106 Life Lessons Quotes to Help You Move On (2021)

Our latest collection of quotes on life lessons on Everyday Power.

It’s easy to go through life living in regrets and focusing on the negative things of the past. It can be a challenge to shake off what has held you back and move forward towards a bright future.

But as long as you focus on the negative baggage from yesterday, it’s going to keep you from getting to where you want to go. Focusing on your past mistakes, what hurt you and what didn’t work out can only stop you from the bright future you envisioned.

To start afresh and move forward, there are a lot of things you are going to want to drop. Whether it’s a betrayal, bad childhood, divorce, or bad job, you have to let it go and move forward.

You cannot do anything about what happened in the past but you can do something about your future. Your past is not as important as what’s ahead; so you cannot let it poison your future.

There’s a lot the world can teach us. Here are some powerful moving on quotes on life lessons to inspire you to live a happier, healthier and more meaningful life.

Quotes with life lessons to help you move on

1. “‎Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning… Anyone can start over and make a new ending.” ― Chico Xavier

2. “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” –  Seneca

3. “I do a good job of staying positive and just moving on.” – Katie Taylor

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of short positive quotes to fuel your day.

4. “You can only lose what you cling to.”— Buddha

5. “Letting go does not mean you stop caring. It means you stop trying to force others to.”– Mandy Hale

6. “Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.” – Og Mandino

7. “You only struggle because you’re ready to grow but aren’t willing to let go.” – Drew Gerald

8. “It’s time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I’d much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure.” – Ernie Harwell

9. “Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.”– Raymond Lindquist

10. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” – Robert Frost

Quotes about life lessons and moving on

11. “The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence; the past is a place of learning, not a place of living.” ― Roy T. Bennett

12. “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” ― Maya Angelou

13. “It happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you’ve known forever don’t see things the way you do. So you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on.” ― Nicholas Sparks

Don’t forget to also check out these pieces of life advice that can change your life.

14. “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”– Lyndon B. Johnson

15. “Every day is a new day, and you’ll never be able to find happiness if you don’t move on.” –  Carrie Underwood

16. “Think of each failure, each heartache, and each loss in your life as a lesson in courage and resilience.” – Kate Anderson

17. “Anything you can’t control is teaching you how to let go.” – Jackson Kiddard

18. “You can’t move forward if you’re still hanging on.” – Sue Fitzmaurice

19. “Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over.”– Guy Finley

20. “Letting go doesn’t mean that you don’t care about someone anymore. It’s just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.” ― Deborah Reber

Inspirational quotes on life lessons

21. “If there’s a single lesson that life teaches us, it’s that wishing doesn’t make it so.” ― Lev Grossman

22. “My greatest life lessons have not come from any achievements I have attained but rather from the failures, heartaches, and setbacks that I have experienced.” – Dr. Marshall Hennington
If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of experience quotes that will inspire you to live a fulfilled life.

23. “Sooner or later we’ve all got to let go of our past.”– Dan Brown

24. “It’s not the mistake that matters, it’s how you interpret the lesson.” – Michelle C. Ustaszeski

25. “Letting go isn’t a one-time thing, it’s something you have to do every day, over and over again.” – Dawson’s Creek

26. “Why let go of yesterday? Because yesterday has already let go of you.” – Steve Maraboli

27. “I am learning to love the sound of my feet walking away from things not meant for me.” – A.G.
If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of walk away quotes to help you find the motivation and courage you need to change your life.

28. “Your past does not equal your future.”– Anthony Robbins

29. “Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over.” ― Nicole Sobon

30. “You don’t have to let that one thing be the thing that defines you.” ― Jojo Moyes

You’ll also love these great quotes about life, success, love and family.

Quotes about life lessons and mistakes

31. “We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it.” ― Rick Warren

32. “Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.” – Les Brown

33. “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”– Herman Hesse

34. “Most people claim that they feel like they’re trapped in a rat race, without an exit. While we can all feel this way from time to time, it’s important to know that there is a way out.” – Debeena Harris

35. “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” ― Plato

36. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” ― Richard Branson

37. “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” – John C. Maxwell

38. “We all make them, the difference is what we do after we make the mistake, how we see the mistake – a learning experience or a failure.” – Catherine Pulsifer

39. “You make mistakes. Mistakes don’t make you.” – Maxwell Maltz

40. “There is no sense in punishing your future for the mistakes of your past. Forgive yourself, grow from it, and then let it go.” – Melanie Koulouris
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of mistake quotes about learning from error.

Powerful quotes on life lessons

41. “The great courageous act that we must all do, is to have the courage to step out of our history and past so that we can live our dreams.” ― Oprah Winfrey

42. “We must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”– Joseph Campbell

43. “Over the years I’ve come to realize that mistakes are just lessons, life lessons almost like school. Once you’ve learned a lesson in class, you move on to the next lesson because now you know it. Well mistakes are exactly the same.” – Rashard Royster

44. “One of the most courageous decisions you’ll ever make is to finally let go of what is hurting your heart and soul.” – B. Nicole

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

46. “You’ve gotta know when it’s time to turn the page.” – Tori Amos

47. “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”– Alexander Graham Bell

48. “There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it.” ― Shannon L. Alder

49. “A very wise man once told me that you can’t look back-you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.” ― Jodi Picoult

50. “I’ve been burdened with blame trapped in the past for too long, I’m moving on” ― Rascal Flatts

Don’t forget to also check out these history quotes that will open your eyes to stories of the past.

