98 Quotes That Can Change Your Life

Over the past 30+ years, as I have coached executives and helped companies around the world, I have been collecting quotes and ideas that I think are particularly meaningful. Here is a list of 98 that I read often to keep me focused. Some of these you will have seen before, some will be new, but they are all worth taking time to reflect on. PLEASE add your favorite quotes in the comment section below and if you find this list helpful share this article with your network.

1. You cannot change what you refuse to confront.

2. Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.

3. Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.

4. You must plant the seeds of trees under which you will never sit.

5. Too many people buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know.

6. Good is the enemy of great.

7. Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.

8. All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.

9. Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.

10. Opportunities don't happen. You create them.

11. No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.

12. Education costs money. But then so does ignorance.

13. If a person wants to be a part of your life, they will make an obvious effort to do so.

14. Making one person smile can change the world – maybe not the whole world, but their world.

15. Saying someone is ugly doesn’t make you any prettier.

16. What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

17. Life isn't about getting and having, it's about giving and being.

18. Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart.

19. Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. 

20. The only normal people you know are the ones you don’t know very well.

21. Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it.

22. It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.

23. Making a hundred friends is not a miracle. The miracle is to make a single friend who will stand by your side even when hundreds are against you.

24. Giving up doesn’t always mean you’re weak, sometimes it means you are strong enough and smart enough to let go and move on.

25. Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.

26. If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.

27. Don’t choose the one who is beautiful to the world; choose the one who makes your world beautiful.

28. Never do something permanently foolish just because you are temporarily upset.

29. In life, if you don’t risk anything, you risk everything.

30. There isn’t anything noble about being superior to another person. True nobility is in being superior to the person you once were.

31. Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.

32. Strive for excellence not perfection.

33. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.

34. Trying to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

35. Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

36. Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

37. You will never become who you want to be if you keep blaming everyone else for who you are now.

38. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

39. Sometimes people don’t notice the things others do for them until they stop doing them.

40. Creativity is intelligence having fun.

41. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

42. Don’t listen to what people say, watch what they do.

43. I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do

44. The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.

45. Anyone can come into your life and say how much they love you. It takes someone really special to stay in your life and show how much they love you.

46. When you have to start compromising yourself and your morals for the people around you, it’s time to change the people around you.

47. Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see it.

48. When someone tells you, “You’ve changed,” it might simply be because you’ve stopped living your life their way.

49. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.

50. I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure--It is: Try to please everybody.

51. Someone else doesn’t have to be wrong for you to be right.

52. The mind is everything. What you think you become.

53. Be happy. Be yourself. If others don’t like it, then let them be. Happiness is a choice. Life isn’t about pleasing everybody.

54. When you’re up, your friends know who you are. When you’re down, you know who your friends are.

55. Don’t look for someone who will solve all your problems; look for someone who will face them with you.

56. The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.

57. Success isn't just about what you accomplish in your life; it's about what you inspire others to do.

58. The minute you stop expecting life to be simple, fair, and easy – it becomes simple, fair, and easy.

59. No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs.

60. The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.

61. Learn to appreciate the things you have before time forces you to appreciate the things you once had.

62. When you choose to see the good in others, you end up finding the good in yourself.

63. You don’t drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.

64. There are things that we don’t want to happen but have to accept, things we don’t want to know but have to learn, and people we can’t live without but have to let go.

65. Happiness is not determined by what’s happening around you, but rather what’s happening inside you.

66. If you tell the truth, it becomes a part of your past. If you lie, it becomes a part of your future.

67. What you do every day matters more than what you do every once in a while. 

68. You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.

69. Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out.

70. If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.

71. You become what you focus on and like the people you spend time with.

72. People do what seems easy and convenient, not what is best for them.

73. When values are clear, decisions are easy.

74. If you just help enough other people get what they need, you will get everything you need.

75. Build your house on the rock of learning; no one can take your education away from you.

76. Whatever you fill your brain with and whomever you spend your time with… will determine your life a decade from now.

77. Hope is NOT a strategy.

78. Successful people willingly do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do.

79. My definition of success: When your core values and self-concept are in harmony with your daily actions and behaviors.

80. To be interesting – be interested.

81. Remember: everyone you meet is fighting a mighty battle. Be kind.

82. To be successful in life you must have a PLAN: PREPARE for the journey – LAUNCH into action – ADJUST as you go – NETWORK with those who know. (by Tom Morris)

83. The Seven Cs of Success (by Tom Morris)

1. A clear CONCEPTION of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined.

2. A strong CONFIDENCE that we can attain the goal.

3. A focus CONCENTRATION on what it takes to reach the goal.

4. A stubborn CONSISTENCY in pursuing our vision.

5. And emotional COMMITMENT to the importance of what we are doing.

6. A good CHARACTER to guide us and keep us on the proper course.

7. A CAPACITY to enjoy the process along the way.

84. The Four Agreements (by Miguel Ruiz)

1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally: Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions: Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best: Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

85. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (by Stephen Covey)

Independence or Self-Mastery

The First Three Habits surround moving from dependence to independence (i.e., self-mastery):

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Take initiative in life by realizing that your decisions (and how they align with life’s principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Take responsibility for your choices and the subsequent consequences that follow.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life.

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Plan, prioritize, and execute your week’s tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluate whether your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you toward goals, and enrich the roles and relationships that were elaborated in Habit 2.

 Interdependence

The next three have to do with Interdependence (i.e., working with others):

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

Genuinely strive for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Value and respect people by understanding a “win” for all is ultimately a better long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood

Use empathic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, respect, and positive problem solving.

Habit 6: Synergize

Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. Get the best performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership.

Self-Renewal

The Last habit relates to self-rejuvenation:

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Balance and renew your resources, energy, and health to create a sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle. And learn from the mistakes.

86. Your Day Is Your Life.

87. Until you can see, and admit, that YOU are the problem… You will be unable to realize that YOU must be the solution.

88. We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

89. We often talk to ourselves in ways that we would never let a stranger or even a friend talk to us.

90. All that you achieve and all that you fail to achieve are the direct results of your thoughts.

91. We are the producers of our own thinking. Thought is not something that happens to us, but something that we do to ourselves.

92. Habits, good or bad, can always be traced back to your own thinking.

93. People are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves.

94. People do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.

95. What you do today determines who you will be tomorrow.

96. You are the average of your five closest associates.

97. The Six Mistakes of Man – Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C.–43 B.C.)

I. The illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others.

II. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.

III. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it.

IV. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.

V. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and study.

VI. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

98. "At the end of the day – the long day of your life – as people stand around your grave no one will talk about how big your house was, or how many cars you owned, or your boat or plane… they will only talk about ONE thing and ONE thing ONLY: LOVE! How much you loved them and how much they loved you. So, the goal then is to live a life of love. That is all." – John Spence

Do you have one or more to add?

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