New Year Quotes: 200 Fresh Beginnings & Bold Resolutions

New Year’s Day has been celebrated for thousands of years, and writers have been marking the occasion just as long. Whether you need a line for a greeting card, a toast at midnight, or a resolution to carry into January, you’ll find it below.

Editor’s Picks: 11 New Year Quotes Worth Sharing

1. Inspirational New Year Quotes

1. “Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.” — Alfred, Lord Tennyson
2. “May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.” — Neil Gaiman
3. “For last year's words belong to last year's language, And next year's words await another voice.” — T.S. Eliot
4. “The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.” — G.K. Chesterton
5. “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
6. “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” — Oprah Winfrey
7. “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering, 'It will be happier.'” — Alfred, Lord Tennyson
8. “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
9. “Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” — Hal Borland
10. “And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
11. “What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year.” — Vern McLellan
12. “New year — a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.” — Alex Morritt
13. “Take a leap of faith and begin this wondrous new year by believing.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach
14. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” — Albert Einstein
15. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
16. “It always seems impossible until it's done.” — Nelson Mandela
17. “Believe you can and you're halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
18. “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” — William James
19. “What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't even happened yet.” — Anne Frank
20. “Here's to the bright New Year, and a fond farewell to the old; here's to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold.” — Unknown
21. “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

2. Funny New Year Quotes

1. “New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions.” — Mark Twain
2. “Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever.” — Mark Twain
3. “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
4. “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well.” — Mark Twain
5. “Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.” — Oscar Wilde
6. “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
7. “Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to.” — Bill Vaughan
8. “May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions!” — Joey Adams
9. “If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am.” — Cyril Cusack
10. “Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle.” — Eric Zorn
11. “An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.” — Irv Kupcinet
12. “You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old.” — George Burns
13. “You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.” — Bob Hope
14. “I'm at an age when my back goes out more than I do.” — Phyllis Diller
15. “First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up, then you forget to pull your zipper down.” — Leo Rosenberg
16. “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.” — Mark Twain
17. “Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits.” — Unknown
18. “A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.” — Unknown
19. “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
20. “Many years ago, I made a New Year's resolution to never make New Year's resolutions. Hell, it's been the only resolution I've ever kept!” — D.S. Mixell
21. “The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.” — Mark Twain

3. New Year Resolution Quotes

1. “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” — Benjamin Franklin
2. “New Year's Day is every man's birthday.” — Charles Lamb
3. “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. “I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.” — Anais Nin
5. “Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” — Helen Keller
6. “I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's.” — Henry Moore
7. “Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you've always wanted to do but couldn't find the time.” — Ann Landers
8. “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” — Abraham Lincoln
9. “Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.” — Cavett Robert
10. “We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential.” — Ellen Goodman
11. “Well begun is half done.” — Aristotle
12. “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” — Plato
13. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” — Walt Disney
14. “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” — Annie Dillard
15. “Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” — William Butler Yeats
16. “You do not find the happy life. You make it.” — Camilla Eyring Kimball
17. “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” — Thomas Edison
18. “Don't live the same year 75 times and call it a life.” — Robin Sharma

4. Fresh Start Quotes

1. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu
2. “Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.” — Seneca
3. “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” — Marcus Aurelius
4. “Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” — L.M. Montgomery
5. “This is a wonderful day. I've never seen this one before.” — Maya Angelou
6. “Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.” — Brad Paisley
7. “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” — C.S. Lewis
8. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
9. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” — Attributed to George Eliot
10. “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to come.” — Robert Browning
11. “Every moment is a fresh beginning.” — T.S. Eliot
12. “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
13. “Light tomorrow with today.” — Elizabeth Barrett Browning
14. “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
15. “Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” — Attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.
16. “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” — Unknown
17. “Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” — Nido Qubein
18. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius

5. New Year Quotes for Friends & Family

1. “No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference.” — Charles Lamb
2. “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.” — Göran Persson
3. “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
4. “The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk.” — W.C. Fields
5. “The new year begins in a snow-storm of white vows.” — George William Curtis
6. “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
7. “Approach the new year with resolve to find the opportunities hidden in each new day.” — Michael Josephson
8. “New Year's resolutions are a bit like babies: they're fun to make but extremely difficult to maintain.” — Unknown

