14 Inspiring Quotes About Justice and Equality From Civil Rights Icons Past and Present

god inspirational quotes :: Article Creator

180 Inspirational Quotes To Motivate You Every Morning

The path to success isn't always smooth.

When you come across inevitable bumps in the road, it's easy to lose sight of your destination. Luckily, you're far from the first person to experience those tough moments in which you struggle to see a clear path forward.

From poets to presidents, every successful person has endured their share of challenges, and many of these luminaries continue to inspire others to persevere during the toughest of times.

Whether you need a few words of affirmation, a boost to keep going, or a nudge to cherish the little things in life, these quotes from great leaders, thinkers, and artists will uplift you on your journey.

Here is a list of inspirational quotes that serve as powerful reminders to keep on keeping on.

Best inspiring quotes

"Be the best of whatever you are." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." — A. A. Milne

"I don't like to gamble, but if there's one thing I'm willing to bet on, it's myself." — Beyoncé

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."— Walt Disney

"Do anything, but let it produce joy." — Henry Miller

"A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it's in hot water." ― Eleanor Roosevelt

"We need to take risks. We need to go broke. We need to prove them wrong, simply by not giving up." — Awkwafina

"Be courageous. Challenge orthodoxy. Stand up for what you believe in. When you are in your rocking chair talking to your grandchildren many years from now, be sure you have a good story to tell." — Amal Clooney

"It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent." — Madeleine Albright

"Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive." — Hafez

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." ― Unknown

"The soul is stronger than its surroundings." — William James

"I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall." — Serena Williams

"Your worth consists in what you are, and not in what you have. What you are will show in what you do." —Thomas Davidson

"How wild it was, to let it be." — Cheryl Strayed, "Wild"

"You have to be where you are to get where you need to go." ― Amy Poehler, "Yes Please"

"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong." ― Ella Fitzgerald

"Forever is composed of nows." — Emily Dickinson

"So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible." — Norton Juster, "The Phantom Tollbooth"

"You define your own life. Don't let other people write your script." — Oprah Winfrey

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting." — Paulo Coehlo

"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing." ― Agatha Christie

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." ― Albert Einstein

"To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try." — Rosa Parks

"All serious daring starts from within." — Eudora Welty

"You do not find the happy life. You make it." — Camilla Eyring Kimball

"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts." — Eleanor Roosevelt

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." ― Michael Altshuler

"If you own this story you get to write the ending." — Brené Brown

"With each passing day, I didn't lose hope. I fought to have more." — Amy Tan

Inspiring quotes about change

"One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world." — Malala Yousafzai

"We need not wait to see what others do." — Mahatma Gandhi

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present." ― Unknown

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." ― Andy Warhol, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol"

"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed." — Booker T Washington

"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept." ― Angela Y. Davis

"Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a new way to stand." ― Oprah Winfrey

"Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg

"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." — André Gide

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." — Barack Obama

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." — Maya Angelou

"One must be something to do something." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then." ― Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

"For me, becoming isn't about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn't end." — Michelle Obama

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." ― Unknown

"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do." — Steve Jobs

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." ― Eleanor Roosevelt

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." — Maya Angelou

"It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change." ― Miles Davis

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." — Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." ― Alan Wilson Watts

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable." ― Helen Keller

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." — Rosa Parks

"In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety." — Abraham Maslow

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly." ― Henri Bergson

"No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you've come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself." — Madonna

"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.

"You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone." ― Roy T. Bennett

"Change is inevitable. Growth is optional." ― Unknown

"Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it." — Barack Obama

"We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us." — Joseph Campbell

"If you don't know what your passion is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it." — Oprah Winfrey

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ― Margaret Mead

"Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress." — Nicholas Murray Butler

"Bravery is acknowledging your fear and doing it anyway." — Cheryl Strayed

"There is only one road to human greatness: through the school of hard knocks." — Albert Einstein

"The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day. After all, a movement is only people moving." — Gloria Steinem

"Running water never grows stale. So you just have to keep on flowing." — Bruce Lee

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn." ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." ― Unknown

"I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship." — Louisa May Alcott, "Little Women"

"Things are always different than what they might be. If you wait for them to change, you will never do anything." — Henry James

"Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts." — Arnold Bennett

"I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy." — Marie Curie

Inspiring quotes about ambition

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." ― Mark Twain

"High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation." — Charles Kettering

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious effort." — Henry David Thoreau

"It requires a better type of mind to seek out and to support or to create the new than to follow the worn paths of accepted success." — John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

"All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them." — Viola Davis

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." ― Robert Louis Stevenson

"If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself." ― Rick Riordan, "The Lightning Thief"

"I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. And when we make the choice to dare greatly, we sign up to get our asses kicked. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can't have both. Not at the same time." — Brené Brown, "Rising Strong"

"One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful." — Sigmund Freud

"Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference." — Nolan Bushnell

"I believe that if you'll just stand up and go, life will open up for you. Something just motivates you to keep moving." — Tina Turner

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." ― Neil Gaiman, "Coraline"

"I never dreamed about success. I worked for it." — Esteé Lauder

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." — Booker T. Washington

"Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams or wake up and chase them." — Arnold Schwarzenegger

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life." — Muhammad Ali

"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics, whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were, and ask why not." — John F. Kennedy

"Action is the foundational key to all success." — Pablo Picasso

"You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible." ― Deepak Chopra

"If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one." — Dolly Parton

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible!'" ― Audrey Hepburn

"We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down." — Ray Bradbury

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently." — Maya Angelou

"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

"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

"Once you face your fear, nothing is ever as hard as you think." — Olivia Newton-John

"Everyone's dream can come true if you just stick to it and work hard." — Serena Williams

"Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of mind in which nothing is impossible." — Henry Ford

"If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it — then I can achieve it." ― Muhammad Ali, "The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey"

"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one." ― John Lennon

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." ― Thomas Edison

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." — Walt Disney

"If something stands between you and your success, move it." —Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

I scorched the earth with my talent and I let my light shine." — André Leon Talley

"When you have a dream, you've got to grab it and never let go." — Carol Burnett

"Every twist and turn in life is an opportunity to learn something new about yourself, your interests, your talents, and how to set and then achieve goals." — Jameela Jamil

"I have been seriously afraid at times but have used my fear as a stimulating factor rather than allowing it to paralyse me. My abilities have not been outstanding, but I have had sufficient strength and determination to meet my challenges and have usually managed to succeed with them." — Sir Edmund Hillary

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." — Unknown

"All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination." ― Earl Nightingale

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." — Zig Ziglar

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"People respond well to those that are sure of what they want." — Anna Wintour

"Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference." — Steve Jobs

"Dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It's hard work that makes things happen. It's hard work that creates change." — Shonda Rhimes

"Fear is an illusion. You think something is standing in your way, but nothing is really there. What is there is an opportunity to do your best and gain some success." — Michael Jordan

"The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly — that is what each of us is here for." — Oscar Wilde

"I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can." — Oliver Sacks

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition aspired, and success achieved." — Helen Keller

Inspirational quotes about life and love

"For the secret of human existence lies not only in living but in knowing what to live for."— Fyodor Dostoevsky

You change the world by being yourself." ― Yoko Ono

"You can only become accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you." — Maya Angelou

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose." — Robert Byrne

"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world." — George Washington Carver

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." — William Shakespeare, "All's Well That Ends Well"

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine — and shadows will fall behind you."―Unknown

"There are two types of people: The ones who give you 50 reasons it can't be done ... And the ones who just do it."― Hoda Kotb

"True nobility is being superior to your former self." ― W.L. Sheldon

"I've learned it's important not to limit yourself. You can do whatever you really love to do, no matter what it is." — Ryan Gosling

"Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow's reality." — Malala Yousafzai

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." ― Dale Carnegie

"Difficulties increase the nearer we come to our aim." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." — Unknown

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

"You must do the things you think you cannot do." — Eleanor Roosevelt

"No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world." ― Robin Williams, "Dead Poets Society"

"A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere." — Joyce Meyer

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." — Anne Frank

"Just believe in yourself. Even if you don't, pretend that you do and, at some point, you will." — Venus Williams

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." ― Unknown

"You only live once. You don't want your tombstone to read: played it safe." ― Rosario Dawson

"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.

