New Year Quotes and Sayings

While the ending of one calendar year and the beginning of the next may not seem a significant event to all, it does provide a good excuse to celebrate. Whether you question the significance of the actual event, dismiss it, poke fun at it, or just go along with the crowd, everyone has something to say about the change of year, and all that it signifies.

Given here are a wide range of opinions, some clever some rhyming and some deep, about the change of year. They provide many different perspectives, and often enough, a good laugh.

We're sure you'll find some worthy to include in your toast, or to use as new year day wishes. Enjoy these New Year quotes, by some famous people, and not-so-famous ones, who all have a way with words.

The birth of a new year brings with it new dreams, aspirations and the anticipation of achieving them. The following quotes motivate you to enter the new year with gusto.

''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

''Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.'' ~ Benjamin Franklin

''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

''We meet today
To thank Thee for the era done,
And Thee for the opening one.'' ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

'''One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things.'' ~ John Burroughs

'''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

'''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. And he replied: Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.'' ~ Minnie L. Haskins

Given here are a few New Year sayings as quoted by some famous people, wishing people the joy of the New Year.

'''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, 1850

'''For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.'' ~ T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

'''Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.'' ~ Oscar Wilde

'''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

'''We spend January 1 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

'''Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.'' ~ Oprah Winfrey

Add a touch of humor to your New Year greetings and enliven the already jubilant mood of the season. Mentioned here are some hilarious sayings that you can use.

''Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to.'' ~ Bill Vaughn

''People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas.'' ~ Author Unknown

''He who breaks a resolution is a weakling;
He who makes one is a fool.'' ~ F.M. Knowles

Here are a few more ironically funny quotes to pep up the spirit of New Year. However, take them with a pinch of salt.

''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

''A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.'' ~ Author Unknown

''The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.'' ~ P.J. O'Rourke

''New Year's Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot. Unless, of course, those tests come back positive.'' ~ Jay Leno

''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

And to add cherry on top, here is a beautiful piece of poetry about welcoming the new year.

Perhaps a bit wiser,
a bit kinder, too,
a little bit braver,
a heart that's more true,
a touch of believing
I've not known before,
in joys I'm receiving
a little bit more.

(Contd...)
A little more anxious
to reach out my hand,
despite hurt or problems
to still understand,
accepting the heartache
that life often brings,
a little more beauty
in life's simple things.

(Contd...)
A prayer when I'm weary
as onward I trod,
a little more trusting,
believing in God,
'tis this I would wish for
within moments dear,
not a lot - just a little
this wondrous new year.

~ Garnett Ann Schultz ~

Hope you enjoyed reading these new year quotes and sayings. While much emphasis is placed on the 1st of January, we believe that each sunrise brings with it the opportunity for a fresh start. Nonetheless, embrace the chance to change your life and turn your back on all that is detrimental to you. Wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!