Short Quotes

Short quotes can pack a punch. They capture deep feelings or big ideas in mere words. This makes them easy to remember and share.

In this article, we’ve picked some of the best short quotes. They’ll inspire, comfort, and maybe even make you smile. Dive in and find your new favorite quote!

Short Quotes About Life

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde

“Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.” – Hans Christian Andersen

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” – Helen Keller

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius

“Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet.” – Sarah Louise Delany

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” – Mark Twain

“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” – Robert Byrne

“Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey

“Life is short, and it’s up to you to make it sweet.” – Maya Angelou

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller

“Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter.” – Dan Reeves

“Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.” – Seneca

Positive Short Quotes

“Positive anything is better than negative nothing.” – Elbert Hubbard

“The only time you fail is when you fall down and stay down.” – Stephen Richards

“Every day brings new choices.” – Martha Beck

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” – Colin Powell

“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.” – Helen Keller

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis

“The best is yet to be.” – Robert Browning

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” – Muhammad Ali

“When you think positive, good things happen.” – Matt Kemp

“The power of imagination makes us infinite.” – John Muir

“Stay positive. Better days are on their way.” – Anonymous

“You do not find the happy life. You make it.” – Camilla Eyring Kimball

“Positive thoughts lead to positive results.” – Maria V. Snyder

Short Love Quotes

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – William Shakespeare

“Love recognizes no barriers.” – Maya Angelou

“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” – David Viscott

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” – Aristotle

“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” – Audrey Hepburn

“Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces.” – Rumi

“You call it madness, but I call it love.” – Don Byas

“Love is a friendship set to music.” – Joseph Campbell

“True love stories never have endings.” – Richard Bach

“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” – David Viscott

“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.” – Jane Austen

“Where there is love there is life.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“We loved with a love that was more than love.” – Edgar Allan Poe

“Love is not only something you feel, it is something you do.” – David Wilkerson

“To love is to burn, to be on fire.” – Jane Austen

“Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.” – Voltaire

Short Friendship Quotes

“A friend is what the heart needs all the time.” – Henry Van Dyke

“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.” – Khalil Gibran

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” – Walter Winchell

“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.” – Woodrow Wilson

“Friends are the siblings God never gave us.” – Mencius

“Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.” – John Evelyn

“My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.” – Henry Ford

“A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.” – Leo Buscaglia

“There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met.” – William Butler Yeats

“A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.” – Jim Morrison

“Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.” – Baltasar Gracián

“A friend to all is a friend to none.” – Aristotle

“Friendship is a sheltering tree.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.” – Euripides

“The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.” – Hubert H. Humphrey

Motivational Short Quotes

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” – William James

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.” – Albert Schweitzer

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The best way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.” – Aristotle

“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” – Les Brown

“Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.” – Leo Buscaglia

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

Short Family Quotes

“Family is not an important thing, it’s everything.” – Michael J. Fox

“Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.” – David Ogden Stiers

“The most important thing in the world is family and love.” – John Wooden

“Family is the heart of a home.” – Anonymous

“To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.” – Barbara Bush

“Family is where life begins and love never ends.” – Anonymous

“The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.” – George Santayana

“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” – George Burns

“The family is a haven in a heartless world.” – Christopher Lasch

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.” – Anthony Brandt

“Family is the most important thing in the world.” – Princess Diana

“In time of test, family is best.” – Burmese Proverb

“The love of family is life’s greatest blessing.” – Anonymous

“You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” – Desmond Tutu

Short Quotes on Happiness

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.” – Aristotle

“Happiness is a direction, not a place.” – Sydney J. Harris

“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” – Dalai Lama

“Happiness can exist only in acceptance.” – George Orwell

“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama

“Happiness is the secret to all beauty. There is no beauty without happiness.” – Christian Dior

“Happiness is a warm puppy.” – Charles M. Schulz

“The most simple things can bring the most happiness.” – Izabella Scorupco

“Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“If you want to be happy, be.” – Leo Tolstoy

“Happiness is not by chance, but by choice.” – Jim Rohn

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Happiness is a state of mind. It’s just according to the way you look at things.” – Walt Disney

