It’s rare for a mom to be at a loss for words. We always have advice, correction, or encouragement to give our kids, but the trick is finding the right words at the right time. The good news is that some pretty wise people have shared profound thoughts over the years. And these inspirational quotes for kids might be exactly what your kids need to hear.
Even though they are little, kids have some big pressure and big decisions to make. And from their viewpoint, the road ahead is a long one with a lot of hard work. These inspirational quotes for kids will help them stay focused and remind them what having good character looks like. And if you have a teen or preteen who is just not feeling anything you have to say, post one of these on his or her bedroom mirror and let the quote speak for you.
- “You are kind. You are smart. You are important.”
- “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!’”~ Audrey Hepburn
- “Don’t compare your life to others. There is no comparison between the sun and the moon. They shine when it is their time.”
- “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do.” ~ John Wooden
- “Practice makes progress, not perfect.”
- “We all can dance when we find music we love.” ~ Giles Andreae
- “There is no substitute for hard work.” ~ Thomas Edison
- “It doesn’t matter what others are doing. It matters what you are doing.”
- “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” ~ Epictetus
- “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” ~ Walt Disney
- “All it takes is faith and trust.” ~ Peter Pan
- “We all change when you think about it. We’re all different people all through our lives. And that’s OK, that’s good, you gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be.” ~ Doctor Who
- “Think, think, think.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “Be silly, be honest, be kind.”~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “When you know better you do better.” ~ Maya Angelou
- “Today is gone. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
- “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “No one is perfect – that’s why pencils have erasers.” ~ Wolfgang Riebe
- “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.”~ Dolly Parton
- “We will be friends until forever, just you wait and see.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “Anything is possible. Anything can be.” ~ Shel Silverstein
- “When something bad happens you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “Dreams don’t work unless you do.”
- “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” ~ Walt Disney
- “You were born to be awesome, not perfect.”
- “Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It’s not the time that matters, it’s the person.” ~ Doctor Who
- “Sometimes the best way to solve your own problems is to help someone else.” ~ Avatar: The Last Airbender
- “Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve done before. ” ~ Bonnie Blair
- “You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “If you think someone could use a friend, be one.”
- “Nothing is particularly hard if you break it down into small jobs.” ~ Henry Ford
- “From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “Love is putting someone else’s needs before yours.” ~ Frozen
- “You don’t need a cape to be a hero. You just need to care.”
- “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
- “The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.” ~ John D. Rockefeller
- “Good times become good memories, but bad times become good lessons.” ~ Avatar: The Last Airbender
- “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “We’re all capable of the most incredible change. We can evolve while still staying true to who we are. We can honor who we’ve been and choose who we want to be next. Now’s your chance! How about it?” ~ Doctor Who
- “It’s ok to be scared. Being scared means you’re about to do something really, really brave.”
- “When life throws you a rainy day, play in the puddles.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” ~ Robert F. Kennedy
- “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
- “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
- “Think and wonder, wonder and think.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “Everything’s got to end sometime. Otherwise, nothing would ever get started.” ~ Doctor Who
- “Just because an animal is large, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want kindness; however big Tigger seems to be, remember that he wants as much kindness as Roo.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “The least important things, sometimes, my dear boy, lead to the greatest discoveries.” ~ Doctor Who
- “If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” ~ Roald Dahl
- “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.” ~ Mother Teresa
- “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” ~ Aesop
- “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
- “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
- “If you can dream it, you can do it.” ~ Walt Disney
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” ~ Mark Twain
- “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again. Only this time, more wisely.” ~ Avatar: The Last Airbender
- “You are always responsible for how you act, no matter how you feel.”~ Robert Tew
- “Whenever you see a successful person you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.” ~ Vaibhav Shah
- “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.”
- “Winning doesn’t mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve done before.” ~ Bonnie Blair
- “The nicest thing about the rain is that it always stops. Eventually.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “The past shouldn’t be feared for it guides our future.” ~ Moana
- “Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “Love is taking a few steps backward maybe even more… to give way to the happiness of the person you love.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel, you can’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving, you will come to a better place.” ~ Avatar: The Last Airbender
- “Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.” ~ Jesse Jackson
- “Even miracles take a little time.” ~ Cinderella
- “Now, think of the happiest things. It’s the same as having wings.” ~ Peter Pan
- “Choose your friends with caution, plan your future with purpose, and frame your life with faith.” ~ Thomas S. Monson
- “You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.” ~ Irish Proverb
- “Think! You can think any Think that you wish!” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “We’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?” ~ Doctor Who
- “Listen with your heart, you will understand.” ~ Pocahontas
- “Never fear shadows. They simply mean that there’s a light somewhere nearby.” ~ Ruth E. Renkei
- “It never hurts to keep looking for sunshine.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ~ Winston Churchill
- “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”~ Paulo Coelho
- “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” ~ A.A. Milne
- “If you’re able to be yourself, then you have no competition.” ~ Barbara Cook
- “Each day is a gift. Don’t send it back unopened.”
- “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
- “To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.” ~ Walt Whitman
- “There’s no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.”
