113 Thought Provoking Quotes

Learning From Failure and Appreciating Life

Even our setbacks can teach us something worth remembering.

I'm grateful for the failures I've had because those failures made me more successful.
Derek C. Doepker

Gratitude is the act of being thankful for what you have. It is the emotional expression of appreciation for what is present in your life.
Janeen Latini, Love to Lead. Lead to Love

A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours.
Tillotson

Being knowledgeable of another person's culture and practices can help you along the way in terms of reading their body language.
Josh David, People Skills Guide

Your family, your real family, will always welcome you home with open arms. Anyone who says you can lose their love isn't really family, no matter what blood says.
Seanan McGuire

Our parents bring us into the world, but in the end, we are responsible for what we become.
Kahlil Gibran

But "If" is never in the way when Destiny is planned by God himself, who does not change
James Henry Thomas

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
Haruki Murakami

My days are better with you in my life.
Robert Rivers

Happiness, Gratitude, and the Choices We Make

Our thoughts and choices shape the way we experience each day.

Take control of your happiness. Learn how to make the decisions that will continue to elevate your mind and your spirit.
Jason Harvey

Never forget those who have helped you over the years, the people who have made a difference in your success.
Catherine Pulsifer

Gardening is a labour full of tranquility and satisfaction; natural and instructive, and as such contributes to the most serious contemplation, experience, health and longevity.
John Evelyn

Be mindful of your actions, and what you portray - A positive role model is that what you convey?
Catherine Pulsifer, Eyes Of The World

The world needs less heat and more light. It needs less of the heat of anger, revenge, retaliation, and more of the light of ideas, faith, courage, aspiration, joy, love and hope.
Wilfred Peterson

We reap what we sow so I’m planting that seed, to help others who are in need.
Catherine Pulsifer, Share God's Blessings

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success
Samuel Smiles, Learn Wisdom

Faith, Reading, and What Matters Most

Faith and reflection help us recognize the blessings in ordinary life.

There is nothing to worry much about life. God always hears my prayers and sees my tears.
James Jason

Searching for miraculous proof doesn't have so far to go, these miracles can be seen all around us if we only open up our souls.
Catherine Pulsifer, Miracles Exist Today

The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.
Alan Bennett

Ah! what would the world be to us if the Children were no more? We should dread the desert behind us worse than the dark before.
Henry W. Longfellow

Who digs a well, or plants a seed...enters partnership with God.
Edwin Markham

When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with it fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.
Thomas Carlyle

Why should I long for the world and its sorrows, when in that home o'er the sea, millions are singing the wonderful story, heaven holds all to me.
Tillitt S. Teddlie, Heaven Holds All To Me

The roads of happiness are not the selfish roads of pleasure seeking,
Edgar A. Guest, The Roads of Happiness

Success, Wisdom, and the Power of Words

Success grows through persistence, understanding, and the courage to speak.

. . . successful people tend to believe the cause for the failure can be improved through effort, even if it seems impossible.
Jonathan Harnum, Practice Like This

You can get lost in any library, no matter the size. But the more lost you are, the more things you'll find.
Millie Florence

If there was any great lesson in life it was this: No battle was ever won with silence.
Shannon L. Alder

The moral is, don't be too frank, it gits you nuthin' at the bank, just keep your thoughts beneath your hood, I'm tellin' you for your own good.
Berton Braley

Never fail with careful thought, to think before we speak;
Never fail with kind words, friendship to seek.
Author Unknown

You cannot be truly humble, unless you truly believe that life can and will go on without you.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Risen? yes, alive forever, Christ, of endless life the giver.
Ellwood Haines Stokes, He Is Risen

Kindness, Friendship, and Thoughtful Living

Small acts of kindness and careful words can change someone’s day.

Today before you think of saying an unkind word– think of someone who can’t speak.
Author Unknown

The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love.
Henry Miller

Beliefs such as religion and politics, as well as many other views on life, were taught to you by your family.
Sandra Leon, Success And Happiness

You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything.
Helen Keller, The Story of My Life

To be a friend a man should remember that we are human magnets; that like attracts like, and that what we give we get.
Wilferd Peterson, You My Friend

In order to help someone, it’s always important to understand what kinds of things will be most helpful to that person in particular.
Nicole Raheja, Redefining Positive

Smiles, Change, and the People We Love

Relationships and change remind us to notice what truly matters.

People smile for all sorts of reasons, only one of which is to signal happiness.
Michael Nir, Influence

Imagine if no progress was made -if change just made us all afraid.
Catherine Pulsifer, For Everything There Is A Season

Mother's Day is a time to reflect upon the motherhood of us all.
Jane Gilgun, Stories and Poems About Mothers

The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds.
Nicholas Sparks

Life’s Journey, Courage, and Growth

The journey itself offers lessons we might otherwise miss.

"Is the journey so important or the getting there?" And thus it's always been that question pondered down the ages
John McLeod, It's The Journey That's Important...