"There is no failure except failure to serve one's purpose." — Henry Ford

"Turn your wounds into wisdom."― Oprah Winfrey

"Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life." — Eleanor Roosevelt

"Even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there." — Stephen Chbosky

"None but ourselves can free our minds."― Bob Marley, "Redemption Song"

"One person can make a difference, and everyone should try." ― John F. Kennedy

"I'd rather regret the risks that didn't work out than the chances I didn't take at all." — Simone Biles

"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress." ― Barack Obama

"There is always light. If only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it." — Amanda Gorman

"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." — Arthur C. Clarke

"I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them." ― Madam C.J. Walker

"A strong and wise people will study its own failures no less than its triumphs, for there is wisdom to be learned from the study of both, of the mistake as well as of the success." — Theodore Roosevelt

"Perfect is boring. Human is beautiful." — Tyra Banks

"Life is very interesting … In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths." — Drew Barrymore

"It's the choice. You have to wake up every day and say, 'There's no reason today can't be the best day of my life.'" — Blake Lively

"Life is tough my darling, but so are you." — Stephanie Bennett Henry

"Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined." — Toni Morrison, "Beloved"

"Passion first and everything will fall into place." — Holly Holm

"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" — L.M. Montgomery

"Do not ignore your intuition. There is an infinite intelligence within you; let it be your guiding light." — Cleo Wade, "Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life"

"May you always be the one / Who notices the little things / That make the light pour through / And may they always remind you/ There is more to life and there is more to you." — Morgan Harper Nichols

"I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow." — Abraham Lincoln

"To me, fearless doesn't mean you're completely unafraid, and it doesn't mean that you're bulletproof. It means that you have a lot of fears, but you jump anyway." — Taylor Swift

"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." — Carl Jung

"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing, is what we do for others." — Lewis Carroll

"There isn't time—so brief is life—for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving—and but an instant, so to speak, for that." — Mark Twain

"There's love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look." — Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all, confidence in ourselves." — Marie Curie

"Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage." — Anaïs Nin

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." — J. R. R. Tolkien

"Let us think only of the good days that are to come." — Agatha Christie

"I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life — and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do." — Georgia O'Keeffe

"Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough." — Emily Dickinson

"I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart." — Alice Walker

"Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind." — Henry James

Even more inspiring quotes

Diana Walters: A Boomer's Ruminations - Quotes To Live By

Diana Walters

In 1964 Norman Cousins, a prominent writer, was diagnosed with a crippling, incurable disease. He was told his chances of survival were 1 in 500. He spent a long time in the hospital with no help in sight, so he checked himself out, went home, and began treating his pain in a totally different way—through laughter. He found that after watching old Marx Brothers films and other comedies he could sleep peacefully for two hours. When the pain returned, he watched more comedy programs.

As we get older, whether we have physical pain like Norman Cousins or psychological/emotional pain— from losing our abilities to losing someone we care about—we need to find ways of coping with difficult situations.

Like most of you, I have some tough days. For me, one method of staying positive is to cover my office, bedroom, and kitchen with inspirational quotes. I post them in places I'll read them throughout the day. They inspire me to do better and be better.

Some quotes have to do with my writing goals, such as "You fail only if you stop writing," (by Ray Bradbury.) We can apply this to other things as well… "You fail only if you stop…trying?" "…stop doing your best?" "You fail only if you give up?" Fill in the blank with whatever is most appropriate to your life.

Some quotes have to do with relationships. Maya Angelou said, "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." This reassures me that as long as I do my best to affirm people, getting the words precisely right is not as important as I once thought.

Some quotes are of a spiritual nature: "…For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11.) This reminds me that I don't know what God's plans are for me, but He does, so I don't have to worry about my future.

The Serenity Prayer is also posted where I read it often, a reminder that I need to forget about things I cannot change, decide what I can (and should) change, and ask God for wisdom to know the difference.

And then there are quotes about aging:

"Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!" – Ingrid Bergman (This is a reminder that we have a broader perspective when we're older and can see things we couldn't see when we were young.)

"Aging is not 'lost youth' but a new stage of opportunity and strength." - Betty Friedan (A reminder that we can still grow and look forward to new opportunities in our older years.)

"Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been." – David Bowie (So many of our pretenses fall away as we age. We know who and what we are, accept our limitations, and embrace what is positive.)

