39 January Quotes and Sayings to Start the Year Right

In the first month of the year, we are overflowing with hope for what the next 365 days will bring us. We create new year resolutions, set goals, and experience chilly weather. That's why we have prepared the collection of January quotes below that to encapsulate these experiences, along with inspirational and funny messages.

As the first day of January approaches, people usually ask us about our new year's resolutions. In 2022, the top 5 priorities Americans want to achieve are a healthy lifestyle, personal happiness, weight loss, career, and finances. How about you? What are your resolutions for the new year? 

Read the following January quotes below as a new chapter awaits writing.

Related: Like we welcome the new year, you might also like our new day quotes and winter quotes to remind you the weather will change in time.

Quick links to our selection of January quotes:

Best January Quotes

January only existed when the Catholic church modified the Julian calendar in 1582. The new format, the Gregorian calendar, included the two months to approximate the solar year, which is 365.2425 days. And to compensate for the excess, we have a leap year every four years.

For further reading about the different calendars of the past, here is a chapter from E.G. Richard's book, Mapping Time: The Calendar and Its History.

Welcome the first month by reading the January quotes below.

"New Year's Day. A fresh start. A new chapter waiting to be written."
- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"I'm not the biggest fan of New Year's resolutions, but I'm a huge backer for real life change - that's why January gets me so geeked up."
- Mark Schlereth

"January, the first month of the year. A perfect time to start all over again, changing energies and deserting old moods, new beginnings, new attitudes."
- Charmaine J. Forde

Motivational January Quotes For New Beginnings

January is named after the Roman god of doors and gates, Janus. He represents the transitions in life fitting our situation during the first month of the new year. Janus' image has two faces back to back - one sees the past, the other the future. Like the Roman god, we also want to be nostalgic to prepare for the days ahead. And based on a study, nostalgia has numerous benefits to our well-being², including optimism about the future.

Get excited about the fresh beginning the new year brings as you review the following inspirational January quotes.

"I like starting projects in January. That's the best time to start something. It's so inward."
- Carolyn Chute

"New year—a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours."
- Alex Morritt

"I'll never understand why everybody puts so much emphasis on January first. There are three hundred and sixty-four other days in the year that you can make a change."
- Elizabeth Eulberg

"Welcome January: January is a time of quiet and new beginnings – is the perfect time to reflect on how you want to live your life. January is the perfect time to refocus on your priorities and set goals."
- Unknown

"Each day is a new beginning, the chance to do with it what should be done and not to be seen as simply another day to put in time."
- Catherine Pulsifer

"January looks forward to the new year and back to the old year. He sees past and future."
- M.L. Stedman

"I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. I think if you want to change something, change it today and don't wait until the New Year."
- Georgina Bloomberg

December is letting go, Of all the past year's fails, And starting anew in January, As time again chases its tail.

~ Stewart Stafford

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.

~ T.S. Eliot

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

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

Quotes About January Weather

We're in the middle of winter and wearing thick clothes while welcoming the new year. But have we already encountered the coldest, or are we experiencing it soon? Based on the National Centers for Environmental Information database, January boasts the coldest temperature for the east coast as the freezing air flow south from Canada. On the other hand, the western region's coldest day is December.

Keep yourself warm as you read the following January quotes about the chilly weather and celebrate the first snow of the year.

"Through the chill of December the early winter moans but it's that January wind that rattles old bones."
- John Facenda

"January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow."
- Sara Coleridge

"If you go to Minnesota in January, you should know that it's gonna be cold. You don't panic when the thermometer falls below zero."
- Peter Lynch

"It is deep January. The sky is hard. The stalks are firmly rooted in ice."
- Wallace Stevens

"You can’t get too much winter in the winter."
- Robert Frost

"January is the coolest month of the year for most of the Caribbean. . . daytime highs are typically comfortably hot, while the nights remain warm."
- Liz Osborn

Funny January Quotes To Brighten Your Day

For some, January brings fired-up motivation; for others, the month brings fleeting inspiration to change. According to a 2022 report by Statista, only 22% pursued their new year's resolutions, 11% did not act on them, and 63% did not make any. Whatever group you are under, pat yourself on the back. You survived the previous year, and that's the most important achievement.

While reminiscing about your past resolutions, laugh at the following January quotes below.

"No one has ever achieved financial fitness with a resolution in January that's abandoned by February."
- Suze Orman

"January is the calendar's ingrown hair."
- Stewart Stafford

"I think it would be more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second."
- Helen Fielding

"Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness."
- Karen Joy Fowler

"January is the garbage can of movies in America, directly after all the Oscar contenders have been out."
- Michael Caine

"January is the best time of year for gym owners. You all come. It's great! And then, by Valentine's Day, you're not coming in anymore."
- David Kirsch

January Quotes For The New Year

When welcoming the new year, we could either feel inspired to have another opportunity to change or be indifferent since we know we can transform anytime we want. When you're ready to work on yourself in January or other months, dedicate time to set your SMART goals.

Emphasize attainability because, based on a study, participants who set too-high goals and failed impacted their self-esteem and motivation¹. So if you want to lose the holiday pounds, be kind to yourself during goal setting.

Start your fresh page after reading the following January quotes below, or read up more on how to celebrate and the meaning of New Year's Day.

Related read: January - Awareness Months, Days & Observances.

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

"A New Year has tiptoed in. Let’s go forward to meet it."
- Anusha Atukorala

"And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been."
- Rainer Maria Rilke

"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

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."
- William E. Vaughan

Short January Captions To Post On Social Media

Many fill their social media feeds in January with memories and motivational posts. But aside from the fresh beginnings of the new year, we should also observe another important January celebration, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

In relation to the issues MLK fought, January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and January 1 is World Day of Peace. Participate in these celebrations by integrating kindness and awareness into your resolutions.

Savor the last seconds of new year's eve and celebrate life all month long after you read the remaining January quotes below.

"I blink January's lashes and gush down December's cheeks."
- Sanober Khan

"January is the month for dreaming."
- Jean Hersey

"Every man should be born again on January first. Start with a fresh page."
- Henry Ward Beecher

"If I had my way, I'd remove January from the calendar altogether and have an extra July instead."
- Roald Dahl

"Feeling a little blue in January is normal."
- Marilu Henner

"The magic in new beginnings is the most powerful of them all."
- Josiyah Martin

"I love beginnings. If I were in charge of calendars, every day would be January 1."
- Jerry Spinelli

"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's."
- Henry Moore

More Month Quotes

• February Quotes
• March Quotes
• April Quotes
• May Quotes
• June Quotes
• July Quotes
• August Quotes
• September Quotes
• October Quotes
• November Quotes
• December Quotes