50 Motivational/Inspirational Quotes & Proverbs To Lift Your Spirit

Being extremely unhappy is not an easy existence. Sometimes we start to feel uninspired, blue or just downright depressed. It wasn’t that long ago when I was as low as a person could get…the very bottom of the barrel. The difference between then and now is that now I can see a light at the top of the barrel. Thinking back to those dark days of the worst part of my PTSD is scary and I start to feel that my happiness and sanity was stolen. Actually, the essence of me was taken away in just a few brief moments.

During those harrowing months, I often found comfort in motivational and inspiration quotes, as well as ancient proverbs. Because they are short and usually just one sentence, it is easy to grasp the meaning of the thought shared in quotes and proverbs. It is also easy to remember them throughout the day and they can provide comfort when it gets rough.

Is It Motivational Or Inspirational?

There is a difference between something being motivational or inspirational. Let me define them both for you.

Motivational – Something that motivates; an inducement, reason, or goal.
Motivate – To provide with an incentive or a reason for doing something; impel.

Inspirational – Providing or intended to convey inspiration.
Inspiration – The excitement of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity. Something, such as a sudden creative act or idea, that is inspired

As I see it, motivation is something external that causes you to want to take a particular action and inspiration is something internal that causes a change in your spirit, soul or heart. Also, motivation is short-lived and in the present while inspiration is long-term and looks at the big picture of life.

Often you can be inspired to be motivated. People use the words interchangeably because both cause an action of change…good change.

The Difference Between A Quote And Proverb

There is a difference between a quote and a proverb. Let’s start with the definitions:

Quote – To repeat or copy (words from a source such as a book), usually with acknowledgment of the source.
Proverb – A short pithy saying in frequent and widespread use that expresses a basic truth or practical precept.

So a quote can be repeating anything that has been written or said, whereas a proverb is a positive basic truth. A quote can be positive, negative or indifferent.

50 Motivational/Inspirational Quotes & Proverbs

I’ve gathered 50 motivational and inspirational quotes and proverbs to lift your spirit. I know that some days are super wonderful while others are filled with fear, unhappiness, pain or basically blah. So maybe the next time you are having one of those not so good days, you can click over and feel inspired or become motivated to make changes in your life.

I know that changing any aspect of my character or life takes effort. Change is not easy, but it is often necessary. I have quotes all over the place to inspire and motivate me – in my office at work, on my desk, keychain, desk at home, t-shirt, mug, wall plaque and many other places. I surround myself with positive words because they CAN make a difference in my attitude and the way I feel or react. Subconsciously, my brain reads them all the time and I believe it influences my conscious actions or reactions.

I will hush now and let you enjoy the nature photos with the wonderful, timeless words of wisdom, comfort, motivation and inspiration to lift your spirit, calm your soul and comfort your heart…

1. “Nobody is born wise.” ~ African proverb
2. “Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember, the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.” ~ Zig Ziglar
3. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ~ Winston Churchill
4. “For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles.” ~ Socrates
5. “Little by little one walks far.” ~ Peruvian Proverb
6. “That inspiration comes, does not depend on me. The only thing I can do is make sure it catches me working.” ~ Pablo Picasso
7. “Knowledge without wisdom is like water in the sand.” ~ Guinean proverb
8. “Success comes from within, not from without.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
9. “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you are absolutely right.” ~ Henry Ford
10. “Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.” ~ Albert Einstein

11. “Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.” ~ Pablo Picasso
12. “Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
13. “You learn how to cut down trees by cutting them down. ~ Bateke proverb”
14. “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ~ Winston Churchill
15. “The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
16. “If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.” ~ Buddhist Proverb
17. “To live long and achieve happiness, cultivate the art of radiating happiness.” ~ Malcolm S. Forbes
18. “A patient person never misses a thing. ~ Swahili proverb”
19. “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?'” ~ George Bernard Shaw
20. “Everything in creation has its appointed painter or poet and remains in bondage like the princess in the fairy tale ’til its appropriate liberator comes to set it free.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

21. “Others may write from the head, but he writes from the heart, and the heart will always understand him.” ~ Washington Irving
22. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ~ Confucius
23. “Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing; but it is something you should do on a regular basis.” ~ Zig Ziglar
24. “Never allow the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game!” ~ Babe Ruth
25. “Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
26. “If you do not enter the tiger’s cave, you will not catch its cub.” ~ Japanese saying
27. “Optimists enrich the present, enhance the future, challenge the improbable and attain the impossible.” ~ William Arthur Ward
28. “I dream my painting and I paint my dream.” ~ Vincent van Gogh
29. “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
30. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” ~ Socrates

31. “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe
32. “Continuance is power and strength.” ~ Japanese saying
33. “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” ~ Henry Ford
34. “Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
35. “You can only enter half way into the dark forest before you begin to come out the other side.” ~ Chinese Proverb
36. “Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.” ~ Winston Churchill
37. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” ~ Helen Keller
38. “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” ~ Helen Keller
39. “Give thanks for what you are today and go on fighting for what you gone be tomorrow.” ~ William Shakespeare
40. “The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it.” ~ Michaelangelo

41. “A nod, you know, is as good as a wink to a blind horse.” ~ English Proverb
42. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” ~ Robert F. Kennedy
43. “The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.” ~ Vince Lombardi Jr.
44. “Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
45. “Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners.” ~ William Shakespeare
46. “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” ~ Booker T. Washington
47. “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” ~ English Proverb
48. “Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
49. “Go as far as you can see and you will see further.” ~ Zig Ziglar
50. “Yesterday is gone, but today is a new adventure!” ~TheRedheadRiter

Which quote or proverb is your favorite from the list? How about which quote or proverb is your favorite whether it is on the list or not?