These short, quippy quotes will instantly lift your spirits

If you’re looking for the right words to comfort a friend or family member, make a colleague chuckle over the ridiculousness of a work situation or even give yourself a much-needed dose of motivation, quotes from notable figures are just the thing. Even better? Short quotes that get directly to the point and can serve as your mantra or back pocket coach to inspire and delight.

There’s just something about the succinctness of a short quote, and as quote connoisseurs, we’ve got you covered with a list of short quotes below that range from motivational to short and sweet.

No matter the sentiment, a few carefully selected words can help sum up how you’re feeling or raise your spirits when you need a boost. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best short quotes that range from a single word to two sentences.

Any time of year is a good one to peruse this list of short quotes, but you may find the exercise particularly meaningful during transitional moments such as your birthday or as the new year approaches. In fact, you may even want to pick one or two of these wordsmithed jewels to be your official expression for the year ahead.

From luminaries like Steve Martin, Audrey Hepburn and Eleanor Roosevelt to literary giants like Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, keep reading for short quotes we adore.

Motivational short quotes

• “Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons.” — Malala Yousafzai

• “Yes, we can!” — Barack Obama

• “Always be closing.” — David Mamet (spoken by Alec Baldwin in “Glengarry Glen Ross.”)

• “The time is always right to do what is right.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

• “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.” — Sheryl Sandberg

• “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” — Vince Lombardi

• “You have within you, right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.” — Brian Tracy

• “Character is power.” — Booker T. Washington

• “Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” — Dr. Mae C. Jemison

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

• “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” — Tony Robbins

• “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” — H.G. Wells

• “I’d like people to think of me as someone who cares about them.” — Princess Diana

• “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” — Jordan Belfort

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

• “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” — Sam Levenson

• “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”  — Wayne Gretzky

• “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” — Thomas Jefferson

• “The only approval you need is your own.” — Amanda Gorman

• “Never regret anything that made you smile.”  — Mark Twain

• “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” — Maya Angelou

• “Perpetual optimism [is] a force multiplier.” — Colin Powell

• “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Short inspirational quotes from songs

• “No day but today.” — Jonathan Larson, “No Day But Today”

• “All you need is love.” — The Beatles, “All You Need Is Love”

• “The future is no place to place your better days.” — Dave Matthews Band, “Cry Freedom”

• “You can’t always get what you want.” — The Rolling Stones, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”

• “Don’t stop believin’.” — Journey, “Don’t Stop Believin’”

• “Every little thing is gonna be alright.” — Bob Marley, “Three Little Birds”

• “Just stay on track and never look back.” — Dolly Parton, “Blue Smoke”

• “You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.” — Kenny Rogers, “The Gambler”

• “Let the river run, let all the dreamers wake the nation.” — Carly Simon, “Let the River Run”

• “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” — The Beatles, “The End”

• “The hills are alive with the sound of music, with songs they have sung for a thousand years.”  — Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, “The Sound of Music”

Inspirational short quotes

• “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.” (Translated from French: “Tous les jours à tous les points de vue, je vais de mieux en mieux) — Émile Coué

• “Keep on truckin’.” — Robert Crumb

• “Do not let making a living prevent you from making a life.”  — John Wooden

• “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Nelson Mandela

• “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller

• “What’s the world for if you can’t make it up the way you want it?”  — Toni Morrison

• “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” — T.S. Eliot

• “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” — Plato

• “If you prioritize yourself, you are going to save yourself.” — Gabrielle Union

• “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill

• “The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost

• “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey

• “For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “Doubt is a killer. You have to know who you are and what you stand for.” — Jennifer Lopez

• “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” — Henry Ford

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

• “Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

• “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw

• “The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.” — Voltaire

• “Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

• “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan

• “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” — Woody Allen

• “There is no courage without vulnerability.” — Brené Brown

• “Rise above the storm and you will find the sunshine.” — Mario Fernández

• “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

• “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi

• “Oh, the places you’ll go!” — Dr. Seuss

• “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” ― William Butler Yeats

• “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus

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

• “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” — Bill Gates

• “You don’t learn to walk by following rules, you learn by doing, and falling over.” — Richard Branson

Historic short quotes

• “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” — Nathan Hale

• “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” — Oscar Wilde

• “Perhaps one day it will be pleasing to recall even such hardships.” — Virgil

• “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” — William Shakespeare

• “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

• “I think, therefore I am.” — René Descartes

• “Carpe diem.” — Horace

• “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” — Neil Armstrong

• “You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.” — C.S. Lewis

• “Less is more.” —Mies van der Rohe

• “History has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.” — Michelle Obama

• “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain

• “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” — Thomas Edison

• “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” — Alexander Graham Bell

• “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

• “Happiness is not by chance, but by choice.” — Jim Rohn

• “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” — Mother Teresa

Short quotes about life

• “Nobody puts baby in a corner. — Eleanor Bergstein (spoken by Patrick Swayze in “Dirty Dancing.”)

• “Show me the money!” — Cameron Crowe (spoken by Cuba Gooding, Jr. in “Jerry Maguire.”)

• “I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.” — Steven Wright

• “Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?” — Robin Williams

• “My favorite machine at the gym is the vending machine.” — Caroline Rhea

• “I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.” — Noel Coward

• “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.” ― Dorothy Parker

• “All my life I always wanted to be someone. I see now I should have been more specific.” ― Lily Tomlin

• “Before you marry a person you should first make them use a computer with slow Internet to see who they really are.” ― Will Ferrell

• “I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.” ― Phyllis Diller

• “Some people have no idea what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” ― George Carlin

• “Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.” ― Jerry Seinfeld

• “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” ― Allen Saunders

• “No man goes before his time — unless his boss leaves early.” — Groucho Marx.

• “There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it.” — Mindy Kaling

• “A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” — Steve Martin

• “I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.” — Charles Lamb

Short motivational quotes

• “The only easy day was yesterday.” — U.S. Navy SEALs

• “Semper Fidelis.” (Always faithful.)  — U.S. Marine Corps

• “Just do it.” — Nike

• “Think different.”  — Apple

• “Impossible is nothing.” — Adidas

• “Lux et Veritas.” — Yale University motto

• “Excelsior!” (Higher!)  — New York state motto

• “May the Force be with you.” — “Star Wars”

• “Hasta la vista, baby.” — “Terminator 2: Judgement Day”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com