Don't rest on your laurels. Never be satisfied with being great. Don't ever think you've arrived. Never stop practicing.
Jerry Jenkins Twelve Things I Want my Kids to Remember

But the best courage man has ever shown is daring to cut loose and think alone.
Charlotte Perkins Stetson, Heroism

There is a gold mine within you from which you can extract everything you need to live life gloriously, joyously and abundantly.
Joseph Murphy, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

Facing Fear and Valuing What Matters

Life is short, and our attention is one of our greatest gifts.

Swallow your fears, realise that life is short.
Rebecca Jane, Mindfulness My Way

When there is something you think you are not getting or not getting enough of, give it!
JoAnn Janson, Define Yourself and Discover Your Destiny!

Thinking of you on a cold winter day brings warmth to my heart
And, on a hot summer day a refreshing breeze you impart.
Catherine Pulsifer

The importance of a home it is impossible to exaggerate. What is liberty without it? What is education in schools without it? The greatness of no nation can be secure that is not based upon a pure home life.
Arnold Toynbee

To live is to abide within the chilly coordinates of constant choice, choices about what to value, about how to live our lives, about ethics.
Gordon Marino, Ethics

Children, Faith, and Finding Joy

The example we set can influence the people who look up to us.

Children learn best by conscious imitation.
Fhilcar Faunillan, Smart Parenting

What will happen when you die? Up to heaven do you think you will fly? God gives us all a choice
Catherine Pulsifer, See You In Heaven?

.. we have found that the best advice we ever gave or received was given in less than a minute ... the guidance that really made a difference did not come in the form of long, complex theories—it came in short, meaningful insights.
Ken Blanchard, One Minute Mentoring

Joy is not in things; it is in us.
Richard Wagner

You never can tell what your thoughts will do in bringing you hate or love, for thoughts are things, and their airy wings are swifter than carrier doves.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.
Jean Jacques Rousseau

Learning, Decisions, and Moving Forward

The decisions we make today can open doors tomorrow.

Study while others are sleeping. Decide while others are delaying.
William Arthur Ward

Why not make suggestions for improvements and you may find that people respect you for it and appreciate your input.
Joanna Jackson, Self Help

I don’t believe in regret, I feel everything leads us to where we are, and we have to just jump forward, mean well, commit and just see what happens.
Angelina Jolie

One of the most terrifying and paralyzing situations a human being can face is not having choices or, at least, believing we don't have choices.
Anne Wilson Schaef, Meditations for People Who (May) Worry Too Much

If a long and toilsome ladder you were trying to climb, you would not reach the top at once, but by one step at a time.
Lillian E. Curtis

Simplicity, Happiness, and Creativity

A simpler life can leave more room for joy and fresh ideas.

Recycling is a great way to get rid of clutter.
Julianne Neilson, Declutter You

Happy people tend to find the good in other people instead of what is wrong.
Noelia Aanulds, Happiness: Learn How To Be Happy And Boost Your Life

The creative process begins with having a mind that's filled with expectancy, enthusiasm and possibility.
Barbara Lucas, Put Hand to Plow

Trying to force your goals into fruition is not the key to attaining a confident mindset.
John Franz, Confidence: Winning the Game of Life

Goals, Focus, and Life’s Responsibilities

What we focus on often shapes the direction we take.

Focus your mind on your goals and begin to move forward. What you focus your mind on is where you will go.
Alex Uwajeh, Taming the Tongue

People with a high risk tolerance can usually cope with significant changes being made in their life over short periods of time.
Anne Bolender, Clarity Alchemy

How do you say goodbye, to someone as sweet as you?
Julie Hebert

No matter who we are, from the richest of the rich to the homeless guy under the freeway, we all have some kind of work to do every day.
Cary David Richards, The Happiness Habit

I think we need an experience - an encounter that takes exposed and explained truth to a deeper level in our hearts than it would ever go otherwise.
David Platt, Something Needs to Change

Experience, Communication, and Better Habits

Experience can teach us to respond to life with greater wisdom.

Stop looking at the situations in your life as being bad, but rather look at it as a learning experience.
Michael Austin Jacobs, Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life

For the word that comes from the brain alone, alone to the brain will speed; but the word that sways, and stirs, and stays, oh! that is the word men heed.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The Word

Listening effectively is one of the most significant aspects of communicating effectively.
Jason Goldberg, Communication Skills for Success

Attempts to change or replace a habit without awareness or motivation in place are doomed to failure.
Henry Lee, Habit Master

If you are planning to walk through this world alone, you're looking for loneliness and trouble.
Faith Starr, Stop Self-Sabotaging and Shift your Paradigm to Success

Making Your Own Decisions

Independent choices help us live with intention.

Too often, too many people rely on others to decide what they want.
Martin Pelletier, Grow With the Flow

I "loved" the people in my life by doing nice things for them and not waiting or hoping for a nice thing to be done back in my direction.
Bryan Cohen, How to Work for Yourself

If you are going to be fit in mind, emotions, and spirit, you need a strong body to facilitate it.
Patricia King, Dream Big

Mistakes, Hope, and Education

Mistakes need not define us when we are willing to learn.

