Inspirational Quotations

It is not easy to be a pioneer—but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment; even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.
—Elizabeth Blackwell (American Physician)

The most dangerous of our impulses reign in ourselves against ourselves. To dissolve them is a creative act.
—Hugo von Hofmannsthal (Austrian Author)

Our masks, always in peril of smearing or cracking, in need of continuous check in the mirror or silverware, keep us in thrall to ourselves, concerned with our surfaces.
—Carolyn Kizer (American Poet)

Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.
—The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture)

Fools follow after vanity, men of evil wisdom. The wise man keeps earnestness as his best jewel.
—The Dhammapada (Buddhist Anthology of Verses)

When the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is giving in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand.
—Helen Schucman (American Psychologist)

It takes no genius to observe that a one man band never gets very big.
—Charles A. Garfield (American Psychologist)

Top management is supposed to be a tree full of owls-hooting when management heads into the wrong part of the forest. I’m still unpersuaded they even know where the forest is.
—Robert C. Townsend (American Businessman)

The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation because in the degradation of woman the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source.
—Lucretia Mott (American Social Reformer)

There is no kin equivalent to knowledge.
There is no friend equivalent to knowledge.
There is no wealth equivalent to knowledge.
There is no happiness equivalent to knowledge.
—Subhashita Manjari (Sanskrit Anthology of Proverbs)

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.
—W. Somerset Maugham (British Novelist)

Luck is loaned, not owned.
—Norwegian Proverb

The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler.
—Edward Teller (American Nuclear Physicist)

Nothing is so good that somebody, somewhere will not hate it.
—Frederik Pohl (American Author)

Don’t sacrifice your life to work and ideals. The most important things in life are human relations. I found that out too late.
—Katharine Susannah Prichard (Australian Writer)

Strange how love coexists with hate, how they render each other mute, how the swilling of them together makes a new and softer, sympathetic thing.
—Sonya Hartnett (Australian Novelist)

The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
—William James (American Philosopher)

We cannot be saved until we have risen above all our enemies, not the least of which is ignorance.
—Joseph F. Smith (American Religious Leader)

I weigh the man, not his title; ’tis not the king’s stamp can make the metal better.
—William Wycherley (English Dramatist)

How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly!
—Elizabeth Gaskell (English Novelist)

The person who renders loyal service in a humble capacity will be chosen for higher responsibilities, just as the biblical servant who multiplied the one pound given him by his master was made ruler over ten cities.
—B. C. Forbes (Scottish-born American Journalist)

A bird in the hand is a certainty, but a bird in the bush may sing.
—Bret Harte (American Author)

Patience can’t be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it.
—Eknath Easwaran (Indian Meditation Teacher, Author)

Naggers always know what they are doing. They weigh up the risks, then they go on and on and on until they get what they want or until they get punched.
—Jools Holland (English Musician, TV Presenter)

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.
—Jacques Prevert (French Poet)

I was given talent, and if you are given it, it is your obligation to use it.
—Dennis Potter (English Dramatist)

That as long as we are being remembered, we remain alive.
—Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Spanish Novelist)

Oh, God! that bread should be so dear! And flesh and blood so cheap!
—Thomas Hood (British Poet, Humorist)

An error is simply a failure to adjust immediately from a preconception to an actuality.
—John Cage (American Composer)

He that has no charity deserves no mercy.
—English Proverb

What is forgiven is usually well remembered.
—Louis Dudek (Canadian Poet, Publisher)

I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
—Winston Churchill (British Head of State)

Why is it so difficult to love wisely, so easy to love too well?
—Mary Elizabeth Braddon (English Novelist)

Writing is thinking on paper.
—William Zinsser (American Writer, Editor)

The punishment of desire is the agony of unfulfillment.
—Hermes Trismegistus (Greek-Egyptian Author)

The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times.
—Marshall Mcluhan (Canadian Thinker)

The big problem is not the haves and the have-nots—it’s the give-nots.
—Arnold Glasow (American Businessman)

Most teams aren’t teams at all but merely collections of individual relationships with the boss. Each individual vying with the others for power, prestige and position.
—Douglas McGregor (American Sociologist)

‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (British Poet)

