You’ll Wish You Read These Wise Quotes Years Ago
Some wisdom arrives too late—after we’ve made the mistakes,
endured the heartache,
or wasted precious time learning lessons the hard way.
These quotes contain the kind of insight that could have saved us
years of struggle if we’d encountered them sooner.
They’re not just words;
they’re condensed life experience passed down through generations,
offering guidance we often recognize only in hindsight.
Quotes
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” — Mark Twain
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” — Mark Twain
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” — Steve Jobs
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” — Allen Saunders
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Nelson Mandela
“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.” — Oprah Winfrey
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” — Chinese Proverb
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” — Henry Ford
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw
“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” — Jimmy Dean
“The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” — Plato
“Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions.” — Dalai Lama
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” — Dalai Lama
“Get busy living or get busy dying.” — Stephen King
“You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.” — Brian Tracy
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu
“The best revenge is massive success.” — Frank Sinatra
“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” — Buddha
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” — Henry David Thoreau
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” — Abraham Lincoln
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.” — Charles Swindoll
“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” — Oprah Winfrey
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“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
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” — Helen Keller
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” — Walt Whitman
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” — Aristotle
“Whoever is happy will make others happy too.” — Anne Frank
“Do not let making a living prevent you from making a life.” — John Wooden
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius
“Love the life you live. Live the life you love.” — Bob Marley
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert Frost
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” — William James
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” — Socrates
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” — Aristotle
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” — Confucius
“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” — Confucius
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” — Rumi
“What you seek is seeking you.” — Rumi
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” — Rumi
“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.” — Rumi
“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” — Lao Tzu
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” — Lao Tzu
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” — Lao Tzu
“The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.” — Lao Tzu
“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.” — Lao Tzu
“Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” — Lao Tzu
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” — Mother Teresa
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” — Mother Teresa
“Peace begins with a smile.” — Mother Teresa
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” — Mother Teresa
“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” — Mother Teresa
“The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” — Mother Teresa
“We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.” — Mother Teresa
“Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.” — Mother Teresa
“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” — Mother Teresa
“Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.” — Mother Teresa
“Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” — Mother Teresa
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” — Mother Teresa