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." – Abraham Lincoln.

As we get older, we may experience more challenging days than we used to. Maybe we or a spouse will have health problems or chronic pain. We may worry about our future. But that's all the more reason to do the things we enjoy—read a book, get out in nature, collect stamps or inspirational quotes, visit friends, laugh and play.

We can be productive later in life, we can continue to grow and learn, and we can and should contribute to making the world a better place. But we must also take time to enjoy the life God has given us.

In our senior years we have more freedom to have fun than ever before. Who cares if someone thinks we're silly? Who does it hurt if we wear a red dress and purple shoes? (If you don't know the poem that begins, "When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple," look it up.) At this time of life, we should accept ourselves as we are, warts and all. If others don't like us, tough cookies.

Age gives us the prerogative to be eccentric. Consider that a gift. And remember, "You don't stop laughing when you grow old. You grow old when you stop laughing." – (George Bernard Shaw)

* * *

Diana Walters has enjoyed a long career working with senior adults as social worker, activity director, and volunteer coordinator. She recently retired (at age 76) from paid employment and is now able to devote more time to her writing and her husband (in that order?) She has written devotionals for The Quiet Hour and Upper Room and been published in six Chicken Soup for the Soul books, but she is excited to be writing for and about her fellow Baby Boomers. She can be reached at dianalwalters@comcast.Net.

Celebrities Who Don't Want Kids — Why

There are plenty of reasons not to have kids, all of them valid — but as we know well, men are sent that kind of message a lot more often than women are. So when women like Jennifer Aniston and Oprah Winfrey get loud and proud about why they don't want kids, we can't help but cheer that they're helping the stigma around being childless fade away.

Far too often, women are interrogated and shamed about their family planning choices — no matter what those choices may be. These quotes from happily childless celebs confirm that it's possible to have it all with or without having kids. And apparently, that's a message our society still desperately needs to hear.

The sad truth is, the pressure to have kids can creep in at every level, from relatives and friends to co-workers and overly nosy strangers. For celebrities, that goes a step further, to the point where it's rare for a female celebrity over the age of 23 to get through an interview without being asked if she's planning to have kids (if she isn't a mom already).

Of course, there's the flip side: Many celebs are excited to talk about their growing families, and feel passionately about their identities as mothers. But for women who have never planned to have kids, these questions can be deflating. So, for women everywhere who are sick of the idea that having kids is the only way to live a complete life, check out these inspirational quotes from famous women who feel the same way.

A version of this article was originally published in January 2020.

More from SheKnows

Best of SheKnows

Jay & Mavis Leno

When speaking to the Washington Post in 2014, Jay said, "It's perfectly obvious the women are the ones trapped. I remember telling my mother when I was 7 or 8 that I was never going to get married or have children. To me, this is the way women get caught."

Christopher Walken

Christopher Walken previously told the Guardian, "I'm sure many of the kids I knew as a child would have continued in show business, but they had kids of their own, had to do something dependable. I didn't, so I could get by even in periods of unemployment."

Ina Garten

Ina Garten once said to The Cut: "I really appreciate that other people do, and we will always have friends that have children that we are close to, but it was a choice I made very early. I really felt – I feel – that I would have never been able to have the life I've had. And so it's a choice, and that was the choice I made."

Patricia Clarkson

Patricia Clarkson said to iHeartPodcast's Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi "I love being an aunt, I love it more than— probably more than acting, which is odd. They're on par. But I'm telling you, these are gorgeous children, but that doesn't have to define every woman."

She added, "I made a big choice, but I knew it when I was young… You have to be a great parent, and I was afraid I couldn't be. My mother said, 'Patty, I just don't want you to wake up at 50 and be unhappy.' I woke up at 50 in stilettos and a thong. I've had a great sexy-ass life."

Leonardo DiCaprio

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio said he doesn't want to bring a child "into a world like this." He said, "Do you mean do I want to bring children into a world like this? If it happens, it happens. I'd prefer not to get into specifics about it, just because then it becomes something that is misquoted."

Seth Rogen

Seth Rogen and his wife Lauren Miller have no plans on bringing children into the world. "I would say she wants kids less than I do. I could probably be talked into it; she's like no."

