Failure And Heartache Are Natural, Unavoidable Parts Of Life. But With These Quotes About Moving On, You’ll Be Able To Weather Whatever Storms Come Your Way.
We’ve all experienced it. The bitter breakups, the layoffs, tense family drama with the people, who are supposed to be our closest allies. While some things are worth fighting for, other outcomes are outside the realm of your control. When that time comes, quotes about moving on can help you keep a fresh perspective and come out of the experience a much stronger person. Here are 11 to help you regain your composure and become the best version of yourself.
Johnny Cash
“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”
Cash suffered for a time with drug addiction. He had to learn this moving on quote the hard way. If he hadn’t, some of the best years of his career would have been over long before they’d begun.
Nelson Mandela
“Forget the past.”
The simplicity of this entry on our list of quotes about moving on becomes more complex and profound when you know the story of the man, who said it. Mandela spent 27 years in an African prison during white racist rule, USA Today notes. His crime: he opposed apartheid, a prejudicial system of forced segregation prominent in South Africa. If a man can unjustly lose 27 of the best years of his life, and then say these words, you know there’s a lot of truth in it.
Ann Landers
“Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself, the most comforting words of all: this, too, shall pass.”
And the pessimist answers: yes, but so, too, will the good times pass. Nevertheless, we get what Landers is saying here. Don’t think your divorce will always hurt as badly as it may now. The deaths of loved ones, financial loss. Every issue outside of your own death that you think of as a millstone will one day no longer be cause for worry. While a new set of challenges may replace them, a new set of victories will as well.
Ulysses S. Grant
“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.”
In the glorious 1980s, there was a series of crap martial arts films that bore the title No Retreat, No Surrender. Grant would have probably loved them. If you retreat, you’re moving back to a safer position. If you surrender, you’re giving up the fight altogether. If you’re moving forward, you have time for neither.
Danica Patrick
“Take those chances and you can achieve greatness, whereas if you go conservative, you’ll never know. I truly believe what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Even if you fail, learning and moving on is sometimes the best thing.”
Trailblazing female NASCAR driver Danica Patrick may not have derived this entry on our quotes about moving on list from her own originality, but what she’s repeating and repackaging here is nonetheless true. You’ve got to take risks to live a life of impact.
Lord Byron
“The heart will break, but broken live on.”
Anyone who’s ever gotten out of an intense relationship has probably experienced this one at some point in life. Was the end of the relationship really the end of you? Didn’t think so.
Heidi Klum
“I’ve been heartbroken. I’ve broken hearts. That’s part of life, and it’s part of figuring out who you are so you can find the right partner. … I can relate to having those people in your life that you feel are moving on to this great, big, normal life and you’re like, ‘What’s wrong with me?’”
One of the most difficult things about getting on with your life is watching someone you loved and devoted so much time and energy to push past into a whole new beginning as if you never existed. Luckily, what Ms. Klum is saying rings true. You’re not always the one getting dumped. Sometimes you get to be the one doing the dumping, and it can be an exciting time filled with hope and possibility if the person you’re ridding yourself of is making life miserable.
Alanis Morissette
“What’s that line from TS Eliot? To arrive at the place where you started, but to know it for the first time. I’m able to write about a breakup from a different place. Same brokenness. Same rock-bottom. But a little more informed, now I’m older. Thank God for growing up.”
With age comes wisdom, they say. And wisdom can help you live with anything. We believe it.
Jack Dempsey
“By forgetting the past and by throwing myself into other interests, I forget to worry.”
Jack Dempsey, former heavyweight champion of the world, lost two decisions to Gene Tunney at the end of his career, and one of those decisions was questionable considering the infamous “long count,” where Tunney was down for close to 14 seconds without getting called a KO. (Maybe if Dempsey had gone to the neutral corner like he was supposed to, but whatever.) Anyhow, it’s hard losing as a fighter, and to know the other guy “got the better of you.” But it sounds like Dempsey did just fine after 1927. He published his autobiography 50 years later and died in 1983 at the ripe old age of 87.
Paul Anka
“I’ve always believed that if you don’t stay moving, they will throw dirt on you.”
Love the wit in this entry on our quotes about moving on list. While it sort of reiterates what General Grant said above, it definitely leaves an impression. Stop trying to grow, and run the risk of making yourself obsolete.
Theodore Roosevelt
“It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.”
He was our 26th President of the United States, one of our best, and one of the toughest SOBs to ever live. Of course, he would think this. Doesn’t make it any less true, though. You get banged up when breakups, firings, and deaths in the family happen. It takes a lot of that stuff Roosevelt pointed out to get on with this thing called life. Have you got what it takes?
