So, you’re seeking out short positive quotes… We’ve got your back.
Sometimes, we all just need a few uplifting words to carry us through a challenging moment — or to share in the hopes of helping someone else.
As experts on positive news, our team is constantly collecting the best quotes that remind us that the world is filled with goodness and we can each play a role in making people's lives better.
Today, we’re sharing our quote collection with you — specifically our roundup of short quotes.
As you read these quotes (which are divided up into simple sections) we hope you feel more hopeful — and that you also feel motivated to get involved and make a positive difference.
Scroll through, find some quotes that mean a lot to you, and don't be afraid to click on some of the links to our other curated quote collections.
Enjoy our roundup of the best short quotes to leave you feeling more hopeful —
The Best Short Quotes About Life
Famous Short Quotes
“The only way out is through.”
— Robert Frost
“In this life we cannot always do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
— Mother Teresa
“Don’t count the days, Make the days count.”
— Muhammad Ali
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
— Angela Davis
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
— George Bernard Shaw
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Pick up the battle and make it a better world. Just where you are.”
— Maya Angelou
“You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re looking down.”
— Charlie Chaplin
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
— Vincent van Gogh
“You must take action. You must do the impossible. Because giving up is never an option.”
— Greta Thunberg
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”
— John Steinbeck
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
— Louisa May Alcott
“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”
— Howard Zinn
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”
— Amelia Earhart
“If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.”
— James Baldwin
“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
— Martin Luther King Jr
“If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain.”
— Dolly Parton
“Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act.”
— Albert Einstein
Short Positive Quotes
“I am stronger than my challenges, and my challenges are making me stronger.”
— Karen Salmansohn
“I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow.”
— Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, ‘I’m possible!’”
— Audrey Hepburn
“Can we overcome apathy? Yes, but only if we have hope.”
— Jane Goodall
“I choose to make the rest of my life the best of my life.”
— Louise Hay
“Give for the right reason — and that is, give for no reason at all.”
— Frank Sonnenberg, The Path to a Meaningful Life
“What I am trying to cultivate is not blind optimism… but radical hope.”
— Junot Diaz
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
— William James
“My guiding principles in life are to be honest, genuine, thoughtful and caring.”
— Prince William
“Every drop in the ocean counts.”
— Yoko Ono
“The world is more malleable than you think, and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.”
— Bono
“Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow’s reality.”
— Malala Yousafzai
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine — and shadows will fall behind you.”
— Walt Whitman.
“Remember: things can be bad, and getting better.”
— Hans Rosling
“Celebrating good news reminds you that there’s still hope — and the end of the story isn’t here yet.”
— Branden Harvey
“Dance with the waves, move with the sea. Let the rhythm of the water set your soul free.”
— Christy Ann Martine
“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know when it will be too late.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.”
— Alice Walker
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
— C.S. Lewis
“Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.”
— Oprah Winfrey
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
— Dr. Seuss
Short Powerful Quotes
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”
— Tim Ferriss
“We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are.”
— Marsha P. Johnson
“For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us”
— Amanda Gorman
“I can and I will. Watch me.”
— Carrie Green
“That's when I feel most alive, when I'm helping people.”
— Paul Farmer
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
— Alice Walker
“We can’t just choose to tell some facts and not others because we don’t want to upset people. We have to tell it like it is.”
— Greta Thunberg
“Immortality is to live your life doing good things, and leaving your mark behind.”
— Brandon Lee
“You don’t have to choose between doing good and doing well. It’s a false choice, today more than ever.”
— Tim Cook
“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it.”
— Brené Brown
“Cultures, nations, religions, and people are not rocks. They are in constant transformation.”
— Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
“Self-care is how you take your power back.”
— Lalah Delia
“If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.”
― Lucy Larcom
“You can’t separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”
— Malcom X
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
— Nelson Mandela
“Look for causes, not villains.”
— Hans Rosling, Factfulness
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”
— Hermann Hesse
“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”
— Robert Jordan
“We need much less than we think we need.”
— Maya Angelou
“You do not have to agree with me to love me.”
— Glennon Doyle
Short Quotes For Young Adults
“There is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
— Amanda Gorman
“We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love. That’s okay.”
— Laverne Cox
“Your vocation in life is where your greatest joy meets the world’s greatest need.”
— Frederick Buechner
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
— Arthur Ashe
“Believe in yourself. Stay in your own lane. There’s only one you.”
— Queen Latifah
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
— Andy Warhol
“The more I hold myself close and fully embrace who I am, the more I thrive.”
— Elliot Page
“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.”
— James Baldwin
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life; it’s so easy to make it complex.”
— Yvon Chouinard
“If it doesn’t make the world better, don’t do it.”
— Brad Montague
“We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.”
— Maya Angelou
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
“Figure out who you are. Then do it on purpose.”
— Dolly Parton
“Caring — about people, about things, about life — is an act of maturity.”
— Tracy McMillan
“We have to be visible. We are not ashamed of who we are.”
— Sylvia Rivera
Short Quotes About Life and Struggles
“I have one life and one chance to make it count for something…”
— Jimmy Carter
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.”
— Robert Frost
“Equity is the only acceptable goal.”