In the same interview on the Howard Stern Show that if he had kids, he wouldn't be able to make his career his priority. "I wouldn't be able to do all this work that I like. People are always like — it's something I think I was uncomfortable answering this before — but they were like, 'How do you do so much?' The answer is I don't have kids. … I have nothing else to do."

Jared Leto

Jared Leto set the record straight back in 2017 with ES Magazine that his priorities aren't on being a parent right now. "I think it's really important to be present if you have children. I have a lot of…things to take care of."

Ricky Gervais

In a previous interview with Metro back in 2009, Ricky Gervais said he flat-out doesn't want kids because he's a worrier. "I didn't have a work ethic for such a long time. Imagine if I had a child like me? I didn't start earning until I was 36. I'm the sort of person who has to check three times that I've shut the door, so I'd probably stare at a kid all day to check it was breathing."

Katie Thurston

While most Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants over the years have ascribed to "traditional family values" with near-alarming homogeneity: nine out of ten times, the lead and any contestants with a hope of continuing are looking to settle down with a spouse, a couple kids, and a nice church-going family. Katie Thurston, however, is shaking things up from the gate by admitting on the Bachelorette premiere that kids aren't a must-have part of her future — and perhaps hinting that this season will have less of a "is this the man I want to raise my children" bent as Katie considers other relevant criteria.

"For me, I definitely want kids in some way I think," Katie told one contestant who opened up about his own child from a previous relationship. "Whether it's someone who already has a child, that's something I'm fine with. If someone doesn't want children, I think I'm also fine with that. Really, I'm just open to all scenarios."

When a fan tweeted out her support for the statement, Katie shared it on Twitter and added: "It's ok to be a woman and possibly not want children or to be unsure at the current stage of your life."

Issa Rae

During her interview with Self, Insecure writer, star, and creator Issa Rae opened up about her thoughts on having kids after tying the knot in July 2021. "I like my life, I like this selfishness, and I know that I have a window," the actress and writer told the outlet.

"I've always felt that way, that women, Black women especially — unless you're Viola Davis or Angela Bassett — you have a window when people are going to want to continue to see you and see what you can do. Then there are so many limitations placed upon you, and that does keep me up. I want to do as much as I can while I still can. I know it's not the proper mentality to think that kids will slow you down, but I do feel that way."

Jennifer Aniston

"I don't have this sort of checklist of things that have to be done and if they're not checked then I've failed some part of my feminism or my being a woman or my worth or my value as a woman," Jennifer Aniston said on the Today show in 2014 (and we couldn't agree more).

"Y'know, I've birthed a lot of things…I feel like I've mothered many things," she continued. "And I don't think it's fair to put that pressure on people."

Jennifer Westfeldt

Back in 2012, when she was still together with ex Jon Hamm, Jennifer Westfeldt discussed her reasoning for not having children. "The chance that we'll regret it doesn't seem like a compelling enough reason to do it," she shared with The New York Times.

"I may wake up tomorrow with that lighting bolt, and I'll have to scramble to make it happen. You were wondering how we make it work. One way is we're really mobile. No one's had to give up an opportunity they really wanted."

Allison Janney

"I think if I would have found the right guy at the right time who wanted to have kids, I probably would have with the right partner because I wasn't ever really confident that I wanted to have kids," Allison Janney said on The Drew Barrymore Show.

"I would rather regret not having kids than have kids and regret that. I'm OK with it," she added. "I really am this time in my life getting to know who I am and what I want," she said. "I'd love to eventually find someone to share my life with, but if it doesn't happen, I'll be just fine."

Oprah Winfrey

"If I had kids, my kids would hate me," Oprah Winfrey told The Hollywood Reporter in 2013. "They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something [in my life] would have had to suffer and it would've probably been them."

Renée Zellweger

"Motherhood has never been an ambition. I don't think like that," Renée Zellweger told the London Times in 2008. Next question?

Ashley Judd

"The fact is that I have chosen not to have children because I believe the children who are already here are really mine, too," Ashley Judd wrote in her 2006 memoir All That Is Bitter and Sweet. "I do not need to go making 'my own' babies when there are so many orphaned or abandoned children who need love, attention, time, and care."