Temperance is moderation in the things that are good and total abstinence from the things that are foul.
—Frances Willard (American Temperance Campaigner)

He who gives little gives from his heart; he who gives much gives from his wealth.
—Turkish Proverb

Nothing is so awesomely unfamiliar as the familiar that discloses itself at the end of a journey.
—Cynthia Ozick (American Novelist, Essayist)

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.
—Stephen Hawking (English Theoretical Physicist)

Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them—and then, the opportunity to choose.
—C. Wright Mills (American Sociologist)

Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons—that’s philosophy.
—Aldous Huxley (English Humanist)

Do not commit the error, common among the young, of assuming that if you cannot save the whole of mankind you have failed.
—Jan de Hartog (Dutch-American Author)

God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with.
—Billy Graham (American Baptist Religious Leader)

He gains a great deal who loses a vain hope.
—Italian Proverb

You know that when I hate you, it is because I love you to a point of passion that unhinges my soul.
—Julie de Lespinasse (French Salon Hostess)

What you have to do is work with the raw material you have, namely you, and never let up.
—Helen Gurley Brown (American Publisher)

The injuries of life, if rightly improved, will be to us as the strokes of the statuary on his marble, forming us to a more beautiful shape, and making us fitter to adorn the heavenly temple.
—Cotton Mather (American Clergyman)

He alone has lost the art to live who cannot win new friends.
—Silas Weir Mitchell (American Physician, Writer)

To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.
—Aaron Copland (American Composer)

As society becomes more and more mechanized, it will be more and more difficult for many people to stand the nervous strain, the high pressure, and the drabness of their lives. To escape these abominations, constantly growing numbers will seek the primitive for the fines features of life.
—Bob Marshall (American Forester)

When you argue with your inferiors, you convince them of only one thing: they are as clever as you.
—Irving Layton (Canadian Poet)

Nature yields her most profound secrets to the person who is determined to uncover them.
—Napoleon Hill (American Author)

Love and let the world know, hate in silence.
—Egyptian Proverb

In the end, we realize how simple life is when we accept this moment, just as it is, without pretending to be other than who we are. This is grace in action.
—Richard C. Miller (American Yogic Scholar)

Time’s horses gallop down the lessening hill.
—Richard Le Gallienne (English Writer)

Instead of looking at life as a narrowing funnel, we can see it ever widening to choose the things we want to do, to take the wisdom we’ve learned and create something.
—Liz Carpenter (American Journalist)

Reason can in general do more than blind force.
—Cornelius Gallus (Roman Poet)

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.
—Moshe Dayan (Israeli Statesman)

Great people aren’t those who are happy at times of convenience and content, but of how they are in times of catastrophe and controversy.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

The rewards of great living are not external things, withheld until the crowning hour of success arrives; they come by the way, — in the consciousness of growing power and worth, of duties nobly met, and work thoroughly done. To the true artist, working always in humility and sincerity, all life is a reward, and every day brings a deeper satisfaction. Joy and peace are by the way.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie (American Essayist, Editor)

He who loses money, loses much; He who loses a friend, loses much more; He who loses faith, loses all.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (American Humanitarian)

Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I’ll show you somebody who has never achieved much.
—Joan Collins (English Actress)

The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.
—Mother Teresa (Roman Catholic Nun)

Every person is the creation of himself, the image of his own thinking and believing. As individuals think and believe, so they are.
—Claude M. Bristol (American Self-Help Author)

Grab a chance and you won’t be sorry for a might have been.
—Arthur Ransome (English Novelist, Journalist)

There had been times when he knew, somewhere in him, that he would get used to it, whatever it was, because he had learnt that some hard things became softer after a very little while.
—Nick Hornby (English Author)

Thought expands, but paralyzes; action animates, but narrows.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet)

The ground’s generosity takes in our compost and grows beauty! Try to be more like the ground.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (Persian Muslim Mystic)

Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.
—Janwillem van de Wetering (Dutch Crime Novelist)

Moments of kindness and reconciliation are worth having, even if the parting has to come sooner or later.
—Alice Munro (Canadian Writer)

There is safety in numbers.
—Common Proverb

Question everything. Every stripe, every star, every word spoken. Everything.
—Ernest J. Gaines (American Novelist, Short-Story Writer)

