Inspirational Quotations

You can do everything right and still fail, not just once, but overall in life. Luck is more important than we acknowledge.
—Marty Nemko (American Career Coach)

For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death.
—Rachel Carson (American Biologist)

Prejudice, which sees what it pleases, cannot see what is plain.
—Aubrey Thomas de Vere (Irish Poet)

To help, to continually help and share, that is the sum of all knowledge; that is the meaning of art.
—Eleonora Duse (Italian Actress)

Night is a world lit by itself.
—Antonio Porchia (Italian Poet)

Reduce the layers of management. They put distance between the top of an organization and the customers.
—Donald Rumsfeld (American Government Official)

Many of us are more capable than some of us … but none of us is as capable as all of us!.
—Tom Wilson (American Cartoonist)

He who has been bitten by a snake fears a piece of string.
—Persian Proverb

Why didn’t I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future.
—Jonathan Safran Foer (American Novelist)

To agree to keep a secret is to assume a burden.
—Sam Harris (American Neuroscientist, Atheist, Author)

Our first duty is not to hate ourselves, because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God. Those who have no faith in themselves can never have faith in God.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Monk, Mystic)

When the sun rises, do you not see a round disc of fire somewhat like a guinea? O no, no, I see an innumerable company of the heavenly host crying Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.
—William Blake (English Poet)

There must be fired affections before our prayers will go up.
—William Jenkyn (English Clergyman)

What distinguishes knowledge is not certainty but evidence.
—Walter Kaufmann (German-American Philosopher)

Commerce has made all winds her messengers; all climes her tributaries; all people her servants.
—Tryon Edwards (American Theologian)

If you don’t believe in God, all you have to believe in is decency. Decency is very good. Better decent than indecent. But I don’t think it’s enough.
—Harold Macmillan (British Head of State)

Never does a wise man commit a sin for the sake of his happiness. Never will he discard Morality because of his personal love or hatred, even though he may suffer and meet with a failure.
—Buddhist Teaching

I’m not a genius. I’m just a tremendous bundle of experience.
—Buckminster Fuller (American Inventor, Philosopher)

The double truth of feeling totally unimportant and at the same time of uppermost importance is of great help in mastering life in it’s various aspects.
—Hans Taeger

To be deceived by our enemies or betrayed by our friends is insupportable; yet by ourselves we are often content to be so treated.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (French Writer)

Cultivate your own capabilities, your own style. Appreciate the members of your family for who they are, even though their outlook or style may be miles different from yours. Rabbits don’t fly. Eagles don’t swim. Ducks look funny trying to climb. Squirrels don’t have feathers. Stop comparing. There’s plenty of room in the forest.
—Chuck Swindoll (American Christian Pastor)

Good taste is, of course, an utterly dispensable part of any journalist’s equipment.
—Michael Hogg (American Psychologist)

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
—Robert Fulghum (American Unitarian Universalist Author)

Never rise to speak till you have something to say; and when you have said it, cease.
—John Witherspoon (American Clergyman)

No one will persist long in helping someone who will not help themselves.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more.
—Sophie Swetchine (Russian Mystic, Writer)

Pleasure that isn’t paid for is as insipid as everything else that’s free.
—Anita Loos (American Actor)

Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (American Children’s Books Writer)

The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away.
—Wilson Mizner (American Playwright)

If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.
—Gerald M. Weinberg (American Computer Scientist)

The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.
—Brother Lawrence (French Carmelite Monk)

The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If I ever marry, I’ll try to forget the fact.
—Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet, Playwright)

You cannot make it as a wandering generality. You must become a meaningful specific.
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)

One wonders whether a generation that demands instant satisfaction of all its needs and instant solution of the world’s problems will produce anything of lasting value. Such a generation, even when equipped with the most modern technology, will be essentially primitive – it will stand in awe of nature, and submit to the tutelage of medicine men.
—Eric Hoffer (American Philosopher)

An extravagance is something that your spirit thinks is a necessity.
—Bert Williams (American Entertainer)

Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.
—Timothy Leary (American Psychologist)

A human being is not, in any proper sense, a human being till he is educated.
—Horace Mann (American Educator)

The best thing about giving of ourselves is that what we get is always better than what we give. The reaction is greater than the action.
—Orison Swett Marden (American New Thought Writer)

Good deeds ring clear through heaven like a bell.
—Jean Paul (German Novelist)

Creativity is not limited to people practising one of the traditional forms of art, and even in the case of artists, creativity is not confined to the exercise of their art. Each one of us has a creative potential, which is hidden by competitiveness and success-aggression. To recognize, explore and develop this potential is the task of the School. Creation—whether it be a painting, sculpture, symphony or novel—involves not merely talent, intuition, powers of imagination and application, but also the ability to shape material that could be expanded to other socially relevant spheres.
—Heinrich Boll (German Writer)

All of us have so much more time than we use well. How many hours in a life are spent in a way of which one might be proud, looking back?
—Walter Kaufmann (German-American Philosopher)

Paradise is surrounded by what we dislike; the fires of hell are surrounded by what we desire.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (Persian Muslim Mystic)

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (Austrian Novelist)

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
—Alfred North Whitehead (English Mathematician, Philosopher)

God loveth a cheerful giver.
—The Holy Bible (Scripture in the Christian Faith)

Decision is the spark that ignites action. Until a decision is made, nothing happens…. Decision is the courageous facing of issues, knowing that if they are not faced, problems will remain forever unanswered.
—Wilferd Arlan Peterson (American Author)

Trust, but verify.
—Russian Proverb

Learning is wealth to the poor, an honor to the rich, an aid to the young, and a support and comfort to the aged.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (Swiss Theologian, Poet)

The moment of near despair is quite often the moment that precedes courage.
—Christopher Hitchens (Anglo-American Social Critic)

Words are a wonderful form of communication, but they will never replace kisses and punches.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (British Cartoonist)

Nothing is so beautiful as spring—when weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush; Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring the ear, it strikes like lightning to hear him sing.
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (English Poet)

I think that one should recognize reality even when one doesn’t like it; indeed, especially when one doesn’t like it.
—Charlie Munger (American Investor, Philanthropist)

Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data.
—John Naisbitt (American Trend Analyst)

God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand.
—Richard Feynman (American Physicist)

How prudently most men creep into nameless graves, while now and then one or two forget themselves into immortality.
—Wendell Phillips (American Abolitionist)

The course of true love never did run smooth.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

People who make no mistakes lack boldness and the spirit of adventure. They are the brakes on the wheels of progress.
—Dale Turner (American Congregational Priest)

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.
—Anton Chekhov (Russian Short Story Writer)

Happy people are ignoramuses and glory is nothing else but success, and to achieve it one only has to be cunning.
—Mikhail Lermontov (Russian Novelist, Poet)

All achievement, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea!
—Napoleon Hill (American Author)

Heaven and God are best discerned through tears; scarcely perhaps are discerned at all without them. The constant association of prayer with the hour of bereavement and the scenes of death suffice to show this.
—James Martineau (English Unitarian Theologian)

The wisdom of one generation will be the folly of the next, and yet we persist in making preceding generations dictate to the succeeding ones.
—Joseph Priestley (English Clergyman, Scientist)

The fool thinks himself alone and commits sin. But I know of no lonely place at all… . Of a bad action my “Self” is a witness far more sharp-sighted than any other person.
—The Jataka Tales (Genre of Buddhist Literature)

Everything is evil. I mean, everything that is, is wicked; every existing thing is an evil; everything exists for a wicked end. Existence is a wickedness and is ordained for wickedness. Evil is the end, the final purpose, of the universe…The only good is nonbeing; the only really good thing is the thing that is not, things that are not things; all things are bad.
—Giacomo Leopardi (Italian Poet)

