77 Inspiring Quotes For Teens

Navigating the teenage years can be both exciting and challenging, filled with opportunities for growth and moments of self-discovery. During this transformative period, inspiration can serve as a guiding light, helping teens embrace their journey with confidence and hope. In our carefully curated collection of the top 77 Inspiring Quotes For Teens, you'll find words of wisdom that encourage positivity, motivate personal development, and spark meaningful reflection. Whether you're searching for motivation to tackle new challenges or simply need a reminder of your inner strength, these quotes offer invaluable insights to help teens thrive in every aspect of their lives. Dive in and let these powerful words inspire you to embrace your uniqueness and chase your dreams with determination.

1. “When adults say, "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.” - John Green

2. “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” - Socrates

3. “If you surround yourself with the good and righteous, they can only raise you up. If you surround yourself with the others, they will drag you down into the doldrums of mediocrity, and they will keep you there, but only as long as you permit it.” - Mark Glamack

4. “She could ask for anything, she thought dizzily, anything--an end to pain or world hunger or disease, or for peace on earth. But then again, perhaps these things weren't in the power of angels to grant, or they would already have been granted. And perhaps people were supposed to find these things for themselves.” - Cassandra Clare

5. “I was just stock in the middle, vague and undefined.” - Sarah Dessen

6. “Once upon a time there was a young lady who lived in a marsh, and her name was Poison.” - Chris Wooding

7. “I'm sorry, Hen. I still have feelings for you. It's just that my band needs a real bass player now. We're not a joke band anymore. Okay, sweetie?'That was how Petra Dostoyevsky fired me.” - Daniel Ehrenhaft

8. “Why is it that when you don't want to think about something, you can't stop thinking about it?” - Stella Lennon

9. “One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone. There. Gone. No 'poof.' No flash of light. No explosion.” - Michael Grant

10. “She's a librarian, Sim said. They're not teachers; don't give you half as much hassle. If there's a fire in the school and I've got to choose who I'm gonna save - a teacher or a librarian - the teacher's gonna burn every time.(p. 24)” - Keith Gray

11. “I failed angst in high school. They let me graduate anyway.” - John Scalzi

12. “Dear Teens at Starbucks wearing 'Abstain from Sex 2 Attain Ur Goals' t-shirts: Doesn't it depend on what my goals are?” - John Green

13. “I didn't want it to be one good memory that led to a lot of bad ones. I wanted it to stay what it was, one amazing moment, something that was strong and sweet enough to stand on its own. Something I could remember without any pain. - Kate” - Elizabeth Scott

14. “There are a million rules for being a girl. There are a million things you have to do to get through each day. High school has things that can trip you up, ruin you, people say one thing and mean another, and you have to know all the rules, you have to know what you can and can't do.” - Elizabeth Scott

15. “These problems are real, and you can't turn off real life. So I won't try. Instead, I'll give you a set of tools to help you deal with real life.” - Sean Covey

16. “And although I broke a lot of laws as a teenager, I straightened out immediately upon turning eighteen, when I realized the state had a legal right to execute me.” - George Carlin

17. “I always finish what i start” - Ally Carter

18. “I automatically assume people won't like me, so I don't talk to them unless they approach me first. I can't become a part of a crowd because I can't get past that feeling that I don't belong.” - Stephanie Kuehnert

19. “pencils racing across paper, a sound I like." Marisol” - Eileen Granfors

20. “Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret.” - Sara Shepard

21. “Kevin looks at me and I know he isn’t seeing the little girl I use to be, all pigtails and gangly limbs. He isn’t seeing my mother’s daughter or even my mother anymore. As his eyes linger over me, stopping here and there in the most uncomfortable places, I know he isn’t really even seeing me as I am. The bloodshot eyes staring out of the alcohol-flushed face are seeing a girl, nearly of age, who owes him a tremendous debt of gratitude.--Rocky Evans” - Gwenn Wright

22. “Robert, I’m sorry that you feel so strange, but I’m not sorry that you’re feeling it because of me,” I whispered, my heart feeling a familiar twinge as I continued, “but even if you hadn’t felt it, it would not change the way I feel about you.” - S.L. Naeole

23. “I would make an anonymous call and say, this is someone who cares, do you know what kind of children you have?” - Elizabeth Berg

