These rejection quotes will remind you that nothing can stop you from achieving greatness in life!
Rejection is a fact of life that is difficult to deal with. Nobody wants to believe that they are insufficient. But, being rejected indicates that you still have something to learn, which will help you grow as a person.
This collection includes rejection quotes on life, love, success, and many more. We’re sure you’ll find a lot of relatable quotes that will help comfort you when you face rejection or anything that might bring down your mood.
Let’s get started.
And don’t forget to check out these hurt quotes and sad quotes.
Best Rejection Quotes
1. “In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.” – Nikos Kazantzakis
2. “Today’s rejection may become tomorrow’s acceptance.” – Ehsan Sehgal
3. “Most fears of rejection rest on the desire for approval from other people. Don’t base your self-esteem on their opinions.” – Harvey Mackay
4. “I am good at walking away. Rejection teaches you how to reject.” – Jeanette Winterson
5. “To be kind and gentle even under provocation. Never to stand on one’s dignity. To choose always the hardest.” – Mother Teresa
6. “Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection.” – Henri J.M. Nouwen
7. “Remember, the pain of rejection is nothing compared to the pain of regret.” – Matthew Hussey
8. “I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.” – Sylvester Stallone
9. “If you live for people’s acceptance you will die from their rejection.” – LeCrae
10. “A rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success.” – Bo Bennett
11. “Human rejection can be God’s divine protection.” – Paula Hendricks
12. “Rejection can disappoint you, depress you and may even stop you in your tracks. Learn not to take rejection so personally—if you’re honest with yourself and believe in your work, others will too.” – Bev Jozwiak
13. “The better you are at communicating, negotiating, and handling fear of rejection, the easier life is.” – Robert Kiyosaki
14. “Some people are going to reject you simply because you shine too bright for them. That’s okay, keep shining.” – Anonymous
15. “Rejection is God’s protection.” – Alice Hunt
Inspirational Rejection Quotes
16. “Be mature enough to accept rejection and failure.” – Varshitha Karanam
17. “Successful people reject rejection.” – John C. Maxwell
18. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” – Og Mandino
19. “I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.” – Billy Joel
20. “Learn to accept rejections.” – Stefy Anto
21. “Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
22. “Never fear rejection for a life of regretting.” – Anonymous
23. “The effects of rejection can either kill your muse or change your life.” – Jane Champagne
24. “Rejection isn’t failure. Failure is giving up. Everybody gets rejected. It’s how you handle it that determines where you’ll end up.” – Richard Castle
25. “The most powerful motivation is rejection.” – Anonymous
26. “Don’t take rejection overly personally. If that doesn’t work out, there’s something else waiting for you.” – Sierra McCormick
27. “Rejection teaches you about where you stand. There is nothing wrong with that. When I look back at the time, I don’t regret being rejected, but I regret wasting years.” – Neeraj Agnihotri
28. “Each rejection brings us closer to acceptance.” – Ramesh Lohia
29. “Rejection is the sand in the oyster, the irritation that ultimately produces the pearl.” – Burke Wilkinson
30. “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle
Quotes That Highlight One’s Feelings After Encountering a Rejection
31. “I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death, and flung it back to me. People feel with their hearts, Ellen, and since he has destroyed mine, I have no power to feel for him.” – Emily Brontë
32. “Everybody said, ‘Follow your heart.’ I did, it got broken.” – Agatha Christie
33. “Only through travel can we know where we belong or not, where we are loved, and where we are rejected.” – Roman Payne
34. “Was I bitter? Absolutely. Hurt? You bet your sweet ass I was hurt. Who doesn’t feel a part of their heart break at rejection? You ask yourself every question you can think of, what, why, how come, and then your sadness turns to anger. That’s my favorite part. It drives me, feeds me, and makes one hell of a story.” – Jennifer Salaiz
35. “A best friend is the only one that walks into your life when the world has walked out.” – Shannon l. Alder
36. “Placing my head on my knees, I let the irrational tears fall unrestrained. I am crying over the loss of something I never had.” – E.L. James
37. “It’s like walking past a mirror you’ve walked past every day of your life, and suddenly it shows you something else, something troubling and strange.” – Kazuo Ishiguro
38. “I don’t want anyone who doesn’t want me.” – Oprah Winfrey
39. “Every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better.” – Steve Maraboli
40. “Everyone pretends to be ‘free thinkers’, but few individuals pass the line into expressive territories that may be detrimental to their own social well-being.” – Criss Jami
Quotes About What Rejection in Love and Relationships Entail
41. “Rejection just motivates me to keep trying and to try to do better.” – Sasha Grey
42. “There can be no deep disappointment where there is no deep love.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
43. “It’s easy to cry when you realize that everyone you love will reject you or die.” – Chuck Palahniuk
44. “If you’re betrayed, release disappointment at once. By that way, the bitterness has no time to take root.” – Toba Beta
45. “A man who rejects you is simply clearing the way for the one you deserve.” – Naide P Obiang
46. “If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.” – Henry David Thoreau
47. “Depression taught me how to love myself more than rejection ever could.” – Nitya Prakash
48. “If a circle shuts you out, draw a circle around it.” – Marty Rubin
