I like quotes that are short but still pack a punch.
So in today’s post I’d simply like to share 201 of the most powerful, deep, funny and inspirational short quotes.
Ones about life and happiness. The ones about love, about loving yourself too and ones that makes you think.
Plus, a handful or two that will make you laugh and help you release pent up stress. And plenty more.
Now, let’s get started.
Short Inspirational Quotes for a Jolt of Positive Energy
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
– Bruce Lee
“It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”
– Confucius
“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”
– Dalai Lama
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
– Anaïs Nin
“Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
– Jim Rohn
“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”
– Dalai Lama
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
– Neale Donald Walsch
“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”
– Lao Tzu
“The only joy in the world is to begin.”
– Cesare Pavese
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
– Aesop
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
– Jack Canfield
“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
– John R. Wooden
“The road to success is always under construction.”
– Lily Tomlin
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
– George Bernard Shaw
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
– Henry Ford
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.”
– Robert Collier
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”
– Oscar Wilde
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“The fullness of life is only accessible in the present moment.”
– Eckhart Tolle
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.”
– Florence Nightingale
“Most people would rather be certain they’re miserable, than risk being happy.”
– Dr. Robert Anthony
“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.”
– Gilbert K. Chesterton
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
– Winston Churchill
“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
– Jim Rohn
“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
– Napoleon Hill
Short Inspirational Quotes for Work and Motivation
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
– Stephen King
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
– Arthur Ashe
“A ship is always safe at shore but that is not what it’s built for.”
– John A. Shedd
“The best way out is always through.”
– Robert Frost
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”
– Henry Ford
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
– Confucius
“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
– Winston Churchill
“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”
– Dennis Waitley
“If you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way.”
– Napoleon Hill
“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
– Steve Jobs
“Action is the foundational key to all success.”
– Pablo Picasso
“Good things happen to those who hustle.”
– Chuck Noll
“The future depends on what you do today.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
– Dale Carnegie
“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.”
– Seneca
“Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.”
– Jim Rohn
“You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind.”
– Irish Proverb
“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”
– B. B. King
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
– Stephen Covey
“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
– Dale Carnegie
“The fool wonders, the wise man asks.”
– Benjamin Disraeli
“Happiness is the real sense of fulfillment that comes from hard work.”
– Joseph Barbara
“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
– Paulo Coelho
“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.”
– Abraham Lincoln
“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
– Karen Lamb
Short Inspirational Quotes for a Happy Life
“Don’t count the days, Make the days count.”
– Muhammad Ali
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re looking down.”
– Charlie Chaplin
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
– Vincent Van Gogh
“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
– Marthe Troly-Curtin
“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
“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”
– Jimmy Dean
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”
– John Steinbeck
“Breathe. It’s just a bad day, not a bad life.”
– Johnny Depp
“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”
– James Dean
“I don’t need it to be easy, I need it to be worth it.”
– Lil Wayne
“Life becomes easier when you learn to accept the apology you never got.”
– R. Brault
“Broken crayons still color.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Leave no stone unturned.”
– Euripides
“It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.”
– Seneca
“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.”
– Helen Keller
“Only a life lived for others is a life lived worthwhile.”
– Albert Einstein
“The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”
– Bertrand Russell
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
– Mae West
“Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.”
– Alice Walker
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”
– Tim Ferriss
“We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.”
– Maya Angelou
“In this life we cannot always do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
– Mother Teresa
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
– William James
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
– C.S. Lewis
Short and Funny Inspirational Quotes
“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”
– Charles M. Schulz
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”
– Jack Handey
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
– Oscar Wilde
“I intend to live forever. So far, so good.”
– Steven Wright
“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.”
– Elbert Hubbard
“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.”
– Allen Saunders
“When life gives you lemons, squirt someone in the eye.”
– Cathy Guisewite
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
– Robert Frost
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
– A. A. Milne
“Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.”
– Stephen Hawking
“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.”
– Steve Martin
“Rice is great when you’re hungry and you want 2000 of something.”
– Mitch Hedberg
“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.”
– George Burns
“Life is short. Smile while you still have teeth.”
– Unknown
“I like my money where I can see it: hanging in my closet.”
– Carrie Bradshaw
“This life’s hard, but it’s harder if you’re stupid.”
– George V. Higgins
“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”
– Isaac Asimov
“If you’re too open-minded; your brains will fall out.”
– Lawrence Ferlinghetti
“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.”
– Lily Tomlin
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.”
– W. C. Fields
“Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.”
– Isaac Asimov
“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.”
– Katharine Hepburn
“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”
– Miles Kington
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
– Zig Ziglar
“Never miss a good chance to shut up.”
