113 Inspiring Quotes About Moving On

In life, change is the only constant. Whether you're closing a chapter or embarking on a new journey, moving on can be both challenging and liberating. It's a process that requires courage, resilience, and sometimes a little inspiration to help guide you through. That's where the power of a well-timed quote can make all the difference. We've gathered the top 113 inspiring quotes about moving on to provide you with the motivation and insight you need to embrace the future with open arms. These words of wisdom come from a diverse array of voices, each offering a unique perspective on the art of letting go and stepping forward. No matter where you are on your journey, these quotes are sure to resonate and empower you to take the next step with confidence.

1. “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” - Lyndon B. Johnson

2. “Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?” - Mary Manin Morrissey

3. “Girls you've gotta know when it's time to turn the page.” - Tori Amos

4. “Sooner or later we've all got to let go of our past.” - Dan Brown

5. “You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've, would've happened... or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fuck on.” - Tupac Shakur

6. “It happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. So you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on.” - Nicholas Sparks

7. “It was strange, really. A couple months ago, I had thought I couldn’t live without him. Apparently I could.” - Gabrielle Zevin

8. “How many boys like him were out there in the ether, holding on to their big brothers and sisters who were still alive? How many husbands were floating between life and death, clinging to their wives in this world? And how may millions and millions of people were there in the world like Charlie who wouldn't let go of their loved ones when they're gone?” - Ben Sherwood

9. “That was the only time, as I stood there, looking at that strange rubbish, feeling the wind coming across those empty fields, that I started to imagine just a little fantasy thing, because this was Norfolk after all, and it was only a couple of weeks since I’d lost him. I was thinking about the rubbish, the flapping plastic in the branches, the shore-line of odd stuff caught along the fencing, and I half-closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field, and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy, and he'd wave, maybe even call. The fantasy never got beyond that --I didn't let it-- and though the tears rolled down my face, I wasn't sobbing or out of control. I just waited a bit, then turned back to the car, to drive off to wherever it was I was supposed to be.” - Kazuo Ishiguro

10. “There comes a point at which you stop giving things up. That is what i won't give up. None of it will i give up, for my beautiful sister Ivy who lies in bed. Ivy who used to be alive. Ivy who used to be. Ivy who used. Ivy who. Ivy-who-is-not-me.Not me. Not me. Not me.” - Alison McGhee

11. “You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It wont happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, ‘I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.” - Joel Osteen

12. “I'm done with those; regrets are an excuse for people who have failed.” - Ned Vizzini

13. “If I kept saying it; if I kept reaching out. My accident really taught me just one thing: the only way to go on is to go on. To say 'I can do this' even when you know you can't.” - Stephen King

14. “We are set in our ways, bound by our perspectives and stuck in our thinking.” - Joel Osteen

15. “It is important that we forgive ourselves for making mistakes. We need to learn from our errors and move on.” - Steve Maraboli

16. “And perhaps there is a limit to the grieving that the human heart can do. As when one adds salt to a tumbler of water, there comes a point where simply no more will be absorbed.” - Sarah Waters

17. “Loss alone is but the wounding of a heart; it is memory that makes it our ruin.” - Brian Ruckley

18. “You are worth everything that nature can give you.And I pray to whatever I believe in that you find your happiness. You find pride in yourself.And you find true love.And you can look at that person and understand the impact that have had in your life.Because you have surprised me with every step you took.And if letting you go means that I love you.Then I love you.Have fun out there.” - Philippe A. Renaud

19. “You can't look back - you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.” - Jodi Picoult

20. “I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.” - Beryl Markham

21. “Letting go doesn't mean that you don't care about someone anymore. It's just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.” - Deborah Reber

22. “I demolish my bridges behind me...then there is no choice but to move forward” - Fridtjof Nansen

