Or maybe a new life has been thrust upon you without your full consent, and you’re feeling anxious and uncertain about starting over. New beginnings can be the result of well-laid plans or a life tragedy. They can be welcome or unwelcome. But in either case, they are opportunities for growth and positive change. They stretch us and invite us to live up to our fullest potential — or design a new potential for ourselves. Taking the first steps toward a new beginning is always daunting. The fear of the unknown paralyzes even the most adventurous. For that reason, we’ve put together some thoughtful new beginnings quotes to inspire that first step and remind you that you can do this! We bet you’ll find at least one with the perfect message for your new start.
What Are Some New Beginnings in Life?
Life is full of starts and stops; each cycle is an opportunity to start fresh. Giving yourself a clean slate is a great way to enhance clarity and move on from past hurdles. So what are some “new beginnings” you can celebrate regularly?
Graduations: Whether it’s kindergarten graduation or one for postdoctoral work, graduations represent the closing of one chapter and the start of a new one. Relationships: All new relationships are a tabula rasa — an opportunity to be your best. New Job / Business Venture: Walking into a new job on the first day, or the first day of your business venture, holds a lot of weight. It’s also an opportunity to pack away the past and begin anew. Moves: Moving into a new apartment, condo, or house is one of the most beloved — (and time-consuming!) — new beginnings most people experience several times in their lives. There’s just something about a new-to-you place that makes it feel like anything is possible. Life Phase Changes: Have you finally reached “the pause?” Or maybe you’ve permanently hung up your college beer mug and bought a minivan. Whichever the case, life-phase changes are important and should be given the reverence they are due. Every Day: Technically, every second is a chance at a new beginning — and so is every day.
77 Quotes about New Beginnings
- “The beginning is always today.” ― Mary Shelley
- “You are never too old to start over. Every day is a chance to make changes to create the life we want.” ― Karon Waddell
- “Every moment is a fresh beginning.” — T.S. Eliot
- “The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.” ― Arnold Bennett
- “Everything begins at the beginning, and quite often the beginning begins when you shift your mind in a new direction.” ― Louie Herron
- “Oh, my friend, it’s not what they take away from you that counts. It’s what you do with what you have left.” ― Hubert Humphrey
- “Starting over is an acceptance of a past we can’t change, an unrelenting conviction that the future can be different, and the stubborn wisdom to use the past to make the future what the past was not.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough
- “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” ― Lao Tzu
- “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
- “Though we may not have reached the heights we anticipated yesterday, today is a brand new day to begin a new climb.” ― Chinonye J. Chidolue
- “You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.” ― Mary Pickford
- “Even the greatest was once a beginner. Don’t be afraid to take that first step.” ― Muhammad Ali
- “This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind … let it be something good.” ― Mac Anderson
- “It’s good to start over. It will be scary but you will see what you’re really made of; it’s the best opportunity to achieve what you never thought you could.” ― Jennifer Coletta
- “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” ― Zig Ziglar
- “Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction.” ― Germany Kent
- “You can start anew at any given moment. Life is just the passage of time and it’s up to you to pass it as you please.” ― Charlotte Eriksson
- “You will enrich your life immeasurably if you approach it with a sense of wonder and discovery, and always challenge yourself to try new things.” ― Nate Berkus
- “What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- “Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change.” — Jim Rohn
- “The earth provides us a brand new beginning every twenty-four hours. It is a repeated invitation to breathe in the cool morning air and start afresh; to mimic the sunrise and brighten up while reaching once more for the sky; to carry a glad song in our heart like the early birds; and, as faithfully as the morning dew, to wash off the dust from yesterday.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich
- “If you do not see light at the end of the tunnel, consider it an opportunity to create an opening yourself, wherever you want.” ― Ashok Kallarakkal
- “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” ― Thomas Paine
- “The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” — John Pierpont Morgan
- “The future lies ahead, calling us up, offering us a new chance to make a new choice every day, offering us the chance to go another way, to start over. The possibilities are countless. All you have to do is just dare to take them.” ― Zøe Haslie
- “As long as you’re still alive, you always have the chance to start again.” ― Emily Acker
- “The Sun is a daily reminder that we too can rise again from the darkness, that we too can shine our own light.” ― S. Ajna 28. “The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.” ― Ivy Baker Priest
- “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”― Lao Tzu
- “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” ― Walt Disney
- “If God closes a door and a window, consider the fact that it might be time to build a whole new house.” ― Mandy Hale