– Will Rogers
Short Inspirational Quotes on Love
“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”
– Sophocles
“‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
– Alfred Lord Tennyson
“The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.”
– Victor Hugo
“A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.”
– Honore de Balzac
“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
– James Baldwin
“Love is a friendship set to music.”
– Joseph Campbell
“If you judge people you have no time to love them.”
– Mother Teresa
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Where there is love there is life.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.”
– Peter Ustinov
“Hate comes from intimidation, love comes from appreciation.”
– Tyga
“Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.”
– Lord Byron
“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”
– Zora Neale Hurston
“Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.”
– Khalil Gibran
“Love’s greatest gift is its ability to make everything it touches sacred.”
– Barbara de Angelis
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.”
– Buddha
“True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations.”
– Honore de Balzac
“Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“You know you’re in love when you don’t want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
– Dr. Seuss
“A heart worth loving is one you understand, even in silence.”
– Shannon Alder
“Don’t ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn’t fall in love; I rose in it.”
– Toni Morrison
“Love is when he gives you a piece of your soul, that you never knew was missing.”
– Torquato Tasso
“Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the senses.”
– Lao Tzu
“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The more one judges, the less one loves.”
– Honore de Balzac
“Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Short Inspirational Quotes for Students
“Experience, travel – these are an education in themselves.”
– Euripides
“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”
– B. B. King
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
– Dr. Seuss
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
– Nelson Mandela
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
– George Eliot
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.”
– Benjamin Spock
“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”
– Albert Einstein
“Keep your eyes in the stars and your feet on the ground.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
– John Wooden
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
– Henry Ford
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”
– Mark Twain
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
– Steve Jobs
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
– Albert Einstein
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
– Plutarch
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing.”
– Pele
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”
– Samuel Beckett
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
“If you don’t follow your heart, you might spend the rest of your life wishing you had.”
– Brigitte Nicole
“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
– Unknown
“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”
– Oprah Winfrey
“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.”
– Albert Einstein
“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.”
– George Washington Carver
Short Inspirational Quotes on Self Love
“Loving yourself isn’t vanity. It’s sanity.”
– Katrina Mayer
“You grow up the day you have your first real laugh at yourself.”
– Ethel Barrymore
“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.”
– Brené Brown
“Choose, every day, to forgive yourself. You are human, flawed, and most of all worthy of love.”
– Alison Malee
“Love yourself first and everything else falls into place.”
– Lucille Ball
“Why should we worry about what others think of us, do we have more confidence in their opinions than we do our own?”
– Brigham Young
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The better you feel about yourself, the less you feel the need to show off.”
– Robert Hand
“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”
– Mark Twain
“One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.”
– Shannon L. Alder
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.”
– Charles Bukowski
“To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.”
– Robert Morley
“Beauty begins the moment you decided to be yourself.”
– Coco Chanel
“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”
– Dr. Seuss
“People who want the most approval get the least and the people who need approval the least get the most.”
– Wayne Dyer
“Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.”
– André Gide
“The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.”
– Maya Angelou
“Your problem is you’re… too busy holding onto your unworthiness.”
– Ram Dass
“Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness.”
– Jean Vanier
“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.”
– Malcolm S. Forbes
“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
– Anaïs Nin
“You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.”
– Oprah Winfrey
“Be you, love you. All ways, always.”
– Alexandra Elle
“Lighten up on yourself. No one is perfect. Gently accept your humanness.”
– Deborah Day
Short Inspirational Quotes on Friendship
“A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.”
– Elbert Hubbard
“Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.”
– Euripides
“It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.”
– Marlene Dietrich
“A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.”
– Arnold H. Glasgow
“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”
– Linda Grayson
“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.”
– Charles Lamb
“A true friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else.”
– Len Wein
“There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.”
– Jim Henson
“A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.”
– Leo Buscaglia
“The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.”
– Henry David Thoreau
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
– Alice Walker
“If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.”
– Maxwell Maltz
“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
– Abraham Lincoln
“It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.”
– Epicurus
“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.”
– Woodrow T. Wilson
“The best time to make friends is before you need them.”
– Ethel Barrymore
“One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.”
– George Santayana
“A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.”
– Charles Darwin
“Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings.”
– Miles Franklin
“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
– Walter Winchell
“A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.”
– Donna Roberts
“Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.”
– Ed Cunningham
“True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.”
– David Tyson
“Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.”
– Socrates
“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.”
– Tennessee Williams
Want more short and powerful inspiration? Then have a look at these short love quotes, the short happy quotes in this post and also the short friendship quotes here and these deep and meaningful short quotes.