23. “Well, nowIf little by little you stop loving meI shall stop loving youLittle by littleIf suddenly you forget meDo not look for meFor I shall already have forgotten youIf you think it long and mad the wind of banners that passes through my lifeAnd you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have rootsRememberThat on that day, at that hour, I shall lift my armsAnd my roots will set off to seek another land” - Pablo Neruda

24. “Someday being with Dex will be a distant memory. This fact makes me sad too. Its the initial stages of grief that seem to be worst but in some ways, Its sadder as time goes by and you consider how much they're missed in your life.” - Emily Giffin

25. “Moving on is easy. It's staying moved on that's trickier.” - Katerina Stoykova Klemer

26. “He nods, as if to acknowledge that endings are almost always a little sad, even when there is something to look forward to on the other side.” - Emily Giffin

27. “She shook off the self-recrimination. What-ifs and could-have-beens were not the way to move forward. She knew that from experience.” - Judi Fennell

28. “I think it happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. And so you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on.” - Nicholas Sparks

29. “I don't need to be any place else, because the music takes me to the only place I want to be right now. To the place where I am and have always been wholly me, the only church I've ever belonged to, the only place I've ever prayed.” - Daisy Whitney

30. “And we're all good, everything is forgiven between Beethoven and me because this is the part of me that hasn't changed. In this monent I'm not defined by the other things, the things that happened to me, the things I didn't choose. This is the part of me that defines me for all time, for always. The thing I choose completely.” - Daisy Whitney

31. “I've been burdened with blame trapped in the past for too long, I'm moving on” - Rascal Flatts

32. “A very wise man once told me that you can't look back-you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.” - Jodi Picoult

33. “Can I say something?''Go on''I'm a little drunk''Me too. That's okay.''Just....I missed you, you know.''I missed you too.''But so, so much, Dexter. There were so many things I wanted to talk to you about, and you weren't there-''same here.''I tell you what it is. It's.....When I didn't see you, I thought about you every day, I mean EVERY DAY in some way or another-''same here.''-Even if it was just "I wish Dexter could see this" or "Where's Dexter now?" or "Christ that Dexter, what an idiot", you know what I mean, and seeing you today, well, I thought I'd got you back - my BEST friend. And now all this, the wedding, the baby- I'm so happy for you, Dex, but it feels like I've lost you again.'--'You know what happens you have a family, your responsibilities change, you lose touch with people''It won't be like that, I promise.''Do you?''Absolutely''You swear? No more disappearing?''I won't if you won't.'Their lips touched now, mouths pursed tight, their eyes open, both of them stock still. The moment held, a kind of glorious confusion.” - David Nicholls

34. “Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.” - Katherine Mansfield

35. “Sometimes you can’t let go of the past without facing it again.” - Gail Tsukiyama

36. “We are all failures- at least the best of us are.” - J.M. Barrie

37. “I will continue my path, but I will keep a memory always.” - Rosie Thomas

38. “Keeping baggage from the past will leave no room for happiness in the future.” - Wayne L Misner

39. “I had to cease to mourn what could never be and make the most of what was possible. And I would begin doing that by trying to mend the hurts of the past.” - Cameron Dokey

40. “For how imperiously, how coolly, in disregard of all one’s feelings, does the hard, cold, uninteresting course of daily realities move on! Still we must eat, and drink, and sleep, and wake again, - still bargain, buy, sell, ask and answer questions, - pursue, in short, a thousand shadows, though all interest in them be over; the cold, mechanical habit of living remaining, after all vital interest in it has fled.” - Harriet Beecher Stowe

41. “Sometimes the hardest part isn't letting go but rather learning to start over.” - Nicole Sobon

42. “Love is forgiving, accepting, moving on, embracing, and all encompassing. And if you’re not doing that for yourself, you cannot do that with anyone else.” - Steve Maraboli

43. “How are you, Rory?' [the Doctor] asked.I [Rory]... answered him. 'It's been odd being you.''Isn't it?' The Doctor's smile didn't quite reach his eyes.'How do you cope?''Ah...' The Doctor picked away at a scrap of loose paint on the door. 'Well, I just get as close as I can to a happy ending, then I shut the door behind me and move on.'I nodded.We shut the door behind us and moved on.” - James Goss