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.” – Napoleon Hill

Famous Short Quotes

“I think, therefore I am.” – René Descartes

“To be, or not to be, that is the question.” – William Shakespeare

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“I came, I saw, I conquered.” – Julius Caesar

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” – The Bible

“Et tu, Brute?” – William Shakespeare

“All men are created equal.” – Thomas Jefferson

“I have a dream.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“Give me liberty, or give me death!” – Patrick Henry

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” – Muhammad Ali

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” – Edward Bulwer-Lytton

“There is no place like home.” – Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz

“To infinity and beyond!” – Buzz Lightyear

“Houston, we have a problem.” – James Lovell (Apollo 13)

Funny Short Quotes

“I’m not arguing, I’m just explaining why I’m right.” – Anonymous

“Why don’t they make the whole plane out of that black box stuff?” – Steven Wright

“The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.” – Al McGuire

“Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.” – Jim Carrey

“If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?” – Abraham Lincoln

“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don’t know the answer.” – Douglas Adams

“I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.” – Steven Wright

“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” – Steve Martin

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” – A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

“My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.” – Mitch Hedberg

“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.” – Oscar Wilde

“I can resist everything except temptation.” – Oscar Wilde

“I’m not crazy – I’ve just been in a very bad mood for 40 years.” – Ouiser Boudreaux, Steel Magnolias

“Age is something that doesn’t matter unless you are a cheese.” – Luis Buñuel

“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.” – Bob Hope

Short Quotes on Strength

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“The more you care, the stronger you can be.” – Jim Rohn

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls.” – Khalil Gibran

“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” – Napoleon Hill

“What does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“There is a strength in the union of very sorry but uninspired line into strength.” – Anonymous

“You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.” – Bob Marley

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” – Corrie Ten Boom

“In the middle of a difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” – Oprah Winfrey

“He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak.” – Proverb

Short Quotes for Success

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” – Robert Collier

“Success is not in what you have, but who you are.” – Bo Bennett

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller

“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” – Bill Bradley

“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” – Colin R. Davis

“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day.” – Jim Rohn

Short Quotes on Leadership

“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” – Warren Bennis

“The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.” – Tony Blair

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” – John F. Kennedy

“The best leaders have a high consideration factor. They really care about their people.” – Brian Tracy

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker

“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision.” – Theodore M. Hesburgh

“The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision.” – Ken Blanchard

“Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge.” – Simon Sinek

“Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” – Tom Peters

Short Quotes on Kindness

“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop

“Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” – William Arthur Ward

“Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

“Kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle.” – Charles Glassman

“Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.” – Samuel Johnson

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” – Dalai Lama

“On matters of style, swim with the current; on matters of principle, stand like a rock.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Kindness is always fashionable, and always welcome.” – Amelia Barr

“A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.” – John Ruskin

Short Quotes on Change

“Change is the only constant in life.” – Heraclitus

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” – Winston Churchill

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent Peale

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” – Gail Sheehy

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller

“Change is painful, but nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” – Mandy Hale

“Things do not change; we change.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” – John C. Maxwell

Short Quotes for Work-Life

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

“Work to become, not to acquire.” – Elbert Hubbard

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” – Aristotle

“Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.” – Thomas Edison

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs

“Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.” – Frank Ocean

“To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.” – Pearl S. Buck

“Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.” – Stephen Hawking

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon

“If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission.” – Anonymous

“Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.” – Gordon B. Hinckley

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.” – Samuel Goldwyn

“Don’t count the hours you work, make the hours you work count.” – Anonymous

To Conclude

Short quotes pack a lot of wisdom into just a few words. They can inspire, motivate, or simply make you smile. These quotes are perfect for quick boosts of positivity or a bit of guidance in tough times. Whether they come from famous leaders, authors, or philosophers, each quote has the power to touch your heart and mind.

On days when life feels overwhelming, a short quote can offer a moment of clarity. Use these gems to encourage yourself and others. Keep them handy for when you need a reminder that sometimes, less truly is more.

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