210+ Inspirational Quotes for Kids

By

While a child can still hold fairy tales close to their hearts and still see life through rose-colored glasses, it’s vital that they still stay inspired to follow their big dreams. As a mum or dad, it’s vital for your child to practice gratitude and maintain positivity even when times get tough. When raising little children to become strong children, they need to find happiness in every aspect of their life, just as important as it is for them to stay motivated to go after their dreams

Here are some other motivational quotes to serve as an inspiration for any child finding courage, going after their dream(s), feeling love, showing kindness towards others.

Inspirational Quotes for Kids’ Growth Mindset 

Motherhood and fatherhood are more than just taking care of a child physically and emotionally, but about helping them grow mentally. A positive quote, like one of the ones below, can serve as inspiration and affirmation for any kid

“Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it.”

-Brian Tracy 

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

Albert Einstein

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

-Zig Ziglar 

“Your positive action, combined with positive thinking, results in success.” 

-Shiv Khera

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” 

Winston Churchill

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

Dalai Lama

“If you pursue happiness, you are an ordinary person. If happiness pursues you, you are an extraordinary person. Do not chase happiness; let it chase you.”

-Peter Deunov

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

-Michael Jordan

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” 

-Christopher Robin

“Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”

-Arnold Schwarzenegger

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” 

-Albert Einstein 

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So…sail away from the safe harbor. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

Mark Twain

“Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of—that’s the metric to measure yourself against. Your standards are. Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can be assholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version of themselves.”

Ryan Holiday

Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.”

– Hans Christen Andersen

“If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams, and you will always look lovely.”

-Roald Dahl

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

-Robert F. Kennedy

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

-J.K. Rowling

“I think it’s possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.”

-Elon Musk

“If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you’ll never change the outcome.”

-Michael Jordan

“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.” 

– Theodore Roosevelt

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.”

-Robert H. Schuller 

“You either get bitter, or you get better. It’s that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate; it belongs to you.”

-Josh Shipp

“I keep my heart and my soul, and my spirit open to miracles.”

-Patrick Swayze

“Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it.”

-Tori Amos

“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.”

-Kenji Miyazawa

“Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve done before.”

-Bonnie Blair

“Never look back, darling. It distracts for the now.” 

-Edna Mode, The Incredibles

“One day, the people that don’t even believe in you will tell everyone how they met you.”

-Johnny Depp

“When adversity strikes, that’s when you have to be the most calm. Take a step back, stay strong, stay grounded, and press on.”

-LL Cool J

“Sometimes, carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.”

-Albert Camus

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

-Barack Obama 

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”

-Dalai Lama XIV

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

-Wayne Gretzky

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

-Epictetus

“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

-Michael Jordan

“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”

-Pele

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

-Judy Garland

“Never let the fear of striking out stop you from playing the game.”

-Babe Ruth 

“Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.”

-H. Jackson Brown

“Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do.”

-John Wooden

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens.”

Helen Keller

“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”

Paulo Coelho

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” 

-Wayne Gretzky 

“The tougher the fight, the more important the mental attitude.”

-Michael Landon

“The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.”

-Arnold Schwarzenegger

“The kids who ask WHY are the ones who are going to change the world.”

-Neal Thompson

“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”

-Booker T. Washington

“Just because you haven’t found your talent yet doesn’t mean you don’t have one.”

-Kermit the Frog 

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.”

-Richard Branson

“Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.”

-Matt Biondi

“Learn from yesterday. Live for today. Hope for tomorrow.”

-Albert Einstein

“No one is perfect – that’s why pencils have erasers.”

-Wolfgang Riebe 

“It’s always too soon to quit.”

-Norman Vincent Peale

“The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on.”

-Barack Obama

“If my mind can conceive it if my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it.”

Muhammad Ali

“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”

-Vince Lombardi

“Pursue great things. You are destined for greatness.”

Lailah Gifty Akita

Motivational Quotes About Success and Self Worth

“Keep moving forward” is a famous quote that every person knows to be true. Instilling positive, motivational quotes into your child is an important thing for their growth. With an inspirational quote, they can find reassurance with who they are and what they’re striving for in life

“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” 

-John Maxwell 

“Anything is possible. Anything can be.”

