72 Best Positive Quotes To Fill Your World With Light (2023)
So, you’re seeking out positive quotes… We’ve got your back.
Sometimes, we all just need some uplifting words to carry us through a challenging moment — or to share in the hopes of helping someone else.
As experts on positive news, our team is constantly collecting the best quotes that remind us that the world is filled with goodness, and we can each play a role in making people’s lives better. Today, we’re sharing our quote collection with you.
As you read these quotes (which are divided up into easy sections) we hope you feel more hopeful — and that you also feel motivated to get involved and make a positive difference.
Scroll through, find some quotes that mean a lot to you, and don’t be afraid to click on some of the links to our other curated quote articles.
Lastly, if you’re wondering if things are going to be okay — rest assured that they will be.
Enjoy our roundup of the best positive quotes to leave you feeling more hopeful —
Mục Lục
Positive Inspirational Quotes
Short Positive Quotes
“There is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
— Amanda Gorman
“If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain.”
― Dolly Parton
“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.”
— James Baldwin
“Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“If it doesn’t make the world better, don’t do it.”
— Brad Montague
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
— Fred Rogers
“We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.”
— Dr. Maya Angelou
→ Read more quotes about caring
Quotes About Being Hopeful
“I do have reasons for hope: our clever brains, the resilience of nature, the indomitable human spirit, and above all, the commitment of young people when they’re empowered to take action.”
— Jane Goodall
“To be optimistic is to assume things will work out. To be hopeful is to realize things can work out if you work at them. Hope requires responsibility and agency; optimism relieves us of both. In rooting for your sports team, choose optimism. In rooting for democracy, choose hope.”
— Eric Liu
“Hope confronts. It does not ignore pain, agony, or injustice. It is not a saccharine optimism that refuses to see, face, or grapple with the wretchedness of reality. You can’t have hope without despair, because hope is a response. Hope is the active conviction that despair will never have the last word.”
— Cory Booker
“Hope will never be silent.”
— Harvey Milk
“Being truthful about the state of our nation and world does not equal losing hope. Hope sees truth and still believes in better. That which dismisses or does not seek truth, but grins, saying “It will be okay,” is naivete, not hope.”
— Bernice King
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
— John Lewis
“Food, in essence, gives you hope that maybe tomorrow will be better. That’s why a plate of food is so important in those moments.”
— Chef José Andrés
“The world may be broken, but hope is not crazy.”
— John Green
→ Read more quotes about hope
→ Read more quotes about optimism
Happy Positive Quotes
“If you see someone without a smile today, give ’em yours.”
— Dolly Parton
“There is one thought that I feel can be helpful to grown-ups and children alike: Sadness isn’t forever. I’m not suggesting that we remind ourselves of this in order to lessen our grief. On the contrary. The knowledge that time does bring relief from sadness and that sooner or later there will be days when we are happy again may allow us to grieve more fully and deeply when we need to.”
— Fred Rogers
“Happiness is anyone and anything that’s loved by you.”
— Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts
“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
— Anne Frank
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
— Marcel Proust
“Earlier in my life, I thought the things that mattered were the things that you could see, like your car, your house, your wealth, your property, your office. But as I’ve grown older I’ve become convinced that the things that matter most are the things that you can’t see — the love you share with others, your inner purpose, your comfort with who you are.”
— Jimmy Carter
→ Read quotes about toxic positivity, to help maintain a healthy approach to hopefulness
Positive Motivational Quotes
“We can’t just hope for a brighter day, we have to work for a brighter day. Love too often gets buried in a world of hurt and fear. And we have to work to dig it out so we can share it with our family, our friends, and our neighbors.”
— Dolly Parton
“You know you can always help to make each day a special day by just your being yourself. You grow in your own way; everyone does. That’s one reason each one of us is different and special and people can like us exactly as we are.”
— Fred Rogers
“Sometimes we face potential failure, and we have to remember to try anyway to find a way to reach our goal. We can overcome many global problems and build a better world if we all work together as a community”
— Jimmy Carter
“Inhale, exhale, it is well, it is well. All of this is a part of the story you will tell.”
— Morgan Harper Nichols
“You ask me about the past, you ask me about the future, the only way to be happy is to be living right now.”
— Yvon Chouinard
→ Read more humanitarian quotes from humanitarians
Positive Quotes About Life
“A joyful rebellion is you living differently not because you’re mad at how things are but because you are swelling with joy at the thought of how things could be.”
— Kid President
“Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter.”
— Bono
“Humanity is good. Some people are terrible and broken, but humanity is good. I believe that.”
― Hank Green
“Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.”
— Jon Acuff
“Misery might love company, but so does joy. And joy throws much better parties.”
— Billy Ivey
Positive Quotes For Women
“People are not sitting down, people are taking action. And women are at the forefront of these actions.”
— Joan Carling
“If you see something beautiful in someone speak it.”
— Ruthie Lindsey
“I still believe that women should get paid equal and should be treated with respect. I’m all about that. I don’t get out and have to preach it or march in the streets, I write about it.”