Unrest of the spirit is a mark of life; one problem after another presents itself and in the solving of them we can find our greatest pleasure.
—Karl Menninger (American Psychiatrist)

Truth is the breath of life to human society. It is the food of the immortal spirit. Yet a single word of it may kill a man as suddenly as a drop of prussic acid.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (American Physician, Essayist)

Care not for time and success. Act out thy part, whether it be to fail or to prosper.
—Sri Aurobindo (Indian Mystic, Philosopher, Poet)

Inspiration never arrived when you were searching for it.
—Lisa Alther (American Novelist)

The writer does the most good who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.
—Sydney Smith (English Preacher)

Listen, my friend! Your helplessness is your best prayer. It calls from your heart to the heart of God with greater effect than all your uttered pleas. He hears it from the very moment that you are seized with helplessness, and He becomes actively engaged at once in hearing and answering the prayer of your helplessness.
—Ole Hallesby (Norwegian Theologian)

Think of yourself as an incandescent power, illuminated and perhaps forever talked to by God and his messengers.
—Brenda Ueland (American Journalist Memoirist)

If there were dreams to sell, what would you buy?
—Thomas Lovell Beddoes (English Poet)

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

Long absent, soon forgotten.
—Common Proverb

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindness and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort.
—Humphry Davy (British Chemist)

Attention is the most basic form of love. By paying attention we let ourselves be touched by life, and our hearts naturally become more open and engaged.
—Tara Brach (American Psychologist, Author)

One golden day redeems a weary year.
—Celia Thaxter (American Poet)

Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

In many lines of work, it isn’t how much you do that counts, but how much you do well and how often you decide right.
—William Feather (American Author, Publisher)

Where slavery is, there liberty cannot be; and where liberty is, there slavery cannot be.
—Charles Sumner (American Statesman)

We are all failures—at least, the best of us are.
—J. M. Barrie (Scottish Novelist)

One thing is clear to me, that no indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual nature so much as respectable selfishness.
—George MacDonald (Scottish Poet, Novelist)

The trick is growing up without growing old.
—Casey Stengel (American Sportsperson)

We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of a world it is—at least in its physical aspects.
—Edwin Hubble (American Astronomer)

God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (English Poet)

Those that say they despise riches are saints or liars.
—Austin O’Malley (American Aphorist, Ophthalmologist)

We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.
—Joan Didion (American Essayist, Novelist, Memoirist)

The person who exalts himself … will be humbled, because a person who considers himself to be good, intelligent, and kind will not even try to become better, smarter, kinder. The humble person will be exalted, because he considers himself bad and will try to become better, kinder, and more reasonable.
—Leo Tolstoy (Russian Novelist)

Never kiss an ugly girl; she will tell everyone.
—Hebrew Proverb

The essence of love is getting out of oneself and into others. When we care less about our feelings, our rights, our happiness, our security, etc., and begin to concern ourselves with the feelings, rights, happiness, and security of others, we will have found the true power of love.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

Many do with opportunities as children do at the seashore; they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through, one by one, till all are gone.
—Thomas Jones

Power tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is peculiarly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of god’s favor.
—J. William Fulbright (American Politician)

Though reason is not to be relied upon as a guide universally sufficient to direct us what to do, yet it is generally to be relied upon and obeyed when it tells us what we are not to do.
—Robert South (English Theologian)

The essence of a quote is the compression of a mass of thought and observation into a single saying.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (British Statesman)

Generosity takes many forms—we may give our time, our energy, our material possessions, our love. All are expressions of caring, of compassion, of connection, and of renunciation—the ability to let go.
—Joseph Goldstein (American Buddhist Teacher)

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.
—Conrad Hilton (American Hotelier)

If you want to succeed in the world you must make your own opportunities as you go on. The man who waits for some seventh wave to toss him on dry land will find that the seventh wave is a long time coming. You can commit no greater folly than to sit by the road side until someone comes along and invites you to ride with him to wealth or influence.
—John Bartholomew Gough (American Temperance Orator)

