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30 Of The Most Cliche Quotes That Are Actually Profound When You Think About Them

Some things just have to be repeated until they're really heard. 
Brianna Wiest
August 18, 2016
“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.’”
— William W. Purkey, Becoming an Invitational Leader: A New Approach to Professional and Personal Success
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
— Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
— Oscar Wilde, The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Stories, Plays, Poems & Essays
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
— Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth
“We accept the love we think we deserve.”
— Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
— Marilyn Monroe, My Story
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
— Oscar Wilde, The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Stories, Plays, Poems & Essays
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
— Thomas Edison, Thomas A. Edison
“This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”
— Marilyn Monroe, Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters
“Everything you can imagine is real.”
— Pablo Picasso, Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective- The Museum of Modern Art, New York
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
— Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt
“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
— George Bernard Shaw, The Complete Works of George Bernard Shaw (42 Complete Works of George Bernard Shaw Including Pygmalion, Mrs Warren's Profession, Man And Superman, Arms and the Man, Caesar and Cleopatra, & More)
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”
— Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!”
— Audrey Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn: How to Be Lovely : The Audrey Hepburn Way of Life (Hardcover); 2004 Edition
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt,, You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.”
— Sam Levenson, Everything But Money
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Classics)
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
— John Lennon, The John Lennon Letters
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.”
— Alexandre Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask (Oxford World's Classics)
“If you're reading this...
Congratulations, you're alive.
If that's not something to smile about,
then I don't know what is.”
— Chad Sugg, Monsters Under Your Head
“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., Strength to Love
“And, in the end
The love you take
is equal to the love you make.”
— Paul McCartney, WINGS GREATEST HITS
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
“None but ourselves can free our minds.”
— Bob Marley, Every Little Thing: Based on the song 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley
“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
— Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
“A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.”
— Leonardo DaVinci, El Tratado de la Pintura (Spanish Edition)
“Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.”
— Bob Marley, Every Little Thing: Based on the song 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
— Will Rogers, Never Met a Man I Didn't Like: The Life and Writings of Will Rogers
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.”
— Alice Walker, The Color Purple