- “The expert in anything was once a beginner.” ~ Helen Hayes
- “You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: they don’t alter their views to fit the facts; they alter the facts to fit their views.” ~ Doctor Who
- “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “You are you. Now, isn’t that pleasant?” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”~ Vince Lombardi
- “Work hard. Dream big. Never give up.”
- “I must go forward where I have never been instead of backward where I have.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “It’s easy to do nothing, it’s hard to forgive.” ~ Avatar: The Last Airbender
- “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” ~ Walt Disney
- “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” ~ Malcolm Gladwell
- “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”~ Albert Einstein
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”~ Mark Twain
- “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it ‘The Present.’”~ Eleanor Roosevelt
- “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”~ Nelson Mandela
- “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”~ Abraham Lincoln
- “Just keep swimming.” ~ Finding Nemo
- “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”~ Maya Angelou
- “The tougher the fight, the more important the mental attitude.”~ Michael Landon
- “There’s always something to look at if you open your eyes!” ~ Doctor Who
- “Today is a good day to try.” ~ The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- “Never let the fear of striking out stop you from playing the game.”~ Babe Ruth
- “Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody.”
- “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “It’s time for you to look inward and start asking yourself the big question: who are you and what do you want?” ~ Avatar: The Last Airbender
- “I think it’s possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.”~ Elon Musk
- “The sun still shines, even when it’s hiding.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it.”~ Muhammed Ali
- “First, think. Second, dream. Third, believe. And finally, dare.” ~ Walt Disney
- “Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you – not because they are nice, but because you are.”
- “Venture outside your comfort zone. The rewards are worth it.” ~ Tangled
- “Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.”~ Malala Yousafzai
- “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body”~ Joseph Addison
- “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”~ B.B. King
- “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “Why worry? If you’ve done the very best you can, then worrying won’t make it any better.” ~ Walt Disney
- “Just because it’s what’s done, doesn’t mean it’s what should be done.” ~ Cinderella
- “I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.” ~ Doctor Who
- “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”~ Judy Garland
- “Keep shining. The world needs your light.”
- “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”~ Henry David Thoreau
- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”~ Wayne Gretzky
- “Good things take time.”
- “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”~ Maya Angelou
- “Be kind to unkind people. They need it the most.”~ Ashleigh Brilliant
- “Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, dreams are forever.” ~ Walt Disney
- “There’s no point in being grown-up if you can’t be childish sometimes.” ~ Doctor Who
- “The things that make me different are the things that make me.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “Always let your conscience be your guide.” ~ Pinocchio
- “The time is always right to do what is right.”~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” ~ Walt Disney
- “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
- “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”~ Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Tough times never last but tough people do.”~ Robert H. Schuller
- “This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”~ Psalm 118:24
- “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “If you can visualize it, if you can dream it, there’s some way to do it.” ~ Walt Disney
- “I will find my way if I can be strong.” ~ Hercules
- “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”~ J.K. Rowling
- “Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten.” ~ Lilo & Stitch
- “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”~ Steve Martin
- “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”~ Dr. Seuss
- “The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.” ~ The Lion King
- “If you keep your eyes open enough, oh, the stuff you will learn. Oh, the most wonderful stuff.”~ Dr. Seuss
- “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”~ Vince Lombardi
- “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”~ Wayne Gretzky
- “It’s not so much what we have in this life that matters. It’s what we do with what we have.” ~ Fred Rogers
- “You can make anything by writing.” ~ C.S. Lewis
- “Many things that seem threatening in the dark become welcoming when we shine a light on them.” ~ Avatar: The Last Airbender
- “Try your best to make goodness attractive. That’s one of the toughest assignments you’ll ever be given.” ~ Fred Rogers
- “I never look back, darling! It distracts me from the now.” ~ The Incredibles
- “A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “A true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.” ~ Hercules
- “Everything that made that giant tree is already contained inside this tiny little seed. All it needs is some time, a little bit of sunshine and rain, and voilá! Now, you might not feel like you can do much now, but that’s just because, well, you’re not a tree yet. You just have to give yourself some time. You’re still a seed.” ~ A Bug’s Life
- “You are always responsible for how you act, no matter how you feel. Remember that.”
- “How do you spell love? You don’t spell love. You feel it.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “I’m only brave when I have to be. Being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble.” ~ The Lion King
- “We didn’t realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “People who make the world better for other people are some of the best people.” ~ Kid President
- “Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one.” ~ Pocahontas
- “If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “Remember you’re the one who can fill the world with sunshine.” ~ Snow White
- “Pulling someone down will never help you reach the top.”
- “What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.” ~ Ralph Marston
- “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “As we learn about each other, so we learn about ourselves.” ~ Doctor Who
- “Believe you can, then you will.” ~ Mulan
- “Do not be followed by its commonplace appearance. Like so many things, it is not what is outside, but what is inside that counts.” ~ Aladdin
- “Do the right thing, even when no one is looking.”
- “Courage isn’t just a matter of not being frightened, you know. It’s being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway.” ~ Doctor Who
- “Home is the comfiest place to be.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
- “I meant what I said and said what I meant.” ~ Dr. Seuss
- “When all else fails, take a nap.” ~ Winnie the Pooh
What are some of your favorite inspirational quotes for kids?