-Shel Silverstein

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” 

-Pele 

“Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.”

-Roy T. Bennett 

“I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint – and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.”

-Oprah Winfrey 

“Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.”

-Joyce Brothers 

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

“You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”

Dr. Seuss 

“You don’t just wake up one day and find that everything has worked itself out. You must get out of bed, morning after morning, and make a conscious effort to control the circumstances of that given day.”

-Jordan

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

-Steve Martin

“If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.”

-Carl Lewis

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”

-Dr. Seuss 

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

-Mark Twain 

“Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.”

-John Wooden 

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

“You always pass failure on the way to success.”

-Mickey Rooney 

“Make each day your masterpiece.”

-John Wooden

“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”

-Vince Lombardi

“The skill to win is important, but the will to win is vital.”

-Joe Paterno 

“Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream, precedes the goal.”

-Pamela Vaull Starr

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”

-Wayne Gretzky 

“Winners must have two things – definite goals and a burning desire to achieve them.”

-Brad Burden

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential … these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

-Confucius 

“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.”

-Albert Einstein

“You got a dream you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves; they tell you, you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it, period.”

Will Smith

“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”

-Stephen Hawking

Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.”
-George Sheehan

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are.”

-Kurt Cobain

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”

-Colin Powell

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.”

-Colin Powell

“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

“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” 

-Babe Ruth

“It doesn’t matter what your background is or where you came from. If you have dreams and goals, that’s all that matters.”

-Serena Williams

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

-Thomas Edison

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

-Eleanor Roosevelt

“Change the world by being yourself.”

-Amy Poehler

“If the whole world was blind, how many people would you impress?”

-Boonaa Mohammed

“You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

Jim Carrey

“Every artist was at first an amateur.”

Ralph W. Emerson

“Don’t doubt your value. Don’t run from who you are.”

-Aslan 

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

-George Burns 

“Being different isn’t a bad thing. It means you’re brave enough to be yourself.”

-Luna Lovegood 

“If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is.”

-Angelina Jolie

“Count your rainbows, not your thunderstorms.” 

-Janice Thompson 

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”

-Japanese Proverb

“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”

-George Washington Carver

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”

-Stephen King 

“We grow great by dreams.”

-Woodrow Wilson 

“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it ‘The Present.”

-Eleanor Roosevelt

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”

-Henry David Thoreau

“Nothing will work unless you do.” 

-John Wooden

Motivational Quotes About Education

The most challenging and most important part of every child’s life is their time in school. Education is vital for the growth of a child, mentally and emotionally. Learning can be difficult, especially when a young child is juggling body changes, mental health, life at home, personal relationships, and friendships. While every child is trying to understand math and science, they’re also trying to avoid procrastination and maintain motivation. School isn’t just about getting a good education, but more so about becoming a person who perseveres, who has courage, who can maintain good thoughts even when times get tough. 

As a student, it’s important to start every school year with a powerful quote stored in the back of your brain and to maintain a good mindset right off the bat. As a teacher, it’s equally important to stay motivated to keep teaching and keep inspiring your students to keep learning. Hang up some motivational sayings or quotes in the classroom so that every child can remind themselves of their potential: 

“Believe you can, and you’re halfway there.”

-Theodore Roosevelt  

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

-Jim Ryun

“Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.”

-Jim Rohn

“Procrastination is the thief of time.” 

-Edward Young

“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.”

-Brian Herbert 

“I don’t love studying. I hate studying. I like learning. Learning is beautiful.”

-Natalie Portman

“The people who are crazy enough to believe they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Steve Jobs 

“What makes a child gifted and talented may not always be good grades in school, but a different way of looking at the world and learning.”

-Chuck Grassley

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

-Malcolm X

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

-Nelson Mandela

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

-Dr. Seuss

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

-Thomas Edison 

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Abraham Lincoln

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” 

-Nelson Mandela

“The sky is not the limit. Your mind is.”

Lynette Simeone

“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.” 

Mark Twain

“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world.”

-Malala Yousafzai

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

-Albert Einstein

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

Walt Disney

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

-Joseph Addison

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”

-Madeleine L’Engle

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”

-Margaret Mead

“My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.”

Maya Angelou 

“Anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me.”

