70 Acceptance Quotes to Help You Let Go & Move On

Let this list of acceptance quotes inspire you to take chances, get out of your comfort zone, and live a life that is bigger than your own!

Acceptance is a powerful thing. It’s the ability to understand that things are okay as they are and to stop fighting against reality. 

In our lives, we face so many obstacles at every turn.

But, knowing how to accept those obstacles instead of trying to push them out of the way is what allows us to move on and be happy with what we have.

However, we’re just humans; accepting reality and moving on is not an easy task.

So, to help you find peace with your current circumstances, check out this collection. By reading our list below, you’ll be able to set aside your resistance and accept whatever it is you’re currently experiencing.

Get a pen and a sheet of paper to list all your favorites and prepare yourself to move on to better things!

Let’s begin.

And make sure to read these self-acceptance quotes and positive quotes.

Best Acceptance Quotes

1. “Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.” – William James

2. “You have to accept whatever comes, and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

3. “Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.” – Michael J. Fox

4. “Accept, then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.” – Eckhart Tolle

5. “Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality, it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.” – Eckhart Tolle

6. “The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

7. “Acceptance of one’s life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not mean running away from the struggle. On the contrary, it means accepting it as it comes, with all the handicaps of heredity, of suffering, of psychological complexes and injustices.” – Paul Tournier

8. “Acceptance doesn’t mean that life gets better; it just means that my way of living life on life’s terms improves.” – Sharon E. Rainey

9. “Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” – J.K. Rowling

10. “Acceptance does not mean that you placidly acquiesce to the myriad injustices that are all around you. In fact, that you are incensed about these injustices is the very reason you need to try your level best to right these wrongs.” – Srikumar Rao

Inspiring Acceptance Quotes to Get You Through Life’s Winding Roads

11. “Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world. Don’t let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form. Risk being seen in all of your glory.” – Jim Carrey

12. “We must have strong minds, ready to accept facts as they are.” – Harry S. Truman

13. “Anything in life that we don’t accept will simply make trouble for us until we make peace with it.” – Shakti Gawain

14. “Of course, there is no formula for success, except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life, and what it brings.” – Arthur Rubinstein

15. “I know what it’s like to battle every day of my life, just for acceptance, just to survive.” – Christine Feehan

Bite-Sized Acceptance Quotes to Lift Your Mood

16. “Acceptance is the key to everything.” – Michael J. Fox

17. “Serenity comes when you trade expectations for acceptance.” – Gautama Buddha

18. “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” – Albert Einstein

19. “You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.” – Ray Bradbury

20. “Nothing brings down walls as surely as acceptance.” – Deepak Chopra

21. “It’s best to accept life as it really is and not as I imagined it to be.” – Paulo Coelho

Positive Acceptance Quotes That’ll Lead You to Happiness

22. “Happiness can exist only in acceptance.” – George Orwell

23. “My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations.” – Michael J. Fox

24. “The secret of being happy is accepting where you are in life and making the most of every day.” – Anonymous

25. “Accept whatsoever is there, and once you accept unconditionally, then everything is beautiful.” – Osho

Also read: Happiness Quotes, Encouraging Quotes

Acceptance Quotes That Everyone Needs to Read

26. “Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” – Marcus Aurelius

27. “Accepting all the good and bad about someone. It’s a great thing to aspire to. The hard part is actually doing it.” – Sarah Dessen

28. “I’ve learned that universal acceptance and appreciation is just an unrealistic goal.” – Dan Brown

29. “Acceptance is being able to feel beautiful in whatever you feel comfortable in.” – Barbie Ferreira 

30. “Acceptance of prevailing standards often means we have no standards of our own.” – Jean Toomer

31. “The acceptance of certain realities doesn’t preclude idealism. It can lead to certain breakthroughs.” – Rem Koolhaas

32. “Acceptance is different from apathy. It is important to strive to be your best self, your healthiest, most productive, joyful self. But that is going to be a different answer for everyone.” – Teri Hatcher

Acceptance Quotes That’ll Make You Feel Loved and Appreciated

33. “Give love and unconditional acceptance to those you encounter, and notice what happens.” – Wayne Dyer

34. “There will always be people who will accept you for what you are!” – Sakura Tsukuba

35. “At the heart of personality is the need to feel a sense of being lovable without having to qualify for that acceptance.” – Paul Tournier

36. “The moment that judgment stops through acceptance of what it is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.” – Eckhart Tolle

37. “Briefly, unconditional acceptance means liking yourself, others, and the world when you are not getting what you want and in spite of your getting what you don’t want.” – Albert Ellis

38. “Acceptance is not loving. You love a person because he or she has lovable traits, but you accept everybody just because they’re alive and human.” – Albert Ellis

