80 Moving On Quotes That Will Help You Let Go

Moving on is a part of life, but that doesn't mean it's easy. If you're moving on from a major point in your life or a difficult situation, these moving on quotes will help you look forward to what's next.

Whether it’s from a bad relationship, a good relationship, a job, or just a phase of your life in general, moving on is important—but undeniably difficult. It’s easy to find yourself in comfortable routines, even if they may not be the best thing for you, and choosing to move on from them takes strength. It’s just as difficult to move on from a solid relationship, even if you know it’s the right thing for you; we have plenty of broken heart quotes, too, to help you navigate that. But no matter what you’re moving on from, or to, these uplifting quotes about moving on in life will help you do just that and inspire you to look forward to something better. You can also check out these loss quotes and quotes about change in life and moving on. And if you’re someone who’s looking for a way to comfort a loved one struggling with something similar, you can consider these sympathy gifts to show your care and compassion.

1. “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, behavioral science speaker and author

2. “My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.” —Maya Angelou, writer. Check out these other must-read Maya Angelou quotes.

3. “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] on.” —Tupac Shakur, rapper

4. “We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better.” —C. JoyBell C., poet

5. “You will evolve past certain people. Let yourself.” —Mandy Hale, author

6. “You are allowed to let go of all those that do not set you free anymore.” —Dhiman, poet

7. “Life moves on and so should we.” —Spencer Johnson, physician and author

8. “Whatever comes, let it come, what stays let stay, what goes let go.” —Papaji, sage and jivanmukta 

9. “Let go of certainty. The opposite isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.” —Tony Schwartz, journalist. Here are more love yourself quotes that will help you accept yourself.

10. “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, author and therapist

11. “We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.” —Seneca, Roman philosopher

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12. “Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” —Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the U.K.

13. “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

14. “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, author

15. “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, author, in Dreamland

16. “Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” —Erich Fromm, psychologist

17. “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.

18. “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, philanthropist and former president of South Africa

19. “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, actor and filmmaker. Moving on requires patience; read these patience quotes to inspire you.

20. “Thank God I found the GOOD in goodbye.” —Beyoncé, singer and songwriter

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.” —Debbie Reber, author

22. “My heart might be bruised, but it will recover and become capable of seeing the beauty of life once more. It’s happened before, it will happen again, I’m sure. When someone leaves, it’s because someone else is about to arrive—I’ll find love again.” —Paulo Coelho, author

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23. “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, inventor

24. “Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.” —Ann Landers, advice columnist

25. “Even as I hold you, I am letting you go.” —Alice Walker, novelist and activist

26. “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” —Charles Bukowski, writer

27. “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, motivational author. In addition to these quotes about moving on in life, these life is short quotes will inspire you to move forward.

28. “If letting go, if letting people and things work themselves out in the way that they needed to without your help was the most important thing, then it was also the hardest.” —Deb Caletti, author, in The Six Rules of Maybe

29. “For what it’s worth it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald, author

30. “Why let go of yesterday? Because yesterday has already let go of you.” —Steve Maraboli

31. “It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.” —Theodore Roosevelt, former U.S. president

32. “Keeping baggage from the past will leave no room for happiness in the future.” —Wayne L. Misner, author

33. “Forget what hurt you but never forget what it taught you.” —Shannon L. Alder. Check out these other forgiveness quotes that will help you let go.

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34. “Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over.” —Nicole Sobon, author

35. “There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” —C.S. Lewis, author

36. “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, self-help author and speaker

37. “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, author and Buddhist practitioner 

38. “In the process of letting go you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.” —Deepak Chopra, author and alternative medicine expert

39. “Sometimes the door closes on a relationship, not because we failed but because something bigger than us says this no longer fits our life. So, lock the door, shed a tear, turn around and look for the new door that’s opened. It’s a sign that you’re no longer that person you were, it’s time to change into who you are. It’s going to be okay.” —Lee Goff, marketing agency coach

40. “I’m guilty of giving people more chances than they deserve but when I’m done, I’m done.” —Turcois Ominek, author

41. “There ain’t no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.” —Kate DiCamillo, author, in Because of Winn-DixieMissing someone is often a part of moving on; read these bittersweet miss you quotes.

