61 Inspirational Quotes to Inspire and Motivate Your Teenagers

By Hannah Borison

March 31, 2023

Whether it’s for everyday life or seismic events, everyone needs encouragement. These days we see a lot of inspirational messages floating through social media. How many times have you thought, “I should remember this one for my kid”, then promptly forgotten it? That’s okay because we’ve done the work for you. We’ve gathered and organized inspiring quotes for teens for important and everyday occasions. Now you have exactly what you need to say or text to inspire your teen. 

Inspirational Quotes About LOVE

1. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

2. “Talk not of wasted affection; affection never was wasted.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

3. “The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous.” – Maya Angelou

4. “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” — Dr. Seuss

5. “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” — A. A. Milne

6. “Love is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is.” — Duke Ellington

7. “You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” — Buddha

Inspirational Quotes About FRIENDSHIP

8. “I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.” — Nelson Mandela

9. “A good friend is a connection to life: a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.” — Lois Wyse

10. “Always admit when you’re wrong. You’ll save thousands in therapy… and a few friendships too.” — Harvey Fierstein

11. “A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.” ― William Shakespeare

12. “I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.” — Winnie the Pooh

13. “Friendships between women, as any woman will tell you, are built of a thousand small kindnesses … swapped back and forth and over again.” — Michelle Obama

Inspirational Quotes About SELF-ESTEEM

14. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

15. “We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us.” — Virginia Satir

16. “If you are always trying to be normal, you’ll never know how amazing you can be.” — Maya Angelou

17. “Never apologize for being sensitive or emotional. Let this be a sign that you’ve got a big heart and aren’t afraid to let others see it. Showing your emotions is a sign of strength.” — Brigitte Nicole

18. “The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.” — Matty Mullins

19. “Never dull your shine for somebody else.” — Tyra Banks.

20. “Beautiful people are not always good, but good people are always beautiful.” — Imam Ali1

21. “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else.” — Judy Garland

22. “You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

Inspirational Quotes About SUCCESS 

23. “You will always pass failure on your way to success.” — Mickey Rooney

24. “Don’t be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed.” – LeBron James

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

26. “It is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.” — George Burns

27. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas A. Edison

28. “If you’re making mistakes, it means you’re out there doing something.” — Neil Gaiman

29. “The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” — Thomas A. Edison

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

31. “Don’t be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed.” — LeBron James

32. “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” — Michael Jordan

33. “The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.” — John D. Rockefeller.

34. “My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.” – Charles Dickens

35. “Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead.”— Nora Ephron

36. It is what we make out of what we have given, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.” — Nelson Mandela

37. “Hard days are the best because that’s when champions are made. If you push through the hard days, then you can get through anything.” — Gabby Douglas

Inspirational Quotes About DREAMS

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

39. “The people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs

40. “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney

41. “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” — John Wooden

42. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela.

43. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank

Inspirational Quotes About CURIOSITY

44. “Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.” — Stephen Hawking

45. “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” — Albert Einstein

46. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  — Aristotle

47. “It isn’t where you came from. It’s where you’re going that counts.” — Ella Fitzgerald.

48. “Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.” — Stephen Hawking

Inspirational Quotes About MENTAL HEALTH

49. “The darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow.” — Jonathan Lockwood Huie

50. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” — Robert H. Schuller

Inspirational Quotes About MOTIVATION

51. “Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going.” — Yasmin Mogahed

52. “Courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” — Nelson Mandela.

53. “In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

54. “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” — John Green

55. “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” ― Henry David Thoreau

56. “There is no normal life that is free of pain. It’s the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth.” — Fred Rogers

57. “We are not our trauma. We are not our brain chemistry. That’s part of who we are, but we’re so much more than that.” ― Sam J. Miller

58. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe

59. “Take pride in how far you’ve come. Have faith in how far you can go. But don’t forget to enjoy the journey.”— Michael Josephson

60. “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”—B.B King

61. “I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy — I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” — Art Williams

Did we miss any positive quotes for teenagers? What are your favorite inspirational quotes? Tag us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and let us know!