150 Deep and Meaningful Quotes About Life That Makes You Think

I like deep quotes. The ones that make you think. Make you see things from a new perspective.

I also like meaningful quotes. Those ones that make us pause and think about what really matters in this life.

So in today’s post I’d like to share 150 of the most powerful, profound and thought provoking deep and meaningful quotes.

I hope you’ll find something here to give you a new insight about – or perspective on – love, happiness, friendship, success and plenty more.

Deep and Meaningful Quotes About Life

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”
– Diane Ackerman

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.”
– Andy Rooney

“It is only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.”
– Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
– Dr. Seuss

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
– Soren Kierkegaard

“Take time like the river that never grows stale. Keep going and steady. No hurry, no rush.”
– Rumi

“If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world.”
– Joseph Addison

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”
– Clay P. Bedford

“If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.”
– Henry David Thoreau

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
– Maya Angelou

“The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others.”
– Aesop

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own.”
– Albert Ellis

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
– Oscar Wilde

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.”
– James Oppenheim

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
– George Bernard Shaw

“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
– Steve Jobs

“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.”
– Groucho Marx

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
– Helen Keller

“Many people die at twenty-five and aren’t buried until they are seventy-five.”
– Benjamin Franklin

“The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer

“Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.”
– Kahlil Gibran

“The fullness of life is only accessible in the present moment.”
– Eckhart Tolle

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
– George Bernard Shaw

Deep Quotes With Truths That Make You Think

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
– Rumi

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
– Kahlil Gibran

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”
– M. Scott Peck

“The reason why we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”
– Stephen Furtick

“Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots.”
– Rumi

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled.”
– M. Scott Peck

“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”
– Winston Churchill

“Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Don’t over-analyze your relationships. Stop playing games. A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.”
– Leo F. Buscaglia

“There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.”
– Seneca

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”
– Bertrand Russell

“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”
– Peter Drucker

“After every difficulty, ask yourself two questions: ‘What did I do right?’ and ‘What would I do differently?’”
– Brian Tracy

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
– Maya Angelou

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
– Seneca

“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
– Abraham Maslow

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
– Mark Twain

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
– Socrates

“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”
– Voltaire

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
– Aristotle

“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.”
– Rumi

“Everything you can imagine is real.”
– Pablo Picasso

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
– Ernest Hemingway

“People spend too much time doing and not enough time thinking about what they should be doing.”
– Naval Ravikant

“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche

Deep and Meaningful Quotes About Love and Pain

“Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world.”
– Wayne Dyer

“You know it’s love when all you want is that person to be happy, even if you’re not part of their happiness.”
– Julia Roberts

“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke

“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.”
– Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us.”
– Paulo Coelho

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
– Rumi

“Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says ‘I need you because I love you.’”
– Erich Fromm

“It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt

“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
– James Baldwin

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

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”
– Aristotle

“The best proof of love is trust.”
– Joyce Brothers

“Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.”
– Lord Byron

“The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love.”
– Henry Miller

“Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.”
– Vincent Van Gogh

“If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone.”
– Barbara De Angelis

“Love is what you’ve been through with somebody.”
– James Thurber

“The art of love is largely the art of persistence.”
– Albert Ellis

“Love is a friendship set to music.”
– Joseph Campbell

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source.”
– Anaïs Nin

“Love does not dominate; it cultivates.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Deep and Meaningful Quotes on Happiness

“For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don’t enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are you’re not going to be very happy.”
– Andy Rooney

“You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.”
– Tom Wilson

“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness—it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”
– Brene Brown

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters.”
– Audrey Hepburn

“Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.”
– Heraclitus

“Don’t rely on someone else for your happiness and self-worth. Only you can be responsible for that.”
– Stacey Charter

“It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”
– L.M. Montgomery

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
– Buddha

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.”
– Marcel Pagnol

“Happiness is within. It has nothing to do with how much applause you get or how many people praise you.”
– Martin Yan

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh

“If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap. If you want happiness for a day — go fishing. If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.”
– Chinese Proverb

“The greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.”
– Martha Washington

“Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.”
– Steve Maraboli

“On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a playful, joyous energy behind what you do.”
– Eckhart Tolle

“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.”
– Dalai Lama

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
– Marcus Aurelius

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Deep and Meaningful Quotes About Friendship

“I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”
– Plutarch

“There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.”
– Jim Henson

“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
– Alice Walker

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive.”
– Anais Nin

“If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”
– Zig Ziglar

“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.”
– Benjamin Franklin

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
– Carl Jung

“Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something.”
– Anthony Robbins

“How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live ’em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give ’em.”
– Shel Silverstein

“Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.”
– Leo Buscaglia

“A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.”
– Elbert Hubbard

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’”
– C.S. Lewis

“Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.”
– Washington Irving

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”
– Ernest Hemingway

“A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they’re not so bad.”
– Arnold H. Glasgow

“One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention.”
– Clifton Fadiman

“Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.”
– Ed Cunningham

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
– Dale Carnegie

“The real test of friendship is can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple?”
– Eugene Kennedy

“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Deep and Meaningful Quotes on Motivation and Success

“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.”
– Viggo Mortensen

“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”
– Dalai Lama

“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.”
– David Allen

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”
– Earl Nightingale

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
– Mark Twain

“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”
– Stephen R. Covey

“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.”
– Ray Goforth

“Life’s real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up.”
– Unknown

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children… to leave the world a better place… to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

“It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”
– Confucius

“Good things happen to those who hustle.”
– Chuck Noll

“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.”
– Albert Einstein

“If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.”
– David Allen

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.”
– Abraham Lincoln

“Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”
– Peter Drucker

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
– Albert Einstein

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
– Henry Ford

“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”
– Richard Branson

“Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I’ll show you someone who has never achieved much.”
– Joan Collins

“Dreams can come true, but there is a secret. They’re realized through the magic of persistence, determination, commitment, passion, practice, focus and hard work.”
– Elbert Hubbard

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
– Mark Twain

Short, Deep and Meaningful Quotes

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
– Anaïs Nin

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
– Jack Canfield

“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”
– Oscar Wilde

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”
– Mark Twain

“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”
– Dalai Lama

“For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.”
– Harry F. Banks

“We become what we think about.”
– Earl Nightingale

“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”
– Lao Tzu

“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.”
– Buddha

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

“Success is largely a matter of holding on after others have let go.”
– Unknown

“The best revenge is massive success.”
– Frank Sinatra

“To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.”
– Albert Camus

“Love is a better teacher than duty.”
– Albert Einstein

“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
– Marthe Troly-Curtin

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

“If you are too busy to laugh, you are too busy.”
– Proverb

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
– Karen Lamb

Want more deep quotes that’ll make you think? Then check out these quotes that hit hard, the short, deep and meaningful quotes on motivation here and also this post with quotes on perspective.