We have to make a lot of tough decisions in life, not least of all, the decision to let go and move forward.
It’s not something that just happens, or even comes naturally to most of us. But at some point, we all have to face it and find a way to let go.
That may be from fear, guilt, regret, or the need to control part of your life. It may be someone who you’ve been close to. Or simply a chapter in your life that you no longer belong in.
Accepting that it’s time to move on takes courage. But these letting go quotes will help you find that, as well as reassurance that you’re doing the right thing.
Why is Learning to Let Go So Important?
We hold on to a lot of things, like fond memories of summer breaks with friends. Or the ability to fix a loose button, thanks to our grandparents who took the time to show us how.
But there are some things that aren’t meant to stay forever, like clothes that no longer fit. Tupperware tubs with the lid long gone. And even the mindset that without them, your life will in some way be lessened.
Learning to let go can be difficult. Not because we don’t know how. But because we don’t always want to.
Despite knowing that holding on to toxic relationships, or the worry of what other people think of us will only bring pain, we become accustomed to it. And anything outside of that is unsettling.
Whether your ties are to clutter in your home or unwanted people in your space; to grudges held from years gone by, or guilt that you didn’t make your friend’s party, let it go. Because without doing so, you’ll never have room in your head and your heart for what’s to come. For better days.
The idea of moving forward may well leave your palms sweaty and your heart racing. But it’s time to embrace the opportunity. To cut the strings and free yourself of the burdens weighing you down.
And to acknowledge that you are worth so much more.
So take a look at these letting go quotes. And start moving forward today.
99 Letting Go Quotes to Move Forward in Life
- “You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won’t 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
- “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” – Hermann Hesse
- “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
- “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
- “Moving on is easy. It's staying moved on that's trickier.” – Katerina Stoykova Klemer
- “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell
- “If it doesn't agree with your spirit let it go.” – Germany Kent
- “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
- “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.
- “The world belongs to those who let go.” – Tao Te Ching
- “Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.” – Oprah Winfrey
- “Say yes, and you’ll figure it out afterward.” – Tina Fey
- “Just because something made you happy in the past doesn’t mean you have to keep it forever.” – Melva Green
- “Letting go isn’t a one-time thing, it’s something you have to do every day, over and over again.” – Dawson’s Creek
- “You really don’t have to burn any bridges to let go… You don’t have to destroy anything. You can just decide to cross over and move on.” – Marta Mrotek
- “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
- “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
- “Moving on is self-care, which is intelligence.” – Maxime Lagacé
- “Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.” – Bob Newhart
- “We need to learn to let go as easily as we grasp and we will find our hands full and our minds empty.” – Leo F. Buscaglia
We need to learn to let go as easily as we grasp and we will find our hands full and our minds empty.” – Leo F. Buscaglia
- “Fear tricks us into living a boring life.” – Donald Miller
- “Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.” – Steve Maraboli
- “Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.” – Epictetus
- “Girls you've gotta know when it's time to turn the page.” – Tori Amos
- “You can't move things by not moving.” – Suzy Kassem
- “There are things that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind. But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world, it’s the beginning of a new life.” – Unknown
- “The pain of letting go will be eclipsed by the relief of moving on.” – Scott Stabile
- “One of the most courageous decisions you’ll ever make is to finally let go of what is hurting your heart and soul.” – B. Nicole
- “There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela
- “The greatest step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go.” – Steve Maraboli
- “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
- “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “The answer to every adversity lies in courageously moving forward with faith.” – Edmond Mbiaka
- “The most liberating moment, is the moment you finally let go.” – Ava Harrison
- “Letting go is hard but being free is beautiful.” – Wilder Poetry
- “Dare to live by letting go.” – Tom Althouse
- “Sometimes it takes a heartbreak to shake us awake & help us see we are worth so much more than we're settling for.” – Mandy Hale
- “Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over.” – Nicole Sobon
- “Sometimes holding on does more damage than letting go.” – Unknown
- “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe
- “Moving on will show you a lot about who you are, what you truly want, & what you have no desire to waste your time on.” – April Mae Monterrosa
- “Your time is way too valuable to be wasting on people that can’t accept who you are.” – Turcois Ominek
- “You can't look back – you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.” – Jodi Picoult
- “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.”- Cherokee Indian Proverb
- “Letting go helps us to to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our balance. It allows others to be responsible for themselves and for us to take our hands off situations that do not belong to us. This frees us from unnecessary stress.” – Melody Beatti
Letting go helps us to to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our balance. It allows others to be responsible for themselves and for us to take our hands off situations that do not belong to us. This frees us from unnecessary stress.” – Melody Beatti
- “Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith.” – Margaret Shepard
- “Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.” – Daphne Rose Kingma
