What Matters quotes
487 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
"We are reminded that, in the fleeting time we have on this Earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame, but rather how well we have loved and what small part we have played in making the lives of other people better."
"What matters is not your outward appearance. . . but your inner disposition. Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle gracious kind that God delights in."
"What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it."
"Keep it simple and focus on what matters. Don't let yourself be overwhelmed."
"Football is just a game. What matters is what you play for."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside what matters — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Go all the way with it. Do not back off. For once, go all the goddamn way with what matters."
"It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions."
"To be an artist — actually, to be a human being in these times — it’s all difficult. … What matters is to know what you want and pursue it."
"God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome. What matters is the sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them."
"What matters most is what sort of person you are becoming. Wise individuals care only about whom they are today and who they can be tomorrow."
"In the great scheme of things, what matters is not how long you live but why you live, what you stand for and what you are willing to die for."
"Grace is what matters. In anything. Especially life, especially growth, tragedy, pain, love, death. About people, that's what matters. That's a quality I admire very greatly. It keeps you from reaching for the gun too quickly; it keeps you from destroying things too foolishly; it sort of keeps you alive and keeps you open for more understanding."
"As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. I wish you all very good lives."
"We are so busy doing the urgent that we don't have time to do the important."
"Your truth may not look like mine, but that is not what matters. What matters is this: You can look at a scar and see hurt, or you can look at a scar and see healing."
"Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts."
"I don’t know, I don’t know that I’m missing anything. I just think too much sometimes. Sometimes I’m even happy because I’m so engaged in the thinking. But that’s the great thing about performing, and why it is also sexual, because in that moment – or in that evening – I’m completely in the present for once in my life. Nothing that came before or anything that may come after: only what matters is now. And that’s what human beings crave."
"Happiness does not exclude sadness - if a person responds to life, he's sometimes happy and sometimes sad. What matters is he responds."
"But what matter whether I was born or not, have lived or not, am dead or merely dying. I shall go on doing as I have always done, not knowing what it is I do, nor who I am, nor where I am, nor if I am."
"What matters is the value we’ve created in our lives, the people we’ve made happy and how much we’ve grown as people."
"What does it matter how much we do if what we're doing isn't what matters most?"
"Being a healthy woman isn't about getting on a scale or measuring your waistline. We need to start focusing on what matters-on how we feel, and how we feel about ourselves."
"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness. As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."
"Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished."
"We need much less than we think we need."
