I like quotes that hit hard.
The ones that I know deep down are true. Or the ones that sends my mind off into a new direction or shifts it into seeing a problem from a new point of view.
So in today’s post I’d like to share the most hard hitting quotes I’ve found in the past 10+ years.
I’ve divided the post into four different sections to make it easier to navigate: life, love, happiness and success.
I hope you’ll find something here that is hard hitting for you too and helps you to make a real shift in your own life.
And if you want even more motivational quotes then check out this post with don’t settle quotes and this one filled with quotes on knowing your worth and true value in life.
Hard Hitting Quotes About Life
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
Mark Twain
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”
Abraham Maslow
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”
Henry Ford
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.”’
Oscar Wilde
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.’”
Lao Tzu
“You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life.”
Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone)
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
Maya Angelou
“Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn.”
C.S. Lewis
“What’s the worst thing I’ve stolen? Probably little pieces of other people’s lives where I’ve either wasted their time or hurt them in some way. That’s the worst thing you can steal—the time of other people. You just can’t get that back.”
Chester Bennington
“The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you.”
Stephanie Perkins
“Sometimes, you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
Dr. Seuss
“Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.”
Benjamin Franklin
“You’ll never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”
Bob Marley
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is right now.”
Chinese Proverb
“Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.”
Margaret Mitchell
“Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
Joseph Campbell
“You will not be punished for your anger. You will be punished by your anger.”
Buddha
“A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.”
Henrik Ibsen
“Take wrong turns. Talk to strangers. Open unmarked doors. And if you see a group of people in a field, go find out what they are doing. Do things without always knowing how they’ll turn out. You’re curious and smart and bored, and all you see is the choice between working hard and slacking off.
There are so many adventures that you miss because you’re waiting to think of a plan. To find them, look for tiny interesting choices. And remember that you are always making up the future as you go.”
Randall Munroe
“He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.”
Lao Tzu
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Aristotle
“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
Marthe Troly-Curtin
“There are only two ways to live your life—one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.”’
Albert Einstein
“The reason why we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”
Stephen Furtick
“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life—it goes on.”
Robert Frost
“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.“
Groucho Marx
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Oscar Wilde
“Be yourself, but always your better self.”
Karl G. Maeser
“I believe that life’s challenges are here to knock us out of our brain grooves – get us to switch over to another brain groove track – where we can finally experience new ways of seeing and being in the world. Without hitting bumps in the road, it’s very tough to get, out of our repeated cycles of thinking and behaving.”
Karen Salmansohn
“Never hit if you can help it, but when you have to, hit hard. Never hit soft. You’ll never get any thanks for hitting soft.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
George Bernard Shaw
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”
John A. Shedd
“It is only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth – and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up – that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.”
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
“Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Please don’t worry so much. Because in the end, none of us have very long on this Earth. Life is fleeting. And if you’re ever distressed, cast your eyes to the summer sky, when the stars are strung across the velvety night, and when shooting star streaks through the blackness, turning night into day, make a wish. Think of me. Make your life spectacular. I know I did.”
Robin Williams
Hard Hitting Quotes About Love
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
Rumi
“You can’t put arms around a memory.”
Guns N Roses
“It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.”
Oscar Wilde
“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.”
Benjamin Franklin
“We try so hard to hide everything we’re really feeling from those who probably need to know our true feelings the most.”
Colleen Hoover
“If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you’ll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren’t even giving to yourself.”
Barbara De Angelis
“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
James Baldwin
“Being negative is like spraying yourself with anti-charisma.”
Karen Salmansohn
“How do you spell ‘love?’ You don’t spell it, you feel it.”
Winnie The Pooh
“The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Love is a friendship set to music.”
Joseph Campbell
“When we are in love we seem to ourselves quite different from what we were before.”
Blaise Pascal
“Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind, always.”
Brad Meltzer
“Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.”
Haruki Murakami
“Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.”
Lao Tzu
“The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.”
Helen Keller
“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”
Anaïs Nin
“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
Benjamin Franklin
“It will never rain roses. When we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.”
George Eliot
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.”
Oscar Wilde
“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“You know who you love but you can’t know who loves you.”
