45 Yoga Quotes and Sayings for Your Mind, Body, and Spirit

Nowadays, it's common to find yoga classes in the neighborhood or videos on the internet. Our curated yoga quotes will encourage you to start with, explore, or master this holistic exercise.

Have you seen a yoga class before? Some poses look easy, but they aren't. It's far more complicated than stretching your body in different positions. Yoga is a 5000-year-old multidisciplinary practice focusing not only on our physical but also our mental and spiritual being.

Since yoga came from Northern India, we can encounter references in Sanskrit, which is the root of many Indian languages.

Some terminologies to be familiar with are asana, the physical postures, and pranayama, regulated breathing. Typical terms are guru, the master or teacher, and namaste, which gurus and students say at the end of traditional yoga classes.

Look through our curated yoga quotes below to learn about this ancient mind-body workout.

Related: You might also like our mindfulness quotes & self-care ideas.

Quick links to our selection of yoga quotes:

Best Yoga Quotes

Yoga has become global ever since Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu leader, introduced it to the Western world in his speech in Chicago for the World Parliament of Religion in 1893. In the mid-1900s, it steadily rose in popularity because yoga teachers like Indra Devi and Swami Vishnudevananda set up schools in America.

According to Statista, there are 34.4 million yoga practitioners in America as of 2021, which is 10% of the population. 

If you're new to this type of workout, grab an eco-friendly yoga mat, and you may also like our Joseph Pilates quotes about a close and related discipline.

"The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness."
- Sakyong Mipham

"You may not be able to control the whole world, but you may learn to control your inner world through yoga."
- Debasish Mridha

"Yoga is a way to freedom. By its constant practice, we can free ourselves from fear, anguish and loneliness."
- Indra Devi

"True yoga is not about the shape of your body,but the shape of your life."
- Aadil Palkhivala

"Yoga is equal parts strength, flexibility, balance, and endurance."
- Mandy Ingber

"We all wish for world peace, but world peace will never be achieved unless we first establish peace within our own minds."
- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.

~ Buddha

Encouraging Yoga Quotes About Its Benefits

It's already common knowledge that exercise gives us many health benefits, from physical to mental. Even though the well-known type of yoga is focused only on asana or the physical component, scientific evidence has already proven its broader benefits.

Some rewards of yoga include better flexibility¹, which can reduce stress. In its traditional form, true yoga also benefits our spiritual health by increasing mindfulness, awareness, calmness, and compassion. 

It's more than what meets the eye; yoga is so much more than just a workout. So after reading the yoga quotes below, browse our selection of sustainable yoga clothes, grab some sustainable yoga props, and enroll in a class to start reaping these benefits in your everyday life.

"It is indeed true that by practicing yoga we gradually improve our ability to concentrate and to be independent. We improve our health, our relationships, and everything we do."
- T.K.V. Desikachar

"Not only is yoga excellent for flexibility, but it is also a great tool for longevity and injury prevention, as it allows for internal body awareness."
- Kyle Shewfelt

"Yoga means addition – addition of energy, strength, and beauty to body, mind and soul."
- Amit Ray

"Yoga is a dance between control and surrender — between pushing and letting go — and when to push and when to let go becomes part of the creative process, part of the open-ended exploration of your being."
- Joel Kramer

"Yoga is the ultimate practice. It simultaneously stimulates our inner light, and quiets our over-active minds. It is both energy and rest. Yin and Yang. We feel the burn, and find our bliss."
- Elise Joan

"Yoga has always been an integral part of my lifestyle. The benefits I have reaped from a constant practice have been invaluable to me."
- Lara Dutta

"Yoga has become important in the lives of many contemporary Westerners, sometimes as a way of improving health and fitness of the body, but also as a means of personal and spiritual development."
- Tara Fraser

Yoga is not a religion. It is a science, science of well-being, science of youthfulness, science of integrating body, mind, and soul.

~ Amit Ray

Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Yoga is not just repetition of few postures, it is more about the exploration and discovery of the subtle energies of life

~ Amit Ray

Yoga Quotes To Motivate You To Start

If you're now determined to begin, start small. Since yoga has no minimum duration, you can start with a tiny yet sustainable daily target. Additionally, we should be cautious of possible injuries when doing the poses.

