Inspirational Quotations

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he just picks himself up and stumbles on.
—Winston Churchill (British Head of State)

The body, that is but dust; the soul, it is a bud of eternity.
—Nathaniel Culverwell (English Theologian, Philosopher)

Mental health problems do not affect three or four out of every five persons, but one out of one.
—Karl Menninger (American Psychiatrist)

Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.
—Johann Gottfried Herder (German Critic, Poet)

Let us not believe that it is enough to read without unction, to speculate without devotion, to investigate without wonder, to observe without joy, to act without godly zeal, to know without love, to understand without humility, to strive without divine grace, or to reflect as a mirror without divinely inspired wisdom.
—Bonaventure (Italian Christian Scholar)

To give vent now and then to his feelings, whether of pleasure or discontent, is a great ease to a man’s heart.
—Francesco Guicciardini (Italian Historian)

Those who want the fewest things are nearest to the gods.
—Socrates (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.
—Italo Calvino (Italian Novelist, Writer)

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.
—Francis Bacon (English Philosopher)

Life is its own journey, presupposes its own change and movement, and one tries to arrest them at one’s eternal peril.
—Laurens van der Post (South African Explorer, Writer)

There’s good in everybody. Boost. Don’t knock.
—Warren G. Harding (American Politician, Publisher)

Exile, for no other motive than ease, would be the last defeat, with no seed of future victory in it.
—Lois McMaster Bujold (American Writer)

The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.
—Charlie Chaplin (British Actor)

Above all things, reverence yourself.
—Pythagoras (Greek Philosopher)

Choose your neighbor before you buy your house.
—African Proverb

Respect commands itself and it can neither be given nor withheld when it is due.
—Eldridge Cleaver (American Activist)

One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the by-standers cruel.
—Thomas Buxton, 1st Baronet (British Religious Figure)

If everything’s under control, you’re going too slow.
—Mario Andretti (Italian-American Racing Driver)

The study of science teaches young men to think, while study of the classics teaches them to express thought.
—John Stuart Mill (English Philosopher, Economist)

Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are sure of yourself, but do not relinquish it simply because someone else is not sure of you.
—Stewart Edward White (American Adventure Writer)

Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming.
—Donna Tartt (American Novelist)

A myth is an image in terms of which we try to make sense of the world.
—Alan Watts (British-American Philosopher)

In order to have an enemy, one must be somebody.—One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force—a malicious enemy is better than a clumsy friend.
—Sophie Swetchine (Russian Mystic, Writer)

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (English Poet)

Waiting is one of life’s hardships.
—Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) (American Author)

Instinct is untaught ability.
—Alexander Bain (Scottish Philosopher)

Hope is the poor man’s bread.
—Common Proverb

Every well-written book is a light for me. When you write, you use other writers and their books as guides in the wilderness.
—Kate DiCamillo (American Children’s Author)

The tourist who moves about to see and hear and open himself to all the influences of the places which condense centuries of human greatness is only a man in search of excellence.
—Max Lerner (American Author)

When life doesn’t meet your expectations, it was important to take it with grace.
—Patricia Briggs (American Writer)

A scholar who loves comfort is not fit to be called a scholar.
—Confucius (Chinese Philosopher)

All who joy would win must share it,—happiness was born a twin.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (English Romantic Poet)

Being a famous writer is a little like being a tall dwarf. You’re on the edge of normality.
—John Updike (American Author)

Boredom is what you fight. Constant, ever-present boredom. So you learn to look forward to small things. Sunlight glimpsed through a cloud, an extra piece of pie or candy, good thread to sew your blouse, a ribbon to wear in your hair.
—Valerie Wilson Wesley (American Mystery Author)

Work is something you can count on, a trusted, lifelong friend who never deserts you.
—Margaret Bourke-White (American Photographer)

Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values.
—Joshua L. Liebman (American Rabbi)

Why can’t peace be a single overriding common purpose: why do we wait for a crisis to pull us together? Let’s pull together for peace.
—Rita Mae Brown (American Writer, Feminist)

Mythology is the religious sentiment growing wild.
—Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (German Philosopher)

Art is art. Everything else is everything else.
—Ad Reinhardt (American Abstract Painter)

God lends a helping hand to the man who tries hard.
—Aeschylus (Greek Playwright)

What students lack in school is an intellectual relationship or conversation with the teacher.
—William Glasser (American Psychiatrist)

Fame is the sum of misapprehensions that accrue around a name.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (Austrian Poet)

If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.
—David Viscott (American Psychiatrist, Author)

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.—Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
—Epicurus (Greek Philosopher)

