It probably won’t come as a surprise to hear that every one of us here at Inspiring Quotes is an avid lover of words. We continue to be amazed at the sheer power they have to delight, to comfort, to uplift, and to unite.
But the words that resonate most with each of us, the ones that encapsulate our personal worldviews and have acted as guiding lights throughout our lives, differ nearly as much from person to person as our fingerprints. After all, the beauty and magic of quotes is their ability to speak differently to everyone based on the context provided by our individual experiences and way of thinking.
We’ve published thousands of quotes on IQ at this point, so we think it’s high time to allow our beloved readers a peek behind the proverbial curtain by showing you some of the quotes that mean the most to us. With any luck, you may find a new favorite, too.
Kristina Wright, Writer
Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?Mary Oliver
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, / in secret, between the shadow and the soul.Pablo Neruda
Jordan Amchin, Managing Photo Editor
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. / Just keep going. No feeling is final.Rainer Maria Rilke
To live in this world / you must be able / to do three things: / to love what is mortal; / to hold it / against your bones knowing / your own life depends on it; / and, when the time comes to let it go, / to let it go.Mary Oliver
Joyce Chen, Writer
I grow old … I grow old … / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. / Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? / I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. / I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.T.S. Eliot
To be an artist means: not to calculate and count; to grow and ripen like a tree which does not hurry the flow of its sap and stands at ease in the spring gales without fearing that no summer may follow. It will come … It is a lesson I learn every day amid hardships I am thankful for: patience is all!Rainer Maria Rilke
Meghan Neal, Senior Editor
You don’t meet the people you love, you recognize them.Anna Gavalda
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.Anaîs Nin
Bennett Kleinman, Writer
So it goes.Kurt Vonnegut
Whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality.Conan O'Brien
Zoie Griffin, Staff Photo Editor
It’s about teaching a culture how to treat you. Because at the end of the day, you define you.Viola Davis
I don’t want anyone who doesn’t want me.Oprah Winfrey
Nicole Villeneuve, Writer
My feeling is that labels are for canned food.Michael Stipe
In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.Patti Smith
Melanie Davis-McAfee, Writer
Blow up your TV, throw away your paper / Go to the country, build you a home / Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches / Try an' find Jesus on your own.John Prine
I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."Kurt Vonnegut
Brooke Robinson, Associate Editor
Every day I discover more and more beautiful things; it’s enough to drive one mad; I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.Claude Monet
The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.Louisa May Alcott
Tony Dunnell, Writer
In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn’t merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.Edward Hoagland
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. Be curious.Stephen Hawking
Allie Takeda, Senior Managing Editor
There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.Leonard Cohen
There are years that ask questions and years that answer.Zora Neale Hurston
Paola Bennet, Writer
I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.J.B. Priestley
You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.Mary Oliver
About the Author
Brooke Robinson
Inspiring Quotes editor, bibliophile, cinephile, and curry enthusiast based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