49. “If you aren’t mad about the rejection, you didn’t invest enough into the process.” – Darnell Lamont Walker
50. “I have learned not to allow rejection to move me.” – Cicely Tyson
Quotes to Motivate You to Use Rejection as a Stepping Stone to Success
51. “Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding.” – Jim Valvano
52. “Learn how to face rejection. Don’t forget to always be positive in all dealings. Starting out is always the hard part, and once this obstacle is overcome everything else will be a breeze at doing.” – Anonymous
53. “Rejection tests whether you’re serious about your dreams.” – Tiyasha Ghosh
54. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
55. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” – Muhammad Ali
56. “You must learn how to handle rejection. To succeed, you must learn how to cope with a little word ‘no,’ learn how to strip that rejection of all its power. The best salesmen are those who are rejected most. They are the ones who can take any ‘no’ and use it as a prod to go onto the next ‘yes.’” – Tony Robbins
57. “Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.” – Og Mandino
58. “Work like hell! I had 122 rejection slips before I sold a story.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
59. “It is not rejection itself that people fear, it is the possible consequences of rejection. Preparing to accept those consequences and viewing rejection as a learning experience that will bring you closer to success, will not only help you to conquer the fear of rejection but help you to appreciate rejection itself.” – Robert Foster Bennett
60. “My advice to everybody—never give up and have great resiliency. Don’t take the rejection personally, but listen if it’s intelligent and make changes if they’re needed and then move forward.” – Sherry Lansing
Great Quotes That Will Empower You to Face Any Form of Rejection
61. “Realize your true strength when people reject you. In actual fact, they do not reject you. They only show you your real strength.” – Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
62. “Finish your race even if you must do it bruised and alone.” – Naide P Obiang
63. “You get used to rejection and you don’t take it personally.” – Daniel Craig
64. “The only thing that will help us move past the giant of rejection is to immerse ourselves in the acceptance of Christ.” – Louie Giglio
65. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” – Steve Jobs
66. “To be set aside is to be rejected. To be set apart is to be given an assignment that requires preparation.” – Lysa TerKeurst
67. “People’s rejection can be God’s direction for you.” – Farshad Asl
68. “If you aren’t ready for rejection, you aren’t ready for love.” – Marty Rubin
69. “Make the first move, tell people how you feel, stop being so scared of rejection, stop feeling so engulfed with thoughts that aren’t even yours, and stop wasting your time.” – Anonymous
70. “Do not worry when rejected by mankind. If you return to God, your righteous Maker will receive you.” – Lailah Gifty Akita
71. “Everyone at some point in life has faced rejection and failure, it is part of the process to self-realization.” – Laila Gifty Akita
72. “Rejection is not the end. Just a step on the path.” – Anonymous
73. “When you give yourself permission to communicate what matters to you in every situation you will have peace despite rejection or disapproval. Putting a voice to your soul helps you to let go of the negative energy of fear and regret.” – Shannon L. Alder
74. “If at first, you think it’s rejection, it’s probably actually newfound freedom.” – Emilyann Allen
75. “Rejection is a part of any man’s life. If you can’t accept and move past rejection, or at least use it as writing material—you’re not a real man.” – Master Jiraiya
Quotes to Highlight the Pros and Cons of Rejection
76. “Rejection is an opportunity for your selection.” – Bernard Branson
77. “Rejection isn’t a sign that something is wrong for you, it’s a sign that they’re wrong for you.” – Sonya Parker
78. “Don’t feel bad if someone rejects you or ignores you. People usually reject and ignore expensive things because they can’t afford them.” – Anonymous
79. “We all learn lessons in life. Some stick, some don’t. I have always learned more from rejection and failure than from acceptance and success.” – Henry Rollins
80. “Rejection doesn’t have to mean you aren’t good enough; it often just means the other person failed to notice what you have to offer.” – Ash Sweeney
81. “You have to take all the rejections that life will throw at you. We do not grow in happiness, but we grow in sadness. Each rejection teaches us something new.” – Avijeet Das
82. “A clear rejection is always better than a fake promise.” – Zig Ziglar
83. “A rejection may cause pain. However, it’s not a failure; it shows reality and other ways too.” – Ehsan Sehgal
84. “Rejection is not meant to reduce you, it’s meant to reroute you to God’s purpose for your life.” – Danny Chambers
85. “See rejection as redirection.” – Anonymous
86. “Rejection gives you more power to push forward.” – Jeremy Limn
87. “There is going to be a hundred thousand doors slammed in your face before one opens, so feel okay about taking rejection.” – Heather Matarazzo
88. “Taking risks is part of life, but to take risks invites the possibility of failure and rejection, but also the possibility of true happiness.” – Morten Hogsberg
89. “Rejection is a common occurrence. Learning that early and often will help you build up the tolerance and resistance to keep going and keep trying.” – Kevin Feige
90. “I know that when a door closes, it can feel like all doors are closing. A rejection letter can feel like everyone will reject us. But a closed door leads to clarity. It’s really an arrow. Because we cannot go through that door, we will go somewhere else. That somewhere else is your true life.” – Tama J. Kieves
Quotes About Rejection That Will Pique Your Interest
91. “We are always afraid to ask because we aren’t afraid of the answer but the feeling of rejection.” – Anna R.
92. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
93. “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
94. “To get rejected so vehemently over and over again until some said it was the rejection I was after. No, it wasn’t I wanted the intensity that you sometimes promised.” – Dorothea Lasky
95. “I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.” – Sylvia Plath
96. “Rejection, though—it could make the loss of someone you weren’t even that crazy about feel gut-wrenching and world ending.” – Deb Caletti
97. “But there’s only so much rejection you can take before you finally give up and stop trying.” – Brigid Kemmerer
98. “Every broken heart has screamed at one time or another, ‘I want to know why!’” – Shannon L. Alder
99. “The fear of rejection is worse than rejection itself.” – Nora Profit
100. “Don’t lose your hope until you get rejected, because once you lose your respect you will get rejected.” – Allan Bridjith
101. “When you’re following your inner voice, doors tend to eventually open for you, even if they mostly slam at first.” – Kelly Cutrone
102. “Your soulmate is not the person who rejected you.” – Daniel V. Chappell
103. “Rejection is a challenge.” – Veronica Purcell
104. “Friendship was a concept men bandied about to save face when they were rejected.” – Courtney Milan
105. “Rejection of desire is liberating. Renunciation is a form of power.” – Kilroy J. Oldster
Rejection Quotes Packed With Insights
106. “Acceptance, under someone else’s terms, is worse than rejection.” – Mary Cassatt
107. “There’s nothing as painful as rejection without correction. It’s like direction without destination.” – Kabelo Mabona
108. “Artistic rejection is like taking cod liver oil; they say it’s good for you, you know they’re right, but it can still be tough to swallow.” – Ian Semple
109. “Rejection is a part of life. Just learn to deal with it and keep moving.” – Samyak Mendhe
110. “Every rejection is incremental payment on your dues that in some way will be translated back into your work.” – James Lee Burke
111. “There’s nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself.” – James Lee Burke
112. “If you aren’t getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren’t ambitious enough.” – Chris Dixon
113. “A girl who is interested in becoming a model must first accept the fact that she is the product. She must be ready to deal with a lot of rejection.” – Karolina Kurkova
114. “Rejection is the reason why people deny their true feelings.” – Anonymous
115. “A boo is a lot louder than a cheer. If you have 10 people cheering and one person booing, all you hear is the booing.” – Lance Armstrong
116. “If rejection destroys your self-esteem, you’re letting others hold you as an emotional hostage.” – Brian Tracy
117. “You have to learn to take rejection not as an indication of personal failure but as a wrong address.” – Ray Bradbury
118. “Seems like the light at the end of the tunnel may be you.” – Steven Tyler
119. “We fear rejection, want attention, crave affection, and dream of perfection.” – Mac Miller
120. “It is necessary to put yourself out for rejection, and accept that you will be rejected.” – Robert Genn
More Rejection Quotes You’ll Love
121. “Just because you are different doesn’t mean that you have to be rejected.” – Eartha Kitt
122. “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” – Robin Williams
123. “I’d been rejected, but I was still in love, so I decided to start over.” – Steve Jobs
124. “Learn to eat rejection; it will make you stronger.” – Bob Ragland
125. “Literature simply becomes richer after you’ve been fired, rejected, stranded, or had to change a few midnight diapers.” – Christian Bauman
126. “Rejection is the greatest aphrodisiac.” – Madonna Louise Ciccone
127. “Dear to us are those who love us but dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life; they build a heaven before us whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the recesses of the spirit.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
128. “Rejection is part of the game. Or rather, rejection is part of the profession. A profession which at times can feel like a game.” – Robin Black
129. “Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.” – Marcus Aurelius
130. “Don’t let anyone, or any rejection, keep you from what you want.” – Ashley Tisdale
How Did Our Collection Encourage You to Deal With Rejections?
Rejection can occur in large or in small ways in everyday life. It could come from family, friends, a romantic partner, or an employer.
When people are not accepted by others, they feel humiliated and sad. However, this does not imply that the person is not liked, valued, or important.
Being rejected is a chance to consider any areas where you can improve on. Remember that everyone’s perfect in their own way; it’s just that everyone goes through life at a different pace.
So, even if you were turned down today, remember that there would be another opportunity, another time. Find the strength to pick yourselves up and start over!
Which quotes are your favorites? Comment down below.