The 60 Best Letting Go Quotes

Letting go is incredibly difficult. No matter if we cling to worries about the future, or if we keep replaying the mistakes of the past again and again in our mind—it can be quite painful when you have difficulties to move on. The desperate attempt to hold on to the things that were familiar to us limits our capability to experience happiness and joy in the present moment. Life is all about continuous change. This means to us that no matter how hard we try to keep things as they are, we will sooner or later be confronted with relentless changes, whether we like it or not. However, as soon as we cease our attempts to own and control the environment we are living in, we open up ourselves to new possibilities.

This is the reason why it is so important to be able to let go: moving on helps us to let happiness and joy in.

Scientists at the University of St. Andrews highlighted the importance of being able to let go in their research about forgiveness. They showed that those participants who were willing to forgive their transgressor were more likely to be able to forget what happened. For this very reason, it’s so important to be able to let go and forgive so that we can move on with our life.

The following quotes about letting go and moving forward will guide you through this difficult time. They will lighten up your mood and help you to get inspired to discover the new opportunities that come with changes.

The Best Quotes about Letting Go

1. 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
   
   
2. Forget what hurt you but never forget what it taught you.
   Shannon L. Alder
3. If you want to fly in 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
   
   
4. In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.
   Deepak Chopra
   
   
5. Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.
   Herman Hesse
   
   
6. The only thing a person can ever really do is keep moving forward. Take that big leap forward without hesitation, without once looking back. Simply forget the past and forge toward the future.
   Alyson Noel
   
   
7. 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
   
   
8. 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.
   Tao Te Ching
   
   
9. A bridge can still be built, while the bitter waters are flowing beneath.
   Anthony Liccione
   
   
10. Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.
    Daphne Rose Kingma
    
    
11. 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
    
12. I think that the power is the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you’ve done.
    Robert Downey Jr.
13. Sooner or later we’ve all got to let go of our past.
    Dan Brown
    
14. You’ve got to make a conscious choice every day to shed the old – whatever “the old” means for you.
    Sarah Ban Breathnach
15. 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
16. Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.
    Victor Kiam
    
    
17. If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.
    Henry Ford
18. Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go but rather learning to start over.
    Nicole Sobon
19. 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.
20. Life moves on and so should we.
    Spencer Johnson
    
    
21. Change has to come for life to struggle forward.
    Helen Hollick
22. Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
    Raymond Lindquist
23. 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
24. 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
25. 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 Lander
26. There’s an important difference between giving up and letting go.
    Jessica Hatchigan
    
    
27. Forgiveness means letting go of the past.
    Gerald Jampolsky
28. Never love something so much that you can’t let go of it.
    Ginni Rometty
29. It is important that we forgive ourselves for making mistakes. We need to learn from our errors and move on.
    Steve Maraboli
30. 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
31. Sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward.
    Erika Taylor
    
    
32. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
    Dalai Lama
33. 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
34. Broken hearts hurt but they will make you strong.
    Unknown
    
    
35. Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.
    Oprah Winfrey
36. We must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
    Joseph Campbell
37. You don’t need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding.
    Guy Finley
    
    
38. Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open.
    Ralph Marston
39. Letting go does not mean you stop caring. It means you stop trying to force others to.
    Mandy Hale
40. 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.
41. You can only lose what you cling to.
    Buddha
42. Change can be good but its always tough to let go of the past.
    Emily Giffin
    
    
43. When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the fearful past causes a fearful future and the past and future become one. We cannot love when we feel fear…. When we release the fearful past and forgive everyone, we will experience total love and oneness with all.
    Gerald G. Jampolsky
44. Life moves forward. The old leaves wither, die and fall away, and the new growth extends forward into the light.
    Bryant McGill
45. Suffering is not holding you. You are holding suffering. When you become good at the art of letting sufferings go, then you’ll come to realize how unnecessary it was for you to drag those burdens around with you. You’ll see that no one else other than you was responsible. The truth is that existence wants your life to become a festival.
    Osho
46. 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
47. 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.
48. Sometimes it takes a heartbreak to shake us awake and help us see we are worth so much more than we’re settling for.
    Mandy Hale
49. 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
50. Let go. Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is not yours to judge. Why hold on to the very thing which keeps you from hope and love?
    Leo Buscaglia
51. Even on my weakest days I get a little bit stronger
    Sara Evans
    
    
52. The day I understood everything, was the day I stopped trying to figure everything out. The day I knew peace was the day I let everything go.
    C. JoyBell C.
53. 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
54. All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.
    Havelock Ellis
55. I demolish my bridges behind me… then there is no choice but to move forward.
    Fridtjof Nansen
56. The beautiful journey of today can only begin when we learn to let go of yesterday.
    Steve Maraboli
57. There’s a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over – and to let go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its value.
    Ellen Goodman
58. 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. Let the past go. A simply abundant world awaits.
    Sarah Ban Breathnach
59. 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
60. Pain will leave you when you let go.
    Jeremy Aldana
    
    

I hope you enjoyed the quotes in the above.

But what do we learn from this? Can we draw a conclusion after reading all these quotes?

What is the quintessence of all these quotes?

It is really difficult to summarize all the quotes named in the above. But let us try to condense the wisdom of the fantastic quotes in the above.

Life is all about change. For this reason it is so important to be able to let go of all the pain and sorrows that we carry around on our shoulders. Letting go and moving on helps us to discover new opportunities. It is also beneficial towards our own healing. In fact, you will never fully heal when you are not able to let go.

Feel free to share this article with a loved one, if you happen to know someone who is going through a tough time.

Photo credit: RAR