By Maxime Lagacé
Maxime is the founder of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm and peaceful mind. Learn more about him on his about page.
Here are 200 of the best quotes to live by I could find. Hope they will inspire you as much as they did for me. Enjoy!
Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. Mary Oliver
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. Nelson Henderson
What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the ordinary man seeks is in others. Confucius (Analects, Amazon book)
If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. Rick Riorda
Would you live with ease, do what you ought, and not what you please. Benjamin Franklin
Our purpose here is to wake up to the truth of who we are and all of the truth around us. Aubrey Marcus
Peace is possible, lasting happiness is not. Once you realize that, you stop seeking and you finally relax. Maxime Lagacé
Your life can change if you do the hard thing, make the hard decision, have the hard conversation, have total honesty. Avoid contours and go straight to the point. Maxime Lagacé
Live your life as you see fit. That’s not selfish. Selfish is to demand that others live their lives as you see fit. Anthony de Mello
The greatest use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it. William James
Your goal in life is to find out the people who need you the most, to find out the business that needs you the most, to find the project and the art that needs you the most. There is something out there just for you. Naval Ravikant
My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do. Francine Jay
One day you will realize that material things mean nothing. All that matters is the well-being and happiness of the people you love in your life. Ken Rutkowski
With whatever you’re doing in life… if you know it’s true, if you know it’s real, you have to do it… That’s where the magic is. Kamal Ravikant
As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life. Buddha
Related quotes and topics: confidence, dreams, life is short
The Best Quotes To Live By
For better or worse, what you allow will continue. Paulo Coelho
Only give a fuck about what is true and important. Mark Manson
Life is not a competition, it’s a game. It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about all the fun we can have before it ends. Richard Feynman
The certainty you’re craving makes you suffer more than the uncertainty you’re avoiding. Maxime Lagacé
Don’t rush through your life. Spend time appreciating right where you are. @dailyzen
To investigate and analyze, with understanding and logic, the principles we ought to live by. Not to display anger or other emotions. To be free of passion and yet full of love. Marcus Aurelius
Avoid the false path. A false path in life is generally something we are attracted to for the wrong reasons — money, fame, attention, and so on. Robert Greene
A busy life seemingly chooses us, but we get to intentionally choose a full life by identifying what matters and getting rid of what doesn’t. Courtney Carver (See also: bemorewithless.com)
If you are always getting ready for the next thing, how will you ever enjoy this thing? Courtney Carver
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson
Life is simple, but not easy. The problem is we want life to be easy, which makes it complicated. Shane Parrish
Don’t worry about death, pay attention, read a lot, give up control, embrace imperfection. Maria Popova
It’s the small habits, how you spend your morning, how you talk to yourself, what you read, what you watch, who you share your energy with, that will change your life. Thibaut (@kpaxs)
Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Jane Kenyon
Most of us have spent our lives caught up in plans, expectations, ambitions for the future; in regrets, guilt or shame about the past. To come into the present is to stop the war. Jack Kornfield
To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight. E.E. Cummings
I saw that it was the artificial needs of life that made me a slave; the real needs of life were few. William James Dawson (The Quest of the Simple Life, Amazon book)
There is no destination. This is life, this moment. Savor and appreciate it. @dailyzen
People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive… so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. Joseph Campbell
The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today… The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately. Seneca
Forging a new path is far more satisfying than following a map will ever be. James Pierce
To know precisely what you want is one of the great treasures in life. James Pierce
Simple rule to live by: Be a good human. Anthony Pompliano
Part 2. Quotes To Live By That Are…
The Most Famous Quotes To Live By (Einstein, Angelou, Camus, etc.)