6. Short New Year Quotes

1. “A new heart for a New Year, always!” — Charles Dickens
2. “Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” — Sam Levenson
3. “The best is yet to be.” — Robert Browning
4. “Hope is a waking dream.” — Aristotle
5. “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” — Thomas Jefferson
6. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain
7. “May you live all the days of your life.” — Jonathan Swift
8. “Celebrate what you want to see more of.” — Tom Peters
9. “This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” — Taylor Swift
10. “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot.” — Michael Altshuler
11. “New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” — Attributed to Lao Tzu
12. “Out with the old, in with the new.” — Unknown

7. New Year Quotes for Cards

1. “A happy New Year! Grant that I may bring no tear to any eye when this new year in time shall end; let it be said I've played the friend, have lived and loved and labored here, and made of it a happy year.” — Edgar Guest
2. “May your troubles be less, and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door.” — Unknown
3. “In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, never in want.” — Unknown
4. “Here's to the bright New Year and a fond farewell to the old; here's to the things that are yet to come and to the memories that we hold.” — Unknown
5. “As the year comes to a close, it is a time for reflection – a time to release old thoughts and beliefs and forgive old hurts. Whatever has happened in the past year, the New Year brings fresh beginnings.” — Peggy Toney Horton
6. “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.” — Hamilton Wright Mabie
7. “God gave us memories that we might have roses in December.” — J.M. Barrie
8. “Each age has deemed the new-born year the fittest time for festal cheer.” — Sir Walter Scott
9. “Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.” — Attributed to Dr. Seuss
10. “Enter this new year with a gratitude for this new chance to create your dreams.” — Avina Celeste
11. “New year is the glittering light to brighten the dream-lined pathway of future.” — Munia Khan
12. “Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.” — Brooks Atkinson
13. “May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields.” — Unknown

8. Hopeful New Year Quotes

1. “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” — Thomas Paine
2. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.” — Emily Dickinson
3. “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” — Desmond Tutu
4. “Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” — Louisa May Alcott
5. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe
6. “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” — Karen Lamb
7. “And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
8. “Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” — Carl Bard
9. “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” — Maria Robinson
10. “I close my eyes to old ends. And open my heart to new beginnings.” — Nick Frederickson
11. “The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all.” — Josiyah Martin
12. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” — Les Brown
13. “New Year's most glorious light is sweet hope!” — Mehmet Murat Ildan
14. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett
15. “Forever is composed of Nows.” — Emily Dickinson
16. “No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible.” — George Chakiris
17. “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
18. “A new year brings not only happiness, it makes us happy with a hope to fulfill our dreams.” — Amit Ray

9. Year-End Reflections

1. “New year—a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.” — Alex Morritt
2. “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” — Melody Beattie
3. “We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.” — Ellen Goodman
4. “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” — Thornton Wilder
5. “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus
6. “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” — Charles Dickens
7. “The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” — Dalai Lama
8. “No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.” — Attributed to Buddha
9. “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.” — Seneca
10. “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
11. “Every ending is a beginning. We just don't know it at the time.” — Mitch Albom
12. “Each year's regrets are envelopes in which messages of hope are found for the new year.” — John R. Dallas Jr.
13. “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” — Peter Drucker
14. “Any new beginning is forged from the shards of the past, not from the abandonment of the past.” — Craig D. Lounsbrough

10. New Year Motivation

1. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt
2. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” — Jim Ryun
3. “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
4. “Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.” — Attributed to Abraham Lincoln
5. “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” — Tony Robbins
6. “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” — Jim Rohn
7. “Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” — Jim Rohn
8. “Either you run the day or the day runs you.” — Jim Rohn
9. “People with goals succeed because they know where they're going.” — Earl Nightingale
10. “You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life.” — H. Jackson Brown Jr.
11. “A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.” — Bruce Lee
12. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” — Robert Collier

