80 Best Spiritual Quotes That Will Lift Up Your Soul
Updated: Aug. 22, 2023
Open your mind (and heart) with these profound and inspirational spiritual quotes.
It’s been a rough year and a half. Though the pandemic has put a strain on us all, it’s also highlighted the role of spirituality in our lives. Faced with mortality on a daily basis, many people turn to spiritual quotes and spiritual practices. Religion and spiritual quotes can also help us feel more connected at a time when separation and solitude are the norm.
Whether you’re devout in your faith, a dabbler, or a skeptic, our diverse list of spiritual quotes offers a broad perspective on life to encourage you right where you’re at. If you’re itching for even more inspiration, browse these Christian quotes, karma quotes, strength quotes, patience quotes, and self-love quotes.
1. “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
2. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” —Helen Keller
3. “Practice the pause. When in doubt, pause. When angry, pause. When tired, pause. When stressed, pause. And when you pause, pray.” —Toby Mac
4. “When you accept that there are certain truths in your life that you can’t change, it allows you to embrace your new reality and move forward.” —Amy Purdy
5. “You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.” —Maya Angelou
6. “Let God’s promises shine on your problems.” —Corrie ten Boom
7. “I have been asked hundreds of times in my life why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I really do not know the answer totally, even to my own satisfaction. I have to accept, by faith, that God is sovereign, and he is a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of suffering.” —Billy Graham
8. “We have a saying in Tibet: If a problem can be solved, there is no use worrying about it. If it can’t be solved, worrying will do no good.” —Heinrich Harrer
9. “God will test you because he wants you to grow up. He wants you to mature. He wants you to develop a walk with him that is not based on your fluctuating emotions but on your commitment to him as you learn to walk by faith.” —Greg Laurie
10. “If you live up to your privilege, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.” —Joseph Smith
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11. “True freedom is giving someone the permission to misunderstand you.” —Lauren Daigle
12. “Know what sparks the light in you so that you, in your own way, can illuminate the world.” —Oprah Winfrey
13. “I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?” —John Lennon
14. “Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.” —Wayne Dyer
15. “When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don’t seem to matter very much, do they?” —Virginia Woolf
16. “Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it.” —Brian Tracy
17. “God put us here on this carnival ride. We close our eyes, never knowing where it’ll take us next.” —Carrie Underwood
18. “I don’t want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing.” —Alicia Keys
19. “There’s a lot that is good in your life—don’t take it for granted. Don’t get so focused on the struggles that you miss the gift of today.” —Joel Osteen
20. “Something I learned early on is to not worry about what I can’t control…But what I can control is my attitude, my effort, and my focus every single day.” —Tim Tebow
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21. “However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” —Stephen Hawking
22. “A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.” —Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert
23. “Happiness is spiritual, born of truth and love. It is unselfish; therefore, it cannot exist alone but requires all mankind to share it.” —Mary Baker Eddy
24. “If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” —Pema Chödrön
25. “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
26. “To make life a little better for people less fortunate than you. That’s what I think a meaningful life is, living not for oneself but for one’s community.” —Ruth Bader Ginsburg
27. “If you’re willing to put yourself and your dreams on the line, at the very least you’ll discover an inner strength you may not have known existed.” —Kurt Warner
28. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” —Confucius
29. “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” —Rumi
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30. “We are not punished for our anger; we are punished by our anger.” —Eknath Easwaran
31. “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” —Princess Diana
32. “I attack ideas. I don’t attack people. Some very good people have some very bad ideas. And if you can’t separate the two, you gotta get another day job.” —Antonin Scalia
33. “Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.” —Yoda, Star Wars
34. “To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.” —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter
35. “Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand—relax. If you relax, it comes. If you relax, it is there. If you relax, you start vibrating with it.” —Osho
36. “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” —Psalm 147:4
37. “Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity, and you are the mirror.” —Kahlil Gibran
38. “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” —Dolly Parton
39. “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” —C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