- “Life isn’t perfect but we all have a chance, an opportunity or a right to embrace each new day to do many things. We can decide to make it a great day, or we can simply squander it with pettiness, old grudges, or dwelling on previous mistakes.” ― Byron Pulsifer
- “Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.” ― Horace
- “It’s a wise man who understands that every day is a new beginning, because boy, how many mistakes do you make in a day? I don’t know about you, but I make plenty. You can’t turn the clock back, so you have to look ahead.” ― Mel Gibson
- “There are no limits to what you can accomplish, except the limits you place on your own thinking.” ― Brian Tracy
- “Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.” ― Ralph Blum
- “Starting over is opportunity informed by failure, which is opportunity made intelligent.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough
- “Begin today. Declare out loud to the universe that you are willing to let go of struggle and eager to learn through joy.” ― Sarah Ban Breathnach
- “It’s humbling to start fresh. It takes a lot of courage. But it can be reinvigorating. You just have to put your ego on a shelf & tell it to be quiet.” ― Jennifer Ritchie Payette
- “No river can return to its source, yet all rivers must have a beginning.” ― Native American Proverb
- “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” ― L.M. Montgomery
- “I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.” ― J. B. Priestly
- “If I must start somewhere, right here and now is the best place imaginable.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich
- “Every day is a chance to begin again. Don’t focus on the failures of yesterday, start today with positive thoughts and expectations.” ― Catherine Pulsifer
- “Don’t let the lessons, the experiences of the past, dampen your enthusiasm for beginnings. Just because it’s been hard doesn’t mean it will always be that difficult.” ― Fr. John Murphy
- “Every day is a new beginning. Treat it that way. Stay away from what might have been, and look at what can be.” ― Marsha Petrie Sue
- “There’s nothing you can do now to change what has already happened. If you spend time worrying about it, you’ll lose sight of the present and stumble into a cloudy future. You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.” ― James R. Sherman
- “The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all.” ― Josiyah Martin
- “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” ― C.S. Lewis
- “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language / And next year’s words await another voice. / And to make an end is to make a beginning.” ― T.S. Eliot
- “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “The secret to change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” ― Socrates
- “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” ― Arthur C. Clarke
- “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” ― Henry Ford
- “You will never win if you never begin.” ― Helen Rowland
- “The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.” ― Debbi Fields
- “Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.” ― William James
- “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” ― Henry David Thoreau
- “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
- “A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one would find fault with what he has done.” — Cardinal Newman
- “With every roadblock, a detour is built. With every ending, a new beginning is defined. Embracing a challenge makes life interesting, but overcoming it makes life meaningful.” ― Matthew E. Fryer
- “Your first birthday was a beginning, and each new birthday is a chance to begin again, to start over, to take a new grip on life.” ― Wilferd Peterson
- “It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” — Seneca
Bible Verses about New Beginnings
- “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” — Isaiah 43:18-19
- “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” — Ezekial 36:26
- “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” — Isaiah 40:31
- “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” — Jeremiah 29:11
- “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” — Ephesians 4:22-24
- “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” — Matthew 7:7
- “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” — Proverbs 3:5-6
- “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” — Romans 12:2
New Years New Beginnings Quotes
- “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
- “What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year.” — Vern McLellan
- “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” — Oprah Winfrey
- “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
- “New year—a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.” — Alex Morritt
- “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
How will you use these quotes about new beginnings?
There’s more than one way to make the most of these quotes on new beginnings.
Read through all of these and pick a few favorites to keep close to you as you get your new life sorted. Print out the list, cut out each quote, put the whole lot of them in a jar, and draw one out every morning of your first nine weeks. Write down your favorites on sticky notes and post them around the house to inspire you. Write them down in a journal and read through them every night before you fall asleep.
However you go about it, we hope you find at least one new start quote that meets you right where you are and guides you to the next step you need to take. In the spirit of fresh starts, may your courage, compassion, and sense of adventure influence everything you do today.
