Inspirational Quotations

My destiny is solitude, and my life is work.
—Richard Wagner (German Composer)

A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.
—Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (Hungarian-American Biochemist)

It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction.
—Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Head of State)

The old prose writers wrote as if they were speaking to an audience; among us, prose is invariably written for the eye alone.
—Barthold G. Niebuhr (German Historian)

In modern times, it is only by the power of association that men of any calling exercise their due influence in the community.
—Elihu Root (American Statesman)

Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go.
—James Cook (English Explorer, Cartographer)

Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people—your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way.
—Barbara Bush (American First Lady)

As long as there is suffering in the world, as long as there is the great curiosity to unravel truth, as long as men and women have some intense desire to be fulfilled, as long as there is wisdom in this world, the future of religion is assured.
—Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari (Indian Statesman, Author)

Most people are good at a handful of things and utterly miserable at most.
—Tim Ferriss (American Self-help Author)

Glory is not a conceit. It is not a decoration for valor. Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely and who rely on you in rerun.
—John McCain (American Politician)

History does not repeat itself in the same way each time, but certain trends and consequences are constants. If you do not know history, you think short term. If you know history, you think medium and long term.
—Lee Kuan Yew (Singaporean Statesman)

Doing no injury to any one, dwell in the world full of love and kindness.
—Nagasena (Buddhist Intellectual)

I am writing biography, not history, and the truth is that the most brilliant exploits often tell us nothing of the virtues or vices of the men who performed them, while on the other hand a chance remark or a joke may reveal far more of a man’s character than the mere feat of winning battles in which thousands fall, or of marshalling great armies, or laying siege to cities.
—Plutarch (Greek Biographer)

Purity of mind and purity of conduct—these two depend upon the purity of a man’s companions.
—The Thirukkural (Indian Tamil Literary Classic)

If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.
—Amy Tan (Chinese-American Novelist)

Nothing is less important than which fork you use. Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces everything. It is ethics. It is honor.
—Emily Post (American Writer, Socialite)

A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.
—Benjamin Franklin (American Founding Father, Inventor)

Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (English Romantic Poet)

All of life and human relations have become so incomprehensibly complex that, when you think about it, it becomes terrifying and your heart stands still.
—Anton Chekhov (Russian Short Story Writer)

A boy carries out suggestions more wholeheartedly when he understands their aim.
—Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell (Founder of the Boy Scouts)

Without a Sabbath, no worship; without worship, no religion; and without religion, no permanent freedom.
—Charles Forbes Rene de Montalembert (French Historian, Politician)

Having one child makes you a parent; having two makes you a referee.
—David Frost (English Broadcaster, Writer)

Beware of heartless knowledge, of artificial piety, and of dogmatic religiosity… Beware of it all!
—Adel Bestavros (Egyptian Lawyer, Preacher)

All works are being done by the energy and power of nature, but due to delusion of ego people assume themselves to be the doer.
—The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture)

To be happy is not the purpose of our being, but to deserve happiness.
—Immanuel Hermann Fichte (German Philosopher)

How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection… That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers.
—Isaac Asimov (American Novelist, Critic, Popular Scientist)

In an age of speed, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing could feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.
—Pico Iyer (British-born Essayist, Novelist of Indian Origin)

The birth of thought in the depths of the spirit, the shaping and ordering of it into periods, the translation into signs, and above all the transference of it from one spirit to another, the communication that is, if only for an instant, the meeting of two beings, with the unforeseeable consequences that such a meeting always causes, is in fact a miracle; except that the moment one stops to think about it one can’t even write a letter.
—Salvatore Satta (Italian Jurist, Novelist)

Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.
—John Henry Newman (British Theologian, Poet)

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

Good leaders can make a small positive difference; bad leaders can make a huge negative difference.
—Jeffrey Pfeffer (American Management Teacher, Author)

One of the first rules of business is ‘Complaining is not a strategy.’ You have to work with the world as you find it, not as you would have it be.
—Jeff Bezos (American Businessman)

Self-preservation, nature’s first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.
—Andrew Marvell (English Metaphysical Poet)

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.
—Neil Armstrong (American Astronaut )

The thoughts are not the problem. Thoughts are the nature of the mind. The problem is that we identify with them.
—Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (British Buddhist Teacher, Nun)

Searching all directions with one’s awareness, one finds no one dearer than oneself. In the same way, others are fiercely dear to themselves. So one should not hurt others if one loves oneself.
—Thanissaro Bhikkhu (American Buddhist Monk)

Now is the time for all good men to come to.
—Walt Kelly (American Cartoonist)

Think of your own faults the first part of the night when you are awake, and of the faults of others the latter part of the night when you are asleep.
—Chinese Proverb