Don't be too hard on yourself, but learn from your mistakes and decide to be better NOW.
V. Noot, Don't Give Up

You cannot wake up one day and hope that this happens for you. This is something that you need to work on.
Amanda Thompson, The Perfect Husband For Your Wife - You!

The aim of education should be to teach us how to think, rather than what to think.
James Beattie

One of the main problems that money (usually a lack of) can cause is stress.
Lesley Harriot, How To Have Successful Relationships

Therefore transforming your lifestyle into a frugal lifestyle allows you to have the extra money you need to put back for a retirement plan.
Ricky Gomez, Frugal Living: Frugal Living Made Simple

Kindness, Faith, and Positive Change

Kindness and faith can guide the way we treat others.

Kindness is one language that any blind man can see and that any deaf person can hear.
Gracia Hunter

At the end of life, how will what you are, what you've done be measured against how God wants all of us to act and behave?
Byron Pulsifer

The shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, is a reminder from the natural world that life itself is short, and that if we want to change certain aspects of our lives, the time is now.
Maya Green, Resolution Evolution for Moms

Always with the knowledge and the sacred prayer that when you and I flourish - we who give so much and contribute so much, and ask for so little– when we flourish, we can change the world.
Dr. Rachel Talton, Flourish: Have it All Without Losing Yourself

From self-control, restraint, fortitude, love, courage, and optimism, it is the card that controls our passions for the better.
Michele Gilbert,The Introvert

Truth, Patience, and Understanding Others

Truth and patience strengthen our relationships.

The good and the right communication mean that you are ready to tell the truth and not just hear it.
Anna Parker, Marriage Help

Whether you buy a home that already looks like your dream home, fixing or arranging the interior and yard can add a lot to how much at home you will actually feel.
Christian Olsen, Marriage Tips

Jealousy is not a singular emotion; it is actually a collection of several. It is made up of a mix of; anger, anxiety, fear, insecurity and helplessness.
Lesley Harriot, How To Have Successful Relationships

But if you want to build unbreakable willpower, practicing patience and perseverance in spite of annoying, stupid, difficult things is very important.
Janet Springer, Unbreakable Willpower

Humor, Health, and Making Time Count

A little humor and a healthy routine can improve daily life.

Some of the happiest people I know, are those who can find a sense of humor in life.
Christian Olsen, Marriage Tips

Getting a good night's sleep is a very important part of health since it is when your body and neurons take the time to repair themselves.
Rocco Cozza, Success Habits For The Morning

Procrastination tends to waste a huge part of your time, and life. Overcome it now.
D.D. Tai, Mind: How To Pleasure Your Mind Everyday

A good suggestion would be after a year of frugal living you take a vacation for your efforts.
Ricky Gomez, Frugal Living: Frugal Living Made Simple

Helping Others and Living With Balance

Helping someone else often brings meaning to our own lives.

Helping someone who needs you will improve their lives, and make you feel better about your own life.
AJ Winters, The Motivation Switch

By giving your possessions away, you're not only simplifying your life, but you are helping those who need what you have.
Kathy Stanton, Cutting Back And Loving It

Notice that all things have a balance and that balance is needed to thrive, to grow, and to live.
James Fullerton, Choose Happiness

The Earth’s solid crust is gradually drying out, and it is no exaggeration to predict that one day the major cities will cry out for water and that our great-grandchildren will have to dig for it as today we dig for gold or other valuable substances.
Viktor Schauberger, The Fertile Earth

Taking Action and Finding Purpose

Our actions can express our values more clearly than words.

No one has ever achieved extreme success without being enthusiastic about taking action.
Noel N

Mostly I love my fellow men, but I get weary now and then of all they do and all they say
Berton Braley

Not til the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
Benjamin Malacia Franklin, Just A Weaver

The mines of earth no treasures give that could this volume buy; In teaching me the way to live, it taught me how to die!
George Pope Morris

Brotherhood, Service, and Family

Our connections with others give life deeper meaning.

There is a destiny that makes us brothers none goes his way alone
Edwin Markham, A Creed

Water under the bridge of failure can be drained into bayous of bitterness or channeled into streams of service.
William Arthur Ward

Why is the word "good" include in a bye I often wonder this with a sigh.
Catherine Pulsifer, Hello, Goodbye

Where did you come from, baby dear? Out of the everywhere into the here.
George MacDonald

The Good Life, Time, and Relationships

The good life is built through everyday choices and caring relationships.

Better to hark a hidden brook than watch a diamond shine.
George Macdonald

We can pick who we spend our time with, so choose wisely. At the same time your children will do the same if they see you doing that.
Julia Vergara, Awaken Through Parenting

They Say" has blighted many a life has caused hatred, envy and strife...
Lillian E. Curtis

Relationships flourish when all the little things you do and say become your habit not your exception.
Byron Pulsifer