Three, two, one, Happy New Year! (Queue the fireworks and blares from party horns). This end-of-year holiday is always met with a flurry of glitz and glitter. But somewhere between the toasts, parties and endless celebrations, many people will also find themselves carving out time for reflection and planning for days to come. Enter inspirational New Year’s quotes.
As we cross this annual threshold, we reflect on our peaks and valleys. From accomplishments to failures, we can look back at how far we’ve come. More importantly, we can give some thought to what we’ve learned—and how we can continue evolving over the next 365 days.
If you’re looking for some inspiration to start creating your vision board or motivation to hit the ground running, lean on these positive New Year quotes. Taken from movies, books, songs and some of the most revered public figures, they will help you ring in the new year with positivity and a prosperous plan. You can also use these phrases for greetings, wishes, and messages to spread inspiration in the new year.
Happy New Year Quotes to Share With Friends And Family
Just like success, moments are nothing without someone to share them with. Welcome the new year amongst friends and family who have played a significant role over your last 12 months and who you wish to continue growing with and learning from. Together, prepare for a fresh start with these uplifting “Happy New Year” quotes and messages.
- “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity, and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” —Edith Lovejoy Pierce
- “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’.” —Alfred Lord Tennyson
- “The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written.” —Melody Beattie
- “Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.” —Brad Paisley
- “Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.” —Alfred Tennyson
- “I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.” —Neil Gaiman
- “Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.” —Plautus
- “Drink and be thankful to the host! What seems insignificant when you have it, is important when you need it.” —Franz Grillparzer
- “Today is not just another ordinary day. It is an opportunity to do, or say, something that just might inspire someone to greater becoming…especially a wayward youth.” —T.F. Hodge
- “On New Year’s Eve the whole world celebrates the fact that a date changes. Let us celebrate the dates on which we change the world.” —Akilnathan Logeswaran
Related: 100 Uplifting Quotes About New Beginnings for Your Fresh Start
Inspirational New Year’s Quotes to Start The Year Right
No matter what kind of year we’re leaving behind, we can hope for positive change moving forward. Sometimes all it takes is a sprinkle of inspiration to light the fire and motivate us to move forward. Dive into these New Year’s inspirational quotes to help you enter into a confident and goal-oriented mindset.
- “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” —Nido Qubein
- “Yesterday is a cancelled check, tomorrow is a promissory note; only today is legal tender, only now is negotiable.” —Cavett Robert
- “Let today be the day you give up who you’ve been for who you can become.” —Hal Elrod
- “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” —Dr. Suess
- “Your life journey is about learning to become more of who you are and fulfilling the highest, truest expression of yourself as a human being.” —Oprah Winfrey
- “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me, and I’m feeling good.” —Nina Simone
- “What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t even happened yet.” —Anne Frank
- “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” —A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh)
- “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” —Sam Levenson
- “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” —Paulo Coelho
- “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” —Albert Einstein
Related: 30 Inspiring Quotes About Never Giving Up
Motivational New Year Quotes For Work And Life
It’s in our nature to succeed and continue improving from day to day, month to month, and year to year. These excerpts from prominent people give us the motivation to do just that. These motivational New Year’s quotes remind us that now is as good a time as any to begin, and to not let the fear of failure stop you from trying.
- “Every year is a chess game. New Year is a new chess game! You make the right moves, you win the game!” —Mehmet Murat ildan
- “Only you have the power to determine whether your future mimics your past.” —Skip Prichard
- “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” —Mark Twain
- “What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year.” —Vern McLellan
- “It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now.” —Hugh Laurie
- “Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.” —Robin S. Sharma
- “You got a dream… You gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it. Period.” —Will Smith (by Steven Gardner)
- “A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you’re in and take advantage of it.” —Nikki Giovanni
- “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” —William Arthur Ward
- “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” —Steve Jobs
Related: 127 Motivational Quotes For Work To Put You On The Road To Success
End-of-Year Quotes Perfect For Reflection
One of the best ways to blossom into the person you want to be is to reflect on the person you’ve been. These end-of-year quotes will help you to look back on your achievements, missteps, highs and lows of the past year. Leverage these experiences and learned knowledge to realize greater success in the new year.