You may develop a thousand virtues and be reckoned as the greatest in the land. But the lotus of your heart will not blossom until you receive the grace of the Guru, the grace of God.
—Dada J. P. Vaswani (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this.
—James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American Painter, Etcher)

It is a great imperfection to complain unceasingly of little things.
—Francis de Sales (French Catholic Saint)

The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man. Unless he understands this, he does not grasp the essential meaning of his life.
—Huey P. Newton (American Political Activist)

If you think that you are bound, you remain bound; you make your own bondage. If you know that you are free, you are free this moment. This is knowledge, knowledge of freedom. Freedom is the goal of all nature.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

There’s nothing quite as powerful as people feeling they can have impact and make a difference. When you’ve got that going for you, I think it’s a very powerful way to implement change.
—Anne M. Mulcahy (American Businessperson)

Unless you’re the lead sled dog, the view is pretty much the same.
—Inuit Proverb

The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency or change. That everything changes is the basic truth for each existence. No one can deny this truth and all teaching of Buddhism is condensed within it. This is the teaching for all of us. Wherever we go this teaching is true. This teaching is also understood as the teaching of selflessness. Because each existence is in constant change, there is no abiding self.
—Shunryu Suzuki (Buddhist Monk, Author)

He who limps is still walking.
—Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (Polish Aphorist, Poet)

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
—H. P. Lovecraft (American Science-fiction Writer)

It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree—make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.
—Elon Musk (American Entrepreneur )

Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of the earth.
—William McKinley (American Head of State)

A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (Austrian-born British Philosopher)

A clear and focused mind will last a lifetime. Getting your mind in shape is nothing less than the key to sustainable success in the world.
—Russell Simmons (American Music Promoter)

Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words than from their deeds.
—Robert Cialdini (American Social Psychologist)

In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (American Economist)

The people who successfully delude themselves seem happier than the people who can’t.
—Woody Allen (American Film Actor, Director )

The society in which each man lives is at once the basis for, and the nemesis of, that fullness of life which each man seeks.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (American Theologian)

In all adversity, what God takes away He may give us back with increase.
—Edward Bouverie Pusey (British Anglican Theologian)

It’s a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people don’t want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.
—P. G. Wodehouse (English Novelist)

Perfection does not exist. To understand this is the triumph of human intelligence; to expect to possess it is the most dangerous kind of madness.
—Alfred de Musset (French Poet, Playwright)

No one regards what is before his feet; we all gaze at the stars.
—Ennius (Roman Poet)

The only person entitled to use the imperial ‘we’ in speaking of himself is a king, an editor, and a man with a tapeworm.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic)

Civilization rests on a set of promises; if the promises are broken too often, the civilization dies, no matter how rich it may be, or how mechanically clever. Hope and faith depend on the promises; if hope and faith go, everything goes.
—Herbert Agar (American Journalist, Historian)

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
—Leon Trotsky (Russian Revolutionary)

People lie so that others will form beliefs that are not true. The more consequential the beliefs—that is, the more a person’s well-being demands a correct understanding of the world or of other people’s opinions—the more consequential the lie.
—Sam Harris (American Neuroscientist, Atheist, Author)

Search not a Wound too deep, lest thou make a new one.
—Thomas Fuller (English Cleric, Historian)

When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more bricklayers.
—Colleen Barrett (American Businessperson)

Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital.
—Daniel Webster (American Statesman, Lawyer)

What identifies an individual as a king is how other people behave towards him. All authority is assumed, and if other people don’t accept your authority then you don’t have it. Perhaps the critical thing to being a convincing figure of authority is actually not to try too hard.
—Patrick Stewart (British Actor)

The beauty of the brain is that you can still be as greedy as you like for knowledge and it doesn’t show.
—Stephen Fry (English Actor, Writer)

Nothing is lost upon a person who is bent upon growth; nothing is wasted on one who is always preparing for his work and life by keeping eyes, mind, and heart open to nature, men, books, experience. Such a man finds ministries to his education on all sides; everything cooperates with his passion for growth.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie (American Essayist, Editor)

Charity is a very complicated thing. Its important to find an area where you can really help and you can feel the results. Charity is not like feeding pigeons in the square. It is a process that requires professional management.
—Roman Abramovich (Russian-Israeli Businessman)

To have good ideas, you have to have a lot of ideas.
—Linus Pauling (American Scientist, Peace Activist)

A horse is dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle.
—Ian L. Fleming (English Novelist, Journalist)

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.
—B. B. King (American Blues Musician)

A valiant mind no deadly danger fears.
—Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (English Poet, Courtier)

If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.
—Bruce Fairchild Barton (American Advertising Executive)

You can’t pick cherries with your back to the tree.
—J. P. Morgan (American Financier, Philanthropist)

