“The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” –Melody Beattie

• “I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, and changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” –Neil Gaiman 
• “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’” –Alfred Lord Tennyson 
• “New year is the glittering light to brighten the dream-lined pathway of the future.” -Munia Khan
• “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” –Oprah Winfrey
• “And now we welcome the new year—Full of things that have never been.” –Rainer Maria Rilke
• “Let our New Year’s resolution be this: We will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.” –Goran Persson
• “In the New Year, never forget to thank your past years, because they enabled you to reach today. Without the stairs of the past, you cannot arrive at the future!” –Mehmet Murat Ildan 
• “Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on.” –Hal Borland 
• “When you’re young, you’re encouraged to try new things. At a certain age, nobody says that to you anymore. If you’re lucky enough to be alive, why not say ‘yes’ to all of it at any age?” –Mary Steenburgen 
• “Each year's regrets are envelopes in which messages of hope are found for the New Year.” -John R. Dallas Jr.
• “Midnight on New Year’s Eve is a unique kind of magic where, just for a moment, the past and the future exist at once in the present. Whether we’re aware of it or not, as we count down together to it, we’re sharing the burden of our history and committing to the promise of tomorrow.” –Hillary Depiano 
• “Into every empty corner, into all forgotten things and nooks, nature struggles to pour life, pouring life into the dead, life into life itself.” –Henry Beston
• “You can't go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.” –James R. Sherman

• “Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.” –Cavett Robert 
• “New Year’s Day [is a] fresh start [and] a new chapter waiting to be written. It involves new questions to be asked, embraced, and loved and answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today, carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream.” –Sarah Ban Breathnach 
• "Approach the new year with resolve to find the opportunities hidden in each new day." Michael Josephson
• “New Year—a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately, we write it. The choice is ours.” –Alex Morritt 
• “The road ahead is not some predetermined path that I am forced to trod, but it is a rich byway that I can help create.” –Craig D. Lounsbrough 
• “In every changing season, may we find a reason to stand in awe, appreciate, and cherish every view.” –Oscar Auliq-Ice 
• “New year. Same person. New motivations.” –Torron-Lee Dewar 
• “Celebrate endings—for they precede new beginnings.” –Jonathan Lockwood Huie 
• “Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.” - Oscar Wilde
• “The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it.” –James Baldwin
• “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” –George Eliot  
• “All the wisdom doesn’t reside in one party.” –Bob Dole
• “New Year’s Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.” –James Agate
• “New Year's Day–Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” –Mark Twain

The close of one year and the start of another can bring up a variety of emotions, from sadness and grief to excitement and hope. If you're looking for emotional comfort or inspiration, the following quotes may be helpful to you going into the new year.

• “Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love.” –Wally Lamb
• “We all have two lives. The second one begins when we realize we only have one.” –Unknown 
• “Have enough courage to trust love one more time, and always one more time.” –Maya Angelou 
• “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.” –T.S. Eliot 
• “Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.” –Brad Paisley 
• “As long as I am breathing, in my eyes, I am just beginning.” –Criss Jami 
• “The older I get, the more I realize the importance of connectivity [and] not taking people for granted. Don’t be so busy “doing you” that you lose sight of those who love and support you.” –Liz Faublas 
• "This year's book, at midnight, turns to footnote in the next." -Terri Guillemets
• “Write in your heart that every day is the best day of the year.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson 
• “Past and present I know well; each is a friend and sometimes an enemy to me. But it is the quiet, beckoning future, an absolute stranger, with whom I have fallen madly in love.” –Richelle E. Goodrich 
• “New Year is another opportunity to see life with a little more caring, compassion, maturity, and beauty.” –Amit Ray 
• “In our perfect ways. In some ways we are beautiful. In the way we are human. We are here. Happy New Year’s! Let’s make it ours.” –Beyoncé 

• “Deep breaths are very helpful at shallow parties.” –Barbara Walters
• “Ring out the false, ring in the true.” –Alfred Lord Tennyson 
• “An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” –Bill Vaughan 
• “A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.” –Unknown 
• “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” –Michael Altshuler 
• “If you can’t make up your mind this year, there’s always next year!” –Anthony T. Hincks 
• “Before I agree to 2024, I need to see some terms and conditions.” –Unknown 
• “Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to.” –Bill Vaughn 

Finding meaning and motivation in a new year 

• “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
• “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." – Edith Lovejoy Pierce
• “If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.” – Morris West
• “New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday.” – Charles Lamb
• “Today is the beginning of a new dream.” – Miguel Ruiz
• “May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early! My own plan is to swear off every kind of virtue, so that I triumph even when I fall!” – Aleister Crowley

Words to inspire change and self-improvement

• “Your beliefs don’t make you a better person. Your behavior does.” –Shukraj Dhillon
• “Right thinking comes with self-knowledge. Without understanding yourself, you have no basis for thought.” –Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Actions speak louder than words. Choose wisely.” –Unknown
• “Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” –Angela Duckworth
• “Acceptance and non-attachment are essential in the experience of fully living life.” –Steve Leasock
• “Learn a new language and get a new soul.” –Proverb
• “I can’t go back to yesterday–because I was a different person then.” –Lewis Carroll

How to use these quotes to create your own plan

You can use the quotes in this article to create your own plan for the new year. Whether you prefer to set your resolutions early, wait until the brand-new ending of the year, or start with a fresh beginning, there’s no wrong way to go about setting goals. You might want to set resolutions related to being a better person, starting new hobbies, improving your health, spending more time with loved ones, or achieving career goals–but no matter your resolutions, the future belongs to you.69%

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