44. “Change has to come for life to struggle forward.” - Helen Hollick

45. “Let Her Go!!!” - Yellowcard

46. “Time will make it worse! You're...the other half of his soul. He's never going to get over you. And no matter how much you hope that you will... you'll never get over him. You're going to wake up one day and realize what you've done, and you're going to regret the time you wasted apart from him for the rest of your life.” - Jamie McGuire

47. “The person who hurt you--who raped you or killed your family--is also here. If you are still angry at that person, if you haven't been able to forgive, you are chained to him. Everyone could feel the emotional truth of that: When someone offends you and you haven't let go, every time you see him, you grow breathless or your heart skips a beat. If the trauma was really severe, you dream of revenge. Above you, is the Mountain of Peace and Prosperity where we all want to go. But when you try to climb that hill, the person you haven't forgiven weighs you down. It's a personal choice whether or not to let go. No one can tell you how long to mourn a death or rage over a rape. But you can't move forward until you break that chain.” - Leymah Gbowee

48. “And I'm ill with the thought of your kiss, coffee-laced intoxicating on her lips... shut it out, I've got no claim on you now, I'm not allowed to wear you freedom down” - Fine Frenzy

49. “Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.” - Steve Maraboli

50. “Now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turnin' goldAnd like the sky my soul is also turnin'Turnin' from the past, at last and all I've left behind” - Ray Lamontagne

51. “Being different is a revolving door in your life where secure people enter and insecure exit.” - Shannon L. Alder

52. “I thought, possibly, that what I really needed was to go where nobody knew me and start over again, with none of my previous decisions, conversations, or expectations coming with me.” - Maggie Stiefvater

53. “Inutile piangere sul latte versato. (No use crying over spilled milk.)” - Francesca Marciano

54. “She took a step and didn't want to take any more, but she did.” - Markus Zusak

55. “I drift off for a while. I don't know how long, but when I open my eyes, the Oscars are still on and Alex tells me that Sid has gone and this makes me a little sad. Whatever the four of us had is over. He is my daughter's boyfriend now, and I am a father. A widower. No pot, no cigarettes, no sleeping over. They'll have to find inventive ways to conduct their business, most likely in uncomfortable places, just like the rest of them. I let him and my old ways go. We all let him go, as well as who we were before this, and now it's really just the three of us. I glance over at the girls, taking a good look at what's left.” - Kaui Hart Hemmings

56. “Do the things that you always wanted to, without me there to hold you back, don't think just do, more than anything I want to see you go, take a glorious bite out of the whole world” - Snow Patrol

57. “And I told him, I said: "One day you're going to miss the subway because it's not going to come. One of these days, it's going to break down and it's not going to come around and everyone else will just wait for the next one or will take the bus, or walk, or run to the next station: they will go on with their lives. And you're not going to be able to go on with your life! You'll be standing there, in the subway station, staring at the tube. Why? Because you think that everything has to happen perfectly and on time and when you think it's going to happen! Well guess what! That's not how things happen! And you'll be the only one who's not going to be able to go on with life, just because your subway broke down. So you know what, you've got to let go, you've got to know that things don't happen the way you think they're going to happen, but that's okay, because there's always the bus, there's always the next station...you can always take a cab.” - C. JoyBell C.