If you threw a stone into a gutter, it would only spurt filth in your face.
—R. K. Narayan (Indian Novelist, Short-story Writer)

The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan. Stick to the good plan.
—John C. Bogle (American Mutual Fund Pioneer)

Even if death were to fall upon you today like lightning, you must be ready to die without sadness and regret, without any residue of clinging for what is left behind. Remaining in the recognition of the absolute view, you should leave this life like an eagle soaring up into the blue sky.
—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader)

Today’s accomplishments were yesterday’s impossibilities.
—Robert H. Schuller (American Televangelist, Author)

Good wood is better than good paint.
—Vietnamese Proverb

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.
—Morarji Desai (Indian Political Leader )

Beginnings are usually scary and endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts. You have to remember this when you find yourself at the beginning.
—Sandra Bullock (American Film Actress)

The person who seeks all their applause from outside has their happiness in another’s keeping .
—Dale Carnegie (American Self-Help Author)

It doesn’t matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it’s important to realize that whatever you’re doing, it’s your first attempt at it.
—Wally Amos (American Entrepreneur)

We become more religious in proportion to our readiness to doubt and not our willingness to believe.
—Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Indian Philosopher, Political Leader)

It is the things we are unaware of in ourselves which make us so very angry when we see them in other people.
—Irene Claremont de Castillejo (British Psychoanalyst)

At a time when opportunism is everything, when hope seems lost, when everything boils down to a cynical business deal, we must find the courage to dream. To reclaim romance. The romance of believing in justice, in freedom, and in dignity. For everybody.
—Arundhati Roy (Indian Novelist, Activist)

It costs a man only a little exertion to bring misfortune on himself.
—Menander (Greek Comic Dramatist)

An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.
—Agatha Christie (British Novelist)

A bishop wrote gravely to the Times inviting all nations to destroy ‘the formula’ of the atomic bomb. There is no simple remedy for ignorance so abysmal.
—Peter Medawar (British Immunologist, Writer)

When you get to my age, and I’m 66 now, you realize that the world is a madhouse and that most people are operating in fantasy anyway. So once you realize that, it doesn’t bother you much.
—John Cleese (British Comic Actor, Writer)

Values are principles and ideas that bring meaning to the seemingly mundane experience of life. A meaningful life that ultimately brings happiness and pride requires you to respond to temptations as well as challenges with honor, dignity, and courage.
—Laura Schlessinger (American Broadcaster)

Habit is necessary; it is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive.
—Edith Wharton (American Novelist, Short-story Writer)

Our dreams have to be bigger.
Our ambitions higher.
Our commitment deeper.
And our efforts greater.
This is my dream.
—Dhirubhai Ambani (Indian Businessperson)

In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
—Thurgood Marshall (American Jurist)

With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.
—Michelle Obama (American First Lady)

Rage and grief are savage companions, but despair is the final undoing.
—Mia Farrow (American Actress, Activist)

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you—it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.
—Philip Roth (American Novelist, Short-story Writer)

Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.
—Leonard Cohen (Canadian Musician, Author)

The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife. Try not to insult her intelligence.
—David Ogilvy (British Advertising Executive)

Some men are more beholden to their bitterest enemies than to friends who appear to be sweetness itself. The former frequently tell the truth, but the latter never.
—Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Cato) (Roman Statesman)

When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing to himself.
—Louis Nizer (American Lawyer, Author)

To sin because mercy abounds is the devil’s logic; he that sins because of God’s mercy, shall have judgment without mercy.—Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (American Business Executive)

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of ages may be preserved by quotation.
—Isaac D’Israeli (English Writer, Scholar)

Love is not just looking at each other, it’s looking in the same direction.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (French Novelist, Aviator)

Memory is the greatest of artists, and effaces from your mind what is unnecessary.
—Maurice Baring (British Author)

I hold this as a rule of life: Too much of anything is bad.
—Terence (Roman Comic Dramatist)

All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.
—Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) (Danish Novelist, Short-story Writer)

Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life—there, if one must speak out, the real man.
—Marcus Aurelius (Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher)

Be moderate in prosperity, prudent in adversity.
—Periander (Tyrant of Corinth)

Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.
—Mary Wollstonecraft (English Writer, Feminist)

Whenever there is a simple error that most laymen fall for, there is always a slightly more sophisticated version of the same problem that experts fall for.
—Amos Tversky (Israeli Cognitive Psychologist)

Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.
—Jon Bon Jovi (American Musician)

Choose the course which you adopt with deliberation; but when you have adopted it, then persevere in it with firmness.
—Bias of Priene (Greek Orator)

Horror is always aware of its cause; terror never is. That is precisely what makes terror terrifying.
—Christopher Isherwood (Anglo-American Novelist, Playwright)

