Inspirational Quotations

A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.
—Chinese Proverb

Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.
—Maria Mitchell

Whatever you’re ready for is ready for you.
—Mark Victor Hansen (American Public Speaker)

There is only one group of people who don’t have problems and they’re all dead. Problems are a sign of life. So the more problems you have, the more alive you are.
—Norman Vincent Peale (American Clergyman, Self-Help Author)

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
—Thomas Jefferson (American Head of State)

A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the
blame and a little less than his share of the credit.
—John C. Maxwell (American Christian Professional Speaker)

Who never ate his bread in sorrow, who never spent the darksome hours weeping, and watching for the morrow, He knows ye not, ye gloomy Powers.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet)

You can have everything in life you want if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)

You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)

Why should we worry about what others think of us? Do we have more confidence in their opinions than we do in our own?
—Brigham Young (American Mormon Religious Leader)

Be a lamp to yourself. Be your own confidence. Hold to the truth within yourself, as to the only truth.
—Buddhist Teaching

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

Never allow the integrity of your own way of seeing things and saying things to be swamped by the influence of a master, however great.
—George Parsons Lathrop

True wealth can not be found in your bank account.|It can only be found in those you call friends.|Those with whom you share your deepest feelings.|And those who accept you for who you really are.
—Unknown

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (Persian Muslim Mystic)

Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.
—Stephen Vincent Benet

The great thing about experience is that you can’t borrow it, buy it or steal it, you must earn it.
—Unknown

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
—Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet)

A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.
—Chinese Proverb

You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.
—Henry Ford (American Businessperson)

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been achieved.
—George Bernard Shaw (Irish Playwright)

There is nothing permanent except change.
—Heraclitus (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

You get the best out of others when you give the best of yourself.
—Harvey Samuel Firestone (American Businessperson)

You may not have perfect teeth, or a nose to ever match, but if you’re smiling through your heart, that smile will be nothing less than beautiful.
—Unknown

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
—Vidal Sassoon

Next to doing a good job yourself, the greatest joy is in having someone else do a first-class job under your direction.
—William Feather (American Publisher)

Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of the nonessentials.
—Lin Yutang (Chinese Writer)

The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.
—Arthur Brisbane (American Journalist)

Be nice and smile to everyone you meet. You don’t know what they are going through, and they may need that smile, and treasure it.
—Unknown

An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Hindu Political leader)

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
—Chinese Proverb

One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life; that word is love.
—Sophocles (Ancient Greek Dramatist)

Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.
—Unknown

A ship is safest at the harbor, but that is not where it is supposed to be.
—N. R. Narayana Murthy (Indian Businessperson)

When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader)

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.
—Naguib Mahfouz (Egyptian Novelist)

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
—Ambrose Hollingworth Redmoon (James Neil Hollingworth)

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
—John Augustus Shedd

I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.
—Hebrew Proverb

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer not neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
—Unknown

Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
—Malcolm Forbes (American Publisher)

In its knowledges light, we must think and act not only for the moment but for our time. I am reminded of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years. The Marshal replied, In that case, there is no time to lose, plant it this afternoon.
—John F. Kennedy (American Head of State)

There’s one sad truth in life I’ve found|While journeying east and west -|The only folks we really wound|Are those we love the best.|We flatter those we scarcely know,|We please the fleeting guest,|And deal full many a thoughtless blow|To those who love us best.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (American Poet)

I have never yet met a healthy person who worried very much about his health, or a really good person who worried much about his own soul.
—J. B. S. Haldane (British Biologist)

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Hindu Political leader)

Take a second look … it costs you nothing.
—Chinese Proverb

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
—Buddhist Teaching

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
—Malcolm Forbes (American Publisher)

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
—Thomas Edison (American Inventor)

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

We turn, not older with years, but newer every day.
—Emily Dickinson (American Poet)

I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.
—George S. Patton (American Military Leader)

The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself.
—Laozi (Chinese Philosopher)

Make yourself a blessing to someone. Your kind smile or pat on the back just might pull someone back from the edge.
—Carmelia Elliott

The adventure of life is to learn.|The purpose of life is to grow.|The nature of life is to change.|The challenge of life is to overcome.|The essence of life is to care.|The opportunity of life is to serve.|The secret of life is to dare.|The spice of life is to befriend.|The beauty of life is to give.|The joy of life is to love.
—William Arthur Ward (American Author)

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
—Vince Lombardi, Jr.

Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
—George Washington Carver (American Scientist)