There is an electricity about a friendship relationship. We are both more relaxed and more sensitive, more creative and more reflective, more energetic and more casual, more excited and more serene. It is as though when we come in contact with our friend we enter into a different environment.
—Andrew M. Greeley (American Priest, Author, Sociologist)

Begin to act from your dominion. Declare the truth by telling yourself that there is nothing to be afraid of, that you no longer entertain any images of fear.
—Ernest Holmes (American New Thought Writer)

Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and from that human smile is derived the grace of present civilization.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Gentle and true, simple and kind was she, Noble of mien, with gracious speech to all, And gladsome looks a pearl of womanhood.
—Edwin Arnold (English Poet)

Nothing is more expensive than penuriousness, nothing more anxious than carelessness, and every duty which is bidden to wait returns with seven fresh duties at its back.
—Charles Kingsley (English Clergyman)

The grace of God is a wind which is always blowing.
—Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

Fame’s pedestals are revolving; no wonder great celebrities act queerly when invited to come off them.
—Minna Antrim (American Writer, Epigrammist)

A cask of wine works more miracles than a church full of saints.
—Italian Proverb

I’m an idealist. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.
—Caroline Schoeder (American Aphorist)

I feel convinced that every man has given him of God much more than he has any idea of, and that he can help on the world’s work more than he knows of. What we want is the single eye that will see what our work is, the humility to accept it, however lowly, the faith to do it for God, the perseverance to go on till death.
—Norman Macleod (Scottish Priest, Social Reformer)

Real poverty is lack of books.
—Colette (French Novelist, Performer)

Unless a man is master of his soul, all other kinds of mastery amount to little.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (American Author, Aviator)

One realizes the full importance of time only when there is little of it left. Every man’s greatest capital asset is his unexpired years of productive life.
—Paul W. Litchfield (American Industrialist)

Leaders are people who do the right thing. Managers are people who do things right … a profound difference.
—Warren Bennis (American Management Consultant)

When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior.
—Simone de Beauvoir (French Philosopher)

A perfect human being: Man in search of his ideal of perfection. Nothing less.
—Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (British Sufi Mystic)

You cannot go on ‘explaining away’ for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on ‘seeing through’ things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it.
—C. S. Lewis (Irish-born Author, Scholar)

Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns so soon to hatred.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet)

Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.
—Aesop (Greek Fabulist)

Greatness is only one of the sensations of littleness.
—George Bernard Shaw (Irish Playwright)

Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.
—Jim Collins (American Management Consultant)

It seems to me that we generally do not have a correct measure of our own wisdom.
—R. K. Narayan (Indian Novelist, Short-story Writer)

Eat and drink to live; live not to eat and drink, for thus do the beasts.
—The Talmud (Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith)

You can really have everything you want, if you go after it, but you will have to want it. The desire for success must be so strong within you that it is the very breath of your life—your first though when you awaken in the morning, your last thought when you go to bed at night…
—Charles E. Popplestone (American Author)

Unwritten thought is an incomplete thought.
—Edgar V. Roberts (American Scholar)

Men who know themselves are no longer fools; they stand on the threshold of the Door of Wisdom.
—Havelock Ellis (British Essayist, Physician)

We are ne’er like angels till our passion dies.
—Thomas Dekker

Crime seems to change character when it crosses a bridge or a tunnel. In the city, crime is taken as emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs, though, it’s intimate and psychological—resistant to generalization, a mystery of the individual soul.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (American Social Critic)

Filthy water cannot be washed.
—African Proverb

The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning—in other words, of absurdity—the more energetically meaning is sought.
—Vaclav Havel (Czech Dramatist, Statesman)

Good taste and humor are a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore.
—Malcolm Muggeridge (English Journalist)

Example is leadership.
—Albert Schweitzer (French Theologian)

In bed we laugh; in bed we cry; in bed are born; in bed we die; the near approach the bed doth show, of human bliss to human woe.
—Isaac de Benserade (French Poet, Dramatist)