— Paul Farmer
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others.”
— Nelson Mandela
“Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist but in the ability to start over.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
— Anaïs Nin
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
— Frederick Douglas
“The harder the struggle, the more glorious the triumph. Self-realization demands very great struggle.”
— Swami Sivananda
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
— Winston Churchill
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.”
— Thomas Edison
“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.”
— Henry James
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
— Albert Einstein
“Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.”
— Coretta Scott King
“So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune.”
— Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“The most impactful thing you can do with power is almost always to give it away.”
— Hank Green, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor
“It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.”
— J.R.R. Tolkien
Short Quotes for Women
“Women can’t do everything at the same time, we need to understand milestones in our lives comes in segments.”
— Madeleine Albright
“Feminism is not just about women; it’s about letting all people lead fuller lives.”
— Jane Fonda
“Women are the real architects of society.”
— Harriet Beecher Stowe
“I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.”
— Mary Wollstonecraft
“It took me quite a long time to develop a voice and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.”
— Madeleine Albright
“A powerful woman is a heat-resistant and storm-bracing caliber. There is nothing she cannot handle.”
— Gift Gugu Mona
“Each time a woman stands up for herself she stands up for all women.”
— Maya Angelou
“A feminist is any woman who tells the truth about her life.”
— Virginia Woolf
“There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.”
— Hannah Gadsby
“Where there is woman, there is magic.”
— Ntozake Shange
“Feminism is layered and its power comes from its diversity.”
— Scarlett Curtis
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
— Oprah Winfrey
“There is no force more powerful than a woman determined to rise.”
— W.E.B. Dubois
Short Quotes For Success
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
— Mark Twain
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
— Robert F. Kennedy
“There is no finish line. There are only mile markers.”
— Michael Ventura
“Failure is an important part of your growth and developing resilience.”
— Michelle Obama
“I really think that everybody, every day, should be able to feel some success.”
— Fred Rogers
“In order to succeed. We must first believe that we can.”
— Nikos Kazantzakis
“Never let success get to your head and never let failure get to your heart.”
— Drake
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.”
— Florence Nightingale
“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.”
— Babe Ruth
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
— Bruce Lee
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”
— Estée Lauder
“By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.”
— Benjamin Franklin
“I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it.”
— Jonathan Winters
“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
— Sheryl Sandberg
“Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.”
— Isabel Allende
Short Love Quotes
“Be you, love you. All ways, always.”
— Alexandra Elle
“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.”
— Brené Brown
“Be with her in meaningful ways because that is beautiful and that is generous and that is what loving someone is.”
— Harvey Milk
“Choose, every day, to forgive yourself. You are human, flawed, and most of all worthy of love.”
— Alison Malee
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
— Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
“You’ve got to learn to leave the table when love’s no longer being served.”
— Nina Simone
“Love yourself first and everything else falls into place.”
— Lucille Ball
“We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.”
— Maya Angelou
“I don’t think anyone can grow unless he’s loved exactly as he is now, appreciated for what he is rather than what he will be.”
— Fred Rogers
“We deserve to experience love fully, equally, without shame, and without compromise.”
— Elliot Page
“Love is not passive. It is active, transformative, and just.”
— Bernice King
“To love one another just may be the fight of our lives.”
— Amanda Gorman
“Everything goes except the love you pour into others and the world.”
— John Green
Short Friendship Quotes
“No one can take the place of a friend, no one.”
— Maya Angelou
“Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend.”
— Bill Watterson
“The connections we make in the course of a life — maybe that’s what heaven is.”
— Fred Rogers
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
— Helen Keller
“Keep good company, read good books, love good things, and cultivate soul and body as faithfully as you can.”
— Louisa May Alcott
“The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.”
— Jimmy Carter
“The good man is the friend of all living things.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
“We rise by lifting others.”
— Robert Ingersoll
“Your real friends are the people who like you for who you are, not what you have.”
— Fred Rogers
Short Funny Quotes
“Making your Christmas cake in September is perfect, as too fresh a cake crumbles when cut.”
— Mary Berry
“A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will’s freedom after it.”
— Aldous Huxley
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.”
— Zig Ziglar
“I may be crazy, but that don’t make me wrong.”
— Marsha P. Johnson
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
— Winnie the Pooh
“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.”
— Lily Tomlin
“It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.”
— Jerry Seinfeld
“The noise from good toast should reverberate in the head like the thunder of July.”
— E. V. Lucas
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
— Oscar Wilde
More Short Quotes & Captions
“The need is great and so are the opportunities to make a difference.”
— Paul Newman
“Your now is not your forever.”
— John Green, Turtles All the Way Down
“I’ve found the cure for depression is action”
— Yvon Chouinard
“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience.”
— Hal Borland
“The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.”
— Vladimir Nabokov
“I feel we are all islands — in a common sea.”
— Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“It is the obligation of every person born in a safer room to open the door when someone in danger knocks.”
— Dina Nayeri
“I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.”
— Audre Lorde
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
“Be messy and complicated and afraid and show up anyway.”
— Glennon Doyle
“In wilderness is the preservation of the world.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“Once you have dialogue starting, you know you can break down prejudice.”
— Harvey Milk