- “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” —T.S. Eliot
- “We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential.” —Ellen Goodman
- “Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God it can go.” —Brooks Atkinson
- “If you don’t like the road you’re walking start paving another one.” —Dolly Parton
- “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” —John Dewey
- “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” —Søren Kierkegaard
- “Each year’s regrets are envelopes in which messages of hope are found for the New Year.” —John R. Dallas Jr.
- “Packaged inside of every mistake there lays a great lesson. And while I don’t want to take the mistake into the New Year, I most certainly want to take the lesson that’s packaged inside of it.” —Craig D. Lounsbrough
- “If you focus on what you left behind you will never see what lies ahead!” —Brad Garrett (as Gusteau, Ratatouille)
- “Transitions are a time for reflection and a time for looking forward.” —Roy Cooper
Quotes to Remind You What The New Year Is About
In all the chaos of the season, take a moment to remember the purpose of it all. These New Year’s quotes can help remind you of how you intend to grow personally, such as being a better spouse, friend, sibling, parent, daughter or son—and person in general.
- “If you’re reading this, I hope God opens incredible doors for your life this year. Greatness is upon you. You must believe it though.” —Germany Kent
- “The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.” —G.K. Chesterton
- “Year’s end is neither an end nor beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” —Hal Borland
- “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” —Thomas Jefferson
- “You can get excited about the future. The past won’t mind.” —Hillary DePiano
- “May we all have a vision now and then of a world where every neighbour is a friend. Happy New Year.” —ABBA
- “Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.” —Goran Persson
- “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” —Benjamin Franklin
- “Kindness, kindness, kindness. I want to make a New Year’s prayer, not a resolution. I’m praying for courage.” —Susan Sontag
Positive New Year’s Quotes to Inspire
Why not kick off the year with a touch of positivity? Life keeps moving no matter what—and an optimistic attitude will help you better approach your next adventure. Leave behind the baggage and work to protect your peace while moving with intent as you welcome the new year.
- “First steps are always the hardest but until they are taken the notion of progress remains only a notion and not an achievement.” —Aberjhani
- “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” —Alan Wilson Watts
- “The chief beauty about the constant supply of time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your career.” —Arnold Bennet
- “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
- “There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” —Nelson Mandela
- “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” —Abraham Lincoln
- “Sometimes you have to say goodbye to the things you know and hello to the things you don’t.” —Steve McQueen (as Boon Hoggenbeck)
- “Keep creating: the world yearns to celebrate your next masterpiece.” —Ken Poirot
- “Every so often, life offers you a reset button. When it does, you need to press it as hard as you can.” —Riley Sager
- “Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.” —Ralph Blum
- “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Powerful Quotes About New Year’s Resolutions
Drafting up resolutions is something of a rite of passage as we enter into a new era. From eating healthier to gaining a promotion, these goals help to guide our coming journey. But, you’ll need to take care in deciding what to focus on. Start with these wise New Year’s resolution sayings.
- “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” —Chinese Proverb
- “For a change, don’t add new things in your life as a new year’s resolution. Instead, do more of what’s already working for you and stop doing things that are time-waste.” —Salil Jha
- “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
- “Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the mood in which it was made has left you.” —Cavett Robert
- “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” —Tony Robbins
- “If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am.” —Cyril Cusack
- “I think in terms of the day’s resolutions, not the years’.” —Henry Moore
- “Make New Year’s goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living life in the year to come.” —Melody Beattie
- “Set your goals high, and don’t stop until you get there.” —Bo Jackson
Festive Quotes to Celebrate New Year’s Eve
The following New Year’s wishes can help us remain cheerful and optimistic during this festive time. Yes, this holiday allows us to reflect while planning for the future. However, you can also allow yourself to feel all the excitement and merriment in the air. Live in the moment and celebrate in style!
