83 Quotes That Will Motivate Any College Student
It wasn’t until a recent trip to Target that I realized that back to school season is right around the corner. While we still have a couple of weeks of summer left, I figured I’d get a head start and try to give you guys (and myself) motivation for the upcoming semester. So I created a collection of quotes that you guys can refer to, no matter what you’re going through this school year. Even if you’re not in college right now, these are still quotes that can help you out in some way.
For When You’re Starting a New Semester
1. You are under no obligation to be the same person you were a year, month, or even 15 minutes ago you have the right to grow. No apologies.
HumanNote
2. Someday, somewhere, somehow, it’s gonna all come together and everything that came before will make sense.
Quotes & Thoughts
3. Nobody Can Go Back and Start a New Beginning, But Anyone Can Start Today and Make a New Ending.
Maria Robinson
4. What we find is that if you have a goal that is very, very far out, and you approach it in little steps, you start to get there faster. Your mind opens up to the possibilities.
Mae Jemison
5. A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for. Sail out to sea and do new things.
Grace Hopper
6. If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.
Vincent van Gogh
7. You’re off to a great place, today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!
Dr. Seuss
8. Sometimes we’re all too quick to count down the days that we forget to make the days count.
Unknown
9. Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.
Unknown
For When You’re Struggling
10. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13
11. There are good days and hard days for me—even now. Don’t let the hard days win.
Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury
12. If my life is going to mean anything, then I have to live it myself –
Rick Riordian, Percy Jackson
13. If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
Maya Angelou
14. When you get to the end of the rope, tie a knot and hang on.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
15. I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.
Marie Curie
16. The truth is, we all face hardships of some kind, and you never know the struggles a person is going through. Behind every smile, there’s a story of a personal struggle.
Adrienne C. Moore
17. The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
18. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luter King, Jr
19. A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.
David Brinkley
20. Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I will try again tomorrow.
Mary Anne Radmacher
21. When life beats you down, never give up. Always keep fighting
Jared Padalecki
For When You Need a Confidence Boost
22. Girls should never be afraid to be smart
Emma Watson
23. When I was 26, I wrote my first mystery, ‘The Thomas Berryman Number’, and it was turned down by, I don’t know, 31 publishers. Then it won an Edgar for Best First Novel. Go figure.
James Patterson
24. If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you off… no matter what they say.
Barbara McClintock
25. 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 is stupid.
Albert Einstein
26. You have the right to be involved. You have something important to contribute, and you have to take the risk to contribute it.
Mae Jemison
27. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
28. Doing what you’re afraid of, getting out of your comfort zone, taking risks like that–that is what life is. You might find out something about yourself that’s really special. If you’re not good, who cares? You tried something
Amy Poehler
29. Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.
Helen Keller
30. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
31. You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
Michael Jordan
For When You Feel Like You Failed
32. Don’t let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.
Unknown
33. You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
Maya Angelou
34. Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s an experience.
Victoria Holt
35. Strength and growth only come through continuous effort and struggle.
Napolean Hill
36. You can’t have a better tomorrow if you’re still thinking about yesterday.
Charles F Kettering
37. Just because you fail once, it doesn’t mean you’re going to fail at everything. keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself because if you don’t, then who will?
Marilyn Monroe
38. If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.
Maya Angelou
39. Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.
Og Mandino
40. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas A. Edison
41. A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.
B. F. Skinner
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For When You Want to Take a Risk
42. You could rattle the stars,” she whispered. “You could do anything, if only you dared. And deep down, you know it, too. That’s what scares you most.”
Sarah J. Maas, Throne of Glass
43.I’m not choosing one of your paths. I’m making my own.
Rick Riordan, The House of Hades
44. I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy – I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.
Art Williams
45. Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day, I was told women didn’t get into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t.
Gertrude B. Elion
46. You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.
Michelle Obama
47. All sorts of things can happen when you’re open to new ideas and playing around with things.
Stephanie Kwolek
48. I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work
Thomas Alba Edison
49. A bird sitting in a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not in the branch but in her wings.
Unknown
50. One of the bravest things you can do is to live a life that’s different from what others expect of you.
Erica Layne Risk
51. Anyone can desire anything, but if you’re not going to commit, you’re not going to get it
Cassey Ho
52. If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.
Richard M. Nixon
For When You Need a Break
53. Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you.
Anne Lamott
54. A year from now everything you’re stressing about won’t even matter.
Unknown
55. If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
Maya Angelou
56. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.
Michelle Obama
57. Work hard, nap hard
Demi Lovato
58. Right now I am trying to be in a place of calm, a place where I can chill out and then handle the chaos of life better. You don’t just get it overnight; you have to work at it. It’s a daily struggle.
Jackee Harry
59. There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.
Alan Cohen
60. I think it’s important to try to be present with whatever it is you’re doing. And if you can’t be present, take a break.
Emily Giffin
61. Sometimes we just need a mental vacation. Take a 15 minute break and start planning your next vacation.
Catherine Pulsifer
For When You Need a Laugh
62. With great power… comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later.
Rick Riordian Percy Jackson and the Olympians
63. Give a man a program, frustrate him for a day.
Teach a man to program, frustrate him for a lifetime.
Muhammad Waseem
64. People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.
A. A. Milne
65. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
Bryan White
66. Some days you eat salads and go to the gym, some days you eat cupcakes and refuse to put on pants. It’s called balance.
Unknown
67. I’m not a morning person. I’m not a night owl.But I can rock 11:30 like nobody’s business!
Someecards
68. The more you weight the harder you are to kidnap. Stay safe, eat cake.
Unknown
69. You have never experienced true fear until a poster falls off the wall in the middle of the night.
Anonymous
70. Just once I’d like to wake up, turn on the news, and hear “Monday has been canceled,” and then go back to sleep.
Anonymous
71. Life is an adventure. Sometimes you have to YEET your way through it and other times you just have to do your best.
Chloe Howard aka my best friend
For When You’re About to Graduate
72. Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves.
Abbé Dimnet, Art of Thinking, 1928
73. “The world,” Aelin said, “will be saved and remade by the dreamers, Rolfe.”
Sarah J. Maas, Empire of Storms
74. If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee you that.
Michelle Obama
75. Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.
Mae Jemison
76. I often look back on my freshman year and wonder who that person was. It’s in those moments I finally realize I’m an adult- and it’s terrifying. Exciting, but terrifying.
Mel Moore (me =>)
77. What I’ve learned in my young life: – pick your battles – accept people for who they are or are not – it’s ok to love from a distance.
Alex Elle
78. Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.
Mae Jemison
79. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
Anne Frank
80. My wish for you is that this life becomes all that you want it to. Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small and that you never need to carry more than you can hold.
Rascal Flatts
81. The unfortunate, yet truly exciting thing about your life, is that there is no core curriculum. The entire place is an elective.
Jon Stewart
82. Today is a milestone. It tells you how far you’ve come. Keep learning, keep trying, keep accomplishing, and keep venturing on through your journey. Congratulations!
Unknown
If you’ve read up to this point, congratulations – gold star to you. Going through 83 quotes at one time is not an easy task, but I hope you managed to get something from it. Comment down below and let me know which one you liked the most. Also please make sure to share it with your friends on social media, I’d really appreciate it. Let me end this article with one of my favorite quotes.
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” Shirley Chisholm.
If you don’t know who Shirley Chisholm is, she is the first black woman to be elected to the US Congress in 1968. She was an educator, author, and even a Presidential candidate. She did all of this despite living in an era that judged her both by the color of her skin and her gender. If that isn’t motivation to do the impossible, I don’t know what is.
what do you think?