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100 Inspirational Short Quotes About Life to Live By

Here we have gathered all the best short quotes about life including life is too short quotes, inspirational short quotes about life, and short sayings about life.

We have also combined some of our favorite short quotes on life with our favorite life moments.

Our Favorite Short Quotes About Life

“Life is a first impression. You get one shot at it. Make it everlasting.” – J.R. Rim

“Enjoy the little things in life.” – Robert Breault

“This has been my life; I found it worth living.” – Bertrand Russell

“Every moment of life is precious and can never happen again.” – Zelig Pliskin

Person at sunrise with short quotes about life by Zelig Pliskin

Life is precious, and when you’ve lost a lot of people, you realize each day is a gift.” – Meryl Streep

“Enjoy every moment you have. Because in life, there are no rewinds, only flashbacks.” –Anmol Andore

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

“In order to write about life first you must live it.”– Ernest Hemingway

“Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once.” — Lillian Dickson

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

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” —Mahatma Gandhi

“Living an experience, a particular fate, is accepting it fully.” — Albert Camus

“Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.” – Arthur Rubinstein

“The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.” – William Hazlitt

“Embrace your uniqueness, time is much too short to be living someone elses life.” – Kobi Yamada

Woman hiking in gorge with life is short be happy quotes by Kobi Yamada

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it.” – Mother Teresa

“Life is short. Stop worrying so much. Have fun. Be grateful. Be yourself.” – Karen Salmansohn

“Life is short, and it is here to be lived.” —Kate Winslet

Person hiking with life is too short quotes by Kate Winslet

“After all, life is too short to be anything but happy.” – Karl Marx

“Life is way too short to continue thinking you’re not worthy or good enough.” – Kevin Ngo

“Life is too short to harbor any hostilities towards anybody.” – Peabo Bryson

“Life is short, and we should respect every moment of it.” – Orhan Pamuk

“If you want something, don’t wish for it. Life is too short to wait.” – Stephen Hines

“Life is too short and happiness is too rare.” – A.R.Lucas

“Life is too short, and the time we waste in yawning never can be regained.” – Stendhal

“Let go. Surrender. Go for the ride of your life. Do it every day.” – Melody Beattie

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.” – Melody Beattie

“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” – William James

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anaïs Nin

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

Person throwing snow with simple quotes about life by Mae West

“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” – Leo Burnett

“Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.” — Grandma Moses

“I enjoy life when things are happening. I don’t care if it’s good things or bad things.” – Joan Rivers

“Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it.” – Irving Berlin

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”- Robert Frost

“I’ve been around a long time, and life still has a whole lot of surprises for me.”- Loretta Lynn

If you like these, you might also want to check out our other lists of Change Captions, Positive Change Quotes, Kindness Quotes, Inspirational Life Quotes, Positive Life Quotes, Happy Life Quotes, Powerful Quotes, Happy Quotes and Short Funny Quotes.

Short Funny Quotes About Life

“Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius

“If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead.” – Johnny Carson

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” — Forrest Gump

Person hiking with short funny quotes about life by Forrest Gump

“Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.” — Stephen Hawking

“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” – Elbert Hubbard

“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.” – Katharine Hepburn

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

“Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television.” – David Letterman

“When you’re in love it’s the most glorious two and a half days of your life.” – Richard Lewis

“Life is hard; it’s harder if you’re stupid.” – John Wayne

“Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious.” – Phillips Brooks

“Life is too short to be unhappy.” – Roy T. Bennett

“Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.” – Dr. Suess

Person hiking with life is very short quotes by Dr. Suess

“Life is short, and truth works far and lives long: let us then speak the truth.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

“Enjoy every moment because life is too short to fret over hardships.” – Himaja Sirigiri

“Life is short and the older you get, the more you feel it. Indeed, the shorter it is.” – Viggo Mortensen

