31 Best Inspirational Quotes That Will Make You Grateful

Feeling a bit lazy? Lack of motivation to go about your daily tasks? If you’re in need of a bit of inspiration, we’ve got just the thing for you; Inspirational Quotes! When I’m feeling not up to the task of the day, I find reading inspirational quotes to be a great way to get myself in gear.

Inspirational quotes can come from anywhere really; A short story, a poem, novel, or just from our daily conversations. Some of the greatest inspirational quotes have come from literature, and we’ve sifted through hundreds to bring to you the best inspirational quotes to get yourself in gear!

Continue reading for some of the greatest inspirational quotes you’ll likely ever read:

31 Of the Best Inspirational Quotes Ever Written:

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT LIFE

1. “When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
–Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

2. “If you’re reading this…
Congratulations, you’re alive.
If that’s not something to smile about,
then I don’t know what is.”
–Chad Sugg, Monsters Under Your Head

3. “It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”
–Vincent Van Gogh

4. “And still, after all this time,
The sun never says to the earth,
‘You owe me.’

Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.”
–Hafiz

5. “You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That’s the only thing you should be trying to control.”
–Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

6. “Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.”
–Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT LOVING EACH OTHER

7. “If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”
–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

8. “I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand & the Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep & there are no words for that.”
Brian Andreas, Story People: Selected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas

9. “The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. Maybe they always have been and will be. Maybe we’ve lived a thousand lives before this one and in each of them we’ve found each other. And maybe each time, we’ve been forced apart for the same reasons. That means that this goodbye is both a goodbye for the past ten thousand years and a prelude to what will come.”
Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT PURPOSE:

10. “Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals.
If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.”
–Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

11. “Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.”
–Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

12. “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”
–Jordan Belfort

13. “For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.”
–Neil deGrasse Tyson

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT LETTING GO OF REGRET

14. “Tomorrow will be better.”
“But what if it’s not?” I asked.
“Then you say it again tomorrow. Because it might be. You never know, right? At some point, tomorrow will be better.”
Morgan Matson, Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour

15. “Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind.”
Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

16. “Don’t let the expectations and opinions of other people affect your decisions. It’s your life, not theirs. Do what matters most to you; do what makes you feel alive and happy. Don’t let the expectations and ideas of others limit who you are. If you let others tell you who you are, you are living their reality — not yours. There is more to life than pleasing people. There’s much more to life than following others’ prescribed path. There is so much more to life than what you experience right now. You need to decide who you are for yourself. Become a whole being. Adventure.”
Roy T. Bennett

17. “I’ve been in love before, it’s like a narcotic. At first it brings the euphoria of complete surrender. The next day you want more. You’re not addicted yet, but you like the sensation, and you think you can still control things. You think about the person you love for two minutes then forget them for three hours. But then you get used to that person, and you begin to be completely dependent on them. Now you think about him for three hours and forget him for two minutes. If he’s not there, you feel like an addict who can’t get a fix. And just as addicts steal and humiliate themselves to get what they need, you’re willing to do anything for love.”- By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept”
Paulo Coelho

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE ABOUT SELF-WORTH

18. “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
Sharon Salzberg

19. “Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”
Susan Sontag

20. “The animal merely makes a bed, which he warms with his body in a sheltered place; but man, having discovered fire, boxes up some air in a spacious apartment, and warms that, instead of robbing himself, makes that his bed, in which he can move about divested of more cumbrous clothing, maintain a kind of summer in the midst of winter, and by means of windows even admit the light and with a lamp lengthen out the day.”
Henry David Thoreau

21. “There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask “What if I fall?”
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?”
Erin Hanson

MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT LIFE LESSONS

22. “Why do they always teach us that it’s easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It’s the hardest thing in the world–to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want.”
Ayn Rand

23. “I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me.”
Hermann Hesse, Demian. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend

24. “The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT FINDING MEANING

25. “Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.”
Hunter S. Thompson

26. “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

27. “Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.”
Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT THE QUEST FOR HAPPINESS:

28. “Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around. Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t respect, appreciate, and value you. Spend your life with people who make you smile, laugh, and feel loved.”
Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

29. “Do not set aside your happiness. Do not wait to be happy in the future. The best time to be happy is always now.”
Roy T. Bennett

30. “Sometimes you have to lose all you have to find out who you truly are.”
Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

31. “The more you feed your mind with positive thoughts, the more you can attract great things into your life.”
Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE BEST INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

After reading through these 31 great inspirational quotes, you’ll likely have found plenty of motivation to get going with your day’s activities. Literary quotes, and especially inspirational quotes are imbued with great wisdom and can be used as an excellent tool to get things done when you’re just not feeling up to the task.