That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

Religion is probably, after sex, the second oldest resource which human beings have available to them for blowing their minds.
—Susan Sontag (American Writer, Philosopher)

Every man is, no doubt, by nature, first and principally recommended to his own care; and as he is fitter to take care of himself than of any other person, it is fit and right that it should be so.
—George Goodman (American Economist)

Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come; you have to get up and make them.
—Madam C. J. Walker (American Entrepreneur)

The ignorant man marvels at the exceptional; the wise man marvels at the common; the greatest wonder of all is the regularity of nature.
—George Boardman the Younger (American Clergyman)

Who fears to offend takes the first step to please.
—Colley Cibber (English Playwright)

The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie.
—Agnes de Mille (American Dancer)

If you advertise an interest in buying collies, a lot of people will call hoping to sell you their cocker spaniels.
—Warren Buffett (American Investor)

It is pure illusion to think that an opinion that passes down from century to century, from generation to generation, may not be entirely false.
—Pierre Bayle (French Philosopher)

Love is an emotion experienced by the many and enjoyed by the few.
—George Jean Nathan (American Drama Critic)

There are few things as seemingly untouched by the real world as a child asleep.
—John Irving (American Novelist)

Women’s propensity to share confidences is universal. We confirm our reality by sharing.
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (American Journalist)

The interval between the decay of the old and the formation and establishment of the new constitutes a period of transition which must always necessarily be one of uncertainty, confusion, error, and wild and fierce fanaticism.
—John C. Calhoun (American Head of State)

If writers were good businessmen, they’d have too much sense to be writers.
—Irvin S. Cobb (American Humorist)

I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth.
—Christopher Hampton (British Playwright, Screenwriter)

Women cannot complain about men anymore until they start getting better taste in them.
—Bill Maher (American Comedian, TV Personality)

Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principles.
—Will Durant (American Historian)

A man falls in love through his eyes, a woman through her ears.
—Woodrow Wyatt (British Journalist, Politician)

Beauty is God’s handwriting.
—Charles Kingsley (English Clergyman)

Sufficient to each day are the duties to be done and the trials to be endured. God never built a Christian strong enough to carry today’s duties and tomorrow’s anxieties piled on the top of them.
—Theodore L. Cuyler (American Presbyterian Clergyman)

Any kid who has two parents who are interested in him and a houseful of books isn’t poor.
—Sam Levenson (American Humorist)

It’s a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get.
—Arnold Palmer (American Sportsperson)

Intelligence appears to be the thing that enables a man to get along without education. Education enables a man to get along without the use of his intelligence.
—Albert Edward Wiggam (American Psychologist, Writer)

The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents and the ocean was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (American Historian)

I do not bemoan misfortune. To me there is no misfortune. I welcome whatever comes; I go out gladly to meet it.
—Muriel Strode (American Author, Businesswoman)

Conduct is more convincing than language.
—John Woolman (American Quaker Reformer)

There is always a time to make right what is wrong.
—Susan Griffin (American Feminist Author)

Tis’ better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else’s perfectly.
—Elizabeth Gilbert (American Novelist)

All we know of the truth is that the absolute truth, such as it is, is beyond our reach.
—Nicholas of Cusa (German Cardinal, Philosopher)

You need to play with supreme confidence, or else you’ll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit.
—Joe Paterno (American Sportsperson)

No author dislikes to be edited as much as he dislikes not to be published.
—Russell Lynes (American Art Historian)

When you stop having dreams and ideals—well, you might as well stop altogether.
—Marian Anderson (American Singer)

A liberal is man who will give away everything he doesn’t own.
—Frank Lane (American Sportsperson)

As a manager the important thing is not what happens when you are there, but what happens when you are not there.
—Ken Blanchard (American Author)

A saint is to put forth his faith in prayer, and afterwards follow his prayer with faith.
—Vavasor Powell (Welsh Puritan Preacher)

From pride, from pride, our very reas’ning springs.
—Alexander Pope (English Poet)

A man’s life is interesting primarily when he has failed — I well know. For it’s a sign that he tried to surpass himself.
—Georges Clemenceau (French Head of State)

There is no greater enemy to those who would please than expectation.
—Michel de Montaigne (French Essayist)

Whatever you do they will love you; even if they don’t love you they are connected to you till you die. You can be boring and tedious with sisters, whereas you have to put on a good face with friends.
—Deborah Moggach (British Author, Screenwriter)

If when we judged others, our real motive was to destroy evil, we should look for evil where it is certain to be found, and that is in our own hearts. But if we are on the look-out for evil in others, our real motive is obviously to justify ourselves.
—Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German Lutheran Pastor)