- “Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer.” —Walter Scott
- “Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving. Make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!” —Amanda Bradley
- “May your walls know joy, may every room hold laughter, and every window open to great possibility.” —Mary Anne Radmacher
- “Tonight’s December thirty-first, something is about to burst. The clock is crouching, dark and small, like a time bomb in the hall. Hark, it’s midnight, children dear. Duck! Here comes another year!” —Ogden Nash
- “Let the sky celebrate! Let it pour some rain to wash away the past years’ grief. Let the fireworks speak announcing a New Year to break, displaying seasons of different flavours. Oh New Year, can you restore our hopes and spill our fears?” —Noha Alaa El-Din
- “New year is the glittering light to brighten the dream-lined pathway of future.” —Munia Khan
- “The New Year is a painting not yet painted; a path not yet stepped on; a wing not yet taken off! Things haven’t happened as yet! Before the clock strikes twelve, remember that you are blessed with the ability to reshape your life!” —Mehmet Murat ildan
- “In every changing season, may we find a reason new, to stand in awe, appreciate and cherish every view.” —Oscar Auliq-Ice
- “Free yourself from all the worries and sorrows on the new year by freeing the sky lanterns and let them burn as the lanterns do in the sky to light up your inner self with hopes.” —Junaid Aslam
- “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” —Oprah Winfrey
Short New Year’s Sayings For A Fresh Start
Life is full of new beginnings. Whether they’re spurred on by personal decisions or by outside forces, each new year can be the greatest beginning of all. The first day in January acts as a reset for everyone and can provide us with a clean slate to mark up with memories, laughs, smiles —and hopefully fulfillment. Use these short New Year’s quotes to head into the coming year with optimism and a clear sense of direction.
- “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” —Michael Altshuler
- “Celebrate what you want to see more of.” —Tom Peters
- “Sometimes the best thing we can ask for is change, and a fresh start forces us to confront change head-on.” —Natalya Neidhart
- “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” —Lao Tzu
- “Don’t count the days, make the days count.” —Muhammad Ali
- “All change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end.” —Robin Sharma
- “It is a mere exchange of calendars. If you are not new, It is not new.” —Seun Ayilara
- “New Year. Same Person. New Motivations.” —Torron-Lee Dewar
Inspiring Quotes to Welcome The New Year
With this last batch of inspiring sayings, we officially usher in the new year. Welcome it with open arms, an open mind and an open heart. Be willing to make necessary adjustments and take risks along the way, while giving yourself grace. Most importantly, remember that you now have another 365 days’ worth of possibilities in front of you.
- “Of all sound of all bells… most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year.” —Charles Lamb
- “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.” —T.S. Elliot
- “Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet.” —L.M. Montgomery
- “Hey friend, don’t you dare forget, as you’re creating a new you, that there’s a whole lot about the old you that is worth keeping.” —Toni Sorenson
- “And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” —Rainer Maria Rilke
- “We joyfully pray with grateful hearts to welcome blessings in New Year.” —Lailah Gifty Akita
- “Start over, my darling. Be brave enough to find the life you want and courageous enough to chase it. Then start over and love yourself the way you were always meant to.” —Madalyn Beck
- “Celebrate the varied splendour in this world, and remind yourself that it can also be found in you.” —Dr. Salma Farook
- “There is magic, beauty, romance and poetry waiting for you every step of the way. Life is waiting for you, with open arms.” —AVIS Viswanathan
Start The New Year Right With Encouraging Quotes
As the year comes to a close, we can reflect on the lessons learned along with the experiences and memories that shaped us. This time of year reminds us that each new beginning holds endless potential, and it’s up to us to approach it with optimism and courage. Whether you’re in need of a new direction, a new perspective, or a completely fresh start, the new year is ready to serve you. So, step into it with purpose and excitement, for it will be the year of you!
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