— Dolly Parton
→ Read quotes to empower women
→ Read Women’s History Month quotes & International Women’s Day quotes
Body Positive Quotes
“Since I don’t look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. To be different. But different is good.”
— Serena Williams
“To love yourself as you are is a miracle, and to seek yourself is to have found yourself, for now. And now is all we have, and love is who we are.”
— Anne Lamott
“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
“Each individual woman’s body demands to be accepted on its own terms.”
— Gloria Steinem
“I realize everybody wants what they don’t have. But at the end of the day, what you have inside is much more beautiful than what’s on the outside.”
— Selena Gomez
“You all can judge my body all you want, but at the end of the day it’s MY body. I love it and I’m comfortable in my own skin.”
— Simone Biles
→ Read the best quotes about self care
Positive Quotes About Change
“Change is made of choices, and choices are made of character.”
— Amanda Gorman
“I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive.”
— Harvey Milk
“We are imperfect creatures. We are; that’s what it is. But we should try reaching for the better you, the better me.”
— Sidney Poitier
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
— George Bernard Shaw
“History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.”
— Marsha P. Johnson
“I can’t change the world but I can change the world in me.”
— Bono
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
— Margaret Mead
→ Read the best quotes about change
→ Read more quotes about justice and quotes about social justice
Staying Positive Quotes
“Just for the record darling, not all positive change feels positive in the beginning.”
— S.C. Lourie
“Stay positive and happy. Work hard and don’t give up. Be open to criticism and keep learning. Surround yourself with happy, warm, and genuine people.”
— Tena Desae
“We can choose to be hopeful, try and possibly fail or not be hopeful, give up and definitely fail.”
— David Hogg
“Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.”
— Mary Lou Retton
→ Read more quotes about optimism and quotes about hope
Love Quotes
“Love is at the root of everything. All learning. All parenting. All relationships. Love, or the lack of it.”
— Fred Rogers
“To love one another just may be the fight of our lives.”
— Amanda Gorman
“We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water.”
— Sidney Poitier
“Living our life deeply and with happiness, having time to care for our loved ones — this is another kind of success, another kind of power, and it is much more important.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
Positive Mental Health Quotes
“Life hurts and it’s hard. Not because you’re doing it wrong, but because it hurts for everybody. Don’t avoid the pain. You need it. It’s meant for you.”
— Glennon Doyle
“The advice I’d give to somebody that’s silently struggling is — You don’t have to live that way. You don’t have to struggle in silence. You can be un-silent. You can live well with a mental health condition, as long as you open up to somebody about it, because it’s really important you share your experience with people so that you can get the help that you need.”
— Demi Lovato
“There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.”
— John Green
“Mental health problems don’t define who you are. They are something you experience. You walk in the rain and you feel the rain, but you are not the rain.”
— Matt Haig
“We don’t have to do all of it alone. We were never meant to.”
— Brené Brown
→ Read more quotes about mental health
Positive Spiritual Quotes
“A single individual is enough for hope to exist. And that individual can be you.”
— Pope Francis
“If I am hungry, that is a material problem; if someone else is hungry, that is a spiritual problem.”
— Paul Farmer
“Yes, you must live life beautifully and not allow the spirit of the world that makes gods out of power, riches, and pleasure make you forget that you have been created for greater things: to love and to be loved.”
— Mother Teresa
Quotes About Positive News
“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!”
— Anne Frank
“The good news is that every morning we have the choice; not to be controlled by circumstances nor our past but by purposely designing our day, hence our lives better. Not to react to life but to respond with love.”
— Bernard Kelvin Clive
“It’s good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for awhile their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.”
— Dr. Maya Angelou
→ Read more quotes about good news and quotes about bad news
Quotes About Making a Positive Difference
“I’m convinced of this — Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.”
— Dr. Maya Angelou
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away.”
— Dorothy Day
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
— Angela Davis
“Remember: things can be bad, and getting better.”
— Hans Rosling
→ Read more quotes about activism
→ Read more quotes about making a difference
→ Read more quotes about giving
Quotes About Kindness
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”
― Ian MacLaren
“It takes courage to be kind.”
— Dr. Maya Angelou
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.”
— Seneca
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
— Dalai Lama
“If we are asking for the world to be kind, we must first ask what are we doing to add more kindness to the world. If we are asking for the world to be more loving, we must first ask what are we doing to add more love to the world. We are the vessels for the things we seek.”
— Joél Leon
“It takes so much energy to be mean. It takes much less to be nice.”
— Leah Thomas
→ Read more quotes about kindness
Positive Sports Quotes
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
— Arthur Ashe
“I think the reason why I’m the person who I am today is because I went through those tough times when I was younger.”
— LeBron James
“I’ve never scored a goal in my life without getting a pass from someone else.”
— Abby Wambach
“It’s important for everyone to stand up for what they believe in.”
— Lewis Hamilton
“With a defeat, when you lose, you get up, you make it better, you try again. That’s what I do in life, when I get down, when I get sick, I don’t want to just stop. I keep going and I try to do more. Everyone always says never give up but you really have to take that to heart and really do never definitely give up. Keep trying.”
— Serena Williams