Grief is the price we pay for love
—Queen Elizabeth II (Queen of United Kingdom)

If you want to kill time, try working it to death.
—Sam Levenson (American Humorist)

Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable.
—Clare Boothe Luce (American Playwright)

The family you come from isn’t as important as the family you’re going to have.
—Ring Lardner (American Humorist, Author)

Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation, and is thus a source of civilized delight.
—William Safire (American Columnist)

If one cannot invent a really convincing lie, it is often better to stick to the truth.
—Angela Thirkell (English Novelist)

One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organizations do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always.
—A. W. Tozer (American Christian Pastor)

The ecologization of politics requires us to acknowledge the priority of human values and makes ecology part of education at an early age, molding a new, modern approach to nature and, at the same time, giving back to man a sense of being part of nature. No moral improvement of society is possible without that.
—Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Head of State)

The common question that gets asked in business is, why? That’s a good question, but an equally valid question is, why not?
—Jeff Bezos (American Businessman)

If you stop to be kind, you must swerve often from your path.
—Mary Webb (English Novelist)

Too much truth is uncouth.
—Franklin P. Adams (American Columnist)

One of the vices of the virtue of decentralization is that people don’t share ideas.
—Tony O’Reilly (Irish Athlete, Businessman)

I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn’t write anything without hope in it.
—Oscar Hammerstein II (American Songwriter)

For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women.
—Elizabeth Blackwell (American Physician)

There are many men whose tongues might govern multitudes if they could govern their tongues.
—George D. Prentice (American Journalist)

Is it to be thought unreasonable that the people, in atonement for wrongs of a century, demand the vengeance of a single day?
—Maximilien Robespierre (French Revolutionary)

If you have tried to do something and failed, you are vastly better off than if you had tried to do nothing and succeeded. You must never regret what might have been. The past that did not happen is as hidden from us as the future we cannot see.
—Richard Martin Stern (American Mystery Author)

Experience comprises illusions lost, rather than wisdom gained.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (French Surgeon)

Money is plentiful for those who understand the simple laws which govern its acquisition.
—George Samuel Clason (American Businessperson)

Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night.
—Marian Wright Edelman (American Civil Regrets Advocate)

Love should be a vehicle allowed to travel without limitations.
—Marvin J. Ashton (American Mormon Religious Leader)

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were, for the moment, unpopular.
—Edward R. Murrow (American Journalist)

In the end it is about what you want to be, not what you want to have.
—Derek Sivers (American Entrepreneur)

Who are wise in love, love most, say least.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (British Poet)

Diseases can be our spiritual flat tires – disruptions in our lives that seem to be disasters at the time but end by redirecting our lives in a meaningful way.
—Bernie S. Siegel (American Physician, Writer)

The only force that can overcome an idea and a faith is another and better idea and faith, positively and fearlessly upheld.
—Dorothy Thompson (American Journalist)

I don’t need anyone to rectify my existence. The most profound relationship we will ever have is the one with ourselves.
—Shirley MacLaine (American Actor)

If a thousand old beliefs were ruined in our march to truth we must still march on.
—Stopford Brooke (Irish Clergyman, Writer)

One ought not to be unkind to a woman merely on account of her plainness, any more than one had a right to take liberties with her merely because she was handsome.
—Murasaki Shikibu (Japanese Diarist, Novelist)

I tell myself that God gave my children many gifts—spirit, beauty, intelligence, the capacity to make friends and to inspire respect. There was only one gift he held back—length of life.
—Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (American Philanthropist)

Genius is not essential to good preaching, but a live man is.
—Austin Phelps (American Presbyterian Clergyman)

Nothing grows well in the shade of a big tree.
—Constantin Brancusi (Romanian-French Sculptor)

There is nothing in human life so important and urgent as raising the next generation, and yet it also feels as if we have very little control over the outcome.
—Adam Gopnik (American Essayist, Critic)

This is a youth-oriented society, and the joke is on them because youth is a disease from which we all recover.
—Dorothy Fuldheim (American TV Journalist)

Prefer punishment to disgraceful gain; for the one is painful but once, but the other for one’s whole life.
—Chilon of Sparta (Spartan Magistrate)

What passes for good luck is really an infinite number of little good decisions.
—Richard Steinheimer (American Railroad Photographer)

Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (French Philosopher)

It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain.
—John Henry Newman (British Theologian, Poet)

To have courage, one must first be afraid. The deeper the fear, the more difficult the climb toward courage.
—Jim Bishop (American Journalist)

When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn.
—Tom Landry (American Football Coach)