Maybe you're struggling with a bout of insecurity or fear of the unknown. Maybe that dream you've been holding onto suddenly feels too big and way out of reach. Or maybe your inner reserve of positive, can-do energy has been drained. Take heart: You're not alone. Motivation, like just about everything in life, has its ebbs and flows.
To give you a surge and get you back up and moving forward, we've collected 40+ quotes from folks who know a lot about motivational ebbs and flows: authors. Their works span a variety of genres, from classic literature to career success, and offer a diversity of perspectives. We're sure you'll find at least a few wise and uplifting words that speak directly to you and will soon have your motivation flowing.
1. "All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time." -Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven
2. "The only person you need to be better than is the one you were yesterday," -Rachel Hollis, Girl, Wash Your Face
3. "The lust for comfort kills the passions of the soul." -Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
4. "As long as the heart beats, as long as body and soul keep together, I cannot admit that any creature endowed with a will has need to despair of life." -Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth
5. "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." -Anne Frank, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
6. "Only you can master your mind, which is what it takes to live a bold life filled with accomplishments most people consider beyond their capability." -David Goggins, Can't Hurt Me
7. "Live boldly. Push yourself. Don't settle." -Jojo Moyes, Me Before You
8. "Everything is possible. The impossible just takes longer." -Dan Brown, Digital Fortress
9. "I call people rich when they’re able to meet the requirements of their imagination." -Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
10. "It is never too late to be wise." -Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
11. "I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do." -Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart
12. "Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence." -Eleanor Roosevelt, Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt
13. "Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for." -Joseph Heller, Catch-22
14. "The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will." -Chuck Palahniuk, Diary
15. "Yelling doesn't make a thing any more possible." -Angie Sage, Queste
16. "I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing." -Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
17. "If a man has his eyes bound, you can encourage him as much as you like to stare through the bandage, but he'll never see anything." -Franz Kafka, The Castle
18. "If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all." -John Green, Paper Towns
19. "The only limits for tomorrow are the doubts we have today." -Pittacus Lore, The Power of Six
20. "When you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worth while." -Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
21. "Never say 'no' to adventures." -Ian Fleming, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
22. "There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere." -Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
23. "Celebrate the fight and the proud run. Coming close can be confirmation you are on the right path." -Leslie Odom Jr., Failing Up
24. "But when your sword breaks, you draw your dagger." -C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian
25. "Reality told us we would fail. But again and again, we fought. We persevered. We rose." -Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone
26. "If you’re serious about changing your life, you’ll find a way. If you’re not, you’ll find an excuse." -Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass
27. "We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won’t do harm—yes, choose a place where you won’t do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine." -E. M. Forster, A Room with a View
28. "Persist, pivot, or concede. It’s up to us, our choice every time." -Matthew McConaughey, Greenlights
29. "We can't help the way we're born. We can't help what we are, only what life we choose to make for ourselves." -Leigh Bardugo, Wonder Woman: Warbringer
30. "There's no point in being unhappy about things you can't change, and no point being unhappy about things you can." -Dan Harris, 10% Happier
31. "It's important to be able to distinguish the difference between a problem and an inconvenience." -Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking
32. "You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it." -James Clear, Atomic Habits
33. "Be roses that grow in the concrete." -Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give
34. "And so I made the decision to change. It might seem like change was impossible, given my nature and my age, but I understood exactly what there was to lose...The point wasn’t whether or not I liked it. The point was it had to be done." -Ann Patchett, The Dutch House
35. "Random wandering will not move you forward." -Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life
36. "Not all those who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
37. "You are where you are and what you are because of yourself, nothing else." -Brian Tracy, Focal Point
38. "When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another." -John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America
39. "If we wait until we're ready, we'll be waiting the rest of our lives." -Lemony Snicket, The Ersatz Elevator
40. "It's so important that you learn how to silence fear because it's the only thing that's stopping you from achieving your dreams and being the person you want to be." -Mel Robbins, Take Control of Your Life
41. "You are your best thing." -Toni Morrison, Beloved
