120 Quotes about life that capture its beauty, hard knocks, and humor.
Life quotes that motivate, spark wonder, and provoke a good laugh.
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Quotes on life for every theme.
The one universal experience is that we’re alive, but not forever. The time we have on this floating rock has been bottled in memorable quotes by the greatest thinkers of human history. Their takes on life range from inspirational to funny life quotes that cover the whole spectrum of human emotion.
Life is meant to be embraced, but that means different things on different days. Whether you’re in need of an inspirational life quote for a poster or a beautiful life quote for a collage, this collection has what you want.
Inspirational quotes about life.
Inspirational quotes about life remind us why we’re here and restore our sense of purpose. Deep quotes about life are usually the ones that inspire us because they flip our attitude or give us the humility to remember that life can be hard, but we’re made to live it.
Inspirational life quotes are synonymous with motivational life quotes. They spur us to keep going and to hold ourselves to higher standards. This inspiration is packed into a tidy package of life quotes that you can put on banners, flyers, and posters. You can also let Adobe Express help you use them in cards, collages, and quick social media graphics to share with people you know who need them.
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Thomas A. Edison
Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once.”
Lillian Dickson
This is a beautiful metaphor that could be easily used on the face of a card with this message inside.
Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”
Babe Ruth
Don’t settle for what life gives you; make life better and build something.”
Ashton Kutcher
I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine.”
Neil Armstrong
The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
Abraham Lincoln
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”
Albert Einstein
You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.”
Michael Jordan
There are multiple Michael Jordan quotes in this life quotes collection, and several talk about failure. The fact that we only think of Jordan’s success tells you how universal failure is in life.
It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
Leonardo Da Vinci
If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success.”
James Cameron
You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
A.A. Mine, Winnie the Pooh
This message of encouragement can do wonders in a letter to someone who needs it.
You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
Zig Ziglar
Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
Jack Canfield
Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw
Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.”
Charles Kettering
Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.”
Og Mandino
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
Viktor E. Frankl
Always go with your passions. Never ask yourself if it’s realistic or not.”
Deepak Chopra
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”
Michael Jordan
Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come without leaving happier.”
Mother Teresa
This can become a mantra if you put it on a poster and hang it your line of sight.
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Life lesson quotes.
Life lesson quotes talk about failure. They’re often seen in cards, letters, and even collages made for people who’ve fallen and need to get back up. As these wise quotes about life describe, getting back up is the way forward every time.
Life lesson quotes take pain, loss, or failure and ferment it into pure power. With these quotes at your fingertips, failure builds us up to our next success.
Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
Oprah Winfrey
Everything negative — pressure, challenges — is all an opportunity for me to rise.”
Kobe Bryant
If it’s true for Kobe, it’s true for everyone. Use this quote on a poster as a source of inspiration.
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
Helen Keller
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on.”
Robert Frost
I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan
If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”
Bruce Lee
You're not defined by your past; you're prepared by it. You're stronger, more experienced, and you have greater confidence.”
Joel Osteen
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.”
John Lennon
An almost identical quote by Allen Saunders might have inspired Lennon: “Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.”
If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one.”
Dolly Parton
Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow.”
Mary Anne Radmacher
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
Douglas Adams,
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”
Duke Ellington
Strike “problem” from your vocabulary and look for the “chances” life gives you to learn, grow, and thrive.
Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.”
Will Rogers
The best way out is through.”
Robert Frost
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
Babe Ruth
When you change your thoughts, remember to also change your world.”
Norman Vincent Peale
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
Maya Angelou
Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.”
Charles Dickens
Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”
Bill Bradley
Use this quote in a poster or collage with an inspirational image. The metaphor skirts around the popular notion that ambition is the goal and instead gives you a meaty metaphor that takes you further than ever.
How dare you settle for less when the world made it so easy for you to be remarkable?”
Seth Godin
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Famous quotes about life.
There are some quotes that are so famous we know them by heart, whether we know who said them or not. Their messages hit home in such a memorable way that they’ve been remixed and reimagined as we weave them into daily conversation.
These are life quotes that inspire personal epiphanies and the accompanying “ah-ha” slaps on the forehead.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone.”
Reba McEntire
Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”
John Wayne
Use this quote in cards and collages to celebrate someone making it past a hurdle, like a transitional period between jobs or relationships.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”
Abraham Lincoln
If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”
Napoleon Hill
The secret to getting ahead is getting started.”
Mark Twain
Well done is better than well said.”
Benjamin Franklin
This clever quote packs so much into so few characters that it’s perfect for banners and posters. It can serve as a mantra to always put actions behind our words.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
Walt Disney
You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.”
Maya Angelou
Keep calm and carry on.”
Winston S. Churchill
This phrase has been remixed in every imaginable way. It originated in Churchill’s WWII-era Wartime Propaganda department. Its history is part of its potency.
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
Vivian Greene
Life is either a great adventure or nothing.”
Helen Keller
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
Aristotle Onassis
We become what we think about most of the time.”
Earl Nightingale
Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
Rita Mae Brown
This meditative life quote has been credited to Albert Einstein and used famously by Narcotics Anonymous, but its first citation was in the 1983 book Sudden Death by Brown. It’s important to double check sources before you use quotes in posters, cards, or other projects.
It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop.”
Confucius
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Wayne Gretzky
Imagine waving this message around on a banner at a sporting event. You could change the course of a game if the right people take it to heart.
Do not let making a living prevent you from making a life.”
John Wooden
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
Henry Ford
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Beautiful quotes on life.
There are some beautiful things we only appreciate when we turn our focus to them. Beautiful quotes about life are sometimes “live life quotes” that remind us to make the best of the time we have. Others are life quotes that give something beautiful its due.