Other motivational quotes on life lessons

51. “To be successful, you must act big, think big and talk big.” – Aristotle Onassis

52. “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react.” –Tony Robbins

53. “If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney

54. “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” – Seneca
If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of Seneca quotes that will help you in all facets of your life.

55. “A man who wakes up and finds himself a success hasn’t been asleep.” – Dave Thomas

56. “Be yourself — everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde

57. “Behind every adversity is an opportunity. If you lament over the adversity, you will miss the opportunity.” – Ajaero Tony Martins

58. “I don’t dwell on the things that are too late to fix, but I do my best to get life’s lessons and put them into action.” – Les Brown

59. “Never be ashamed! There’s some who will hold it against you, but they are not worth bothering with.” – J.K. Rowling

60. “Fear is not a good teacher. The lessons of fear are quickly forgotten.” – Mary Catherine Bateson

More quotes on life lessons

61. “Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” – Roy T. Bennett

62. “Make improvements, not excuses. Seek respect, not attention.” – Roy T. Bennett

63. “Pursue what catches your heart, not what catches your eyes.” – Roy T. Bennett

64. “Let the improvement of yourself keep you so busy that you have no time to criticize others.” – Roy T. Bennett

65. “In this life, when you deny someone an apology, you will remember it at time you beg forgiveness.” – Toba Beta

66. “It’s clearly easier to get the snake out of the sack than it is to shove it back.” – Mary Morris

67. “Knowing when to forgive yourself and correct yourself is a blessing.” – Angel Moreira

68. “When something happens and it causes us pain, the pain is there to teach us a lesson. It is not so that we feel pain for the sake of pain.” – Cave Man

69. “Be humble to those who praise you, pleasant to those who honor you, kind to those who cherish you, good to those who love you, and generous to those who adore you.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

70. “We cannot change the past. We can only take action in the present and, therefore, change the future.” – Ken Poirot

71. “Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” ―Mary Tyler Moore

72. “There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.” ―Marshall McLuhan

73. “Avoid doing the same you always do or the day will fill like an incoming tide.” – Allan Jenkins

74. “Life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

75. “In every success story, you will find someone who has made a courageous decision.” –
Peter F. Drucker

Thought-provoking quotes with life lessons to help you move on

76. “Forget the past.” – Nelson Mandela

77. “Time doesn’t heal emotional pain, you need to learn how to let go.” – Roy T. Bennett

78. “The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.” – J.P. Morgan

79. “Look at life through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror.” – Byrd Baggett

80. “We can not become what we need to by remaining what we are.” – Oprah Winfrey

81. “People can be more forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of what’s bitter and move on.” – Bill Cosby

82. “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

83. “Moving on, is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard.” – Dave Mustaine

84. “You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It wont happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, ’I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.” – Joel Osteen

85. “There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” – C.S. Lewis

86. “Sometimes moving on with the rest of your life starts with goodbye.” – Carrie Underwood

Life lesson quotes we could all benefit from

87. “The biggest lesson I had in my life was failure.” — Tim Rice

88. “Life’s too mysterious to take too serious.” —  Mary Engelbreit

89. “You’re never wrong if you love and help people.” — Maxime Lagacé

90. “Life taught me love is risky. Death taught me to love even more.” — Maxime Lagacé

91. “Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” — Helen Keller

92. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” — Albert Einstein

93. “The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don’t know nothing. I mean, that’s my life lesson.” — Dwayne Johnson

94. “The Universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson.” — Orison Swett Marden

95. “My greatest life lesson has been that life can change in a second. This is why it’s important to always live your best possible life and to do what you can for others.” — Niki Taylor

96. “The biggest lesson I learned this year is to not force anything; conversations, friendships, relationships, attention, love. Anything forced is just not worth fighting for, whatever flows flows, what crashes crashes.” — Amanda Rose

Life Lesson quotes you should remember everyday

97. “Short cuts make long delays.” — J.R.R. Tolkien

98. “Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.” — Sophia Loren

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

100. “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill

101. “Don’t let anyone ever make you feel like you don’t deserve what you want.” — Heath Ledger

102. “The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which bridge to burn.” — David Russell

103. “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” — Rita Mae Brown

104. “Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.” — Denis Waitley

105. “Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way.” — Al Franken

106. “In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

Which of these quotes on life lessons was your favorite?

Although life can throw a sucker punch at you, you have to stay on course and remain focused on where you want to go. Success is waiting for you; so you cannot live a life limited by fear, anger, ill health, or self-imposed barriers.

Love is all around you. You just have to take the time to feel it for life itself. Hopefully, these quotes have inspired you to move on and live life without limits.

Did you enjoy these quotes on life lessons? Which of the quotes was your favorite? Tell us in the comment section below. We would love to hear all about it.