24. “This is one rule about mixing boys and girls: that a date always comes first.” - Elizabeth Berg

25. “I raised my three teens with love, perseverance, tenacity, sweat, tears, prayers, lighting candles, and the list could go on.” - Ana Monnar

26. “From the time they hit middle school, they start moving away from home. They are not doing anything wrong; it's just the way they are made. They are becoming independent, and they begin redefining themselves through the eyes other people who are not in their immediate family. The older they get, the more important it is to have other voices in their lies saying the same things but in a different way. ” - Reggie Joiner

27. “As much as I think about sex, I can only with extreme difficulty conceive of myself actually performing the act. And here's another thing I wonder about. How could you ever look a girl in the eye after you've had your winkie up her wendell? I mean, doesn't that render normal social conversation impossible? Apparently not.” - C.D. Payne

28. “Consider, if you will, the morning boner. What a metaphor of hope and renewal! How can anyone give way to despair when one’s groin greets each day with such a gala spectacle of physical optimism?” - C.D. Payne

29. “Carla had realised there wasn’t just one destined adventure in life, there were thousands of them.” - Claire Chilton

30. “The same teen who can't legally operate a four-wheeler, or [ATV]...in a farm lane workplace environment can operate a jacked-up F-250 pickup on a crowded urban expressway. By denying these [farm work] opportunities to bring value to their own lives and the community around them, we've relegated our young adults to teenage foolishness. Then as a culture we walk around shaking our heads in bewilderment at these young people with retarded maturity. Never in life do people have as much energy as in their teens, and to criminalize leveraging it is certainly one of our nation's greatest resource blunders.” - Joel Salatin

31. “For the love of God, unless you’re prepping for Rigoletto at the Met, go easy on the eyeliner.” - Cheryl Cory

32. “I wished on the moon, for something I never knew.” - Michelle Dalton

33. “I looked for every loveliness. It all came true. I wished on the moon. . . for you.” - Michelle Dalton

34. “Then there was your voiceLike a windup tin toyLike the sweetest nails on a chalkboardThat I ever heard” - Michelle Dalton

35. “A perfect person is easy to love. But when somebody likes all your imperfections, well, that's when you know they really mean it.” - Michelle Dalton

36. “I'm like any other kid; I've seen the monsters in the closet and under the bed. The only difference between me and other kids is...the monsters are afraid of me..." (Angel)Night School: A Dasheen "Angel" Vampire Hunter novel” - Michelle Cornwell-Jordan

37. “She had been a teenager once, and she knew that, despite the apparent contradictions, a person's teenage years lasted well into their fifties.” - Derek Landy

38. “As a child, I read because books–violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not–were the most loving and trustworthy things in my life. I read widely, and loved plenty of the classics so, yes, I recognized the domestic terrors faced by Louisa May Alcott’s March sisters. But I became the kid chased by werewolves, vampires, and evil clowns in Stephen King’s books. I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language, because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life.And now I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I don’t write to protect them. It’s far too late for that. I write to give them weapons–in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.” - Sherman Alexie

39. “A monster. You and your friends, all of you. Pretty monsters. It's a stage all girls go through. If you're lucky you get through it without doing any permanent damage to yourself or anyone else.” - Kelly Link

40. “Everything that happens to you matters to me.” - Cassandra Clare

41. “I guess I had always sort of fantasized that a guy would see me and get past the ponytail and the glasses and the giant sweatshirt to discover how insanely awesome I am, then come and whisk me off into that magical teenager fairytale where everyone else gets to prance around.” - Jeff Sampson

42. “Raven scowled through his too-long bangs. “The Angel Song doesn’t hurt humans. It only affects the evil within.” “Then you should be writhing on the ground with the hounds,” Mace mumbled.” - Heather Burch

43. “Teenagers read millions of books every year. They read for entertainment and for education. They read because of school assignments and pop culture fads. - Sherman Alexie

44. “Directing teenage actors is like juggling jars of nitro-glycerine: exhilarating and dangerous.” - Stephen King

