Life lessons are a beautiful gift in the long run, but they don’t always come wrapped in a shiny red bow. Sometimes tragedy brings us wisdom, whereas other times joy does.
No matter the season or situation, life lessons are invaluable and worth cherishing.
Sayings about life lessons can reveal what different experiences can teach us, even when the reality is that the lessons are sometimes hard to learn. Whether they’re short, inspirational or witty phrases, quotes rooted in firsthand insight can help us grow, move on from our mistakes and live life to the fullest.
If you’re in a tough spot and don’t know how to move forward, we encourage you to soak in the following 70 life lesson quotes. These words of truth and encouragement will uplift you in times of despair and motivate you to press on toward a brighter future. Discover some of the deepest words ever spoken by modern-day leaders and historical figures on overcoming challenges and creating new beginnings.
Inspirational Quotes About Life Lessons
- “Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.” ―Denis Waitley
- “In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” ―Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “I truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents; we’re all teachers—if we’re willing to pay attention to the lessons we learn, trust our positive instincts and not be afraid to take risks or wait for some miracle to come knocking at our door.” ―Marla Gibbs
- “A man’s most urgent necessity is neither happiness [n]or money. It is wisdom. For it is wisdom that he will need to navigate the turbulent waters of his day-to-day existence without succumbing to the ocean of turmoils or to the empty road of prescriptions.” ―Kapil Gupta
- “Don’’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.” ―Roy T. Bennett
- “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” ―Lao Tzu
- “Learning lessons is a little like reaching maturity. You’re not suddenly more happy, wealthy or powerful, but you understand the world around you better, and you’re at peace with yourself. Learning life’s lessons is not about making your life perfect but about seeing life as it was meant to be.” ―Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
- “The universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson.” ―Orison Swett Marden
- “If there’s a single lesson that life teaches us, it’s that wishing doesn’t make it so.” ―Lev Grossman
- “I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money, would deter me from giving the best that there was in me.” ―Colonel Harland Sanders
- “Life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now.” ―Thich Nhat Hanh
- “Always go with your passions. Never ask yourself if it’s realistic or not.” —Deepak Chopra
- “All the lessons are in nature. You look at the way rocks are formed—the wind and the water hitting them, shaping them, making them what they are. Things take time, you know?” ―Diane Lane
- “My greatest life lesson has been that life can change in a second. This is why it’s important to always live your best possible life and to do what you can for others.”―Niki Taylor
- “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count—it’s life in your years.” —Abraham Lincoln
- “We become what we think about most of the time.” —Earl Nightingale
- “God has his plans and his reasons. Sometimes we are supposed to go through things so that we learn lessons.” ―Dolly Parton
- “Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced.” ―Søren Kierkegaard
- “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” —Viktor E. Frankl
Related: 9 Life Lessons from Jay Shetty
Life Lesson Quotes On Embracing Mistakes And Moving Forward
- “Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to error that counts.” —Nikki Giovanni
- “Mishaps are like knives that either serve us or cut us as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.” ―James Russell Lowell
- “Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up, I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain… To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices—today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it.” ―Kevyn Aucoin
- “Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.” ―Salvador Dali
- “Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.” —Cullen Hightower
- “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” ―Johnny Cash
- “Close some doors today. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they lead you nowhere.” ―Paulo Coelho
- “To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes, the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.” ―Plutarch
- “Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.” ―Swami Sivananda
- “Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” ―Mary Tyler Moore
- “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ―C. S. Lewis
- “Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.” —Al Franken
- “Making mistakes simply means you are learning faster.” ―Weston H. Agor
- “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.” ―John Wooden
- “Failure is a great teacher, and, if you are open to it, every mistake has a lesson to offer.” —Oprah Winfrey
- “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” —Aristotle
- “You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.” —Maya Angelou
- “And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ―Haruki Murakami
- “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them and strong enough to correct them.” ―John C. Maxwell
- “You don’t learn from successes; you don’t learn from awards; you don’t learn from celebrity; you only learn from wounds and scars and mistakes and failures. And that’’s the truth.”―Jane Fonda
Related: 4 Lessons Ultra-Athletes Can Teach Us About Grit
Life Lessons Quotes About Relationships And Loving Others
- “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 first duty of love is to listen.” ―Paul Tillich
- “The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society.” ―Maya Angelou
- “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” ―1 Corinthians 13:4–7
- “It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.” —Hermann Hesse
- “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved—loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” —Victor Hugo
- “A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself—to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart.” —Leo F. Buscaglia
- “A perfect marriage is just two imperfect people who won’t give up on each other.” —Kate Stewart
- “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” —Carl Gustav Jung
- “Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow.” —Swedish proverb
- “Absence sharpens love; presence strengthens it.” —Thomas Fuller
- “Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own home. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor… Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” —Mother Teresa
- “Marriage should be a duet—when one sings, the other claps.” —Joe Murray
- “Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.” —Alice Walker
- “It is only when we no longer compulsively need someone that we can have a real relationship with them.” —Anthony Storr
- “To keep your marriage brimming, with love in the loving cup, whenever you’re wrong, admit it; whenever you’re right, shut up.” —Ogden Nash
- “Happily ever after is not a fairy tale. It’s a choice.” —Fawn Weaver
- “There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.” —Martin Luther
- “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” —Maya Angelou
Short Phrases About Life Lessons That Have A Big Impact
- “Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.” ―Rumi
- “Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.” ―Irving Berlin
- “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” ―Oprah Winfrey
- “Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” —Les Brown
- “Do one thing every day that scares you.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” — Albert Einstein
- “There are no mistakes, save one: the failure to learn from a mistake.” —Robert Fripp
- “I can accept failure—everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” —Michael Jordan
- “There is only one happiness in this life: to love and be loved.” —George Sand
- “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” —John Lennon
- “Be honest, brutally honest. That is what’s going to maintain relationships.” —Lauryn Hill
Use These Sayings About Life Lessons For Inspiration
While this isn’t an exhaustive list of the best life lessons quotes, it includes some of our all-time favorites from incredibly influential figures to inspire you. We hope you can use them to take ownership of your decisions, learn from your past mistakes and seize the day.
Turn to these sayings when you need inspiration for moving past challenging experiences or motivation for seeing the positive side of life’s blunders. Keep them handy when you need a reminder moving forward or share them with a friend or two who needs a fresh perspective.
This article was originally written in November 2017 and has been updated. Photo by itsjuliwilliams/Twenty20