Build a life. Don’t live one, build one. Ashton Kutcher
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity. Albert Einstein
Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier. Albert Schweitzer
We are here on earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom. Rosa Parks
I can be changed by what happens to me but I refuse to be reduced by it. Maya Angelou
Be here now. Be in the moment. The now is the greatest moment of our lives and it just keeps getting better. The bad parts the boring parts the parts with high anxiety. Embrace every moment for its greatness. This is life. This is the greatest movie we will ever see. Kanye West
I have come to accept life as a process, and am satisfied that in my ever-going process, I am constantly discovering, expanding, finding the cause of my ignorance, in martial art and especially in life. In short, to be real. Bruce Lee
Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. Bertrand Russell
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. Benjamin Franklin
Success must include two things: the development of an individual to his utmost potentiality and a contribution of some kind to one’s world. Eleanor Roosevelt
Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Theodore Roosevelt
Every day, you have the power to choose our better history — by opening your hearts and minds, by speaking up for what you know is right. Michelle Obama
Do we settle for the world as it is, or do we work for the world as it should be? Michelle Obama
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. Dr. Seuss
The only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at something they consider important. Abraham Maslow
Tone your wants and tastes low down enough, and make much of negatives, and of mere daylight and the skies. Walt Whitman
Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness. Leo Tolstoy
Don’t practice things that you do not want to become. Jordan Peterson
Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. Albert Camus
Short Quotes To Live By
One-liners, short quotes to live by quotes, sayings, thoughts and captions for your bio, social status, self-talk, motto, mantra, signs, posters, wallpapers, backgrounds.
Take fun seriously. Thibaut
Life is for service. Fred Rogers
Whatever you do, do it well. Walt Disney
Take care of this moment. Mahatma Gandhi
Stay the course with courage. D.Muthukrishnan
Trust the timing of your life. Payal Kadakia
Let your life unfold naturally. @dailyzen
Don’t be afraid to be an idealist. Maria Popova
Change the world by being yourself. Amy Poehler
Order your soul. Reduce your wants. Augustine of Hippo
Fate shuffles the cards and we play. Arthur Schopenhauer
You never fail until you stop trying. Albert Einstein
Your urge to control life controls you. Mooji
Embrace the glorious mess that you are. Elizabeth Gilbert
Give yourself a gift: the present moment. Marcus Aurelius
Make space for more life, not more stuff. Courtney Carver
Be the peace you wish to see in the world. Martin Luther King Jr
Never regret anything that made you smile. Mark Twain
See life as a game, but don’t keep a scoreboard. Maxime Lagacé
Spend your time doing only what you can uniquely do. Naval Ravikant
Where you spend your attention is where you spend your life. James Clear
Each day, make sure to do something that is your idea of bliss. Rhonda Byrne
Inspirational Quotes To Live By
Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. Aristotle
Leave something of sweetness and substance in the mouth of the world. Emily Levine
Don’t mind what they think. Just do your own thing, at your own pace, in your own style. Maxime Lagacé
None of us know what will happen. Don’t spend time worrying about it. Make the most beautiful thing you can. Try to do that every day. That’s it. Laurie Anderson
You are only as mentally tough as your life demands you to be. An easy life fashions a mind that can only handle ease. A challenging life builds a mind that can handle challenge. Like a muscle that atrophies without use, mental strength fades unless it is tested. When life doesn’t challenge you, challenge yourself. James Clear
Do you know what the best moment of your life is? The very moment you are living right now. Because this is the only moment you truly have, all other moments are imaginary. Give it all to every moment you live. Don’t save it for some other time because there is no other time. Kunal (@CrazyPolymath)
You only get one shot at this thing called life, so why wouldn’t you put your entire being into it to create the best story ever written? Scott Barry Kaufman
When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life. It means fear is no longer a dominant factor in what you do and no longer prevents you from taking action to initiate change. Eckhart Tolle
Your long-term happiness and fulfillment depend on your ability to fulfill your soul’s unique purpose and to fill the place in the world that only you can fill, making the contribution that only you can make. Rod Stryker
Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches… devote your income and labor to others… re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul. Walt Whitman
I’ve decided I’m going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty is just too good to pass up. Christopher McCandless (Into the Wild)