45. “Sometimes I just want to go in a room and break things and scream. Like, it’s so much pressure all the time and if you get upset or angry, people say, ‘Are you on the rag of something?’ And it’s like I want to say, ‘No. I’m just pissed off right now. Can’t I just be pissed off? How come that’s not okay for me?’ Like my dad will say, ‘I can’t talk to you when you’re hysterical.’ And I’m totally not being hysterical! I’m just mad. And he’s the one losing it. But then I feel embarrassed anyway. So I slap on that smile and pretend everything’s okay even though it’s not.” - Libba Bray

46. “We are going to change the way young people think about fitness.” - Gheorghe Muresan

47. “Why does she always seem to think you drive like we're holding up a bank?"Roswell grinned and rolled his eyes, "Because that's what teenagers do, right? They also carve swastikas into their arms, steal prescription drugs from old people, and freebase cocaine. I need to institute a policy where she stops watching 60 Minutes and pretty much all public service announcements.” - Brenna Yovanoff

48. “The more I write stories for young people, and the more young readers I meet, the more I'm struck by how much kids long to see themselves in stories. To see their identities and perspectives—their avatars—on the page. Not as issues to be addressed or as icons for social commentary, but simply as people who get to do cool things in amazing worlds. Yes, all the “issue” books are great and have a place in literature, but it's a different and wildly joyous gift to find yourself on the pages of an entertainment, experiencing the thrills and chills of a world more adventurous than our own.And when you see that as a writer, you quickly realize that you don't want to be the jerk who says to a young reader, “Sorry, kid. You don't get to exist in story; you're too different.” You don't want to be part of our present dystopia that tells kids that if they just stopped being who they are they could have a story written about them, too. That's the role of the bad guy in the dystopian stories, right? Given a choice, I'd rather be the storyteller who says every kid can have a chance to star.” - Paolo Bacigalupi

49. “Give me agony or give me death,I'll take thy heart as eternal breath” - Nely Cab

50. “Careful," he smiled, "I'm lethal.” - Nely Cab

51. “Breyona didn’t have to force a laugh. “Fellowship? Who do you think you are? Freedo the hobbit?” “It’s Frodo,” he said over his shoulder. “And if I was a character from L.O.T.R., I’d obviously by Strider.” Shaking his head, he continued down the trail, mumbling obscenities. “What is L.O.T.R.?” Shiv asked. “Who is this Freedo?” Both questions brought exasperated sighs from Bronson. “It stands for Lord of the Rings. Don’t you ever see any movies?” “Weren’t they books before they were movies?” Em asked. “They wrote them after,” Bronson said. Breyona winked at Danny. “That Freedo was hot,” she said loud enough for Bronson to hear. “Even with those dumb-ass furry feet, he’s my kind of cute.” Bronson threw his hands up. “Frodo. It’s Frodo. And he’s not hot!” - Eric Edstrom

52. “I wanted to know what it was like to be a drug addict, and have an eating disorder, and have a loved one die, and fall in love. I saw my friends going through these things, I saw the world going through these things, and I needed to understand them. I needed to make sense of them. Books didn’t make me wallow in darkness, darkness made me wallow in books, and it was books that showed me there is light at the end of the tunnel.” - Jackson Pearce

53. “Books didn’t make me wallow in darkness, darkness made me wallow in books.” - Jackson Pearce

54. “Too many adults wish to 'protect' teenagers when they should be stimulating them to read of life as it is lived.” - Margaret A. Edwards

55. “I rubbed at my temple, where the zit was gone. It still hurt a little , though, deep under the skin. I hate those zits that burrow underground. You think they've vanished, but no, they just barricade themselves right next to the bone and hurt.” - Lili St. Crow

56. “It was only high school after all, definitely one of the most bizarre periods in a person’s life. How anyone can come through that time well adjusted on any level is an absolute miracle.” - E.A. Bucchianeri

57. “See?" I crowed. "I know what I'm doing. Two weeks, tops, and you'll be begging to dip your fries in my shake.""You think?" It took me about a second before I realized I'd done it again. My mouth seriously needed a chaperone.” - Elise Allen

58. “Teaching middle school is an adventure not a job.” - Angela K. Bennett

59. “The only stupid question is the question that is never asked.” - Ramon Bautista

60. “I am seventeen. The good things about seventeen is that you’re not sixteen. Sixteen goes with the word sweet, and I am so far from sweet.” - Francine Pascal