39. “I surround people in unconditional acceptance and love to such a degree that everything that is unloving about them rises to the surface.” – Iyanla Vanzant

40. “To love is to accept a soul entirely, not wishing that the person was otherwise, nor hoping for change, nor clinging to some ideal past. To love is to cherish the individual standing before you presently―charms, quirks, and all. To love is to give someone a piece of your heart that you will never, ever reclaim.” – Richelle E. Goodrich

Acceptance Quotes to Help You Cope With Things You Can’t Change

41. “I was willing to accept what I couldn’t change.” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

42. “In order to accept any sort of change, you must realize that you do not have control over everything in your life.” – Oscar Auliq-Ice

43. “We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate; it oppresses.” – Carl Jung

44. “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” – Denis Waitley

45. “If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.” – Michael Jordan

46. “When you invoke the agent of change called acceptance, you must accept all that you are, all that you’ve been, and all that you will be in the future.” – Debbie Ford

Acceptance Quotes for People Who Seek Growth and Development

47. “We must accept life for what it actually is—a challenge to our quality without which we should never know of what stuff we are made, or grow to our full stature.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

48. “Maturity, one discovers, has everything to do with the acceptance of not knowing.” – Mark Z. Danielewski

49. “Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness.” – Jean Vanier

50. “Surrender is the inner transition from resistance to acceptance, from no to yes.” – Eckhart Tolle

51. “The older I get, the more I believe that the greatest kindness is acceptance.” – Christina Baker Kline

Acceptance Quotes That’ll Open Your Eyes to Other Helpful Values

52. “Acceptance, tolerance, and forgiveness, those are life-altering lessons.” – Jessica Lange

53. “Any natural, normal human being, when faced with any kind of loss, will go from shock all the way through acceptance.” – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

54. “The first thing a kindness deserves is acceptance, the second, transmission.” – George MacDonald

55. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” – Reinhold Niebuhr

56. “The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are, and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen.” – Ralph S. Marston

57. “See it for what it is and own it, rather than rethink it, so you don’t have to deal with the trauma of the abuse. This is the only way to move on—through acceptance.” – Shannon L. Alder

Deep Acceptance Quotes to Help You Gain Clarity

58. “The acceptance that all that is solid has melted into the air, that reality and morality are not givens, but imperfect human constructs are the point from which fiction begins.” – Salman Rushdie

59. “If I could define enlightenment briefly, I would say it is the quiet acceptance of what is.” – Wayne Dyer

60. “When you learn to accept fear, you cease making a catastrophe of it. Then it ceases to be your master.” – Nathaniel Branden

61. “The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is no assurance of its truth.” – Pierre Bayle

62. “Acceptance and assimilation, you know, breed mediocrity and perhaps an even more sheep-like conformism in terms of what kind of music you’re supposed to listen to if you’re gay. What are you supposed to look like? What’s your body supposed to look like?” – John Cameron Mitchell

63. “These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn’t even know existed.” – Ricky Martin

64. “One has to accept pain as a condition of existence. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict but apt always to the total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.” – Morris West 

More Acceptance Quotes for You to Enjoy

65. “The acceptance of death gives you more of a stake in life, in living life happily, as it should be lived. Living for the moment.” – Sting

66. “Generally speaking, the way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.” – Miyamoto Musashi

67. “I’m not wise, but the beginning of wisdom is there; it’s like relaxing into and an acceptance of things.” – Tina Turner

68. “Social acceptance, being liked, has so much power because it holds the feelings of loneliness at bay.” – Rollo May

69. “Everybody has many people inside of them. I think we tend to present the one we feel is most appropriate at first in order to gain acceptance or achieve what we want.” – Rupert Friend

70. “Some people confuse acceptance with apathy, but there’s all the difference in the world. Apathy fails to distinguish between what can and what cannot be helped; acceptance makes that distinction. Apathy paralyzes the will to action; acceptance frees it by relieving it of impossible burdens.” – Arthur Gordon Webster

Are You Sometimes Unable to Accept the Reality of a Situation?

Allowing yourself to accept things as they are is just one step toward finding a silver lining in the clouds. You need to know that without acceptance, there can be no change, no growth, nor any hope for improvement.

Once you accept the fact that you’re struggling right now, you can move on to finding solutions to your problem. Instead of letting it weigh down on you like a ton of bricks, take action and look for ways to turn this around.

It’s easier said than done, but it’s worth a try. After all, acceptance is the only step in the grieving process that will help you move on with life. It’s also the only way for you to become a better person in the future.

With that, we hope this list of acceptance quotes was able to give you a positive outlook on inevitable life changes. Remember that acceptance is an opportunity for growth and the ability to find deeper meaning in each experience. So live your life and accept what you can’t control as it comes!

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.