Choose from these beautiful quotes on life and picture how they could take shape in posters, cards, flyers, and letters.
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”
Dr. Seuss
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
Soren Kierkegaard
In order to write about life first you must live it.”
Ernest Hemingway
Whether it’s on social media, in writing projects, or even in letters to friends, some of us feel pressure to say something profound. Hemingway invites us to focus on living first, then let the big ideas follow.
You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”
William Faulkner
Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”
Leo Burnett
Use this quote on a poster as a reminder to show curiosity before shutting any doors that life opens.
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
Dolly Parton
Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”
Lao-Tze
Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”
Les Brown
Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”
Henry David Thoreau
When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.”
Walt Disney
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”
Andre Gide, Autumn Leaves
Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.”
Annette Funicello
Let Adobe Express help you use this short and beautiful life quote in a card.
Keep your face towards the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you.”
Walt Whitman
The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create.”
Leonard I. Sweet
This life quote can be remixed on posters and flyers with your own take on the future. Is the future something we forge like metalworkers? Is it something we implement like a business guru?
Take the time to enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
Robert Brault
Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
Gloria Steinem
The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
Winston S. Churchill
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”
Joseph Campbell
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.”
Margaret Fuller
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Funny life quotes.
Steven Hawking put it best when he said, “life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.” Funny life quotes are what we turn to when there’s nothing left but to laugh. Cute life quotes with a twist of irony, sarcasm, or even a touch of tragedy leave us laughing like there’s no tomorrow.
Funny life quotes are perfect for posters, cards, social media graphics and banners, or collages. We all need a little humor sometimes, and these witticisms on life are a go-to for a laugh.
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.”
Mark Twain
This funny quote can go in a card for someone facing a new and exciting change. How about a card for a friend starting a new job?
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Oscar Wilde
Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
Henry Ford
Reality continues to ruin my life.”
Bill Watterson,
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.”
Woody Allen
Life’s tough, but it’s tougher when you’re stupid.”
John Wayne
Is Wayne saying you should be grateful you aren’t stupid, or is he saying you are stupid? Use this funny life quote in a social media graphic or on a poster and let others decide.
Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.”
Stephen Hawking
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Albert Einstein
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”
Anne Lamott
My mama always said, life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.”
Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), Forrest Gump
Money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what is already there.”
Will Smith
This is the same effect of the comic book elixirs that end up making superheroes and supervillains. Smith was onto something.
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
Truman Capote
Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”
Margaret Mead
This funny life quote sets you up for a switcheroo. Break it up on the front and inside of a card to get a laugh.
Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.”
John Barrymore
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”
Oscar Wilde
If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
Jim Rohn
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.”
Charles R. Swindoll
I always cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food.”
W.C. Fields
Even miracles take a little time.”
The Fairy Godmother, Cinderella
Some funny life quotes veer into the cute life quotes category, and this one is a bit of both.
My ability to turn good news into anxiety is rivaled only by my ability to turn anxiety into chin acne.”
Tina Fey, Bossypants
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Short quotes about life.
Life is messy, but as Confucious said, we tend to overcomplicate it. Short life quotes give us a huge dose of inspiration in few words. In media that uses quotes — from posters to cards and social media graphics — short quotes are sometimes a “must” to stay under a certain word count. These short life quotes come in handy because they still pack as much punch as other life quotes.
Pick the short quotes about life that speak to you and let Adobe Express help use them in your next project, no experience required.
The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Socrates
The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”
Dalai Lama
Being happy never goes out of style.”
Lilly Pulitzer
Play with this short life quote in a card or on a banner. Better yet, use it on a flyer invitation to an event that’s sure to be fun for all who attend.
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
Mae West
Get busy living or get busy dying.”
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.”
George Clooney
Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.”
Confucius
Every moment is a fresh beginning.”
T.S. Eliot
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
Dr. Seuss
As you know, life is an echo; we get what we give.”
David DeNotaris
Depending whether you use this quote in a personal letter or on a poster or banner, its message can change based on what the reader feels s/he is “giving.”
A dead end is just a good place to turn around.~
Naomi Judd
Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.”
George Halas
Try to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.”
Maya Angelou
The visual metaphor in this catchy life quote makes it perfect for posters, banners, and cards.
I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”
Estée Lauder
The time is always right to do what is right.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”
Audrey Hepburn
Everything you can imagine is real.”
Pablo Picasso
Life is a long lesson in humility.”
James M. Barrie
Love the life you live. Live the life you love.”
Bob Marley
This short quote isn’t short on motivation. Put it in a poster and see how other people react.
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Where can you use quotes about life?
The delivery method of your life quotes impacts how they’re received. Think about how the following options change the quote you choose and the message you aim to send:
- Cards: these messages are usually on the personal side.
- Letters: these messages are even more personal.
- Posters: these favor inspirational life quotes and positive messages.
- Flyers: these usually have promotional purposes, so they use life quotes about shared experiences.
Exercise: Daily “live life quotes” challenge.
There are three ways you can use your favorite life quotes in your day-to-day.
Consider this your challenge to do exactly that. Save your favorite quotes about life or go through this list one-by-one and do any of the following each day:
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Write down a quote and jot down your own personal reflection on it. What does the quote make you think? How does it make you feel?
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Share a quote with someone you believe could do to see it.
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Turn a quote into something you can look at frequently (like a poster or social media banner).
Adobe Express can help.
Adobe Express has tons of templates and beginner-friendly design tools to put your favorite life quotes to work. If you want to use quotes about life in cards, letters, posters, banners, collages, flyers, or other creative projects, Adobe Express makes it as simple as picking a template and personalizing it, or making your own idea with easy-to-use tools. Whatever message you want to convey, Adobe Express brings it to life, no experience required.
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