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​73 Inspirational Book Quotes That Challenge Your Thinking​

​73 Inspirational Book Quotes That Challenge Your Thinking​

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If you’ve ever found yourself lost in the pages of a good book, only to stumble upon a line so powerful it feels like it was written just for you, then you’re in for a treat.

From classic tomes to contemporary page-turners, we’ve handpicked phrases that pack more punch than a triple espresso on a Monday morning. 

Go grab your reading glasses and prepare to be inspired. Whether you’re looking for a new mantra to scribble on your mirror or just need a reminder that you’re the protagonist of your own story, these quotes are about to become your new best friends.

 

1. “Time will explain.” – Jane Austen, Persuasion

Inspirational Quotes from Books Austen 1

2. “What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?” – Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give

Inspirational Quotes from Books Thomas

3. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us”. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Inspirational Quotes from Books Tolkien

4. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

Inspirational Quotes from Books Seuss 1

5.“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Inspirational Quotes from Books Plath

6. “The same question arose in every soul: ‘For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?’” – Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Inspirational Quotes from Books Tolstoy 1

7. “It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.” – Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Inspirational Quotes from Books Seuss 2

8. “Everything nourishes what is strong already.” – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Inspirational Quotes from Books Austen 2

9. “Present fears / Are less than horrible imaginings.” – William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Inspirational Quotes from Books Shakespeare 1

10. “Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.” – Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Inspirational Quotes from Books Ellison

11. “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” – A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Inspirational Quotes from Books Milne

12. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” – Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Inspirational Quotes from Books Seuss 3

13. “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” – J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Inspirational Quotes from Books Barrie

14. “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” – Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Inspirational Quotes from Books Hugo 1

15. “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” – Kathryn Stockett, The Help

Inspirational Quotes from Books Stockett

16. “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Inspirational Quotes from Books Rowling 1

17. “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Inspirational Quotes from Books Tolkien 2

18. “You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!” – Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Inspirational Quotes from Books Seuss 4

19. “And, now that you don’t have to be perfect you can be good.” – John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Inspirational Quotes from Books Steinbeck

20. “We accept the love we think we deserve.” – Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Inspirational Quotes from Books Chbosky

21. “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” – Stephen King, Different Seasons

Inspirational Quotes from Books King 1

22. “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Inspirational Quotes from Books Alcott

23. “Nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy.” – Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle

Inspirational Quotes from Books Sparks

24. “But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.” – Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

Inspirational Quotes from Books Atwood

25. “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Inspirational Quotes from Books Coelho

26. “[Courage is] when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Inspirational Quotes from Books Lee

27. “If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives.” – Lemony Snicket, The Ersatz Elevator

Inspirational Quotes from Books Snicket

28. “The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real… it is possible… it’s yours.” – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Inspirational Quotes from Books Rand

29. “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Inspirational Quotes from Books Rowling 2

30. “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Inspirational Quotes from Books Rowling 3

31. “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” – Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy

Inspirational Quotes from Books Stevenson

32. “You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.” – Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Inspirational Quotes from Books Seuss 5

33. “Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.” – L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Inspirational Quotes from Books Montgomery 1

34. “If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all.” – John Green, Paper Towns

Inspirational Quotes from Books Green

35. “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.” – Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Inspirational Quotes from Books Angelou 1

36. “The skillful soldier does not raise a second levy, neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice.” – Sun Tzu, Quotes from The Art of War

Inspirational Quotes from Books Tzu

37. “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.” ― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Inspirational Quotes from Books Golding

38. “All human wisdom is summed up in these two words – ‘Wait and hope.’” — Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

Inspirational Quotes from Books Dumas

39. “It was a pleasure to burn.” — Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Inspirational Quotes from Books Bradbury

40. “Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.” — Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Inspirational Quotes from Books Kundera

41. “The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.” — William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun

Inspirational Quotes from Books Faulkner

42. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” — William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Inspirational Quotes from Books Shakespeare 2

43. “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.” — Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Inspirational Quotes from Books Hemingway

44. “There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” — Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark

Inspirational Quotes from Books Cather

45. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” — Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Inspirational Quotes from Books Angelou 2

46. “Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.” ― Sally Rooney, Normal People

Inspirational Quotes from Books Rooney

47. “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Inspirational Quotes from Books Saint-Exupery

48. “You pierce my soul. I am half agony. Half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.” — Jane Austen, Persuasion

Inspirational Quotes from Books Austen 3

49. “And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Inspirational Quotes from Books Fitzgerald

50. “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” — Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Inspirational Quotes from Books Shelley

51. “I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.” ― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Inspirational Quotes from Books Dickens

52. “But man is not made for defeat,’ he said. ‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” — Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

Inspirational Quotes from Books Hemingway 2

53. “It is nothing to die; it is dreadful not to live.” — Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Inspirational Quotes from Books Hugo 3

54. “There is always something left to love.” ― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Inspirational Quotes from Books Marquez

55. “Oh, the places you’ll go! You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.” — Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Inspirational Quotes from Books Seuss 6

56. “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” — Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Inspirational Quotes from Books Bronte

57. “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” — Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Inspirational Quotes from Books Carroll

58. “When you play the game of thrones you win or you die.” — George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

Inspirational Quotes from Books Martin

59. “The same substance composes us — the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star — we are all one, all moving to the same end.” ― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

Inspirational Quotes from Books Travers

60. “This above all: To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” — William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Inspirational Quotes from Books Shakespeare 3

61. “Tomorrow I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.” — Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

Inspirational Quotes from Books Mitchell

62. “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” — L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Inspirational Quotes from Books Montgomery 2

63. “For you, a thousand times over.” — Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Inspirational Quotes from Books Hosseini

64. “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” — J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Inspirational Quotes from Books Salinger

65. “And may the odds be ever in your favor.” — Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

Inspirational Quotes from Books Collins

66. “Time moves slowly, but passes quickly.” — Alice Walker, The Color Purple

Inspirational Quotes from Books Walker

67. “The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.” — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Inspirational Quotes from Books Adams

68. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” ― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

Inspirational Quotes from Books Hemingway 3

69. “Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.” — Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Inspirational Quotes from Books Ishiguro

70. “All we can know is that we know nothing. And that’s the height of human wisdom.” — Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Inspirational Quotes from Books Tolstoy 2

71. “We don’t have time, Nephew, time has us. It holds us in its mouth like an owl holds a field mouse.” ― Tommy Orange, There There

Inspirational Quotes from Books Orange

72. “The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there… and still on your feet.” — Stephen King, The Stand

Inspirational Quotes from Books King 2

73. “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” — George Orwell, Animal Farm

Inspirational Quotes from Books Orwell

No need to manually scour every book you’ve read as we’ve journeyed through a galaxy of literary brilliance. I hope these quotes have left you feeling as charged up as a bookworm at a library’s closing sale.

Remember, these pearls of wisdom aren’t just meant to be admired from afar. They’re tools for your life’s toolbox, ready to be whipped out whenever you need a boost, a reality check, or just a reminder that you’re not alone in this crazy adventure called life.

The next time you’re faced with a challenge, you might just hear one of these quotes whispering in your ear, giving you that extra push you need.