Inspirational Quotes For Challenging Times

I’m not a fan of these types of posts. There are a million Instagram accounts built on sharing other people’s inspirational quotes. It’s not my thing. 

That’s because reading inspirational quotes is like eating a piece of chocolate. You get an instant boost of sugar that makes you feel good. You’re consuming empty calories. It’s useless. But that doesn’t mean chocolate isn’t nice.

Even though people use inspirational quotes for the wrong reasons, I love to remind myself of some of the great quotes in history. Sometimes you can read two sentences and that can totally change your mood. Sure, the benefits don’t last, but that’s not what quotes are for.

I look at them as reminders. I’ve made a collection of my favorite quotes. Every now and then I read them. It makes you feel good. We can all use that at times. Give it a try by reading the quotes below. I’ve added a few lines of my own to explain why I like them.

1. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

- Oscar Wilde -

2. “If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.”

- Eleanor Roosevelt -

3. “You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.”

- Maya Angelou -

4. “Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.”

- Stephen Hawking -

5. “Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”

- Ray Bradbury -

6. “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

- Søren Kierkegaard -

7. “The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference.”

- Elie Wiesel -

8 “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”

- Lucille Ball -

9. “We become what we think about all day long”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson -

10. “The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

- Bruce Lee -

11. “What you think of yourself is much more important than what others think of you.”

- Seneca -

12. “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

- Anne Frank -

13. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, “I’m possible!”

- Audrey Hepburn -

14. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

- Gandhi -

15. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”

– Henry David Thoreau -

16. “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”

- Marcus Aurelius

17. “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

- Warren Buffet -

18. “It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking.”

- Julius Caesar -

19. “Knowledge is the antidote to fear.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson -

20. “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”

– William James -