Nigerian Proverb
“When you adopt the viewpoint that there is nothing that exists that is not part of you, that there is no one who exists who is not part of you, that any judgment you make is self-judgment, that any criticism you level is self-criticism, you will wisely extend to yourself an unconditional love that will be the light of the world.”
Harry Palmer
“Some things take time. Stay positive. Be patient. Don’t settle. Things will get better. Wait for what you deserve.”
Karen Salmansohn
“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
“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”
Oprah Winfrey
“Love is what you’ve been through with somebody.”
James Thurber
“If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world.”
Wayne Dyer
“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.”
Leo Buscaglia
You may also find this post helpful to improve your relationships: 140 Toxic People Quotes to Help You Remove Negativity and Drama From Your Life
Hard Hitting Quotes About Happiness
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens. But often, we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”
Helen Keller
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
Haruki Murakami
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
Maya Angelou
“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
“Happiness is within. It has nothing to do with how much applause you get or how many people praise you. Happiness comes when you believe that you have done something truly meaningful.”
Martin Yan
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. Therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.”
Marcus Aurelius
“Yesterday, I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
Rumi
“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.”
Marcel Pagnol
“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness—it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”
Brene Brown
“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”
Les Brown
“Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other – it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.”
Charles Caleb Colton
“The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us greatest delight.”
Epictetus
“The path to a dream is rarely linear. You gotta zig-zag your way to happiness.”
Karen Salmansohn
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Seneca
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see in truth that you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
Kahlil Gibran
“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
Buddha
“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
“This, too, shall pass.”
Persian Proverb
“Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.”
Haruki Murakami
“Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.”
Heraclitus
“Bad things happen to us to teach us how to look at good things in a whole new light.”
Unknown
“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”
Winston Churchill
“I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anyone to feel like that.”
Robin Williams
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
Frederick Douglass
“Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.”
Zig Ziglar
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment; and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
John Lennon
“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
Abraham Lincoln
“It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”
L.M. Montgomery
“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I bet they’d live a lot differently. When you look into infinity, you realize there are more important things than what people do all day.”
Bill Watterson
“Sometimes, your joy is the source of your smile. But sometimes, your smile can be the source of your joy.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
“If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.”
Chinese Proverb
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.”
Mark Twain
For more inspiration, check out this post with quotes about dealing with the hard times and the tough times.
Hard Hitting Quotes About Success
“Morning is an important time of day, because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have.”
Lemony Snicket
“The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
William Faulkner
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”
Winston Churchill
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Neale Donald Walsh
“Well begun is half done.”
Aristotle
“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.”
Viggo Mortensen
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”
Mark Twain
“The best way to succeed in this world is to act on the advice you give to others.”
Unknown
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.”
Will Rogers
“Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”
Peter Drucker
“The universe rewards the decisive.”
Karen Salmansohn
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”
Richard Branson
“Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I’ll show you someone who has never achieved much.”
Joan Collins
“Remember that stress doesn’t come from what’s going on in your life, it comes from your thoughts about what’s going on in your life.”
Andrew J. Bernstein
“Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.”
David M. Burns
“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”
M. Scott Peck
“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
Muhammad Ali
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
Stephen King
“Do what you can with all you have wherever you are.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”
Confucius
“Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost legendary. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Calvin Coolidge
“Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.”
Zig Ziglar
“If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.”
David Allen
“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”
Eric Thomas
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
Steve Jobs
“Never ruin an apology with an excuse.”
Benjamin Franklin
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Thomas A. Edison
“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”
Earl Nightingale
“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.”
David Allen
“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.”
Albert Einstein
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
John Wooden
“You are today where your thoughts have brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.”
James Allen
“Dreams can come true, but there is a secret. They’re realized through the magic of persistence, determination, commitment, passion, practice, focus and hard work. They happen a step at a time, manifested over years, not weeks.”
Elbert Hubbard
“He who is untrue to his own cause cannot command the respect of others.”
Albert Einstein
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
Henry Ford
“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
Jim Rohn
“The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.”
Gustave Flaubert
Want even more motivation? Check out this post with inspiring quotes about better days ahead and this one about breaking out of your comfort zone.