To be human is to leap toward our highest moral potentialities, only to trip over the foibled actualities of our reflexive patterns. To be a good human is to keep leaping anyway. Maria Popova
Life is less about how old you are and more about when you decide to live. Thibaut
Be awake enough to see where you are at any given time and how that is beautiful and has poetry inside. Jeff Buckley
One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now. Paulo Coelho
Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own. Michelle Obama
Want more inspiring quotes? Please check out Positive Quotes That Will Make Your Day Wonderful
See also: How to Live a Meaningful Life: 10 Inspiring Ideas to Find Meaning (lifehack.org)
Funny Quotes To Live By
Living doesn’t cost much, but showing off does. Jeffrey D. Sachs
Thank God I didn’t have a fast forward button for life, or I’d be dead by now. Naval Ravikant
No one is more dangerously insane than one who is sane all the time: he is like a steel bridge without flexibility, and the order of his life is rigid and brittle. Alan Watts
Americans have figured out how to work, Europeans have figured out how to live. Justin Kan (twitter.com)
Life doesn’t have a pause button. Life doesn’t have a rewind button. Life doesn’t have a fast-forward button. Life has only one button: Play! Thibaut
I would rather risk wearing out than rusting out. Theodore Roosevelt
If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. Mark Twain
Deep Quotes To Live By
Do what you have to do. In the meantime, accept what is. Eckhart Tolle
You are only entitled to the action, never to its fruits. Bhagavad Gita
We are really alive when we live in non-belief. Byron Katie
Life’s three best teachers: heartbreak, empty pocket, failures. Haemin Sunim
Situations are powerless if you don’t react. D. Muthukrishnan
The only limits for tomorrow are the doubts we have today. Pittacus Lore
No one owes you anything. No one cares if you fail. No one is coming to save you. Jack Butcher
Every day spent half-asleep, living half-heartedly is like a gift left unopened, an absurd waste of your life. @zen_fi
On your very last day, you’d trade everything you have for another sunny day. Just like the one you take for granted today. @zen_fi
Never postpone a good deed which you can do now, because death does not choose whether you have or haven’t done the things you should have done. Death waits for nobody and nothing. It has neither enemies, nor friends. Indian proverb
If we can advance the knowledge of the world — if we can do things that expand the scope and scale of consciousness — then we’re better able to ask the right questions and become more enlightened, and that’s really the only way forward. Elon Musk
The perfected future never arrives. Life is full of seemingly endless trouble, and then life ends. Find peace in the imperfect present. @TheStoicEmperor
When all of your free time is spent catching up or getting ahead, that’s not free time. Courtney Carver
If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will. Greg McKeown
Nothing ever goes as planned – build this into your plans. @dailyzen
Meaning comes when you take nothing for granted. Maxime Lagacé
See also: How Meditation Helps You in Being Better in Life (lifehack.org)
Wise Quotes To Live By
See the world as it is, not as you wish it would be. Emily Lockhart
Nothing happens ahead of its time, and what needs to happen always happens. Byron Katie
Seeing your own smallness is called insight. Honoring your own tenderness is called strength. Lao Tzu
We can cultivate a deeper focus, but it must start with a recognition that our time is precious and limited. Leo Babauta
It’s better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way. Alan Watts
Learn to stay alone, unfazed, doing nothing. If you can do that daily, you’re indeed a wise man. Maxime Lagacé
To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control. Martha Nussbaum
Be empty. Let thoughts and sensations flow through you. Don’t cling to anything. Don’t let anything stick to you. Offer no resistance. Let things come, let them go. Remain unconcerned. You have nothing to do with the ever changing movie of life. You’re the ever present witness. @TheAncientSage
Whenever I see a person suffering from nervousness, I think, well, what can he expect? If he had not set his sights on things outside man’s control, his nervousness would end at once. Epictetus
No use of speed if you are going in the wrong direction. Choose the right strategy for you and move at your own pace. It is the direction and not the speed which decides your success. D. Muthukrishnan
Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less. Marie Curie
You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way. Walter Hagen
Systematically remove things from your life to learn if they are actually important. Angela Jiang
The young are truthful, the old kind, the wise both. Maxime Lagacé
See also: Life Lessons (jamesclear.com)
Part 3. Quotes To Live By About…
Quotes To Live By About Life, Learning
Living a life of integrity pays off, but it takes a very long time. Naval Ravikant
You don’t have problems. You have challenges. Simple reframe to prime you to deal with the sh*t of the day. Ed Latimore
Be transparent as possible. Stop setting plays. Stop playing chess with life. Make decisions based on love not fear. Kanye West
When we eliminate effort, we eliminate life’s pleasures. Thibaut