If one does not fail at times, then one has not challenged himself.
—Ferdinand Porsche (Austrian Car Designer)

The great thing about people with intellectual disabilities is that they’re not people who discuss philosophy… What they want is fun and laughter, to do things together and fool around, and laughter is at the heart of community.
—Jean Vanier (French-Canadian Humanitarian)

Sorrow is easy to express and so hard to tell.
—Joni Mitchell (Canadian Singer, Songwriter)

Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher)

Man is stark mad; he cannot make a flea, and yet he will be making gods by the dozens.
—Michel de Montaigne (French Essayist)

The origin of civilization is man’s determination to do nothing for himself which he can get done for him.
—H. C. Bailey (English Novelist)

The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport.
—Barbara Jordan (American Educator, Politician)

For we must share, if we would keep, that blessing from above; ceasing to give, we cease to have; such is the law of love.
—Richard Chenevix Trench (Irish Archbishop, Poet)

The only people who attain power are those who crave for it.
—Erich Kastner (German Author)

Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.
—Carol Moseley Braun (American Politician)

The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.
—Swedish Proverb

For every poet it is always morning in the world; history a forgotten, insomniac night. The fate of poetry is to fall in love with the world in spite of history.
—Derek Walcott (West Indian Poet)

Enough is often too much in our material world, but seldom enough in our material world.
—Bob Woodward (American Journalist)

Some people, however long their experience or strong their intellect, are temperamentally incapable of reaching firm decisions.
—James Callaghan (British Labour Statesman)

The doctrines of grace humble man without degrading, and exalt without inflating him.
—Charles Hodge (American Theologian)

There’s small Revenge in Words, but Words may be greatly revenged.
—Benjamin Franklin (American Founding Father, Inventor)

A fault confessed is half redressed.
—African Proverb

Sometimes I think that the biggest difference between men and women is that more men need to seek out some terrible lurking thing in existence and hurl themselves upon it. Women know where it lives but they can let it alone.
—Russell Hoban (American Author)

Man needs more to be reminded than instructed.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

Make no judgments where you have no compassion.
—Anne Mccaffrey (American Science Fiction Author)

He who hunts two hares leaves one and loses the other.
—Japanese Proverb

Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy.
—Dag Hammarskjold (Swedish Statesman)

The future struggles against being mastered.
—Latin Proverb

There was never a great man who had not a great mother.
—Olive Schreiner (South African Novelist, Feminist)

Introspect daily, detect diligently, negate ruthlessly.
—Swami Chinmayananda (Indian Hindu Spiritual Teacher)

If I had followed my better judgment always, my life would have been a very dull one.
—Edgar Rice Burroughs (American Novelist)

Say not that this or that thing came to thwart you; it only came to test you.
—Muriel Strode (American Author, Businesswoman)

The road to a friend’s house is never long.
—Danish Proverb

The great mass of women throughout history have been confined to the cultural level of animal life in providing the male with sexual outlet and exercising the animal functions of reproduction and care of the young.
—Kate Millet (American Feminist, Writer, Sculptor)

We go on fancying that each person is thinking of us, but they are not; they are like the rest of us—they are thinking of themselves.
—Charles Reade (British Author)

Life holds so much—so much to be happy about always. Most people ask for happiness on conditions. Happiness can be felt only if you don’t set conditions.
—Arthur Rubinstein (American Pianist)

This world is so full of care and sorrow that it is a gracious debt we owe to one another to discover the bright crystals of delight hidden in somber circumstances and irksome tasks.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

The art of friendship has been little cultivated in our society.
—Robert J. Havighurst (American Researcher)

If you want to be creative, stay in part a child, with the creativity and invention that characterizes children before they are deformed by adult society.
—Jean Piaget (Swiss Psychologist)

In between goals is a thing called life, that has to be lived and enjoyed.
—Sid Caesar (American Comedian)

Sweat saves blood.
—Erwin Rommel (German Field Marshal)

Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge, it exceeds reason more perfectly than reason exceeds the knowledge of the senses.
—Sri Aurobindo (Indian Mystic, Philosopher, Poet)

Blessed is the man who has some congenial work, some occupation in which he can put his heart, and which affords a complete outlet to all the forces there are in him.
—John Burroughs (American Naturalist, Writer)

Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; and if he was sensible of this he would not be ignorant.
—Sa’Di (Musharrif Od-Din Muslih Od-Din) (Persian Poet)

I always say beauty is only sin deep.
—Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) (British Short Story Writer)

Shame is an unhappy emotion invented by pietists in order to exploit the human race.
—Blake Edwards (American Filmmaker)

Our yearnings for happiness were implanted in our hearts by Deity. They represent a kind of homesickness, for we have a residual memory of our premortal existence. They are also a foretaste of the fullness of Joy that is promised to the faithful.
—Jack H. Goaslind (American Mormon Leader)

A person who is too nice an observer of the business of the crowd, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.
—Alexander Pope (English Poet)

Just do your best today and tomorrow will come … tomorrow’s going to be a busy day, a happy day.
—Helen Boehm (American Entrepreneur)

Pray not for lighter burdens, but for stronger backs.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

For the person for whom small things do not exist, the great is not great.
—Jose Ortega y. Gasset (Spanish Philosopher)

The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
—George Bernard Shaw (Irish Playwright)

One must know not just how to accept a gift, but with what grace to share it.
—Maya Angelou (American Poet)

Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: he has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.
—G. K. Chesterton (English Journalist)

Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine actions than in the non-performance of base ones.
—Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

The superior man is aware of Righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage.
—Confucius (Chinese Philosopher)

All I want of the world is very little. I only want the best of everything, and there is so little of that.
—Michael Arlen (British Author)

He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself.
—Chinese Proverb

If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings.
—Welsh Proverb

The gift we can offer others is so simple a thing as hope.
—Daniel Berrigan (American Catholic Poet)

When you walk on a court, clear your mind of everything unrelated to the goal of playing the match as well as you can.
—Stan Smith (American Sportsperson)

One sometimes finds what one is not looking for.
—Alexander Fleming (Scottish Bacteriologist)

There is a difference between conceit and confidence. Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done.
—Johnny Unitas (American Football Player)

Don’t take anyone else’s definition of success as your own. (This is easier said than done.)
—Jacqueline Briskin (American Novelist)

Dharma is not upheld by talking about it. Dharma is upheld by living in harmony with it.
—Buddhist Teaching

Our lives can only be lived forward and understood backwards. Living a life and understanding it occupy different dimensions.
—Hanif Kureishi (British Novelist, Screenwriter)

Great is peace, for it is to the world what yeast is to the dough.
—The Talmud (Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith)

The future is always beginning now.
—Mark Strand (American Poet, Essayist)

If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He’s not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he’s really needed.
—David Hockney (British Artist)

If you don’t know jewelry, know the jeweler.
—Warren Buffett (American Investor)

Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.
—Edgar Quinet (French Intellectual)

To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted.
—Dashiell Hammett (American Crime Writer)

The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.
—Dale Carnegie (American Self-Help Author)

Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.
—Leonard Nimoy (American Actor)

There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than that of a beautiful woman in the act of cooking dinner for someone she loves.
—Thomas Wolfe (American Novelist)

When we judge other people we confront them in a spirit of detachment, observing and reflecting as it were from the outside. But love has neither time nor opportunity for this. If we love, we can never observe the other person with detachment, for he is always and at every moment a living claim to our love and service.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German Lutheran Pastor)

The ultimate of being successful is the luxury of giving yourself the time to do what you want to do.
—Leontyne Price (American Soprano)

Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than find as quickly as possible someone to worship.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russian Novelist)

The real world is not easy to live in. It is rough; it is slippery. Without the most clear-eyed adjustments we fall and get crushed. A man must stay sober; not always, but most of the time.
—Clarence Day (American Author, Humorist)

All political power is primarily an illusion. Illusion. Mirrors and blue smoke, beautiful blue smoke rolling over the surface of highly polished mirrors, first a thin veil of blue smoke, then a thick cloud that suddenly dissolves into wisps of blue smoke, the mirrors catching it all, bouncing it back and forth.
—Jimmy Breslin (American Columnist)

The great living experience for every man is his adventure into the woman. The man embraces in the woman all that is not himself, and from that one resultant, from that embrace, comes every new action.
—D. H. Lawrence (English Novelist)