200 Top Reflection Quotes to Grow in Life and Work

Self-reflection aims to help you become the best version of yourself. You must possess the courage to get better, too. That is why we have compiled these reflection quotes to inspire you.

These quotes will help you grow and reach the height you have always dreamt of attaining. Kindly take your time and explore the discourses.

Reflection Quotes

Here are the quotes that will inspire you to grow in life and work:

1. “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” – Margaret J. Wheatley

2. “Reflection is one of the most underused yet powerful tools for success.” – Richard Carlson

3. “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” -Margaret J. Wheatley

4. “The beauty you see in me is a reflection of you.” -Rumi

5. “What we perceive about ourselves is greatly a reflection of how we will end up living our lives.” -Stephen Richards

6. “In a mirror is where we find a reflection of our appearances, but in a heart is where we find a reflection of our soul.” -Anonymous

7. “Self-awareness doesn’t stop you from making mistakes, it allows you to learn from them.” – Unknown

8. “The feeling of being ‘offended’ is a warning indicator that is showing you where to look within yourself for unresolved issues.” -Bryant McGill

9. “Sometimes you have to take a half step back to take two forward.” – Vince McMahon

10. “These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn’t even know existed.” -Ricky Martin

11. “Your soul needs time for solitude and self-reflection. In order to love, lead, heal, and create, you must nourish yourself first.” – Louise Hay

12. “Since everything is a reflection of our minds, everything can be changed by our minds.” Buddha

13. “The key to happiness is really progress and growth and constantly working on yourself and developing something.” -Lewis Howes

14. “Your soul needs time for solitude and self-reflection. In order to love, lead, heal, and create, you must nourish yourself first.” Louise Hay

15. “Self-reflection is a humbling process. It’s essential to find out why you think, say, and do certain things -then better yourself.” Sonya Teclai

16. “You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.” -Diane von Furstenberg

17. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” -Mark Twain

18. “The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one’s self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course.” -Michel Angelo

19. “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

20. “Quit trying so hard and sit quietly with yourself and you will see that there are no demands within you.” -Bryant McGill

21. “The more peace we have within our own lives, the more we can reflect into the outer world.” – Senora Roy

22. “People who have had little self-reflection live life in a huge reality blind spot.” -Bryant McGill

23. “Your life is a reflection of your thoughts. If you change your thinking, you change your life.” -Brian Tracy

24. “Growing into the worlds above us, realizing the higher realms of consciousness within us, requires that we outgrow the worlds beneath us.” – Guy Finley

25. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle

26. “Self-reflection is a much kinder teacher than regret is. Prioritize yourself by making a habit of it.” -Andrena Sawyer

27. “The way we reflect the world around us is the direct reflection of the world within us.” Anonymous

28. “A photograph must come from imagination and not be a reflection of what is.” -Thierry Mugler

29. “Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, make a different choice.” Anonymous

30. “In a mirror is where we find a reflection of our appearances, but in a heart is where we find a reflection of our soul.”

31. “Reflective thinking turns experience into insight.” -John C. Maxwell

32. “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” -Aldous Huxley

33. “Self-reflection entails asking yourself questions about your values, assessing your strengths and failures, thinking about your perceptions and interactions with others, and imagining where you want to take your life in the future.” -Robert L. Rosen

34. “It seems the great advantage of people who annoy us is motivation to engage in reflection.” -Auliq Ice

35. “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” -Margaret J. Wheatley

36. “Your flesh is not a reflection of your soul. So when you look in the mirror, remember that your light outshines your flaws.” – D. Antoinette Foy

37. “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” -Ernest Hemingway

38. “The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore, not to find out who you are, seek to determine what you want to be.” -Neal Donald Walsch

39. “The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.” -Wayne Dyer

40. “Learning without reflection is a waste. Reflection without learning is dangerous.” – Confucius

41. “Unless you learn to face your own shadows, you will continue to see them in others, because the world outside you is only a reflection of the world inside you.” -Unknown

42. “Self-reflection is necessary to dig beneath our own layers and visit the inner crevices of our heart and mind to develop an understanding of life.”

