College is filled with difficulties and riddled with road bumps. But don’t let the stress of it knock you off your path. Gaining an education and achieving your goals requires perseverance, dedication, and motivation. When faced with distractions, sometimes all you need to get back on track is a little inspiration. 

Here are 50 quotes that span across thousands of years and a diverse range of cultures. Hopefully, these quotes will inspire you and remind you that you aren’t alone. Your stressors, anxieties, and dilemmas have been shared by many.

Quotes about perseverance

“Fall seven times, get up eight.” – Japanese proverb

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” – Nelson Mandela

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pelé

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road … Unless you fail to make the turn.” – Helen Keller

“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” – Bernice Johnson Reagon

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass

“I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.” – Venus Williams

Quotes about growth

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” – Kurt Vonnegut

“Lost time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” – Maya Angelou

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin

“A single day is enough to make us a little larger, or another time, a little smaller.” – Paul Klee

“It isn’t where you came from, it’s where you’re going that counts.” – Ella Fitzgerald

Quotes to help you follow your dreams

“Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” – Gloria Steinem

“Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.” – Paulo Coelho

“The Earth is heavy and opaque without dreams.” – Anais Nin

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot

“Success isn’t about how your life looks to others. It’s about how it feels to you. We realized that being successful isn’t about being impressive. It’s about being inspired.” – Michelle Obama.

“I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” – Vincent Van Gogh

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. When there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” – Ella Fitzgerald

“Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.” – Stevie Wonder

Quotes to inspire you to learn

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

“Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” – Confucius

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be ignited.” – Plutarch

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“A quality education has the power to transform societies in a single generation; provide children with the protection they need from the hazards of poverty, labor exploitation, and disease; and give them the knowledge, skills, and confidence to reach their full potential.” – Audrey Hepburn

Quotes to inspire you to read

“The library is inhabited by spirits that come out at night.” – Isabel Allende

“A room without books is like a body without the soul.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” – Jhumpa Lahiri

“Books were my pass to personal freedom.” – Oprah Winfrey

“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” – Carl Sagan

Quotes to inspire you to take action

“I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change … I’m changing the things I cannot accept.” – Angela Davis

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” – Toni Morrison

“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” – Simone de Beauvoir

“The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to confess your ignorance.” – Confucius

“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzai

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

“Hide not your Talents, they for Use were made. What’s a Sun–Dial in the shade!” – Benjamin Franklin

“The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere.” – Xun Kuang

“If people were silent, nothing would change.” – Malala Yousafzai

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” – Sun Tzu

Quotes to inspire you to be kind

“The highest result of education is tolerance.” – Helen Keller

“One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion.” – Simone de Beauvoir

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” – Aristotle

“Compassion is the radicalism of our time.” – The 14th Dalai Lama

“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it’s at the end of your arm. As you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.” – Audrey Hepburn

“Negativity is the enemy of creativity.” – David Lynch

“When somebody walks up to me, don’t look around, don’t look beyond them. Look them in the eye, take in the story.” – Michelle Obama

Note: For tips on alleviating stress and staying healthy, check this study on how simple, healthy dietary choices can relieve depression and this interview with Dr. Danielle Merolla, associate director of the Center for Prevention and Outreach at Stony Brook University, on how to manage stress in college.