61. “There is no way of stopping death, not here. You can prolong it. But at some point, it is bound to catch up to you.” - Nicole Sobon

62. “Not for the first time, I wonder what it would feel like that, to be so beautiful that you don't even realize people are watching you, to be so confident that you don't even have to worry about being nervous or feeling self-conscious. I've spent what seems like my whole life trying to pretend I'm that way. What would it be like to have it just come naturally?” - Lauren Barnholdt

63. “In every lifetime there is a moment. A moment so clear, so profoundly unique; that it stands out against billions of other moments. When you find a moment such as this one, you pay extra close attention to it. It will usually contain something that defines you in the future. (The Children of Ankh)” - Kim Cormack

64. “What is this thing you call substance abuse? All I wanna do is forget and get loose.Drinking and smoking over and overWhat's so great about a life that's sober?There's nothing cool about being youngWhen the monsters of night have stolen the sun.I'm tired of searching for words in the sky.All I wanna do is drink and die. Nothing is real. It's all a big lie. All I wanna do is drink and die. There's nothing cool about being youngWhen the monsters of night have stolen the sun.” - Benjamin Alire Saenz

65. “His body was perfect. His parents wereloaded. His grades were terrible. He was a high school girl’sdream come true.” - Elizabeth Nicole

66. “teenagers are never joking. when seeking to prove a point, principals and teachers should remember that teenagers are never, ever sarcasic or ironic. if they say "I wish someone would drop a bomb on this school right now," that means they have arranged for a nuclear arsenal to be emptied onto the school and should be immediately suspended and ridiculed. if they say they were merely coming up with a joking excuse to postpone a bio test, reply that all jokes are funny, and that since dropping a bomb on a school is not funny, it is therefore not a joke.” - David Levithan

67. “This, Sebastian is no mere purse. And, you shouldn't call a handbag a purse.....a bag, on the other hand, is meant to be seen.” - Candace Bushnell

68. “no, no, it's not all random, if it really was all random, the universe would abandon us completely. and the universe doesn't. it takes care of its most fragile creations in ways we can't see. like with parents who adore you blindly. and a big sister who feels guilty for being human over you. and a little gravelly-voiced kid whose friends have left him over you. and even a pink-haired girl who carries your picture in her wallet. maybe it is a lottery, but the universe makes it all even out in the end. the universe takes care of all its birds.” - R.J. Palacio

69. “In winter this town is freezing. You step out your door in the morning and the whole place looks like one of those nature specials in which a guy brings a camcorder to the North Pole and then the camera cuts out and you hear on the news that he got eaten by a bear” - Flynn Meaney

70. “If you skip one class, everyone knows about it. The teacher will track you down, or one of the guidance counselors will track you down and ask if you're smoking pot. According to the geniuses running this place, the only reason you would skip class is if you're smoking pot, though I actually find my classes more enjoyable when I'm high.” - Flynn Meaney

71. “When a zashiki warashi came to live with you, good fortune smiled upon the whole house.” - Holly Thompson

72. “One warm morning in July, a ghost came to our breakfast table.” - Holly Thompson

73. “I knew it was a terrible idea. We were supposed to be leaving our past behind us, not fully embracing it. But she was a part of my past that I wanted to hold onto. She was my only reminder of Tommy, my only remaining connection. I couldn’t let that die, not yet.” - Nicole Sobon

74. “How could you explain to someone that sometimes it was not worth living in the past when the past was all that they had worth living for?” - Nicole Sobon

75. “Kids are more advanced these days. The teenage years now start at 11.” - Michael Crichton

76. “[On hearing that 86% of gay teens have experienced harassment] Eighty-six percent? Eighty-six per-fuckin-cent WERE harassed?! That means fourteen per-fuckin-cent WEREN'T harassed? WHAT?!At MY school a hundred percent of the children - gay, straight, transgendered, bi, sell... or trade - WERE harassed. She's saying that fourteen percent of the gay students were NOT harassed? That seems impossible.At MY school any one of us would have sucked Elton John's COCK at a mandatory school assembly for a fourteen percent chance of NOT being harassed.” - Penn Jillette

77. “Nothing better for the hormones and worse for the heart than the right boy at the right time.” - Jacquelyn Mitchard