43. “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” -Peter Drucker

44. “What we focus on outside is a reflection of what we feel inside.” Anonymous

45. “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” – Ernest Holmes

46. “Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” -William Faulkner

47. “The capacity to reflect is at the heart of what it is to be an effective learner.” – Bill Lucas

48. “People are too quick to pass judgment and too slow to self-reflect.” -Anonymous

49. “Even if you think you’re doing well and have it all figured out, there is a voice you will always inevitably hear at some point which nags at you and says “but wait…” Don’t ever dismiss it, listen to what it has to say. Life will never be close enough to perfect, and listening to that voice means stepping outside of yourself and considering your own wrongdoings and flaws.” -Ashly Lorenzana

50. “Why is my reflection someone I don’t know?” –Mulan

51. “No matter how good teaching may be, each student must take the responsibility for his own education.” – John Carolus

52. “Life is only a reflection of what we allow ourselves to see and be.” Trudy Symeonakis Vesotsky

53. Honest self-reflection opens your mind to reprogramming, change, success, and freedom. – Vikas Runwal

54. Time spent in self-reflection is never wasted – it is an intimate date with yourself. – Paul TP Wong

55. “The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.” – William Makepeace Thackeray

56. “What a teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.” – Karl Menninger

57. “Being on a spiritual path does not prevent you from facing times of darkness. But it teaches you how to use the darkness as a tool to grow.” – Sadhak Anshit

58. “Living in a way that reflects one’s values is not just about what you do, it is also about how you do things.” -Deborah Day

59. “True freedom is the capacity for acting according to one’s true character, to be altogether one’s self, to be self-determined and not subject to outside coercion.” -Corliss Lamont

60. “Be a reflection of what you’d like to receive. If you want love, give love. If you want truth, be truthful. What you give out will always return.” -Kristen Butler

61. “Before I ask you to sit with me, I must be able to sit with myself. Before I ask you to accept my pain, I have to accept the pain myself. Before I ask you to love me, I have to be madly in love with myself.” -C. Thoth

62. “Growth is actually contagious, so if you want to reach your goals, you’ve got to get around people who are going in the same direction you want to be going, and you will catch the success.” -Dr. Henry Cloud

63. “Compare less. Reflect more.” – Unknown

64. “It is when you lose sight of yourself, that you lose your way. To keep your truth in sight you must keep yourself in sight and the world to you should be a mirror to reflect to you your image; the world should be a mirror that you reflect upon.” –C. JoyBell C.

65. “Change is your friend, not your foe; change is a brilliant opportunity to grow.” – Simon T. Bailey

66. “Surround yourself with really good people. I think that’s an important thing. Because the people you surround yourself are a reflection of you.” -Aaron Rodgers

67. “Never forget to remain a student while you teach others.” – Jerry Cortsen

68. “The mirror reflects all objects without being sullied.” – Confucius

69. “Reflection is one of the most underused yet powerful tools for success.” -Richard Carlson

70. “Friendship with one’s self is all important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

71. “I am a reflection of my own soul.” -Anonymous

72. “To achieve happiness I advocate four major principles the principles of love, wisdom, self-reflection, and progress.” -Ryuho Okawa

73. “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience which is bitterest.” -Confucius

74. “You’ve got to have rules to live by, and one of mine is always say yes. Put yourself in danger of something amazing happening to you.” -Tom Bilyeu

75. “Life is only a reflection of what we allow ourselves to see and be.” – Trudy Symeonakis Vesotsky

76. “One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.” – Lao Tzu

77. “We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey

78. “Everything in life is a reflection of what we need to learn, if only we see it that way.” – Lynn Marie Sager

79. “Unless you learn to face your own shadows, you will continue to see them in others, because the world outside you is only a reflection of the world inside you.” – Unknown

Encouragement Quotes

80. “It’s a beautiful thing for mind, body, and spirit to take some time daily for reflection.” -Anonymous

81. “The mirror is a worthless invention. The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else’s eyes.” – Voltaire

82. “Self-reflection entails asking yourself questions about your values, assessing your strengths and failures, thinking about your perceptions and interactions with others, and imagining where you want to take your life in the future.” -Robert L. Rosen

83. “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” – Pat Riley

84. “Difficulty creates the opportunity for self-reflection and compassion.” – Suzan-Lori Parks

85. “There is no greater journey than the one that you must take to discover all of the mysteries that lie within you.” – Michelle Sandlin

86. “Time spent in self-reflection is never wasted -it is an intimate date with yourself.” -Dr Paul TP Wong

87. “Since everything is a reflection of our minds, our minds can change everything.” – Buddha

88. “Beginning today, set an intention and a relentless focus on living your life as the greatest person you can be, in all situations.” -Brendon Burchard