- “Moving on is not forgetting — moving on is being able to remember without feeling awful about it.” – Sam Madison
- “I demolish my bridges behind me…then there is no choice but to move forward” – Fridtjof Nansen
- “To let go is to release the images and emotions, the grudges and fears, the clingings and disappointments of the past that bind our spirit.” – Jack Kornfield
- “Sometimes people come into your life just to teach you how to let go.” – Jackson Kiddard
- “There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” – C.S. Lewis
- “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
- “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
- “You are allowed to let go of all the things that don’t set you free anymore.” – Dhiman
- “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.” – Lao Tzu
- “Part of growing up is just taking what you learn from that and moving on and not taking it to heart.” – Beverly Mitchell
- “That’s all you can do in this world, no matter how strong the current beats against you, or how heavy your burden, or how tragic your love story. You keep going.” – Robyn Schneider
- “You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months overanalyzing 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 on.” – Tupac Shakur
- “Life moves on and so should we.” – Spencer Johnson
- “In the process of letting go you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.” – Deepak Chopra
- “Letting go does not mean you stop caring. It means you stop trying to force others to.” – Mandy Hale
- “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” – Charles Bukowski
- “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
- “If you want to forget something or someone, never hate it, or never hate him/her. Everything and everyone that you hate is engraved upon your heart; if you want to let go of something, if you want to forget, you cannot hate.” – C. JoyBell
- “You don’t need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding.” – Guy Finley
- “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” – Seneca
- “Gather your strength, woman. And move on.” – Mitta Xinindlu
- “Time doesn’t heal emotional pain, you need to learn how to let go.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
- “I've been burdened with blame trapped in the past for too long, I'm moving on.” – Rascal Flatts
- “You can’t expect to move forward if your emergency break is on.” – Angela Cecilia
- “I think that you never fall out of love with somebody, you just let go and move on.” – Ashley Rickards
- “Keeping baggage from the past will leave no room for happiness in the future.” – Wayne L Misner
- “Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.” – Steve Maraboli
- “Don't stay in the harbour and miss the greatness of the sea. Just because everyone else is anchored, doesn't mean you have to be.” – Joyce Rachelle
- “Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energy moving forward together towards an answer.” – Denis Waitley
- “You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.” – Jan Glidewell
- “The art is not one of forgetting but letting go. And when everything else is gone, you can be rich in loss.” – Rebecca Solnit
- “Nothing in the universe can stop you from letting go and starting over.” – Guy Finley
- “Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “Rehashing the past wouldn't change anything. Time to move forward.” – Zena Wynn
- “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
- “Why let go of yesterday? Because yesterday has already let go of you.” – Steve Maraboli
- “Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.” – Wayne Dyer
- “Anything I cannot transform into something marvelous, I let go.” – Anaïs Nin
- “Don't waste time thinking about them. If they walked away from your love, they don't deserve your pain.” – C.L. Brown
- “The greatest win is walking away and choosing not to engage in drama and toxic energy at all.” – Lalah Delia
- “Once you realize you deserve a bright future, letting go of your dark past is the best choice you will ever make.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “Change has to come for life to struggle forward.” – Helen Hollick
- “You will evolve past certain people. Let yourself.” – Mandy Hale
- “Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve, but you didn’t. So you move on.” – Dominic Riccitello
- “Sometimes we can only find our true direction when we let the wind of change carry us.” – Mimi Novic
- “Trees still grow after letting dead things go.” – Darnell Lamont Walker
- “It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.” – Paulo Coelho
It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.” – Paulo Coelho
- “You’ve got to make a conscious choice every day to shed the old – whatever “the old” means for you.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach
- “You only struggle because you’re ready to grow but aren’t willing to let go.” – Drew Gerald
- “You can't walk away without also walking towards.” – Rachel Hartman
- “It’s hard to be clear about who you are when you are carrying around a bunch of baggage from the past. I’ve learned to let go and move more quickly into the next place.” – Angelina Jolie
Final Thoughts on Letting Go to Move Forward in Life
Sometimes, life can feel like it’s rushing past. That everyone is doing their own thing. And you’re left watching, like a spectator of your own existence.
And the reason that you’re not moving forward with everyone else? Because you haven’t taken steps to let go of what’s holding you back.
Life is too short to be weighed down by emotional clutter. Take charge of the situation, as well as your well-being by letting go and moving forward with your life.
For more inspirational quotes, be sure to check out these blog posts:
- 75 Comforting Quotes to Share During Difficult Times
- 99 Paulo Coelho Quotes to Inspire, Uplift, and Make You Think
- 75 Inspirational Sunrise Quotes and Captions
- 97 Moving on Quotes to Overcome Your Pain
- 43 Moving Forward Quotes to Let Go of the Past
Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then check out and recite these 57 affirmations for success.
Rebel Jones has been writing from a young age. She first used poetry to organise words – the rhythm and flow brought peace to her chaos. But as she developed (both as a person and as a writer), she embraced her offbeat thought process and found her own style and tone. Writing is definitely her happy place and one that she’s happy to share with the world.
