life is from the inside out. When you shift on the inside, life shifts on the outside.” – Kamal Ravikant

4. “Life is too important to be taken seriously.” – Oscar Wilde

5. “Life can be simple and beautiful. Focus on the good things.” – Maxime Lagacé

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6. “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

7. “I’m always doing things I can’t do. That’s how I get to do them.” – Pablo Picasso

8. “She knew the power of her mind and so programmed it for success.” – Carrie Green

9. “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller

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10. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

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Wisdom quotes on enjoying life

11. “It all begins and ends in your mind. What you give power to, has power over you, if you allow it.” – Leon Brown

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12. “The mind is everything. What you think you become.” – Buddha

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13. “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” – Omar Khayyam

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14. “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon

15. “If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” – Mary Engelbreit

16. “You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching.” – William Purkey

17. “Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” – Elbert Hubbard

thought provoking Wisdom quotes about life

18. “Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don’t get so worked up about things.” – Kenneth Branagh

19. “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” – Andre Gide

20. “Your mind is precious. It has the power to unlock infinite possibilities.” – Joel Annesley

Wisdom quotes about the power of your mind

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Wisdom quotes on doing the impossible

21. “Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.” – Earl Nightingale

Wisdom quotes about our subconscious mind

22. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau

23. “The journey of a thousand miles beings with one step.” – Lao Tzu

Wisdom quotes to inspire on your journey

24. “Your mind is your greatest power. Use it well.” – Aneta Cruz

25. “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” – Walt Disney

26. “Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you just put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude.” – Lou Holtz

27. “There’s nothing impossible if you get up and work for it.” – Michael Flatley

28. “Sincere practice makes the impossible possible.” – Dada Vaswani

29. “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.” – Tommy Lasorda

30. “Aviation is proof that given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.” – Eddie Rickenbacker

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Wisdom quotes on being yourself

31. “Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.” – Amelia Earhart

32. “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou

33. “No one can compete with you on being you. Most of life is a search for who and what needs you the most.” – Naval Ravikant

34. “We are who we choose to be.” – Green Goblin

35. “Sing the song that only you can sing, write the book that only you can write, build the product that only you can build… live the life that only you can live.” – Naval Ravikant

36. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw

37. “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.” – Babe Ruth

38. “The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has been before.” – Albert Einstein

39. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

40. “Don’t compromise yourself – you’re all you have.” – John Grisham

41. “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.” – Lao Tzu

42. “Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.” – Judy Garland

43. “Don’t ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can’t be exactly who you are.” – Lady Gaga

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Wisdom quotes on taking action

44. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” – Steve Jobs

45. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

46. “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” – Albert Einstein

47. “Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result but the cause of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.” – Norman Vincent Peale

48. “Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.” – Jules Renard

49. “Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.” – Norman Vincent Peale

50. “Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.” – Theodore Roosevelt

More wisdom quotes and sayings

51. “May you live every day of your life.” – Jonathan Swift

52. “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” – Paulo Coelho

53. “Think before you speak. Read before you think.” – Fran Lebowitz

54. “You do not write your life with words…You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.” – Patrick Ness

55. “The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.” – Marjorie Pay Hinckley

56. “We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell

57. “Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.” – Leo F. Buscaglia

58. “Wisdom is having things right in your life and knowing why.” – William Stafford

59. “Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” – Harper Lee

60. “Look for the good in every person and every situation. You’ll almost always
find it.” – Brian Tracy

Short Wisdom quotes to live by

61. “Once you label me you negate me.” — Soren Kierkegaard

62. “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” — Socrates

63. “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” — Epictetus

64. “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” — Henry David Thoreau

65. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

66. “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” — Lewis Carroll

67. “O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!” — Walter Scott

68. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” — Jim Elliot

69. “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” — Carl Jung

70. “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” — Archimedes

Thought-Provoking Wisdom Quotes

71. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” — Aristotle

72. “The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” — Confucius

73. “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” — Lao Tzu

74. “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.” — Seneca

75. “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” — Plato

76. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” — Marcus Aurelius

77. “Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in few.” — Pythagoras

78. “Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.” — Sandra Carey

79. “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

80. “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” — Albert Einstein

Wisdom Quotes To Make You Live A Simple Life

81. “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” — Mahatma Gandhi

82. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius

83. “There are three constants in life…change, choice and principles.” — Stephen Covey

84. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them–that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” — Lao Tzu

85. “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” — John F. Kennedy

86. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” — Albert Einstein

87. “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill

88. “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you do the better.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

89. The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” — Oprah Winfrey

90. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert Frost

Wisdom Quotes To Sharpen Your Wit

91. “It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.” ― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

92. “Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” ― Dalai Lama

93. “Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little then to break.” ― Jane Wells

94. “The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.” ― C. S. Lewis

95. “Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.” ― Theodore Isaac Rubin

96. “Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” ― Otto von Bismarck

97. “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” ― Epictetus

98. “The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be.” ― Shakti Gawain

99. “Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more.” ― William Cowper

100. “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” ― George Bernard Shaw

Spiritual wisdom quotes

101. “Everything is within your power, and your power is within you.” ― Janice Trachtman

102. “Truth is the greatest force to uncover the soul.” ― Shiva Negi

103. “Convince yourself everyday that you are worthy of a good life. Let go of stress, breathe. Stay positive, all is well.”― Germany Kent

104. “The light of the witness helps us to see in the dark.” ― Bert McCoy

105. “Spirituality is not adopting more beliefs and assumptions but uncovering the best in you.”― Amit Ray