42. “Letting go is the willingness to change your beliefs in order to bring more peace and joy into your life instead of holding onto beliefs that bring pain and suffering.” —Hal Tipper, mindfulness consultant and entrepreneur

43. “I demolish my bridges behind me…then there is no choice but to move forward.” —Fridtjof Nansen, polymath and explorer

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44. “You can’t move forward if you’re still hanging on.” —Sue Fitzmaurice, author

45. “The only thing a person can ever really do is keep moving forward. Take that big leap forward without hesitation, without once looking back.” —Alyson Noël, author

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

47. “Why do people persist in a dissatisfying relationship, unwilling either to work toward solutions or end it and move on? It’s because they know changing will lead to the unknown, and most people believe that the unknown will be much more painful than what they’re already experiencing.” —Tony Robbins, self-help author and speaker

48. “Even seasonal situations can bring with them lessons that last a lifetime. If the love doesn’t last, it prepares you for the one that will.” —Mandy Hale

49. “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” —Lyndon B. Johnson, former U.S. president

50. “Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.” —Bob Newhart, actor and comedian

51. “Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.” —Daphne Rose Kingma, psychotherapist

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52. “Life moves forward. The old leaves wither, die and fall away, and the new growth extends forward into the light.” —Bryant McGill, author and entrepreneur. This quote about moving on in life would also make a great addition to our list of fall quotes.

53. “What happens when you let go, when your strength leaves you and you sink into darkness, when there’s nothing that you or anyone else can do, no matter how desperate you are, no matter how you try? Perhaps it’s then, when you have neither pride nor power, that you are saved, brought to an unimaginably great reward.” —Mark Halperin, political journalist

54. “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, motivational speaker and consultant

55. “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, author

56. “No matter how bad you want a person, if your hearts are in two different places, you’ll have to pass and move on.” —Alexandra Elle, author

57. “Take all the time you need to heal emotionally. Moving on doesn’t take a day, it takes lots of little steps to be able to break free of your broken self.” —Tere Arigo, sustainable fashion entrepreneur

58. “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 C.

59. “Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” —Raymond Lindquist, clergyman

60. “There’s an important difference between giving up and letting go.” —Jessica Hatchigan, author

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

62. “Renew, release, let go. Yesterday’s gone. There’s nothing you can do to bring it back. You can’t “should’ve” done something. You can only DO something. Renew yourself. Release that attachment. Today is a new day!” —Steve Maraboli. These good morning quotes will also inspire you to seize the day.

63. “Anything I cannot transform into something marvelous, I let go.” —Anaïs Nin, novelist and essayist

64. “Your time is way too valuable to be wasting on people that can’t accept who you are.” —Turcois Ominek

65. “The most difficult aspect of moving on is accepting that the other person already did.” —Faraaz Kazi, author

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66. “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

67. “If love becomes too painful, then it’s time to let that love go and save yourself. You have to keep this in mind because you’ll be able to find another love but not another self.” —Robert Tew, former pro rugby player

68. “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.” —The Tao Te Ching, Taoist religious text

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

70. “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, founder of The Walt Disney Company. Read these kids’ quotes about life, success, and what really mat

71. “Today expect something good to happen to you no matter what occurred yesterday. Realize the past no longer holds you captive. It can only continue to hurt you if you hold on to it.” —Sarah Ban Breathnach, author and philanthropist

72. “Anything you can’t control is teaching you how to let go.” —Jackson Kiddard, entrepreneur and philosopher

73. “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

74. “One of the most courageous decisions you’ll ever make is to finally let go of what is hurting your heart and soul.” —Brigitte Nicole, creator/administrator of Lessons Learned In Life

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75. “It’s effortless to let go of self-absorbed people. It’s challenging to let go of someone you care about and it’s exceedingly difficult to let go of an ideal and a belief in someone because what exacerbates the disappointment of finding out they weren’t who they presented themselves to be, is the betrayal of it.” —Donna Lynn Hope, author, in Willow

76. “If you want to fly on the sky, you need to leave the earth. If you want to move forward, you need to let go the past that drags you down.” —Amit Ray, author and meditation expert

77. “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, clergyman

78. “I’ve been burdened with blame, trapped in the past for too long / I’m moving on.” —Rascal Flatts, musicians, in “I’m Movin’ On”

79. “A bridge can still be built, while the bitter waters are flowing beneath.” —Anthony Liccione, poet

80. “Be Brave and Take Risks: You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward.” —Roy T. Bennett. Moving on quotes can emphasize that everything will work out; these karma quotes do the same!

Meghan Jones
Meghan Jones is a word nerd who has been writing for RD.com since 2017. You can find her byline on pieces about grammar, fun facts, the meanings of various head-scratching words and phrases, and more. Meghan graduated from Marist College with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 2017; her creative nonfiction piece “Anticipation” was published in the Spring 2017 issue of Angles literary magazine.