Are you looking for words with deeper meanings to think about? These deep quotes are the starting point.
Some of the deepest quotes don’t have to be long, but they’re full of meaning. A short and profound quote usually stimulates us more than a long one.
Sometimes a simple phrase is enough to change our day or even our life.
So enjoy thinking about these deep words for perspective, insight, and mental stimulation that make life more interesting.
Phrases
-It is never too late to be what you might have been.
George Eliot-To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
Oscar Wilde-The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others.
Aesop-A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes-Life is too deep for words, so don’t try to describe it, just live it.
C.S. Lewis-He who fears he will suffer, already suffers because he fears.
Michel De Montaigne-Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.
Jackson Brown Jr.-Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.
Harper Lee
-People do not lack strength; they lack will.
Victor Hugo-To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.
Lao Tzu-Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
Soren Kierkegaard-I want to be like water. I want to slip through fingers, but hold up a ship.
Michelle Williams-To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
John A. Shedd-Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.
G.I. Gurdijieff-Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots.
Rumi-A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernhard Shaw-The most important things are the hardest to say because words diminish them.
Stephen King-There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.
Thomas Jefferson-There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.
George Bernhard Shaw-Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.
Teddy Roosevelt-Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
Rita Mae Brown-If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.
T. Harv Eker-Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.
Neils Bohr
-We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill-It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
Frederick Douglass-Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.
Maya Angelou-It is better to have a meaningful life and make a difference than to merely have a long life.
Bryant H. McGill-Consciousness is only possible through change; change is only possible through movement.
Aldous Huxley-Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend?
Abraham Lincoln-The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
Michel de Montaigne-It is the pursuit of happiness that makes people unhappy.
Piero Scaruffi-Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.
Martin Heidegger-Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.
Erol Ozan-If broken by an inside force, life begins. Great things always begin from the inside.
Jim Kwik-We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.
Henry David Thoreau-The oak sleeps in the acorn. The bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of reality.
Napoleon Hill-Deepness of Self Quotes
It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.
Francis Bacon-To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered.
Oscar Wilde-If you’re not comfortable enough with yourself or with your own truth when entering a relationship, then you’re not ready for that relationship.
Steve Maraboli
-We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.
Jane Austen-The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.
Stephanie Perkins-Your mind can be either your prison or your palace. What you make it is yours to decide.
Bernard Kelvin Clive-If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are a slave.
Dr. Wayne Dyer-Passion is born deaf and dumb.
Honoré de Balzac-Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.
Albert Camus-The only reason we get lost in thought, is because it is unfamiliar territory.
Ashton Leinen-No man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime. The test of greatness is the page of history.
William Hazlitt-A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart.
Rumi-A friend to all is a friend to none.
Aristotle-I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
Plato-Sometimes a man wants to be stupid if it lets him do a thing his cleverness forbids.
John Steinbeck-An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.
Eric Hoffer
-There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.
Soren Kierkegaard-Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us.
Oscar Wilde-You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things; to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.
Sir Edmund Hillary-I am not young enough to know everything.
Oscar Wilde-Too many people buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t like.
Dave Ramsey-When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
Lao Tzu-I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life.
Corazon Aquino-Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.
Stephen Covey-Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.
Arthur Rimbaud-I think, therefore I am.
René Descartes-What matters isn’t what a person has or doesn’t have; it is what he or she is afraid of losing.
Nicholas Nassim Taleb-On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a playful, joyous energy behind what you do.
Eckhart Tolle-Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
Oscar Wilde-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-We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
Anaïs Nin
-We can see through others only when we can see through ourselves.
Bruce Lee-Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy-Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.
Malcolm S. Forbes-Every strength is also a weakness. The opposite is true as well.
Neil Strauss-Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
Francis Bacon-The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.
Voltaire-The paradox of simplicity is that making things simpler is hard work.
Bill Jensen-Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
Gustave Flaubert-Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.
Pablo Picasso-There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
Friedrich Nietzche-Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Thomas Merton-Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.
Edgar Allan Poe-Love is the foolishness of men, and the wisdom of God.
Victor Hugo-If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
Erica Jong-A fear of weakness only strengthens weakness.
Chris Jami-Extraordinary men are always tempted by the most ordinary things.
C.G.B. Spender, The X-Files-Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.
Anne Frank-The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.
Carl Jung-What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.
Bertrand Russell-A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
Charles Darwin
-What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.
Mark Twain-He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.
Lao Tzu-The most selfish thing we can do is to be unselfish because it frees us.
Dean Ornish-The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
Carl Rogers-All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.
Alexandre Dumas-Stupidity lies in wanting to draw conclusions.
Gustave Flaubert-Civilization is a hopeless race to discover remedies for the evils it produces.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau-The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.
Nikola Tesla-When you’re young, you want to be rich. When you’re rich, you want to be young.
James Pierce-I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
Kahlil Gibran-Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
Albert Einstein-We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.
Leo Tolstoy-Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.
Voltaire-Not until we are lost, do we begin to find ourselves.
Henry David Thoreau-Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
Albert Einstein-Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.
John F. Kennedy-A great man is always willing to be little.
Ralph Waldo Emerson-I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
Mark Twain-Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
Oscar Wilde-A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.
Henrik Ibsen-Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.
Robert Louis Stevenson-The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.
Bob Marley-Knowing what must be done does away with fear.
Rosa Parks-You are only as free as you think you are and freedom will always be as real as you believe it to be.
Robert M. Drake-Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire-You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.
Tom Wilson-No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.
Anthony Robbins-The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it.
Michelangelo-You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
Mark Twain-Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.
Bill Gates-Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.
Roy T. Bennett-Do not let your grand ambitions stand in the way of small but meaningful accomplishments.
Bryant H. McGill-For every minute you are angry you lose 60 seconds of happiness.
Ralph Waldo Emerson-Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.
Henry van Dyke-You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.
Buddha