106. “Spiritual living is a wise living. Spiritual living means being inward.”― Neeraj Rai

107. “Make peace with yourself, and both heaven and earth will make peace with you.”― St. Isaac the Syrian

108. “Enlightenment means transcending your world of thoughts.” ― Ashraf Karayath

109. “Don’t worry, eventually everything falls into its rightful place.”― Fakeer Ishavardas

110. “What wills to grow will grow. What wills to flow will flow.”― Donna Goddard

Wisdom Quotes To Know Yourself Better

111. “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” — John C. Maxwell

112. “Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn, and you will.” — Vernon Howard

113. “To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” — Marilyn vos Savant

114. Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.” — Aldous Huxley

115. “Don’t give to anyone the power to put you down. Haters are losers pretending to be winners.” — Paulo Coelho

116. “Don’t depend too much on anyone in this world because even your own shadow leaves you when you are in darkness.” — Ibn Taymiyyah

117. “The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.” — Paulo Coelho

118. “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” — Laozi

119. “The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it. The present is here, live it.” — Thomas S. Monson

120. Everything is hard before it is easy.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Wisdom Quotes To Apply Knowledge

121. “If you have the guts to keep making mistakes, your wisdom and intelligence leap forward with huge momentum.” — Holly Near

122. “The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.” — Buddha

123.“Intelligence without wisdom brings destruction.” — Erol Ozan

124. “Be wiser than other people, if you can; but do not tell them so.” — Lord Chesterfield

125. “To be wise, we must seek Jesus, for we will not find wisdom apart from him.” — Kim Brenneman

126. “The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.” — Buddha

127. “The wisest mind has something yet to learn.” — George Santayana

128. “Thus, a wise individual is the one who learns to see the positive even in unfavorable events and unanticipated behavior of people.” — Lindsay J. Hallie

129. “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge.” — Charles Spurgeon

130. “Knowledge comes from learning. Wisdom comes from living.” — Anthony Douglas Williams

Wisdom Quotes To Differentiate With Knowledge

131. “Let your actions demonstrate your wisdom.” ― Truman Capote

132. “It is said that wisdom lies not in seeing things, but seeing through things.” ― Elbert Hubbard

133. “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” ― Aristotle

134. “Wisdom is the daughter of experience.” ― Edward Hersey Richards

135. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” ― St. Augustine

136. “Faith gives us strength and reassurance and leaves us bathed in the wisdom that we are never alone.” ― Socrates

137. “Knowledge is knowing what to say. Wisdom is knowing when to say it.” ― Colette

138. “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ― Albert Einstein

139. “Never, no, never did nature say one thing and wisdom say another.” ― Charles Dickens

140. “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” ― Mark Twain

Wisdom Quotes To Guide You Towards The Path To Knowledge

141. “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” ― Winston Churchill

142. “Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.” ― Gautama Buddha

143. “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” ― Dalai Lama

144. “Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it.” ― Doug Larson

145. “You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.” ― William Blake

146. “The limit of your present understanding is not the limit of your possibilities.” ― Guy Finley

147. “Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.” ― David Starr Jordan

148. “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

149. “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” ― Mao Zedong

150. If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre

Wisdom Quotes to Nurture Your Mind

151. “We don’t need to explain our love. We only need to show it.” — Paulo Coelho

152. “The more you know the less you need to say.” — Jim Rohn

153. “You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

154. “The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.” — Antisthenes

155. Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.” — Bertolt Brecht

156. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Confucius

157. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — J. R. R. Tolkien

158. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius

159. “Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.” — Confucius

160. “Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.” — Laozi

Wisdom Quotes for Timeless Nuggets of Insight

161. “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.” — Andre Gide

162. “Wisdom denotes the pursuing of the best ends by the best means.” — Francis Hutcheson

163. “As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.” — Leonardo da Vinci

164. “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” — Laozi

165. “True spirituality is a mental attitude you can practice at any time.” — Dalai Lama

166. “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” — Helen Keller

167. “Only two things can reveal life’s great secrets: suffering and love.” — Paulo Coelho

168. “If it’s still in your mind, it is still in your heart.” — Paulo Coelho

169. “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” — Meister Eckhart

170. “We must enhance the light, not fight the darkness.” — A. D. Gordon

171. “Any enjoyment that leads to wisdom is inevitable” ― Sithi Fathima

172. “Your inner wisdom is your friend, and it lives inside the calm security of your Comfort Zone.” ― Kristen Butler

173. “Wisdom and worldview are shaped by the instructor which is called experience.” ― Dr. Lucas D. Shallua

174. “If we see mirages long enough they become our reality. Such is vision without wisdom.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough

175. “You will learn by studying and certificate, but you will not be a wise, wisdom is related to the spirit.” ― Kamaran Ihsan Salih

176. “Wisdom is found in nature only by mining a lot of rock.” ― Shawn Davis

177. “Love Faith Miracle, Magic is Wisdom in transit knowledge the beholder” ― Ben Jr Grey

178. “The emptier it becomes the more louder it gets. Wisdom whispers while nonsense shouts louder and louder for attention” ― Dr. Lucas D. Shallua

179. “Wisdom becomes flawed when knowledge is in the wrong hands.” ― Anthony T. Hincks

180. “I do not expect riches from words of truth, only wisdom.” ― Anthony T. Hincks

Which of these wisdom quotes will you apply to your life?

Spend a few minutes allowing these wise words to sink in.

Whether you were just looking for a little motivation or struggling in an area of your life, you can learn from these wisdom quotes.

Creating a better life is in your control, and the words of wisdom offered here can help you live life better.