As we say goodbye to another year, it’s normal to have mixed feelings. When we look back, it might be easy to focus on all of the things that didn’t work out, but it’s more important to celebrate our accomplishments—no matter how small. If you’re ready for a fresh start, we’ve put together this list of New Year quotes to motivate and inspire you. The best is yet to come!
New Year Quotes by Poets and Playwrights
Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account. —Oscar Wilde
You can get excited about the future. The past won’t mind. —Hillary DePiano
We all get the exact same 365 days. The only difference is what we do with them. —Hillary DePiano
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
Although no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending. —Carl Bard
And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been. —Rainer Maria Rilke
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
If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello. —Paulo Coelho
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. —E.E. Cummings
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden. —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I close my eyes to old ends. And open my heart to new beginnings. —Nick Frederickson
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice. —T.S. Eliot
Every moment is a fresh beginning. —T.S. Eliot
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 Lord Tennyson
New Year Quotes by Authors
We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come. —Joseph Campbell
We joyfully pray with grateful hearts to welcome blessings in the New Year. —Lailah Gifty Akita
Cheers to a gracious New Year. May we uphold the fullness of God’s grace, goodness, and goodwill. —Lailah Gifty Akita
Take a leap of faith and begin this wondrous new year by believing. —Sarah Ban Breathnach
Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life. —Robin Sharma
Many years ago, I made a New Year’s resolution to never make New Year’s resolutions. Hell, it’s been the only resolution I’ve ever kept! —D.S. Mixell
The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all. —Josiyah Martin
The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul. —Gilbert K. Chesterton
New year—a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours. —Alex Morritt
Making New Year resolutions is one thing. Remaining resolute and seeing them through is quite another. —Alex Morritt
It is never too late to be what you might have been. —George Eliot
Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. —Hal Borland
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
Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever. —Neil Gaiman
What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year. —Vern McLellan
Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings. —Ralph Blum
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. —C.S. Lewis
There are better things ahead than any we leave behind. —C.S. Lewis
The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. —Melody Beattie
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
An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. —William E. Vaughan
Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to. —Bill Vaughan
Each day is a new beginning, the chance to do with it what should be done and not to be seen as simply another day to put in time. —Catherine Pulsifer
Perhaps that is where our choice lies—in determining how we will meet the inevitable end of things, and how we will greet each new beginning. —Elana K. Arnold
Life’s not about expecting, hoping, and wishing, it’s about doing, being, and becoming. —Mike Dooley
When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. When life is bitter, say thank you and grow. —Shauna Niequist
This year, be structured enough for success and achievement and flexible enough for creativity and fun. —Taylor Duvall
A New Year has tiptoed in. Let’s go forward to meet it. —Anusha Atukorala
New beginnings are in order, and you are bound to feel some level of excitement as new chances come your way. —Oscar Auliq-Ice
When you see a new year, see realities and limit fantasies! —Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
As the year comes to a close, it is a time for reflection, a time to release old thoughts and beliefs and forgive old hurts. Whatever has happened in the past year, the New Year brings fresh beginnings. Exciting new experiences and relationships await. Let us be thankful for the blessings of the past and the promise of the future. —Peggy Toney Horton
The priceless lesson in the New Year is that endings birth beginnings and beginnings birth endings. And in this elegantly choreographed dance of life, neither ever find an end in the other. —Craig D. Lounsbrough
We are the authors of our destinies. —Nike Campbell-Fatoki
A year of ending and beginning, a year of loss and finding … and all of you were with me through the storm. I drink to your health, your wealth, your fortune for long years to come, and I hope for many more days in which we can gather like this. —C.J. Cherryh
Every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all of our lives. —Steven Spielberg
Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely. —Karen Kaiser Clark
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. —Maya Angelou
Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. —David McCullough Jr.
There will come a time when you believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning. —Louis L’Amour
This bright new year is given me to live each day with zest, to daily grow and try to be my highest and my best! —William Arthur Ward
With dawn of the new year on the horizon, I resolved to exert my will on the world. —Holly Black
It’s never too late to become who you want to be. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over. —F. Scott Fitzgerald
Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right. —F. Scott Fitzgerald
Change can be scary, but you know what’s scarier? Allowing fear to stop you from growing, evolving, and progressing. —Mandy Hale
Celebrate endings—for they precede new beginnings. —Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Past and Present I know well; each is a friend and sometimes an enemy to me. But it is the quiet, beckoning Future, an absolute stranger, with whom I have fallen madly in love. —Richelle E. Goodrich
New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday. —Charles Lamb
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
New Year Quotes by Historical Figures
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. —Eleanor Roosevelt
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. —Benjamin Franklin
What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t even happened yet. —Anne Frank
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. —Thomas Jefferson
Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning. —Desmond Tutu
Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose—not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember. —Anne Sullivan
Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties. —Helen Keller
The attraction of New Year is this: The year changes, and in that change we believe that we can change with it. It is far more difficult, however, to change yourself than turn the calendar to a new page. —R. Joseph Hoffmann
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. —Albert Einstein
New Year Quotes by Celebrities
Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. —Oprah Winfrey
Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one. —Brad Paisley
Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction. —Germany Kent
Life is about change. Sometimes it’s painful, sometimes it’s beautiful, but most of the time it’s both. —Kristin Kreuk
Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. —Frank Scully
You are never too old to reinvent yourself. —Steve Harvey
Be like a tree. Stay grounded. Connect with your roots. Turn over a new leaf. Bend before you break. Enjoy your unique natural beauty. Keep growing. —Joanne Raptis
He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; he who makes one is a fool. —F.M. Knowles
I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. —Arthur Rubenstein
I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring. —David Bowie
May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions! —Joey Adams
Remove “shoulds” from your vocabulary this year. Start your journey of self-love now. —Kelly Martin
This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change. —Taylor Swift
New Year Quotes by Philosophers
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. —Seneca
The beginning is the most important part of the work. —Plato
Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake. —Francis Bacon
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. —William James
The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. —Socrates
No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again. —Buddha
Be the change you wish to see in the world. —Ghandi
New Year Quotes by Businesspeople
Each year’s regrets are envelopes in which messages of hope are found for the New Year. —John R. Dallas Jr.
The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are. —J.P. Morgan
Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go. They merely determine where you start. —Nido Qubein
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
Approach the new year with resolve to find the opportunities hidden in each new day. —Michael Josephson
The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot. —Michael Altshuler
And More New Year Quotes
Don’t let today’s disappointments cast a shadow on tomorrow’s dreams. —Unknown
Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better. —Emile Coue
Just when the caterpillar thought her life was over, she became a butterfly. —Unknown
As we grow older and wiser, we begin to realize what we need and what we need to leave behind. Sometimes there are things in our lives that aren’t meant to stay. Sometimes the changes we don’t want are the changes we need to grow. And sometimes walking away is a step forward. —Unknown
You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you. —Eckhart Tolle
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. —Göran Persson
Be the girl who decided to go for it. —Unknown
Like these New Year quotes? Check out these motivational quotes for students too!
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