50 Inspirational Letting Go Quotes

Letting go can be one of the most challenging yet liberating experiences in life. Whether it's releasing past hurts, moving on from a relationship, or simply embracing change, the act of letting go opens the door to new opportunities and personal growth. In moments where the weight of holding on feels too heavy, inspiration can be found in the wisdom of those who have walked this path before us. Our curated collection of the top 50 inspirational letting go quotes serves as a source of encouragement and reflection, offering insights to empower your journey towards a more freeing and fulfilling life. Let these words inspire you to release what's holding you back and embrace the endless possibilities that await.

1. “Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.” - Stephen King

2. “When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the fearful past causes a fearful future and the past and future become one. We cannot love when we feel fear.... When we release the fearful past and forgive everyone, we will experience total love and oneness with all.” - Gerald G. Jampolsky

3. “...you fix what you can fix and you let the rest go. If there ain't nothin to be done about it it aint even a problem. It's just a aggravation.” - Cormac McCarthy

4. “No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.” - Haruki Murakami

5. “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.” - Steve Maraboli

6. “The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.” - Steve Maraboli

7. “There are times in life when people must know when not to let go. Balloons are designed to teach small children this.” - Terry Pratchett

8. “No book can ever be finished. While working on it we learn just enough to find it immature the moment we turn away from it” - Karl Popper

9. “Even on my weakest daysI get a little bit stronger” - Sara Evans

10. “Know that everything is in perfect order whether you understand it or not.” - Valery Satterwhite

11. “Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will… but then again, if you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all. Imagining isn’t perfect. You can’t get all the way inside someone else… But imagining being someone else, or the world being something else, is the only way in. It is the machine that kills the fascists” - John Green

12. “‎All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.” - Henry Havelock Ellis

13. “Il ne savait pas encore s'il souffrait parce qu'il suivait une pente et que l'avenir venait à lui sans qu'il eût à s'en saisir. Quand on s'abandonne on ne souffre pas. Quand on s'abandonne même à la tristesse on ne souffre plus.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

14. “So go, girl. We should have been one person all along, not two.” - Dorothy Baker

15. “Don't go through life; grow through life.” - Eric Butterworth

16. “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

17. “I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It’s okay if you have to leave us. It’s okay if you want to stop fighting.” - Gayle Forman

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

19. “If you didn't love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and everything that followed it is part of letting it go.” - Sarah Dessen

20. “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

21. “The day I understood everything, was the day I stopped trying to figure everything out. The day I knew peace was the day I let everything go.” - C. JoyBell C.

22. “Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny.” - Steve Maraboli

23. “Sometimes you have to stop trying to control everything and let life happen the way it's supposed to, Tess. Even if it's not exactly the way you wanted.But what if it's not even a little like you wanted?Then you deal with it and keep going.” - Lord, Cynthia

24. “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. Goals give us direction. They put a powerful force into play on a universal, conscious, and subconscious level. Goals give our life direction.What would you like to have happen in your life this year? What would you like to do, to accomplish? What good would you like to attract into your life? What particular areas of growth would you like to have happen to you? What blocks, or character defects, would you like to have removed?What would you like to attain? Little things and big things? Where would you like to go? What would you like to have happen in friendship and love? What would you like to have happen in your family life?What problems would you like to see solved? What decisions would you like to make? What would you like to happen in your career?Write it down. Take a piece of paper, a few hours of your time, and write it all down - as an affirmation of you, your life, and your ability to choose. Then let it go. The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” - Melody Beattie

25. “It's time, Perry". He let her go. She took a step back, taking in his face one last time. His green eyes. The bend in his nose and the scars on his cheek. All the tiny inperfections that made him beautiful. Without a word, she turned and made her way downhill.” - Veronica Rossi

26. “It's the way you fall you. Gotta let yourself go.” - Melville Shavelson

27. “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.

28. “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

29. “...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

30. “Please do not break your heart over the withering of a dream you once held, that never became yours! After all, the shattered dream could have very well been a nightmare and not a dream at all, you wouldn't really know because you didn't have it yet! Let the sparks fade, let the flame dim and die, you'll never know it wasn't poison.” - C. JoyBell C.