89. “Spiritual growth requires the development of inner knowing and inner authority. It requires the heart, not the intellect.” – Gary Zukav

90. “I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself.” – Francois Truffaut

91. “Be so busy improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.” -Unknown

92. “Everyone and everything that shows up in our life is a reflection of something that is happening inside of us.” -Alan Cohen

93. “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” – Edith Wharton

94. “You attract what you are, not what you want. So if you want it then reflect it.” -Tony Gaskins

95. “Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.” -Baltasar Gracian

96. “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” -Pat Riley

97. “The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.” -Thomas Paine

98. “We are chained by our own control. Life is nothing more than finding the key that unlocks every part of our soul.” -Shannon L. Alder

99. “The more reflective you are, the more effective you are.” – Hall and Simeral

100. “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” -Ernest Holmes

101. “Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions.” – Jane Austen

102. “Make each day your masterpiece.” — John Wooden

103. “Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you’re willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.” — Lou Holtz

104. “I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” — Henry David Thoreau

105. “We will fail when we fail to try.” — Rosa Parks

106. “Don’t count the days, make the days count.” — Muhammad Ali

107. “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.” — Maya Angelou

108. “Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

109. “You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” — George Lorimer

110. “Boss up and change your life / You can have it all, no sacrifice” — Lizzo

111. “The plan is to fan this spark into a flame.” — Lin-Manuel Miranda

112. “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg

113. “Light tomorrow with today.” — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

114. “Drench yourself in words unspoken / Live your life with arms wide open / Today is where your book begins / The rest is still unwritten” — Natasha Bedingfield

115. “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” — John Steinbeck

116. “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” — Earl Nightingale

117. “Someday is not a day of the week.” — Janet Dailey

118. “‘Today is always here,’ said Sethe. ‘Tomorrow, never.’” ― Toni Morrison

119. “Too late for second-guessing / Too late to go back to sleep / It’s time to trust my instincts / Close my eyes and leap.” — Stephen Schwartz

120. “You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide. And if you don’t decide, others will decide for you.” — Tony Morgan

121. “Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” — Madam C.J Walker

122. “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” — Stephen Covey

123. “Imagining something may be the first step in making it happen, but it takes the real time and real efforts of real people to learn things, make things, turn thoughts into deeds or visions into inventions.” — Mr. Rogers

124. “When someone tells me ‘no,’ it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them.” — Karen E. Quinones Miller

125. “What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

126. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” — Maya Angelou

127. “What I’ve realized is that confidence is a daily journey. We always think that confidence is a destination we must get to, but it’s a choice we make. I don’t think it’s something we ever really get to and stay at. And I think once you know that, it takes the pressure off.” — Jonathan Van Ness

128. “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” — Will Rogers

129. “There will be people who say to you, ‘You are out of your lane.’ They are burdened by only having the capacity to see what has always been instead of what can be. But don’t you let that burden you.” — Kamala Harris

130. “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

131. “I’m a survivor / I’m not gonna give up / I’m not gonna stop / I’m gonna work harder” — Destiny’s Child

132. “Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

133. “Only when we’re drowning do we understand how fierce our feet can kick.” ― Amanda Gorman

134. “Real courage is holding on to a still voice in your head that says, ‘I must keep going.’ It’s that voice that says nothing is a failure if it is not final. That voice that says to you, ‘Get out of bed. Keep going. I will not quit.’” — Cory Booker

135. “I break chains all by myself / Won’t let my freedom rot in hell / Hey! I’ma keep running / ‘Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves” — Beyoncé

136. Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” — Albert Einstein

137. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan and guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” — Jim Rohn

138. “You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.” — Michelle Obama

139. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” — Herman Melville

140. “Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

141. “Do not let anyone ever tell you who you are.” — Kamala Harris

142. “You can get what you want or you can just get old.” ― Billy Joel

143. “If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.” — Mario Andretti

144. “There does come a moment when you start saying, ‘I want more,’ and people look at you a little cross-eyed because it’s loving what you have and also knowing you want to try for more. Sometimes that makes people uncomfortable.” — Ariana DeBose

145. “Trust yourself. You probably know more than you think you do… Trust that you can learn anything.” — Melinda French Gates

146. “I dream it / I work hard / I grind ’til I own it” — Beyoncé

147. “Owning up to your vulnerabilities is a form of strength.” — Lizzo

148. “Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.” — Arthur Christopher Benson

149. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou

150. “The reality is: Sometimes you lose. And you’re never too good to lose. You’re never too big to lose. You’re never too smart to lose. It happens. And it happens when it needs to happen. And you need to embrace those things.” — Beyoncé

151. “Even if I don’t reach all my goals, I’ve gone higher than I would have if I hadn’t set any.” — Danielle Fotopoulis

152. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” — Truman Capote

153. “You never know which people, places, and experiences are going to shift your perspective until after you’ve left them behind and had some time to look back.” ― Quinta Brunson

154. “I don’t harp on the negative because if you do, then there’s no progression. There’s no forward movement. You got to always look on the bright side of things, and we are in control. Like, you have control over the choices you make.” — Taraji P. Henson

155. “And how do you know when you’re doing something right? How do you know that? It feels so. What I know now is that feelings are really your GPS system for life. When you’re supposed to do something or not supposed to do something, your emotional guidance system lets you know. The trick is to learn to check your ego at the door and start checking your gut instead.” — Oprah Winfrey

156. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” — Steve Jobs

157. “An unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates

158. “Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards.” — Søren Kierkegaard

159. “Self-reflection is a much kinder teacher than regret is. Prioritize yourself by making a habit of it.” — Andrena Sawyer

160. “I hate that word: ‘lucky.’ It cheapens a lot of hard work.” — Peter Dinklage

161. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — e.e. cummings

162. “Optimism is a huge asset. We can always use more of it. But optimism isn’t a belief that things will automatically get better; it’s a conviction that we can make things better.” — Melinda French Gates

163. “Let nothing happen, just for a bit, let the minutes toll in the stunning air, let us lie on our beds like astronauts, hurtling through space and time.” — Olivia Laing

164. “We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell

165. “She was learning, quite late, what many people around her appeared to have known since childhood that life can be perfectly satisfying without major achievements.” ― Alice Munro

166. “Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first.” — Anna Quindlen

167. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” — Maya Angelou

168. “Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.” — Joyce Brothers

169. “Don’t aim for success if you want it, just do what you love and believe in and it will come naturally.” — David Frost

170. “Whether I fail or succeed, it’s the going for it.” — Jonathan Van Ness

171. “Success only comes to those who dare to attempt.” — Mallika Tripathi

172. “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” — Dale Carnegie

173. “Always work hard and have fun in what you do because I think that’s when you’re more successful. You have to choose to do it.” — Simone Biles

174. “Don’t trust any one story of how to become successful.” — Mindy Kaling

175. “Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away.” – Barbara De Angelis

176. “Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes.” – Lawrence Bossidy

177.  “Great leaders develop through a never-ending process of self-study, self-reflection, education, training, and experience.” – Tony Buon

178. “Self-reflection entails asking yourself questions about your values, assessing your strengths and failures, thinking about your perceptions and interactions with others, and imagining where you want to take your life in the future.” – Robert L. Rosen

179. “Dwell not on the faults and shortcomings of others; instead, seek clarity about your own.” – Buddha

180. Self-awareness doesn’t stop you from making mistakes, it allows you to learn from them.” – Unknown

181. “The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.” – Thomas Paine

182. “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” – Margaret J. Wheatley.

183. “Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, make a different choice.” – Anonymous

184. “You become who you surround yourself with. You become what you consume. If you find yourself in a slump or feel as though you’re living in a negative space, take a good hard look at who and what you see every day.’’ – Rachel Hollis

185. “Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much, there’s nothing else you can give, and nobody will care for you.” – Karl Lagerfeld

186. “I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.” – Madonna

187. “I was once afraid of people saying, ‘Who does she think she is?’ Now I have the courage to stand and say, ‘This is who I am.” – Oprah Winfrey

188. “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha

189. “You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.” – Eckhart Tolle

190. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

191. “Find out who you are and be that person. That’s what your soul was put on this Earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth, and everything else will come.” – Ellen DeGeneres

192. “You change the world by being yourself.” – Yoko Ono

193. “Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.” – Brené Brown

194. “You alone are enough, you have nothing to prove to anybody.” – Maya Angelou

195. “Be a reflection of what you’d like to receive. If you want love, give love. If you want truth, be truthful. What you give out will always return.” – Kristen Butler

196. “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” – Ernest Hemingway

197. “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of other people.” – Carl Jung

198. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy

199. “Without deep reflection, one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.” – Albert Einstein