50 Quotes To Inspire Your Life & Career

If you need a little inspiration to get you going for the day or week, then look no further. Here are 50 quotes to inspire your life and career by some truly inspirational women. Whatever stage you’re at, whether you’re trying to find your dream career, your working hard on your side hustle or working towards that promotion, hopefully, these quotes will give you the inspiration you need to keep going.

How Can Quotes Help You?

You might be wondering what impact quotes really have on us and what the benefits are, beyond that lovely feeling you get when you read them. And why is it that quotes are just everywhere these days?

According to psychologists, quotes work in three ways which can benefit you. Firstly, they cause evocation, which means quotes cause us to recall feeling, memories or images to our conscious mind.

The second way that quotes impact us is by transcendence. The word transcendence is from the Latin trans – which means beyond and scandare – to climb. To achieve transcendence means you have gone beyond ordinary limitations and dictionary definitions include “surpassing the ordinary, exceptional” and “beyond the range of normal or physical human experience”.

Quotes can help us to see things more clearly, or in a new way that we could not see before, even if it was already there.

The final way in which quotes can have an impact is through approach motivation. This is often defined as the impulse to go towards positive stimuli, which include external goal objects. Put simply, when you’re inspired you will be more likely to strive towards new ideas or visions – or goals.

Basically, Quotes are good, because they lead to inspiration and inspired people are more open to experiencing new things, have a stronger desire to master their work and are more intrinsically motivated, rather than needing outside motivation.

So, if you ever wondered if all this inspiration stuff was beneficial, it just might be.

Here are our favourite 50 quotes to inspire your life and career.

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.” — Maya Angelou

“I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint – and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.” — Oprah Winfrey

“My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no one’s doing but my own. I am the force. I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice. My responsibility. Win or lose; only I hold the key to my destiny.” — Elaine Maxwell

“A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they don’t get what they want.” — Madonna

“I am willing to put myself through anything, temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will take me to a new level. I am interested in the unknown, and the only path to the unknown is through breaking barriers, an often painful process.” — Diana Nyad

“I think beauty comes from within. If you’re happy and look at life in the best way you can, even when there are problems, it can make you beautiful on the outside.” — Faith Hill

“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” — Harriet Beecher Stowe

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” — Mae West

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” — Marie Curie

“If I stop to kick every barking dog I am not going to get where I’m going.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersee

“I was smart enough to go through any door that opened.” – Joan Rivers

“I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.” – Estée Lauder

“Power’s not given to you. You have to take it.” – Beyoncé Knowles Carter

“Beware of monotony; it’s the mother of all the deadly sins.” – Edith Wharton

“I have stood on a mountain of no’s for one yes.” – B. Smith

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” – Dolly Parton

“Done is better than perfect.” – Sheryl Sandberg

“One of the secrets to staying young is to always do things you don’t know how to do, to keep learning.” – Ruth Reichl

“Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” – Oprah Winfrey

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall

“I choose to make the rest of my life the best of my life.” – Louise Hay

“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” – Mother Teresa

“Take criticism seriously, but not personally. If there is truth or merit in the criticism, try to learn from it. Otherwise, let it roll right off you.” – Hillary Clinton

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” – Nora Ephron

“You can be the lead in your own life.” – Kerry Washington

“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” – Simone de Beauvoir

“I’m always perpetually out of my comfort zone.” – Tory Burch

“All careers go up and down like friendships, like marriages, like anything else, and you can’t bat a thousand all the time.” – Julie Andrews

“It’s not the absence of fear, it’s overcoming it. Sometimes you’ve got to blast through and have faith.” – Emma Watson

“Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.” – Harper Lee

“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.” – Arianna Huffington

“Everyone shines, given the right lighting.” – Susan Cain
I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time. – Anna Freud
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.- Amelia Earhart
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.- Eleanor Roosevelt
“success only come to those who dare to attempt…” – Mallika Tripathi
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou
“The question isn’t who is going to let me, it’s who is going to stop me” – Ayn Rand
“Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success
A year from now, you may wish you had started today – Karen Lamb
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 Miller
I’m tough, I’m ambitious and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, Okay. – Madonna
If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. — Katharine Hepburn
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. — Sally Berger
I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind learning. –Amy Poehler
It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends. — J.K. Rowling
I know for sure that what we dwell on is what we become. — Oprah Winfrey
It’s not your job to like me, it’s mine. — Byron Katie
Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong. — Ella Fitzgerald
Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be. — Elizabeth Gilbert
Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down. And trust your instincts … good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt. They’re not painful. That’s not just with somebody you want to marry, but it’s with the friends that you choose. It’s with the people you surround yourselves with. —Michelle Obama