Letting go can be one of the hardest things to do in life.
But at the same time it can be one of the most powerful and liberating things too.
So this week I’d like to share 36 of the most thought-provoking and inspiring quotes from the past few thousands of years on letting go, moving on and living your life fully and happily.
I hope you’ll find something helpful here.
- “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”
– Hermann Hesse - “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 - “Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”
– Erich Fromm - “Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.”
– Oprah Winfrey - “We need to learn to let go as easily as we grasp and we will find our hands full and our minds empty.”
– Leo F. Buscaglia - “There are things that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind. But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world, it’s the beginning of a new life.”
– Unknown - “It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.”
– Theodore Roosevelt - “The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.”
– Seneca - “Your past does not equal your future.”
– Anthony Robbins - “To let go is to release the images and emotions, the grudges and fears, the clingings and disappointments of the past that bind our spirit.”
– Jack Kornfield - “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.”
– Lao Tzu - “This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”
– Rumi - “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 - “Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over.”
– Guy Finley - “I demolish my bridges behind me…then there is no choice but to move forward.”
– Fridtjof Nansen - “Why do people persist in a dissatisfying relationship, unwilling either to work toward solutions or end it and move on? It’s because they know changing will lead to the unknown, and most people believe that the unknown will be much more painful than what they’re already experiencing.”
– Anthony Robbins - “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 - “Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.”
– Raymond Lindquist - “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
– Lyndon B. Johnson - “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”
– J. K. Rowling - “Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.”
– Wayne Dyer - “The most difficult aspect of moving on is accepting that the other person already did.”
– Faraaz Kazi - “Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.”
– Bob Newhart - “Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energy moving forward together towards an answer.”
– Denis Waitley - “Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.”
– Daphne Rose Kingma - “Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open. You’re able to benefit from the unique viewpoints of others, without being crippled by your own judgment.”
– Ralph Marston - “When we go back in to the past and rake up all the troubles we’ve had, we end up reeling and staggering through life. Stability and peace of mind come by living in the moment.”
– Pam W. Vredevelt - “Just remember, when you should grab something, grab it; when you should let go, let go.”
– Unknown - “You don’t need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding.”
– Guy Finley - “There’s an important difference between giving up and letting go.”
– Jessica Hatchigan - “You’ve got to make a conscious choice every day to shed the old – whatever ‘the old’ means for you.”
– Sarah Ban Breathnach - “Leaders spend 5% of their time on the problem and 95% of their time on the solution. Get over it and crush it.”
– Anthony Robbins - “Anything I cannot transform into something marvelous, I let go.”
– Anais Nin - “The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard.”
– Baltasar Gracián - “Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing which keeps you from hope and love?”
– Leo Buscaglia - “You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.”
– Jan Glidewell
What is your favorite quote on letting go? Feel free to share the best one(s) you have found in this article or in your life in the comments section below.