Even though it's a low-risk activity, one in ten people experience severe pain after completing a yoga session, according to Bodywork and Movement Therapies' research. So start slowly, and if you're a beginner, start with easier classes online in with an instructor. 

You don't have to spend a dollar to enter the yoga world. Start your journey now after looking through the following inspirational yoga quotes.

"Yoga begins with listening. When we listen, we are giving space to what is."
- Richard Freeman

"Do yoga and exercises daily even if it is for a few minutes only and results would appear in a few days only."
- Milkha Singh

"When we let go of our battles and open our hearts to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice."
- Jack Kornfield

"A photographer gets people to pose for him. A yoga instructor gets people to pose for themselves."
- T. Guillemets

"Move your joints every day. You have to find your own tricks. Bury your mind deep in your heart, and watch the body move by itself."
- Sri Dharma Mittra

"Yoga doesn't care about what you have been; yoga cares about the person you are becoming."
- Aadil Palkhivala

"Yoga is the settling of the mind into silence. When the mind has settled, we are established in our essential nature, which is unbounded Consciousness. Our essential nature is usually overshadowed by the activity of the mind."
- Patanjali

"Change only happens in the present moment. The past is already done. The future is just energy and intention."
- Kino MacGregor

Go from a human being doing yoga to a human being yoga.

~ Baron Baptiste

Yoga is invigoration in relaxation. Freedom in routine. Confidence through self control. Energy within and energy without.

~ Ymber Delecto

Helpful Quotes About Yoga Practice To Improve

While spreading the yoga culture in the West, Swami Vishnudevananda summarized the ancient wisdom of yoga into five principles. So whether you're a beginner, intermediate, or expert in practicing yoga, you should always be mindful of the following principles:

• Asana - proper exercise
• Pranayama - proper breathing
• Savasana - proper relaxation (physical, mental, and spiritual)
• Vegetarian - proper diet
• Vedanta and Dhyana - positive thinking and meditation

After getting inspiration from the yoga quotes below, plan to improve your yoga exercises as both a yoga instructor and someone looking to explore the five points mentioned.

"The success of Yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships."
- T.K.V. Desikachar

"Yoga is not a work-out; it is a work-in. And this is the point of spiritual practice, to make us teachable, to open up our hearts, and focus our awareness so that we can know what we already know and be who we already are."
- Rolf Gates

"Yoga is designed for a vast and profound purpose, and for it to be truly called yoga, its essence must be embodied."
- Aadil Palkhivala

"Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions."
- Pema Chodron

"The very heart of yoga practice is ‘abyhasa' steady effort in the direction you want to go."
- Sally Kempton

"Yoga does not remove us from the reality or responsibilities of everyday life but rather places our feet firmly and resolutely in the practical ground of experience."
- Donna Farhi

Perfect Yoga Captions To Post On Social Media

In December 2014, the United Nations proclaimed June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in response to the worldwide appeal of this holistic practice. On its first celebration, over 35000 people performed yoga postures for 35 minutes in Kartavya Path, New Delhi.

On the next yoga day, celebrate by inviting a friend to beginner-friendly poses like the poses from Sun Salutation A or Surya Namaskar A. You will have a yoga buddy in no time!

After reading the rest of the yoga quotes below, capture your best poses for social media to inspire your friends to practice yoga.

"Yoga teaches you how to listen to your body."
- Mariel Hemingway

"Yoga exists in the world because everything is linked."
- T. K. V. Desikachar

"Yoga is a light, which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter your flame."
- B.K.S. Iyengar

"Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self."
- The Bhagavad

"If you seek peace, be still. If you seek wisdom, be silent. If you seek love, be yourself."
- Becca Lee

"Yoga begins right where I am — not where I was yesterday or where I long to be."
- Linda Sparrowe

"Yoga is not about self-improvement. It's about self-acceptance."
- Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa

"The yoga pose you avoid the most you need the most."
- Unknown

A Few More Short Yoga Quotes

The pose begins when you want to get out of it.

~ Baron Baptiste

Yoga takes you into the present moment, the only place where life exists.

~ Unknown

For those wounded by civilization, yoga is the most healing salve.

~ T. Guillemets

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.

~ Etty Hillesum

The attitude of gratitude is the highest yoga

~ Yogi Bhajan