The birds have vanished into the sky, and now the last cloud drains away. We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.
—Li Bai (Chinese Taoist Poet)

Watch people, because you can fake for a long time, but one day you’re gonna show yourself to be a phony.
—Tupac Shakur (American Rapper, Actor)

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.
—Dolly Parton (American Musician, Actress)

Well-being is attained by little and little, and nevertheless is no little thing itself.
—Zeno of Citium (Greek Philosopher)

The liberals have not softened their view of actuality to make themselves live closer to the dream, but instead sharpen their perceptions and fight to make the dream actuality or give up the battle in despair.
—Margaret Mead (American Cultural Anthropologist)

Few of us are granted the grace to know ourselves, and until we do, maybe the best we can do is be consistent.
—Andre Agassi (American Tennis Player)

There is in gardens a plant which one ought to leave dry, although most people water it. It is the weed called envy.
—Cosimo de’ Medici (Florentine Statesman, Banker)

As she has planted, so does she harvest; such is the field of karma.
—The Guru Granth Sahib (Sacred Text of Sikhism)

Do not let one’s tongue outrun one’s sense.
—Chilon of Sparta (Spartan Magistrate)

The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.
—H. L. Mencken (American Journalist, Literary Critic)

Frank and explicit; that is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and to confuse the minds of others.
—Benjamin Disraeli (British Head of State)

In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.
—Matthew Prior (English Poet, Diplomat)

Education is not merely a means for earning a living or an instrument for the acquisition of wealth. It is an initiation into life of spirit, a training of the human soul in the pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue.
—Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (Indian Politician, Diplomat)

The devil tempts all men, but idle men tempt the devil.
—Arabic Proverb

Sometimes you are in sync with the times, sometimes you are in advance, sometimes you are late.
—Bernardo Bertolucci (Italian Film Director)

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.
—Georgia O’Keeffe (American Painter)

We are obliged to serve God both outwardly and inwardly. Outward service is expressed in the duties of the members, such as prayer, fasting, almsgiving, learning and teaching the Torah…all of which can be wholly performed by man’s physical body. Inward service, however, is expressed in the duties of the heart, in the heart’s assertion of the unity of God, in belief in him and in his Book, in constant obedience to him and fear of him, in humility before him, love for him and complete reliance upon him, submission to him and abstinence from the things hateful to him.
—Bahya ibn Paquda (Jewish Philosopher)

When you say “no” to most things, you leave room in your life to throw yourself completely into that rare thing that makes you say “HELL YEAH!”
—Derek Sivers (American Entrepreneur)

Real art is one of the most powerful forces in the rise of mankind, and he who renders it accessible to as many people as possible is a benefactor of humanity.
—Zoltan Kodaly (Hungarian Composer)

When there is an original sound in the world, it makes a hundred echoes.
—John Augustus Shedd (American Author)

Success is not measured by the heights one attains, but by the obstacles one overcomes in its attainment.
—Booker T. Washington (African-American Educationist)

As you pray to God for devotion, so also pray that you may not find fault with anyone.
—Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

For the creation of a masterwork of literature two powers must concur, the power of the man and the power of the moment, and the man is not enough without the moment.
—Matthew Arnold (English Poet, Critic)

Guru the washer man, disciple is the cloth
The name of God liken to the soap
Wash the mind on foundation firm
To realize the glow of Truth.
—Kabir (Indian Mystic)

When I am finishing a picture I hold some God-made object up to it—a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand—as a kind of final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there’s a clash between the two, it is bad art.
—Marc Chagall (French Painter, Graphic Artist)

Nothing ages like laziness.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (British Author, Politician)

When there is oppression, the only self-respecting thing is to rise and say this shall cease today, because my right is justice. If you are stronger, you have to help the weaker boy or girl both in play and in the work.
—Sarojini Naidu (Indian Feminist, Poet)

A belief is not true because it is useful.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher, Writer)

But all art is sensual and poetry particularly so. It is directly, that is, of the senses, and since the senses do not exist without an object for their employment all art is necessarily objective. It doesn’t declaim or explain, it presents.
—William Carlos Williams (American Poet, Novelist, Cultural Historian)

Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life—and travel—leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks—on your body or on your heart—are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.
—Anthony Bourdain (American Chef, TV Personality)

The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of those mischiefs, which have ruined cities, depopulated countries, and disordered the peace of the world, has been, not whether there be power in the world, not whence it came, but who should have it.
—John Locke (English Philosopher)

I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.
—Henri Matisse (French Painter, Sculptor)

It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree—make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.
—Elon Musk (American Entrepreneur )

‘Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and have her nonsense respected.
—Charles Lamb (British Essayist, Poet)