-Fred Rogers

“Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.”

-Jim Rohn 

“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.”

-Denis Waitley

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

-B.B. King 

“Only surround yourself with people who will lift you higher.”

-Oprah Winfrey

“No! Don’t think outside the box! Once you say that, you’ve established that there is a box.”

-Walt Disney

“You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

-A. A. Milne

“Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.”

-Oprah Winfrey

Education is the ability to meet life’s situations.”

-Dr. John G. Hibben

“All students can learn and succeed, but not on the same day in the same way.”

-William Spady 

“Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded.”

-Jess Lair 

“Children are our most valuable resource.”

-Herbert Hoover

“You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward.” 

-Conrad Hall

“I am the greatest. I said that before I knew I was.”

-Muhammad Ali 

“When you know better, you do better.”

-Maya Angelou

“Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.”

-Laird Hamilton

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”

-Robin Williams 

Inspiring Quotes About Friendship, Love, and Kindness 

One of the most important things–if not the most important thing–a kid should learn about is kindness. Hang up a beautiful quote about love on the home walls or pin up a saying about friendship on the classroom bulletin boards. Remember: a kid is not born with empathy, love, and compassion in their blood–it’s something that needs to be taught. 

“You need to remember that love does not mean one person gives all and another person receives all.” 

-Abirami P. Kurukkal 

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love and to let it come in.” 

– Morrie Schwartz

“Be kind to unkind people. They need it the most.”

-Ashleigh Brilliant

“We all can dance when we find music we love.”

-Giles Andreae

“Always stop to think whether your fun may be the cause of another’s unhappiness.” 

-Aesop 

“If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.”

-Dolly Parton 

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”

-Maya Angelou 

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear, and the blind can see.”

-Mark Twain 

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

“Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.”

-Jesse Jackson

“You will never have a completely bad day if you show kindness at least once.”

-Greg Henry Quinn

“If you attach to the negative behavior of others, it brings you down to their level.”

-Guru Singh 

“A friend will be a friend in times of all kinds.”

-Unknown

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

-J.K. Rowling

“Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their true image.”

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

-Maya Angelou 

“Be Silly, Be Honest, Be Kind.” 

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”

-Elbert Hubbard 

“I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life its deepest significance.”

-Pablo Casals 

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.”

-Margaret Mead 

“What this world needs is a new kind of army – the army of the kind.”

-Cleveland Amory

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”

Lao Tzu

“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.”

-A.A. Milne 

“Don’t become so focused on status that you aren’t also nice to other people because that’s the kind of popularity that pays off for decades to come.”

-Mitch Prinstein

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

-Aesop

“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”

-Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”

-Dalai Lama

“Kind words don’t cost much. Yet they accomplish much.”

-Blaise Pascal 

“Never be so busy as not to think of others.”

Mother Teresa

“Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others.”

-Marianne Williamson 

“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”

-John Holmes 

“Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.”

-Dalai Lama 

“That best portion of a man’s life, his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”

-William Wordsworth 

“Manners and politeness will never become old-fashioned.”

-Auliq Ice

“To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world.”

-Dr. Seuss

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” 

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

“You have family and friends who love you. You have a world out there just waiting for you to conquer it. You have a life that will be anything you make it.”

Malorie Blackman

“You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!”

-Anne Frank

“Work hard, be kind and amazing things will happen.”

-Conan O’Brien

“It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”

-Unknown 

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.”

-Amelia Earhart

“Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They’re underused.”

-Tommy Lee Jones

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr. 

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”

-Mark Twain 

“Just imagine how different the world could be if we all spoke to everyone with respect and kindness.”

-Holly Branson

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

-Desmond Tutu

“Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.”

-Henry James 

“You are always responsible for how you act, no matter how you feel.”

-Robert Tew 

“If you want to change attitudes, start with a change in behavior.”

-William Glasser

“Politeness is a sign of dignity, not subservience.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

“I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.”

-Roald Dahl

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”

-Mother Teresa 

“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”

-Jennifer Dukes Lee

“Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, that’s how peace begins.”

-Barack Obama

“Always keep a positive mindset; it will improve your outlook on the world.”

-Roald Dahl

“Be kind; for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”

-Plato

More Inspirational Quotes