"I have felt this way since I was at least eighteen and I had an argument about it with a childhood friend," Judd continued. "I figured it was selfish for us to pour our resources into making our 'own' babies when those very resources and energy could not only help children already here, but through advocacy and service transform the world into a place where no child ever needs to be born into poverty and abuse again. My belief has not changed. It is a big part of who I am."

Helen Mirren

"[Having children] was not my destiny, I kept thinking it would be, waiting for it to happen, but it never did, and I didn't care what people thought," Helen Mirren told Vogue UK in 2013. "It was only boring old men [who would ask me]. And whenever they went, 'What? No children? Well, you'd better get on with it, old girl,' I'd say 'No! F*** off!'"

Ellen DeGeneres

"Honestly, we'd probably be great parents," TV host Ellen DeGeneres told People of herself and wife Portia de Rossi in 2013. "But it's a human being, and unless you think you have excellent skills and have a drive or yearning in you to do that, the amount of work that that is and responsibility — I wouldn't want to screw them up! We love our animals."

Portia de Rossi

"There comes some pressure in your mid-30s, and you think, 'Am I going to have kids so I don't miss out on something that other people really seem to love? Or is it that I really genuinely want to do this with my whole heart?'" Portia de Rossi told Out in 2013. "I didn't feel that my response was 'yes' to the latter. You have to really want to have kids, and neither of us did."

"So it's just going to be me and Ellen and no babies – but we're the best of friends and married life is blissful, it really is," de Rossi continued. "I've never been happier than I am right now."

Margaret Cho

"I don't know if I could stand that kind of commitment, or if I am really honest, I don't think that I could handle being that vulnerable to someone else," comedian Margaret Cho wrote on her blog in 2012. "My child would have my heart completely, and having never truly given that over, in all my relationships in my life, starting with myself, I don't even know where to begin."

Alison Brie

"It's great because I don't worry about when I should get pregnant—between seasons, while we're shooting the show [GLOW]—I don't think about it every day," Alison Brie told The Times of London in 2018. "It would be nice, but I think of all the things that would be so stressful. I think about how much we're involved in our cats' lives. Oh my God, if it was a child!"

Sarah Paulson

"I love kids, but I'm very impulsive, and I was afraid that I would have children and then regret it," American Horror Story's Sarah Paulson told The Sunday Times Style in 2018.

Betty White

"I'm so compulsive about stuff. I know that if I had ever gotten pregnant, of course, that would've been my whole focus," Betty White said on CBS Sunday Morning in 2011. "But I didn't choose to have children because I'm focused on my career and I don't think as compulsive as I am that I could manage both."

Sarah Silverman

"I want to have kids when there's nothing else I want more," comedian Sarah Silverman told The Daily Beast in 2010. Fair enough!

Tracee Ellis Ross

"I'm constantly asking myself questions, reminding myself, 'Are you making that decision for you or someone else?'" Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross told The Times in 2018. "The husband and the babies are the expectation of what's supposed to happen at a certain point, and people fall back on, 'Well, that's the point of the human species, procreation.'"

"And I'm, like, 'I think there are a lot of babies, isn't that part of what's going wrong, there's too many?'" Ross continued. "Some people could be working on the world being a better place, or just being happy."

Miley Cyrus

"We're getting handed a piece-of-sh*t planet, and I refuse to hand that down to my child," former Disney Channel star Miley Cyrus told Elle in 2019. "Until I feel like my kid would live on an earth with fish in the water, I'm not bringing in another person to deal with that."

"We're expected to keep the planet populated. And when that isn't a part of our plan or our purpose, there is so much judgment and anger that they try to make and change laws to force it upon you — even if you become pregnant in a violent situation," she continued. "If you don't want children, people feel sorry for you, like you're a cold, heartless bitch who's not capable of love … Why are we trained that love means putting yourself second and those you love first? If you love yourself, then what? You come first."

Marisa Tomei

"I don't know why women need to have children to be seen as complete human beings," My Cousin Vinny star Marisa Tomei told Manhattan Magazine in 2009. Amen to that!

Kim Cattrall

"When I was 5, my fantasy was to have a hundred dogs and a hundred kids," Sex and the City star Kim Catrall told O, The Oprah Mag

Search This Blog

Teenage Life Quotes