Short Inspirational Life Quotes

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

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”– Albert Einstein

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” – Omar Khayyam

Person by ocean with short happy life quotes

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.” – Audrey Hepburn

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” – Omar Khayyam

“It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.” – Seneca

“Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.” – Marquis de Condorcet

“Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy.” – Milton Erickson

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.” – Lou Holtz

The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live.”- Elbert Hubbard

“Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is.”– Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Volcano reflection with short inspirational quotes about life by Janathon Lockwood Huie

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward.” – Soren Kierkegaard

“A life of sacrifice is the pinnacle of art, and is full of true joy.” –Mahatma Gandhi

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein

“The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” – Ken Hudgins

“The joy of life is becoming a person you are proud of.” —Bill Orender

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

Yellow field with short positive life quotes by Sarah Louise

“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” —Oprah Winfrey

“If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“As you know, life is an echo; we get what we give.” — David DeNotaris

“There are no regrets in life, just lessons.” — Jennifer Aniston

“Love who you want to love. Life is short. Nobody’s going to hate you for it.” – Shane Dawson

“Pleasure of love lasts but a moment. Pain of love lasts a lifetime.” – Bette Davis

“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.” – Sophocles

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

Two people with starry sky with short quotes about love and life by Mahatma Gandhi

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

“A life lived in love will never be dull.” – Leo Buscaglia

“Life is the flower for which love is the honey.” – Victor Hugo

“Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third.” – Marge Piercy

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

“Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” — Benjamin Franklin

“I think if you live in a black-and-white world, you’re gonna suffer a lot.” – Bradley Cooper

“You only pass through this life once, you don’t come back for an encore.” — Elvis Presley

Person by lake with short deep quotes about life by Elvis Presley

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

“We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it.” – Lauryn Hill

“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” – Charlie Chaplin

“Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

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

“Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius

“Maybe that’s what life is… a wink of the eye and winking stars.” — Jack Kerouac

Person hiking with cute short quotes about life by Jack Kerouac

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

“Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life.” — Buddha

“You choose the life you live.” – Kim Kiyosaki

“Your life only gets better when you get better.”- Brian Tracy

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” – Marie Curie

“The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.” – Victor Hugo

“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” – William James

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

“Life is about making an impact, not making an income.” — Kevin Kruse

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” – Soren Kierkegaard

Person by lake with short meaningful quotes about life by Soren Kierkegaard

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” – Steve Jobs

“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness.” – Carl Jung

“Get busy living or get busy dying.” — Stephen King

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

“Life is never easy.” — John F. Kennedy

“Live for each second without hesitation.” — Elton John

Person by ocean with quotes on life short and sweet by Elton John

“The greatest pleasure of life is love.” — Euripides

“When you cease to dream you cease to live.” —Malcolm Forbes

“I believe you make your day. You make your life.” – Brad Pitt

“Today, you have 100% of your life left.” – Tom Landry

“Growth is the only evidence of life.” – John Henry Newman

“It is not length of life, but depth of life.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Spread love everywhere you go.” – Mother Teresa

“Turn every life situation into a positive one.” – Rhonda Byrne

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

“Light tomorrow with today!” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

“Know yourself.” – Greek Proverb

Short Sayings About Life

  • “Sing like no one’s listening, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching, and live like it’s heaven on earth.”
  • “Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.”
Man on mountain with short sayings about life
  • “It is impossible to live without failing at something.”
  • “Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.”
  • “The purpose of everyone’s life is to live it. Try something new.”

So that’s our list. We hope you found the short quote you were looking for.

So go out and live your best life!

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Blue lake and mountains
Woman holding up a clear chunk of ice on the beach

About the Author

Laynni Locke

I am Laynni Locke, a Canadian writer, reader and traveller with a passion for sharing life’s moments on social media. Keeping friends and family in the loop of our lives though photos and videos has become an essential activity for most.

And it doesn’t matter if you are travelling, celebrating a special occasion or just appreciating day-to-day life, when you take that perfect photo you are going to need the perfect caption or quote before you share it. Which is why we started Routinely Shares, providing comprehensive lists of quotes and captions to cover every occasion, adventure or loved one.

With extensive experience as a travel writer, social media specialist and grant writer, I have made it my mission to curate the best and easiest to use lists for your next post.