Anyone else need a pick-me-up these days? I know I do. And for some reason inspirational quotes can often make me feel better. I know they’re just sentences that pop-up on social media feeds sprawled across serene lake scenes or drawings of doorways to magical fantasy realms, kind of like these.

But, there’s a reason they keep popping up and we keep reading and reposting them. These little bursts of wisdom underscore the power of words, to hurt and inspire.

But, what makes a quote inspirational?

inspiration 2Obviously that’s different for every person. Sometimes a quote is deemed “inspirational” when really it should be called “insightful” or “thoughtful.” Those are the kinds of quotes where you say – ah ha, yes, that says it much better than the rambling thoughts in my head. I suppose it’s a question of motivation. If the quote motivates you to action, then perhaps it’s truly inspirational. If it just puts your feeling into words, perhaps its more insightful.

Regardless of whether we’re talking true inspiration or insight, inspirational quotes often evoke a feeling inside us. When I read a quote that so sufficiently and articulately encapsulates an idea, it makes my stomach flutter. If in my head I go “Yes!” then it’s probably a quote that suits my inspirational needs.

10 Inspirational Quotes from Writers

So, in the spirit of spreading the love, here are 10 quotes from writers that provide me with that punch of inspiration, thoughtfulness, intelligence or positivity put so poetically that my stomach flutters.

inspiration 3

  1. “Healing begins where the wound was made.” -Alice Walker (The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart)
  2. “Wanna fly, you got to give up the s*&t that weighs you down.” -Toni Morrison (Song of Solomon)
  3. “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” -Mark Twain
  4. “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” -Maya Angelou
  5. “Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” -Virginia Woolf (A Room of One’s Own)
  6. “All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.” – Mitch Albom (The Five People You Meet In Heaven)
  7. “I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”-Robert A. Heinlein
  8. hold fast“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.” -Oscar Wilde
  9. “Hold fast to dreams,
    For if dreams die
    Life is a broken-winged bird,
    That cannot fly.”
    ―Langston Hughes
  10. “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”–J.R.R. Tolkien (The Two Towers)

Now go forth and inspire others!