58. “Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on.” - Criss Jami

59. “When someone you love says goodbye you can stare long and hard at the door they closed and forget to see all the doors God has open in front of you.” - Shannon Alder

60. “I will not deny that my heart has long occupied itself with the most tender feelings for another. So strong were these impulses that I indulged myself by thinking that if I could not have him whom I admired whom I will admit it now when I would not before I loved then I would never want another. However those are sentiments best saved for one of Lily's romances. The heart is a far more practical thing and in its life is happily capable of more than a single attachment.” - Galen Beckett

61. “It's me. I chose this. I chose all of this — this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. I’ve been moving towards it my whole life.” - Aron Ralston

62. “Maybe this was what Aunt Peg meant all along - returning was a weird thing. You can never visit the same place twice. Each time, it's a different story. By the very act of coming back, you wipe our what came before.” - Maureen Johnson

63. “A Plan B life can be just as good or better than a Plan A life. You just have to let go of that first dream and realize that God has already written the first chapter of the new life that awaits you. All you have to do is start reading!” - Shannon Alder

64. “She bought seeds and raided nurseries and mulched and composted and spent full days with her hands full of earth, coaxing life our of the dry, dull grass my father had spent years pushing a mower over.” - Sarah Dessen

65. “A broken friendship that is mended through forgiveness can be even stronger than it once was.” - Stephen Richards

66. “Lots of things can be fixed. Things can be fixed. But many times, relationships between people cannot be fixed, because they should not be fixed. You're aboard a ship setting sail, and the other person has joined the inland circus, or is boarding a different ship, and you just can't be with each other anymore. Because you shouldn't be.” - C. JoyBell C.

67. “Not watching the path where his legs took him, he walked on because he knew he had to walk ahead, leaving his past behind.” - Faraaz Kazi

68. “Forgiveness is the one gift you don't give to others. Rather, it is the gift you give yourself, so you can finally be free.” - Shannon Alder

69. “The secret to life is to have no fear. When you can let go of what others think about you, how something is going to turn out, or how your past will affect your future, then you are finally living life free.” - Shannon L. Alder

70. “If you have one parent who loves you, even if they can't buy you clothes, they're so poor and they make all kinds of mistakes and maybe sometimes they even give you awful advice, but never for one moment do you doubt their love for you--if you have this, you have incredibly good fortune.If you have two parents who love you? You have won life's Lotto.If you do not have parents, or if the parents you have are so broken and so, frankly, terrible that they are no improvement over nothing, this is fine.It's not ideal because it's harder without adults who love you more than they love themselves. But harder is just harder, that's all.” - Augusten Burroughs

71. “You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them. I tie no weights to my ankles.” - C. JoyBell C.

72. “I will run every mile, i will saveevery line, i will say i reached thetop and i will fall back down standing.I will write down every thing, the goodand the bad,I will wake up one day andgo back to the start. I will noticethat the good ones were nothing but mybeautiful lines, were everything paintedby my mind. I will notice that the badones were nothing but pieces of mypain that should have been crumbled and thrown away the first time i started torain. I will leave home and i won'tmind, i will miss some beating piecesbut i will survive.the sky will stayin place, mountains won't shake and mymind will go nowhere.the stars will take my side not yours, and the new airin your chest will feel forever cold. Iwill donate a piece of my heart to hurtyou forever and a lifelong lastingquestion about what you have lost.Myhands won't ever fit in yours and myfaith says that crown on your head willhurt you the most.One day i won't overlook anythinganymore. One day i won't rememberanything anymore.I will stoppretending i'm ice cold and i willlearn how to be strong.one day I willgrow out of this, i will grow out ofus.” - Mennah al refaey

73. “There is no such thing as a "broken family." Family is family, and is not determined by marriage certificates, divorce papers, and adoption documents. Families are made in the heart. The only time family becomes null is when those ties in the heart are cut. If you cut those ties, those people are not your family. If you make those ties, those people are your family. And if you hate those ties, those people will still be your family because whatever you hate will always be with you.” - C. JoyBell C.

