Positive Quotes For Life, Work, & Morning

By Zamfira Parincu, BA, Researcher
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
Positive words can help boost your mood, inspire you to strive harder, and motivate you to achieve your goals. Read on to discover positive quotes for life, work, and the morning.
*This page may include affiliate links; that means we earn from qualifying purchases of products.
Positive and inspirational quotes trigger something within us: they can motivate and inspire us to be the best version of ourselves, they can help us see a problem with different eyes, or they can act as a reminder not to take ourselves too seriously. There are many reasons why reading quotes is appealing: they can act as a springboard for your creative process, or they can offer some encouragement. Quotes can bring a different perspective on a topic, or they can simply remind us of what we already know. 
Before reading on, if you're a therapist, coach, or wellness entrepreneur, be sure to grab our free Wellness Business Growth eBook to get expert tips and free resources that will help you grow your business exponentially.​​​​​
Are You a Therapist, Coach, or Wellness Entrepreneur?

Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to
Grow Your Wellness Business Exponentially!

 ✓  Save hundreds of hours of time  ✓  Earn more $ faster  
​✓  Boost your credibility ✓  Deliver high-impact content 

How to Use Positive Quotes

To get the most from positive quotes, you can try to include more of them in your life. For example, if you find a quote that sparks joy and helps you maintain a positive attitude, you can print it and hang it around the house or use it as your smartphone screen. If you think a quote will help you be more motivated at work, you may choose to display it in your office and read it before you start each day. No matter how you choose to display positive quotes—on a post-it note, on a phone case, or on a picture frame—having positive quotes around you can shift your mindset and help you achieve your personal goals.

Do Positive Quotes Work?

Positive quotes and daily affirmations rely on the power of positive thinking. Although positive quotes and daily affirmations are different, the idea behind them is similar: they help shift your mind in ways that can hopefully improve your life. There are also known benefits to positive affirmations and positive thinking. Research shows that positive thinkers cope more effectively with stressful situations than pessimists. 

In one study about the psychological impact of the September 11th terrorist attacks, researchers found that positive thoughts and positive emotions buffer against depression and sustain thriving in resilient people (Fredrickson et al., 2003). Also, positive thinking can be beneficial for your overall well-being, which includes less depression, a reduced risk of cardiovascular-related death, and even an increase in life expectancy (Buigues et al., 2021).

Reading positive quotes is one way to use positive self-talk to motivate yourself. Whether you are curious about positive quotes, want to get a positive outlook on a situation, or just want to be inspired, keep reading. In this article, we will go over positive quotes about life and work as well as positive quotes for women and students.

Positive Quotes About Life

If you’re looking for positive and inspirational quotes about life, here are a few: 
  • "Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light" – Albus Dumbledore
  • "There is always light. If only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it." – Amanda Gorman
  • “You have power over your mind–not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
  • “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb
  • “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung
  • “The most effective way to do it is to do it.” – Amelia Earheart
  • “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”  – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Motivational Positive Quotes

Motivational positive quotes can help you reach your life goals by keeping you focused and engaged. Here’s a list of quotes to encourage you to keep going: 
  • “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”– Marcus Aurelius
  • “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou
  • “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney
  • “Today is a good day to try.” – Quasimodo
  • “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu
  • “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein
  • “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” – William Shakespeare
  • “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche 
  • “When someone tells me ‘no,’ it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them.” – Karen E. Quinones Miller
  • “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – Albus Dumbledore
  • “You always pass failure on the way to success” – Mickey Rooney
  • “Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own” – Michelle Obama
  • No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.” – Friedrich Nietzsche ​

Good Morning Positive Quotes

Start your day with positive thoughts and you may be more likely to have a good day. Here are some positive quotes for a good morning:
  • “First thing every morning before you arise say out loud, ‘I believe,’ three times.” – Ovid
  • “Morning comes whether you set the alarm or not.” – Ursula K. Le Guin
  • “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius
  • “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” – Henry David Thoreau
  • “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
  • “Do not shorten the morning by getting up late; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

Positive Quotes for Work

Feeling a bit unmotivated at work? Perhaps you need a bit of encouragement to keep going? Get inspired by these positive quotes for work:
  • “Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” – Madam C.J Walker    
  • “One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.” – Michelle Obama
  • “All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them.” – Viola Davis
  • “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
  • “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Zig Ziglar
  • “Believe you can and you're halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
  • “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
  • “A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.” – Bruce Lee
  • “I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”  – Henry David Thoreau

