Small and great sources of encouragement from the world of books, offered to accompany you into the new year and help ensure a smooth beginning.

Small and great sources of encouragement from the world of books, offered to accompany you into the new year and help ensure a smooth beginning.

Becoming still, finding rest, looking back and letting go – these are the themes that occupy us as the year draws to a close. In the time between Christmas, New Year and Epiphany, it is not only the distinctive atmosphere of transition that invites reflection, but also the ancient ritual of the Rauhnächte – the twelve nights of contemplation.

Twelve nights in which time seems to stand still, in which an endless night appears to keep watch, calling on us to turn our gaze inward and to find the light there. For even after the darkest winter, a new summer awaits us.

To experience the turning of the year “without fear that no summer might follow”, as Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote, is something these Rauhnacht rituals – such as incense burning and reflection – allow us to do. And, of course, books must not be missing. Whether filled pages that nourish us or blank pages waiting to be written, books are our most steadfast companions at the threshold of a new year. For within them lie forces that always allow light to triumph over darkness: words that give courage.

As every New Year’s Eve, we at novum publishing would like to offer you small sources of encouragement for the year ahead – words that illuminate even the darkest night like fireworks and may bathe us in a hopeful shimmer of light.

Selected Quotes for 2026

Quotes for New Beginnings

“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.” —Thomas Jefferson

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” —Andre Gide

“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited about what could go right.” —Tony Robbins

“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.” —Alan Cohen

Quotes for Letting Got

“Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand, and becoming comfortable with not knowing.” – Eckhart Tolle

“Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” – Hermann Hesse

“We must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell

“The creative process is a process of surrender, no control.” – Julia Cameron

Quotes for Courage in Life

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”– Mark Twain

“It’s not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.”– Seneca

“Choose the great adventure of being brave and afraid at the exact same time”– Brené Brown

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — E.E. Cummings

Quotes for Confidence

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” – Nora Ephron

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” — Pablo Neruda

“You will face many defeats in your life, but never let yourself be defeated.” — Maya Angelou

2026 is just around the corner – and are you considering a new book project?
At novum publishing, we are still looking for new authors. Find out more here about the opportunities to become an author with our publishing house.