74. “Well, I just get as close as I can to a happy ending, then I shut the door behind me and move on.” - James Goss

75. “And my biggest fear would be forevermissing a piece. You see our story wasnever complete, and it's supposed to befinished but you haven't yet heard allof me.So listen because my biggest fear would be missing out on how ittruly feels . I will forever miss atouch though i never tried it on myface; i might miss how cold it is and imight miss how warm it left me, i mightmiss how it perfectly traces every lineand i might miss how it gets losteverytime. I will forever miss a handthat held my heart, one that onlylearnt how to wave goodbye, one thatonly learnt how to part, i will neverknow how your fingers interlaced withmine, though i have been always surethat they fit perfectly inside. And Iknow i will definitely miss waking upto your eyes, i will miss knowing theysee right through me, i will misshaving that subtle silent starereassure my heart. And a very longplaylist will go to waste, no slowdancing not on the kitchen floor andnever once in the rain.Just know Ialready miss having your back, but youare the one who turned yours and idon't know if i should ever forgivethat.” - Mennah al refaey

76. “Someday, beyond the clouds and all the world's wrongs, there will be love, compassion and justice, and we shall all understand.” - Flavia Weedn

77. “...Love is easy, falling in love is even easier, but letting that love go, is the most difficult thing you’ll ever have to do. Some of us never let it go andsometimes it takes a while to realize what you want. But your heart will always have the right answer in the end. You just have to figure out what it’stelling you.” - Marie Coulson

78. “When a child dies, a parent loses a part of themselves,” he said. “Your whole world ceases to exist and you’re nothing but a shell of the person you once were. Your mom has dealt with it in her way, me in mine, and you in yours.” He lifted his hand off John’s gravestone and rose. “Your mom hates the world, I avoid it, and you try to save it.” - Nicole Williams

79. “Then he remembered Ralph's words--"no point in fighting your war over and over until you get it right.” - M.L. Stedman

80. “Let today be the day you learn the grace of letting go and the power of moving on.” - Steve Maraboli

81. “You think it's so great to die and make everyone cry and carry on. Well it ain't.” - Katherine Paterson

82. “It was strange walking through the empty apartment. My battered purple room was gone, Brittany’s bruised blue was gone. Two coats covered everything. It was like none of it had ever happened.” - Kimberly Novosel

83. “The only real conflict you will ever have in your life won’t be with others, but with yourself.” - Shannon L. Alder

84. “Never look back; you may only find what you left or let you go.” - Stefanos Livos

85. “Your heart’s strength is measured by how hard it holds on. Your self worth and faith is measured by finally letting go. However, your peace is measured by how long you don’t look back.” - Shannon L. Alder

86. “She has no regrets; she knows now he could never have made her happy, even though he has, apparently, joined AA, is doing better. But sobriety is his journey, not hers; he needs to do it for himself, alone. Still, she misses him hugely, doesn't feel ready for another relationship yet. But as time passes, she hopes that she might be, eventually, with someone new, easier, kinder.” - Sarah Rayner

87. “The moment of realization is: When what you thought you couldn't be without, becomes a part of the past, rather than the start of the future.” - Melody Carstairs

88. “It is the hardest thing of all, the one thing that will show if you have the one true courage. To know that you have failed, that your best efforts have been defeated, to not be able to stand it, to not be able to go on and yet to go on nonetheless.” - Silvia Hartmann

89. “It makes the other one more precious and also not enough. We have to try to fill not only our own boots but other people's too - yours, Leo's, Dad's. We have to expand at the moment we feel the most shrunk.” - Rosamund Lupton

90. “What's the difference?" You ask meThe difference is, a smile touches my lipsWhen I remember both the memory of you entering my lifeAnd the memory of you leaving my life” - Tammy-Louise Wilkins

91. “Everyone's moving on without me, into a world I don't understand.” - Sophie Kinsella

92. “I loved him in that moment, loved him more than I'd ever loved anyone, and I wanted to to tell them all that I was the snake in the grass, the monster in the lake. I wasn't worthy of this sacrifice; I was a liar, a cheat, a thief. And I would have told, except that a part of me was glad. Glad that this would all be over with soon. Baba would dismiss them, there would be some pain, but life would move on. I wanted that, to move on, to forget, to start with a clean slate. I wanted to be able to breathe again.” - Khaled Hosseini

