100 Quotes to Keep You Moving Forward When Life Gets Tough

Life’s journey isn’t always a smooth path; it’s often riddled with challenges, moments of doubt, and times when motivation feels like a distant memory. During these moments, we all need a little encouragement to help us stay resilient and keep moving forward. That’s where the power of words can make a world of difference.

Whether you’re facing personal struggles, professional hurdles, or simply looking for a boost to navigate the unpredictability of life, this collection of 100 quotes to keep you moving forward when life gets tough is here to remind you that brighter days lie ahead.

Why Inspirational Quotes Matter in Tough Times

When life feels like an uphill battle, finding the right words can shift your mindset and give you the strength to continue. Inspirational quotes often carry the wisdom of those who have faced their own share of challenges and emerged stronger. Reading these words can inspire hope, provide comfort, and reignite that internal spark that helps you push forward. If you’re searching for more ways to foster motivation, check out our motivational quotes to inspire hard work and determination or these top motivational quotes for leaders to lead by example and achieve your goals.

Hitting a Roadblock? You’re Not Alone

Feeling stuck or overwhelmed can make anyone question their path. But it’s important to remember that challenges are temporary and growth comes from overcoming them. As you explore these empowering quotes, let them serve as reminders that every great achievement was once met with doubt and uncertainty. For an even more comprehensive boost, don’t forget to visit our career affirmations for success and fulfillment to align your mindset with your goals and aspirations.

Let These Quotes Be Your Guiding Light

Use these quotes as daily mantras or words of comfort during your hardest moments. They’re here to remind you that resilience and hope are stronger than any setback. If you’re looking for more inspiration, browse through quotes to overcome doubts and believe in yourself for those moments when self-assurance feels out of reach.

1. Overcoming Challenges

1. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” — Robert H. Schuller
2. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Nelson Mandela
3. “The struggles we endure today will be the ‘good old days’ we laugh about tomorrow.” — Aaron Lauritsen
4. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
5. “Challenges are what make life interesting, and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” — Joshua J. Marine
6. “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
7. “Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.” — Seneca
8. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” — Robert F. Kennedy
9. “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” — Sam Levenson
10. “Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.” — William Arthur Ward
11. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill
12. “The only way to overcome challenges is to push right through them.” — Napoleon Hill
13. “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” — C.S. Lewis
14. “The brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” — Randy Pausch
15. “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
16. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” — Japanese Proverb
17. “The darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow.” — Jonathan Lockwood Huie
18. “Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.” — Rikki Rogers
19. “No matter how hard it is, keep going. Because you only fail when you give up.” — Unknown
20. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” — Albert Einstein

2. Staying Resilient

21. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” — Mary Anne Radmacher
22. “Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up.” — Mary Holloway
23. “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
24. “Do not pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” — Bruce Lee
25. “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving; we get stronger and more resilient.” — Steve Maraboli
26. “Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.” — Gever Tulley
27. “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill
28. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey
29. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” — Albert Einstein
30. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.” — Maya Angelou
31. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” — Maya Angelou
32. “We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” — Kenji Miyazawa
33. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Confucius
34. “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before.” — Elizabeth Edwards
35. “Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected.” — Jamais Cascio
36. “The human capacity for burden is like bamboo—far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.” — Jodi Picoult
37. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls.” — Kahlil Gibran
38. “Resilience is the ability to attack while running away.” — Wes Fessler
39. “There is no education like adversity.” — Benjamin Disraeli
40. “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” — Nelson Mandela

3. Believing in Yourself

41. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
42. “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” — Nido Qubein
43. “You are stronger than you think.” — Unknown
44. “Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.” — Virat Kohli
45. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
46. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Henry Stanley Haskins
47. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
48. “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” — William James
49. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
50. “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — A.A. Milne
51. “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.” — Christian D. Larson
52. “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
53. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” — John Wooden
54. “Keep believing in yourself and the power you have within.” — Unknown
55. “It is confidence in our bodies, minds, and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures.” — Oprah Winfrey
56. “Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.” — Peter T. McIntyre
57. “Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” — Suzy Kassem
58. “Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” — Dr. Benjamin Spock
59. “A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.” — Serena Williams
60. “You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.” — Brian Tracy

4. Finding Inner Strength

61. “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” — Mahatma Gandhi
62. “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” — Ernest Hemingway
63. “We don’t even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward.” — Isabel Allende
64. “Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.” — Susan Gale
65. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
66. “Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” — Oprah Winfrey
67. “The strongest people are not those who show strength in front of us but those who win battles we know nothing about.” — Unknown
68. “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus
69. “Strength grows in the moments when you think you can’t go on but you keep going anyway.” — Unknown
70. “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.” — Corrie ten Boom
71. “Do not be afraid of your fears. They’re not there to scare you. They’re there to let you know that something is worth it.” — C. JoyBell C.
72. “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on—it’s going on when you don’t have strength.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
73. “Strength doesn’t come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
74. “Scars are not a sign of weakness; they are a sign of survival and endurance.” — Unknown
75. “Sometimes you have to get knocked down lower than you have ever been, to stand up taller than you ever were.” — Unknown
76. “Be strong, you never know who you are inspiring.” — Unknown
77. “The strength of a warrior is not defined by the battles they win but by the battles they fight.” — Unknown
78. “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” — **V

ince Lombardi**

79. “Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s the triumph over it.” — Nelson Mandela
80. “Keep your head up. God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers.” — Unknown

5. Keeping Hope Alive

81. “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” — Desmond Tutu
82. “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” — Christopher Reeve
83. “Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.” — Suzanne Collins
84. “We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
85. “Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise.” — Victor Hugo
86. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.” — Helen Keller
87. “When the world says, ‘Give up,’ hope whispers, ‘Try it one more time.’” — Unknown
88. “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” — Martin Luther
89. “Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.” — E.B. White
90. “Hope is the heartbeat of the soul.” — Michelle Horst
91. “There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.” — Orison Swett Marden
92. “A person can survive anything if they have hope.” — Desmond Tutu
93. “Hope is not pretending that troubles don’t exist. It is the hope that troubles won’t last forever.” — Unknown
94. “Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success.” — Samuel Smiles
95. “When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.” — Theodore Roosevelt
96. “Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.” — Roy T. Bennett
97. “Every day begins with new hopes, new aspirations, and new strength.” — Lailah Gifty Akita
98. “Hope is the fuel that propels us forward, even in the darkest times.” — Unknown
99. “Keep hope alive, even when the road is rough and the future unclear.” — Unknown
100. “Hope is not a dream but a way of making dreams become reality.” — L.J. Suenens