11. New Year Quotes for Work & Success

1. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” — Henry David Thoreau
2. “Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” — John D. Rockefeller
3. “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” — Thomas Jefferson
4. “Opportunities don't happen. You create them.” — Chris Grosser
5. “Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.” — Henry Ford
6. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
7. “Action is the foundational key to all success.” — Pablo Picasso
8. “The future depends on what you do today.” — Mahatma Gandhi
9. “I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” — Estée Lauder
10. “There's a way to do it better — find it.” — Thomas A. Edison
11. “Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.” — Tony Hsieh
12. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” — Colin Powell
13. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving.” — Conrad Hilton
14. “Don't wait. The time will never be just right.” — Napoleon Hill
15. “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” — Vincent Van Gogh
16. “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” — Vidal Sassoon

12. Cozy New Year Wishes

1. “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, changing your world.” — Neil Gaiman
2. “And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
3. “Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress.” — Charles Kettering
4. “May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, the angels protect you, and heaven accept you.” — Irish blessing
5. “May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.” — Irish toast
6. “May we be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows we're dead.” — Irish toast
7. “Here's to a long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold pint and another one!” — Irish toast
8. “Out with the old, in with the new: may you be happy the whole year through.” — Unknown
9. “Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” — Edith Sitwell
10. “God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.” — J.M. Barrie
11. “Celebrate endings—for they precede new beginnings.” — Jonathan Lockwood Huie
12. “May the New Year bring you new strength, new hope and new dreams.” — Lailah Gifty Akita
13. “May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart.” — Eskimo proverb
14. “The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it. The present is here, live it.” — Thomas S. Monson

13. New Year Toast Quotes

1. “May all your troubles during the coming year be as short as your New Year's resolutions.” — Joey Adams
2. “A New Year has tiptoed in. Let's go forward to meet it.” — Anusha Atukorala
3. “The merry year is born like the bright berry from the naked thorn.” — Hartley Coleridge
4. “He who breaks a resolution is a weakling; he who makes one is a fool.” — F.M. Knowles
5. “Let us resolve to do the best we can with what we've got.” — William Feather
6. “Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy, happy New Year, everybody.” — Phyllis McGinley
7. “Here's a toast to the future, a toast to the past, and a toast to our friends, far and near.” — Traditional New Year toast

14. Hello 2027 Quotes

1. “You can get excited about the future. The past won't mind.” — Hillary DePiano
2. “And suddenly you know: It's time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.” — Meister Eckhart
3. “We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell
4. “And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'” — Minnie Louise Haskins
5. “The beginning is always today.” — Mary Shelley
6. “Let us embrace the coming year with a living hope for everyday life.” — Lailah Gifty Akita
7. “Every New Year brings its sacred blessings.” — Lailah Gifty Akita
8. “New year is another opportunity of seeing life with little more caring, compassion, maturity and beauty.” — Amit Ray

How to Use These New Year Quotes

• Match the quote to the moment: funny lines for party toasts, reflective ones for cards.
• Add a personal line of your own after the quote so the message feels yours.
• Short quotes work best on social media; longer ones shine in speeches and letters.
• Credit the author when you share — it honors the writer and builds trust.
• Save your favorites now; you’ll want them again when resolution season arrives.

More New Year & Holiday Quotes to Explore

• heartfelt New Year wishes
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• motivational quotes for success
• inspirational quotes for life
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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most famous New Year quote?

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Ring out the old, ring in the new” from his poem “Ring Out, Wild Bells” is the most quoted New Year line in English. Oprah Winfrey’s “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right” is the most shared modern one.

What is a good short New Year quote for a card?

Try “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right” (Oprah Winfrey) or “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come” (Tennyson). Both are brief, warm, and fit neatly on any card.

Who said “New year, new beginnings”?

The exact phrase is a modern anonymous saying rather than a documented line from a famous author. For verified famous lines about beginnings, see our Fresh Start Quotes section above.

When is the best time to share New Year quotes?

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day gets the most engagement, but resolution-themed quotes perform well throughout January. Toast quotes are perfect for New Year’s Eve itself.