93. “Living in the past kills your future.” - Habeeb Akande

94. “Sometimes, in order to find happiness, one must allow some old bridges to collapse, in order to build better ones.” - Lionel Suggs

95. “Simply put, the best revenge is to live an awesome life.” - Ramon Bautista

96. “Explain it to me."But I couldn't. I'd had to learn it my own way, and so had my mother. Jason would eventually, as well. No one could tell you: you just had to go through it on your own. If you were lucky, you came out on the other side and understood., If you didn't, you kept getting thrust back, retracing those steps, until you finally got it right.” - Sarah Dessen

97. “The world isn’t perfect, and some days it wears you down. You can either accept that, and face it, and be a help to others instead of a hindrance. Or you can decide the rules are too tough and they shouldn’t apply to you, and you can ignore them and make things harder for everybody else. Sometimes life is about being sad and doing things anyway. Sometimes it’s about being hurt and doing things anyway. The point isn’t perfection. The point is doing it anyway.” - Chloe Neill

98. “If I wasn't so phenomenal. I would go back to you.” - Coco J. Ginger

99. “There's more to life than love.” - Ramon Bautista

100. “In order to fly you have to create space in the open air so that your wings can really spread out. It’s like a parachute. They only work from a high altitude. To fly you have to begin taking risks. If you don’t want to, maybe the best thing is just to give up, and keep walking forever.” - Jorge Bucay

101. “I’ve been so caught up with mapping out a picture-perfect “forever” that I’m completely neglecting my present, which I have far more control over anyway.” - Daria Snadowsky

102. “I’m positive I wouldn’t consider having sex with Guy if I hadn’t already had sex beforehand. I always knew I wanted my first time to be with someone I loved and who loved me, which it was . . . but shouldn’t I want that for everytime? I disagree with what Amy said about how once you go all the way, you can’t go back to “everything but.” But now that I have done it, it doesn’t seem nearly as big a deal to do it again.” - Daria Snadowsky

103. “We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.” - Pascal Mercier

104. “Not forever does the bulbul singIn balmy shades of bowers,Not forever lasts the springNor ever blossom the flowers.Not forever reigneth joy,Sets the sun on days of bliss,Friendships not forever last,They know not life, who know not this.” - Khushwant Singh

105. “We had our thing. It is a really good memory but now we're older. Things change.” - Abbi Glines

106. “Every relationship that has hit a crossroads has asked, “What is it that you want from me?” - Shannon L. Alder

107. “But with your life you make a few bad decisions, get unlucky a few times, whatever, but you have to keep going, right?” - Cecelia Ahern

108. “I saw my earlier selves as different people, acquaintances I had outgrown. I wondered how I could ever have been some of them.” - Roger Zelazny

109. “This is a story about survival.Letting go and learning to let in. Getting along and moving on. The truth about life.The things left unsaid...” - Nadège Richards

110. “Watch me go. Watch me. Because you said i couldn't. Because you thought I wouldn't. Go on, cry now. Cry.” - Kellie Elmore

111. “...and I laugh and I spin and dance and frolic in ecstasy and I... I hurt no more, while you...you petrified little man, are left to wonder if it's you I speak of.” - Kellie Elmore

112. “The clock ticks; the taunting rhythm serving as a reminder that forward is the only way we can go. The mechanical heartbeat of the darkness, a cold ellipsis, punctuating years gone by. Arising unchained.No glorious hymn, just the steady beat of the illusion of time. We heal or we carry forward the weight of our wounds... To believe otherwise is the mendacity of desperation. Arising honestly. The miles behind are littered with the weight of nostalgia, but too many miles lay ahead us to carry the weight. In the end, even echoes fade away. Pen in hand...Arising to write the next chapter.(MU Articles 2013, Dedication to Joey)” - Shannon L. Alder

113. “There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it.” - Shannon L. Alder