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40. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
41. “I sometimes get very angry at God, and I do not feel guilty about it, because the anger is an affirmation of faith. You cannot get angry at someone who is not there.” —Madeleine L’Engle, The Irrational Season
42. “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.” —Lois Lowry, The Giver
43. “Even though you don’t know what will happen tomorrow, you can absolutely be sure of your ultimate destination. I will hold you by your right hand, and afterward I will take you into glory.” —Sarah Young, Jesus Calling (referencing Psalm 73: 23–28)
44. “If you seek peace, be still. If you seek wisdom, be silent. If you seek love, be yourself.” —Becca Lee
45. “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and the more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above and the moral law within.” —Immanuel Kant
46. “Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.” ―Ralph Waldo Emerson
47. “Remember to 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.” —Stephen Hawking
48. “We’re an impossibility in an impossible universe.” —Ray Bradbury
49. “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” —Aristotle
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50. “The Word of God is like an anchor. Each time you read it, you are putting your anchor in the ground and holding on.” —Kelly Needham
51. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” —Philippians 4:8
52. “Emotions are like passing storms, and you have to remind yourself that it won’t rain forever.” —Amy Poehler
53. “How do we change the world? One random act of kindness.” —Morgan Freeman as God in Evan Almighty
54. “We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
55. “If you believe in a god who controls the big things, you have to believe in a god who controls the little things. It is we, of course, to whom things look little or big.” —Elizabeth Elliot
56. “You can always give without loving, but you can never love without giving.” —Amy Carmichael
57. “After ten thousand affronts, he loves you as infinitely as ever.” —Charles Spurgeon
58. “Lord God, you know what you’re doing!” —Gladys Aylward
59. “Something revolutionary happens in the heart when you recognize that every single person you will ever meet is made in the image of God.” —Jackie Hill Perry
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60. “Good humor and laughter are far too wonderful not to come straight from the heart of God.” —Beth Moore
61. “People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Worship”
62. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” —Carl Jung
63. “One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
64. “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” —A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
65. “That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.” —Emily Dickinson
66. “In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.” —Fred Rogers
67. “Everyone deserves a second-second chance.” —Steve Carell as Michael Scott in The Office
68. “God seldom calls us for an easier life but always calls us to know more of him and drink more deeply of his sustaining grace.” —John Piper
69. “I would believe only in a god who could dance. And when I saw my devil I found him serious, thorough, profound, and solemn: it was the spirit of gravity – through him all things fall.” —Friedrich Nietzsche
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70. “Worship is about being able to come before God, and it is about understanding who he is. He is God! So when you are worshiping God, you know right away that it isn’t about you but it is about him.” —CeCe Winans
71. “You’re lovely even with your scars, lovely the way you are. So open up your lovely heart and don’t try so hard.” —Amy Grant, “Don’t Try So Hard”
72. “People look at me and see a calm, cool guy on the sidelines, and I want them to know that my Christian faith affects my coaching and everything that I do.” —Tony Dungy
73. “We wanted a life which through its own conditions and purposefulness would engender naturally (rather than by artificial stimulation) order, leisure, character, stability, and that would also, in a larger sense, be aesthetically enjoyable.” —Donald Davidson
74. “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel his pleasure.” —Ian Charleson as Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire
75. “We please him most not by frantically trying to make ourselves good but by throwing ourselves into his arms with all our imperfections and believing that he understands everything—and still loves us.” —A.W. Tozer
76. “And above all, remember that the meaning of life is to build a life as if it were a work of art.” —Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
77. “Life’s barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at.” —Matthew McConaughey as Rust Cohle in True Detective
78. “The supreme happiness of life consists in the conviction that one is loved; loved for one’s own sake, let us say rather, loved in spite of one’s self.” —Victor Hugo
79. “If the sun comes up, I have a chance.” —Venus Williams
80. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, ‘Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.'” —Matthew 5:48
Once you’ve taken in these spiritual quotes about life, browse quotes about change that’ll make you optimistic about the future.
