Unfortunately, setbacks and rejections are a part of life and cannot be avoided. Whether you’re dealing with a breakup, the death of a loved one, or the failure of a business, you’re most likely feeling disheartened and lacking hope.
Experiencing this pain just once is enough to prevent us from moving forward. We fear going through heartbreak and humiliation again. So, instead, we choose to stay where we are, even if it means not making any progress. While this may work initially, there comes a time when you need to face the pain and move forward.
If your mind is stuck in the past, replaying events you cannot change, it’s time to change your thinking. There are many tools available that can help you shift your focus from the past to the future and help you begin to look ahead with optimism.
Reading moving forward quotes is a quick but effective way to accept past experiences, see their lessons, and switch your perspective to building a happier future. To bring you hope and inspiration, we’ve put together this list of the best moving forward quotes to help you get back onto your feet.
1. Life moves fast. As much as you can learn from your history, you have to move forward. — Eddie Vedder
2. Stand up and walk. Move forward. — Hiromu Arakawa
3. If we fail to adapt, we fail to move forward. — John Wooden
4. Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. – Alexander Graham Bell
5. I find that a man is as old as his work. If his work keeps him from moving forward, he will look forward with the work. – William Ernest Hocking
6. You are responsible for your life. You can’t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on. — Oprah Winfrey
7. You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward. ― Roy T. Bennett
8. Don’t wait. The time will never be just right. – Napoleon Hill
9. A bridge can still be built, while the bitter waters are flowing beneath. — Anthony Liccione
10. Laughter, and the broader category of humor, are key elements in helping us go on with our life after a loss. — Allen Klein
11. One of the most courageous decisions you’ll ever make is to finally let go of what is hurting your heart and soul. – Brigitte Nicole
12. Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over. — Nicole Sobon
13. You really don’t have to burn any bridges to let go… You don’t have to destroy anything. You can just decide to cross over and move on. – Marta Mrotek
14. Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance, you must keep moving. – Albert Einstein
15. Let the past hold on to itself and let the present move forward into the future. — Douglas Adams
16. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
17. If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello. — Paulo Coelho
18. 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
19. Every great journey begins with one step and it begins with moving forward, turning on the engine, and shifting into the right gear at the right time. Remember, going through pain is temporary and it will subside, but quitting on the other hand lasts forever. – Louie Herron
20. Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. — Raymond Lindquist
21. It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over. – Paulo Coelho
22. We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. – Walt Disney
23. 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
24. I saw my earlier selves as different people, acquaintances I had outgrown. I wondered how I could ever have been some of them. ― Roger Zelazny
25. If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself. — Henry Ford
26. You can’t look back – you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future. — Jodi Picoult
27. If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward. – Martin Luther King Jr
28. If you don’t make bold moves, the world doesn’t move forward. — Richard Branson
29. The attitude you have as a parent is what your kids will learn from more than what you tell them. They don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are. — Jim Henson
30. Those who move forward with a happy spirit will find that things always work out. — Gordon B. Hinckley
31. 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
32. Sooner or later we’ve all got to let go of our past. — Dan Brown
33. In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. — Robert Frost
34. Fear not for the future, weep not for the past. — Percy Bysshe Shelley
35. Recovery begins from the darkest moment. — John Major
36. Girls, you’ve gotta know when it’s time to turn the page. — Tori Amos
37. Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me. — Arianna Huffington
38. In my life, I have made the occasional catastrophic choice, and it’s just a case of moving on and learning from it. — James Nesbitt
39. Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward, toward finding the answer. — Denis Waitley
40. Faith is moving forward even when things don’t make sense, trusting that in hindsight everything will become clear. – Many Hale
41. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down. — Mary Pickford
42. I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward. — Charlotte Brontë
43. Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you in life into capital, so that you can do more of it and move forward with it. — Richard Branson
44. It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things. — Theodore Roosevelt
45. If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment. — Carlos Santana
46. You are going somewhere. Every day. Every experience you get. You’re moving forward. — Jimmy Chin
47. Set your goal and keep moving forward. — Georges St-Pierre
48. The most successful people are those who are willing to keep moving forward after making mistakes. – Coach Flanagan
49. There’s no time for regrets. You’ve just got to keep moving forward. — Mike McCready
50. It is important that we forgive ourselves for making mistakes. We need to learn from our errors and move on. – Steve Maraboli
51. 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
52. Moving on, is a simple thing, what it leaves behind is hard. — Dave Mustaine
53. The only thing a person can ever really do is keep moving forward. Take that big leap forward without hesitation, without once looking back. Simply forget the past and forge toward the future. ― Alyson Noel
54. Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. – Pablo Picasso
55. If you’re not moving forward, you’re falling back. – Sam Waterson
56. Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself, the most comforting words of all; this, too, shall pass. — Ann Landers
57. Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it. — Tori Amos
58. Because you simply cannot draw these things out forever. At some point, you just pull off the Band-Aid and it hurts, but then it’s over and you’re relieved. ― John Green
Accepting loss and failure is one of the most demanding challenges we encounter in life. And while it’s totally fine to let yourself cry over it for days or weeks, life goes on whether we want it to or not. The hard times make us strong, so take the lesson life has taught you and look towards the future.
These moving forward quotes can serve as a regular reminder to think to the future rather than the past. Be kind to yourself as you learn to let go, and seek hope and joy by trying new things and taking up new hobbies.