31. “I didn’t treat my girl like she was mineYeah, I thought I didn’t need her at the timeBut I changed my way of thinkin’ when she leftYeah, I finally learned my lesson, but I learned it by myself” - Hunter Hayes

32. “Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past so the universe can write a new one.” - Marianne Williamson

33. “No matter what you say, or how much you talk, someone isn’t really forgiven until you can stand beside them without wanting to slap them in the face.” - Alan Heathcock

34. “In order to pick something up, you've got to put something down.” - Todd Stocker

35. “Sophia sat in meditation on the riverbank when a student bent down to place two enormous pearls at her feet as a gift. She opened her eyes to see the pearls. She picked one up, but dropped it. It rolled down the hill upon which she was sitting and into the river. The student chased after it and looked all afternoon, diving, coming up for air, diving back down. “Sophia,” he asked. “Could you show me where it went in? I can’t find it.” “Right there,” she said throwing the other pearl in the river.” - David W. Jones

36. “And then Jonah heard God’s voice. “Jonah, do you know what the difference is between you and the trees?” He was confident it was God because God usually asked questions but gave no answers. Jonah didn’t need a divine answer to this question, he knew it. “Yes,” he said. “The difference between me and the trees is that the trees let go of their leaves. I keep holding onto mine. The trees make room for new life. I don’t.” - David W. Jones

37. “A cynical modification of letting go doesn't bring forgiveness, it's when, once you forgive, will you be able to let go.” - Anthony Liccione

38. “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

39. “These two things are almost all I want, but unfortunately, neither one is my strong suit. I am very strong on blame, and wish this were one of God's values, but trust, surrender? Letting go, forgiveness? Maybe just after a period of prayer, but then when the mood passes and real life rears its ugly head again? Not so much. I hate this, the fact that life is usually Chutes and Ladders, with no guaranteed gains.I cannot will myself into having these qualities, so I have to pray for them more often, if I want to be happy. I have to create the habit, just as I had to do with daily writing, and flossing.” - Anne Lamott

40. “He cried that night for all that he had lost, but he would say it taught him a valuable lesson: that holding on to things "will only break your heart.” - Mitch Albom

41. “Peace of mind arrives the moment you come to peace with the contents of your mind.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

42. “If I learned anything in this life, I've learned that you can't cling on.” - Michael Morpurgo

43. “One day," she told us, "you'll have to leave here and go out into the big world out there and earn your living like everyone else. To do that you need to learn. The more you learn now, the more interesting your life will be.” - Michael Morpurgo

44. “Life is not about control or making things happen in the ways we think they should happen. In fact, it's rather arrogant for us to be on this planet that's been here for so long and expect to be able to control life on it. If we want to see changes, then our task is to set things in motion, not to micromanage and make them happen in the ways we think they should. If we have something that is possessing us, such as alcohol or our television sets or our cell phones, then it could be time to let it go and move on with our lives. If we're holding on to resentment and anger, we're simply raising our own stress levels and blood pressure, but we're not contributing anything positive to the situation--and it's time to let it go.” - Tom Walsh

45. “Every woman that finally figured out her worth, has picked up her suitcases of pride and boarded a flight to freedom, which landed in the valley of change.” - Shannon L. Alder

46. “Maybe it is desperation," I say. "Maybe we can't let things fall apart without trying. We can't let go of the people we love."He looks at me, and in the sunlight his eyes come alive with greens and golds. "Sometimes we can," he says.” - Lauren DeStefano

47. “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

48. “Life moves forward. The old leaves wither, die and fall away, and the new growth extends forward into the light.” - Bryant McGill

49. “I know what you are. I've always known from the beginning, Kushiel's Chosen. It is folly, to make claim on one whom the gods have marked for their own. And unlike the others, I am no fool, to grasp at that which burns to the touch. What you have given..." she raised one hand, palm upward, the garnet seal dangling at her wrist, "... I hold in an open hand.” - Jacqueline Carey

50. “If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you're allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind.” - Shannon L. Alder