Positive Quotes for Women

These positive quotes can inspire and encourage you women to tackle anything:
  • “Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.” – Oscar Wilde 
  • “I can’t think of any better representation of beauty than someone who is unafraid to be herself.” – Emma Stone
  • “You define beauty yourself. Society doesn’t define your beauty.” – Lady Gaga
  • “Being a healthy woman isn’t about getting on a scale or measuring your waistline. We need to start focusing on what matters — on how we feel, and how we feel about ourselves.” – Michelle Obama
  • “Even I don't wake up looking like Cindy Crawford.” – Cindy Crawford
  • “Girls should never be afraid to be smart.” – Emma Watson
  • “Young girls are told you have to be the delicate princess. Hermione taught them that you can be the warrior.” – Emma Watson
  • “If you want to run for Prime Minister, you can. If you don’t, that’s wonderful, too. Shave your armpits, don’t shave them; wear flats one day, heels the next. These things are so irrelevant and surface to what it is all really about, and I wish people wouldn’t get caught up in that. We want to empower women to do exactly what they want, to be true to themselves, to have the opportunities to develop.” – Emma Watson

Body Positive Quotes

All bodies deserve acceptance and love, no matter their shape or color. Here is a list of body-positive quotes that can help you feel comfortable and confident about the body you’re in:
  • “Feeling beautiful has nothing to do with what you look like.” – Emma Watson
  • “Your words have so much power. Every day, if you tell yourself, ‘I love you,’ if you give yourself one word of validation, it will change your mind.” – Ashley Graham
  • “People often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder.” – Salma Hayek
  • “I’ve made peace with the fact that the things that I thought were weaknesses or flaws were just me. I like them.” – Sandra Bullock
  • “I’m constantly reminding myself it’s not about my thighs: It’s about my commitment and my happiness level.” – Kristen Bell
  • “I’m excited about the aging process. I’m more interested in women who aren’t perfect. They’re more compelling.” – Emma Watson
  • “All I have to say is 'I'm healthy.' In that statement, I express gratitude. I am grateful for my strength and things I can do with my body. I am saying I'm healthy, and I accept the way my body is today without changing anything.” – Demi Lovato
  • “Don’t waste so much time thinking about how much you weigh. There is no more mind-numbing, boring, idiotic, self-destructive diversion from the fun of living.” – Meryl Streep
  • “Say goodbye to your inner critic, and take this pledge to be kinder to yourself and others.” – Oprah Winfrey
  • “Since I don’t look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. To be different. But different is good.” – Serena Williams

Positive Quotes About Women

Here are some quotes to empower, motivate, and inspire women to keep going:
  • “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half its citizens.” – Michelle Obama
  • “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” – Margaret Thatcher
  • “I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not. It is the story of many girls.” – Malala Yousafzai
  • “I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves.”- Mary Shelley
  • “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn't be that women are the exception.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • “Each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women.” – Maya Angelou
  • “Women don’t need to find a voice, they have a voice, and they need to feel empowered to use it, and people need to be encouraged to listen.” – Meghan Markle
  • “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” – Simone de Beauvoir

Funny Positive Quotes

Looking for some funny vibes? These positive and funny quotes can help you boost your mood:
  • “The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
  • “I can resist anything except temptation.” – Oscar Wilde
  • “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good” – J. K. Rowling
  • “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde
  • “I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.” – Oscar Wilde
  • “I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.” – Oscar Wilde 
  • “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” – Oscar Wilde
  • “My mother always used to say: The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana.” – Betty White, The Golden Girls
  • “Never follow anyone else’s path. Unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path. Then, by all means, follow that path.” – Ellen DeGeneres
  • “Breaking up is like knocking over a Coke machine. You can’t do it in one push; you got to rock it back and forth a few times, and then it goes over.” – Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld
  • “There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it.” – Mindy Kaling
  • “I’m not insane. My mother had me tested.” – Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory
  • “A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” – Steve Martin
  • “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” – Irina Dunn

Positive Quotes About Change

Change can be hard and frightening. These positive quotes about change may help you move in the right direction:
  • “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” – James Baldwin
  • “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
  • “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin
  • “So often in life, things that you regard as an impediment turn out to be great, good fortune.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • “If you do not change direction, you might end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu
  • “The changes we dread most may contain our salvation.” – Barbara Kingsolver
  • “There is nothing permanent except change.” – Heraclitus
  • “If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou
  • “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama
  • “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” – Mother Teresa
  • “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
  • “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” – Rumi

Positive Quotes for Students

As a student, you might be looking for positive and inspiring quotes to help you strive harder. Here are some quotes to keep you determined:
  • “Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life. Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.” –Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
  • “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln
  • “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be ignited.” – Plutarch
  • “There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.” – Zig Ziglar
  • “I want our young people to know that they matter, that they belong. So don't be afraid—you hear me, young people? Don't be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered. Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise. Lead by example with hope, never fear.” – Michelle Obama

Articles Related to Positive Quotes

Want to learn more? Here are some related articles that might be helpful.​​​

Books Related to Positive Quotes

Here are some books that may help you learn even more.​

Don't Forget to Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to
Grow Your Wellness Business Exponentially!

References
Are You a Therapist, Coach, or Wellness Entrepreneur?

Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to Grow Your Wellness Business Fast!

Key Articles: Content Packages:
Terms, Privacy & Affiliate Disclosure  |   Contact   |   FAQs
* The Berkeley Well-Being Institute. LLC is not affiliated with UC Berkeley.
Copyright © 2024, The Berkeley Well-Being Institute, LLC