When it’s tough, remember you’ll learn and grow. When it’s really tough, focus on your next step. Maxime Lagacé
You can’t learn from remembering. You can’t learn from guessing. You can learn only from moving forward at the rate you are moved, as brightness into brightness. Sarah Manguso
Man is like a canoeist directing his course through waves. One after another he meets them. They may be heavy and powerful or they may be light ruffles of a sunshiny day in midsummer. He must ride them all. Karl De Schweinitz
How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to mind the events of the whole day and consider exactly what has been good and bad. Then, without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve quite a lot in the course of time. Anne Frank
It doesn’t matter how much money you’re willing to pay on your deathbed, you’re not going to be able to buy back more time. Tim Ferriss
Simplicity is an important element in all great art, for it means the removal of all details that are irrelevant to a given purpose. It is one of the arts within the great art of life. Richard Gregg
The fool believes his way is always correct; the wise man allows room for doubt. Jack Peach
Or perhaps one can learn only by one’s own mistakes. The essential thing is to learn. Learning and living. Eleanor Roosevelt
How you are living now is how you are living your entire life. Tomorrow won’t be any different. @zen_fi
You are the author of your life. If you don’t like how it goes, write it differently. Iva Kenaz
Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best. H. Jackson Brown Jr
Quotes To Live By About Happiness, Unhappiness
The trick is to maintain a kind of naive amazement at each instant of experience. Sarah Bakewell
Envy those who see beauty in everything in the world. Egon Schiele
The more you seek certainty, the more insecure you would be. D. Muthukrishnan
Progress is when you focus more on your dream than reality. Happiness is when you accept reality more than your dreams. Maxime Lagacé
When we try to juggle everything, we can’t enjoy anything. Courtney Carver
Being generous is one of the quickest paths to happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction. Joshua Becker
Society has sold you the greatest of lies, that the goal of life is to become “happy.” This one chase has cost you your life. Kapil Gupta
If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves. Pablo Neruda
The habit of looking to the future and thinking that the whole meaning of the present lies in what it will bring forth is a pernicious one. Bertrand Russell
Don’t wait until there is no suffering in the world to be happy. The world is as it is. People are the way they are. To reject it would be to wilfully engage in ignorance. Once you accept the world and find some peace within yourself, feel free to change anything you like. Thibaut
While you are busy thinking about the things you wish you had, The current moment that you do have slips away. Kunal (@CrazyPolymath)
The supreme value is not the future but the present. Whoever builds a house for future happiness builds a prison for the present. Octavio Paz
If one is shining a bright spotlight on here and now, one cannot see the past or the future anymore. Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
If you approach life as though you have something to gain from it, you will never stop searching for things you do not have. James Pierce
Simplicity doesn’t change who you are, it brings you back to who you are. Courtney Carver
Chasing peace keeps one from peace. James Pierce
Related article: Zen Quotes That Will Make You Feel Peaceful
See also: 6 Daily Habits of Happy People (chopra.com)
Quotes To Live By About Friendship
All you have is what you are, and what you give. Ursula K. Le Guin
Don’t trade your authenticity for approval. Kanye West
When people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them. Maria Popova
Be generous with your time and your resources and with giving credit and, especially, with your words. Maria Popova (Related topic: kindness)
The older I get, the more I understand that it’s okay to live a life others don’t understand. Jenna Woginrich
A life lived according to the words of others is a life of imprisonment. James Pierce
If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. Booker T. Washington
There are few things more liberating in life than giving up the need to be liked by everyone. Thibaut
It has never been about quantity, but about the quality. Real friends care and they show it. Maxime Lagacé
If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others. Michelle Obama
Time, as far as my father was concerned, was a gift you gave to other people. Michelle Obama
To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. Eleanor Roosevelt
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt
See also: 5 Ways Meditation Can Improve Your Life and Make You Happier (tinybuddha.com)
Quotes To Live By About Love, Relationships
It is beautiful to express love and even more beautiful to feel it. Dejan Stojanovic
Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now. Jack Kerouac
Poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. John Keating (Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society)
Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching. Satchel Paige
If you want real connection and honest answers, check your heart more than you check your phone. Courtney Carver
Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back. Arthur Rubinstein
Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. Kahlil Gibran
Trust your intuition and be guided by love. Charles Eisenstein
Chase nothing. Avoid nothing. Love is all about accepting. Maxime Lagacé
Gentleness is powerful. When we use gentle and loving speech, we are able to transform anger, fear, resentment and suspicion in our communication. The whole intention of loving speech is to understand the other person and to be understood. Thich Nhat Hanh
If you can fall in love again and again… if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from growing sour, surly, bitter and cynical… you’ve got it half licked. Henry Miller
Plant your garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. Jose Luis Borges
You can only go with loves in this life. Ray Bradbury
Quotes To Live By About Work
Underneath the excess and the extra, the busyness and the chaos, your life is waiting. Courtney Carver
I finally figured it out. Instead of working so hard to make ends meet, work on having fewer ends. Courtney Carver
Preoccupation with efficacy is the main obstacle to a poetic, elegant, robust and heroic life. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Practice doing what you need to do even when you don’t want to. Get it done first so you don’t have to keep thinking about it. Sam Altman
Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses. Kobe Bryant
The young are ambitious, the smart lazy, the wise playful. Maxime Lagacé
If you’re not doing some things that are crazy, then you’re doing the wrong things. Larry Page
It’s not the hours you put in, it’s what you put into your hours that counts. Thibaut
A successful life is not about optimizing the work-life balance, but about minimizing the work-life difference. Sven Schnieders
Turn your time into skill. Your skill into authority. Your authority into an audience. Your audience into an income. Your income into freedom. And your freedom into others’. Sahil Lavingia
All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. Jorge Luis Borges
The most powerful force in the universe is compounded attention. Anyone can focus on meaningful actions every now and then, but hammering away on what matters day after day is what delivers exceptional results. What you focus on becomes your life. James Clear
Do one thing at a time. Give yourself the gift of being focused and centered. @dailyzen
If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough. Mario Andretti
Quotes To Live By About Success
Do the right things, do the hard things daily. Maxime Lagacé
Success is created by doing the basics, to a high standard, consistently. Thibaut
The secret of success is… to be fully awake to everything about you. Jackson Pollock
The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving. Oliver Wendell Holmes
Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well. Jack London
Failure is a feeling long before it’s an actual result. Michelle Obama
Don’t ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn’t. Michelle Obama
Becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end. Michelle Obama
I have clearly written down a description of my definite chief aim in life, and I will never stop trying until I shall have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment. Bruce Lee
Never met anyone truly talented claiming whatever they were doing was easy. Only the mediocre live in the idea that they are talented. Excellence requires a lot of humility. @orangebook_
Half of success is about avoiding mistakes. Avoid debt. Avoid stress. Avoid being a jerk. Avoid lack of sleep. Avoid gaining weight. Avoid insecure people. Avoid reacting to stupidity. Avoid mindless consuming. Avoid staying indoors all day. @orangebook_
How to make a really good painting: make a few hundred really bad paintings. How to write a really good article: write a few dozen really bad articles. How to succeed: fail a lot. Sahil Lavingia
If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal — that is your success. Henry David Thoreau
Being truly wealthy does not require having many things; rather, it requires having what one longs for. Wealth is not an absolute. It is relative to desire. Alain de Botton (Status Anxiety, Amazon book)
My life is optimized for progress and improvement because that’s the foundation of fulfillment. Tom Bilyeu
Obstacles are those things you see when you take your eyes off the goal. Henry Ford
Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve. Napoleon Hill
To leave the world richer — that is the ultimate success. Eleanor Roosevelt
Part 4. Conclusion
Breathe. If you feel overwhelmed, breathe. It will calm you and release the tensions. If you are worried about something coming up, or caught up in something that already happened, breathe. It will bring you back to the present. If you are moving too fast, breathe. It will remind you to slow down, and enjoy life more. Breathe, and enjoy each moment of this life. They’re too fleeting and few to waste. Leo Babauta
Call to action: Read Peaceful Simplicity: How to Live a Life of Contentment (zenhabits.net)
Table Of Contents
Part 1
Top 15 Images
Best Quotes
Part 2
Quotes To Live By That ARE
Famous
Short
Inspirational
Funny
Deep
Wise
Part 3
Quotes To Live By ABOUT
Life
Happiness
Friendship
Love
Work
Success
Part 4
Conclusion
