Inspirational Quotations

Everything in life is speaking, is audible, is communicating, in spite of its apparent silence.
—Pir Hazrat Vilayat Khan (Indian Sufi Mystic)

Over a period of time it’s been driven home to me that I’m not going to be the most popular writer in the world, so I’m always happy when anything in any way is accepted.
—Stephen Sondheim (American Musician)

The great man is he who does not lose his child’s-heart.
—Mencius (Chinese Philosopher, Sage)

Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important function which religion has to form in the social life of man.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

What looks like enjoyment is the sneer of contempt. That’s not a smile.
—Jack Kevorkian (American Pathologist)

Laugh and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (American Poet, Journalist)

Forgiveness is all-powerful. Forgiveness heals all ills.
—Catherine Ponder (American Clergywoman)

Melancholy is sadness that has taken on lightness.
—Italo Calvino (Italian Novelist, Writer)

Do not give up devotional service even if there are innumerable dangers, countless insults and endless harassment. Do not become disheartened that most people in this world do not accept the message of unalloyed devotional service. Never give up your devotional service.
—Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura (Indian Hindu Religious Leader)

He who endeavors to serve, to benefit, and improve the world, is like a swimmer, who struggles against a rapid current, in a river lashed into angry waves by the wind. Often they roar over his head, often they beat him back and baffle him. Most men yield to the stress of the current. Only here and there the stout, strong heart and vigorous arms struggle on towards ultimate success.
—Albert Pike (American Masonic Scholar)

You should examine yourself daily. If you find faults, you should correct them. When you find none, you should try even harder.
—Israel Zangwill (English Writer, Political Activist)

If you make happiness your goal, then you’re not going to get to it. Philosophers have been saying it for thousands of years. The goal should be an interesting life.
—Dorothy Rowe (Australian Psychologist)

Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.
—Thor Heyerdahl (Norwegian Ethnologist)

Among wellborn spirits courage does not depend on age.
—Pierre Corneille (French Playwright)

The gap between the committed and the indifferent is a Sahara whose faint trails, followed by the mind’s eye only, fade out in sand.
—Nadine Gordimer (South African Novelist)

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
—Theodore H. White (American Journalist)

The chiefest action for a man of spirit is never to be out of action; the soul was never put into the body to stand still.
—John Webster (English Dramatist)

Rest, rest, shall I have not all eternity to rest.
—Antoine Arnauld (French Theologian)

Without general elections, without freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, without the free battle of opinions, life in every public institution withers away, becomes a caricature of itself, and bureaucracy rises as the only deciding factor.
—Rosa Luxemburg (German Socialist, Revolutionary)

The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary.
—Wilhelm Reich (Austrian Psychoanalyst)

In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.
—Ansel Adams (American Photographer)

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that’s one of the hardest things to do because you don’t always know exactly where you’re going, and you shouldn’t.
—George Lucas (American Filmmaker)

Every great scientific truth goes through three stages.—First, people say it conflicts with the Bible.—Next they say it had been discovered before. Lastly, they say they always believed it.
—Louis Agassiz (Swiss-American Scientist)

Spiritual awakening does not depend initially on who we are or what we do; rather it is becoming attuned to the working of great compassion at the heart of existence.
—Taitetsu Unno (American Buddhist Scholar)

A historical romance is the only kind of book where chastity really counts.
—Barbara Cartland (English Romantic Novelist)

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

There is nothing with which it is so dangerous to take liberties as liberty itself.
—Andre Breton (French Poet, Critic)

A childhood is what anyone wants to remember of it. It leaves behind no fossils, except perhaps in fiction.
—Carol Shields (Canadian Author, Academic)

Some people are great at gift-giving. They instinctively seem to know what people will want and always have the perfect gift for any occasion. And then there are the rest of us, blearily combing through online craft sites late at night or hitting up the mall just as it’s closing for that last-minute perfect gift (which is, inevitably, very far from perfect.) Is there hope for the rest of us? We could just write this off as something that we’re not very good at and hope that our other qualities make up for our shortcomings, but you really can become a better gift-giver. Think of it as a skill that you can improve like any other.

Listen

Pay attention to what your friends and family members like and want all year round, not just in the weeks or days leading up to their birthday or a holiday. Most people do this casually all the time, mentioning a game they really want, for example. People also talk about indulgences that they’d enjoy but wouldn’t pay for themselves. When you hear someone mention something, make a note—literally, if you have to, just a quick few words tapped into your phone’s notepad. This will help ensure that when another occasion rolls around, you’ve got a good selection to choose from.

Stock Up

You can approach stocking up in two ways. One way is that whenever you’re out shopping, and you see something that a friend or family member would love, you grab it even if it’s nowhere near an occasion where you might give it to them. The other way is to keep a stockpile of nice gifts so that you always have something handy in a pinch. It’s less personal, but sometimes you need to produce a gift for someone you don’t know well, like a coworker.

Subscription Boxes

A kind of synthesis of the two above ideas is to research and plan ahead without actually buying anything until the time comes. Subscription boxes offer a great opportunity to do this because they are available in so many different varieties and at so many different price points. For example, do you have a friend who loves to travel, either for real or from the comfort of their armchair? A snack subscription box that offers snacks that are unique and best-tasting from all over the world and can be a great way of giving them a taste of being on the road without leaving home. There are plenty of other subscription boxes available as well for most budgets and interests, from flowers to wine to sports and many more.

Last-Minute Fixes

Let’s say you haven’t done any of the above, and you need a great gift within the next day or two. There’s still plenty you can do at this point to get it right. If you’re connected with the person on social media, scroll through their posts and look for something that sparks an idea. If you have to resort to a gift card—which is not the worst gift anyone ever received by any stretch of the imagination—you can still make it more thoughtful and personal by accompanying it with a handmade card or nestling it in a bouquet of flowers.

Faith, and belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.
—Ambrose Bierce (American Journalist, Author)

Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress. When you’re pissed off at someone and you’re angry at them, you just haven’t given them enough time. Just give them a little more time and they almost always will impress you.
—Randy Pausch (American Computer Scientist)

You try very hard to make up for something that was never your fault,” I suggested while a new kind of tugging started at the edges of my skin. “What I mean is, it’s not like you asked for this. You didn’t choose this kind of life, and yet you have to work so hard to be good.
—Stephenie Meyer (American Novelist)

Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together.
—Ray Bradbury (American Science-Fiction Writer)

Man, mind yourself is the first commandment.
—James Hogg (Scottish poet)

Even a small star shines in the darkness.
—Finnish Proverb

Honesty is never seen sitting astride the fence.
—Lemuel K. Washburn (American Freethought Writer)

To be unconditionally present with our experience is the simplest thing we could possibly do. It means being present to what is, without relying on any view or concept about it. What could be simpler than that? And yet what could be more difficult?
—John Welwood (American Psychologist)

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)

Decisive inventions and discoveries always are initiated by an intellectual or moral stimulus as their actual motivating force, but, usually, the final impetus to human action is given by material impulses … merchants stood as a driving force behind the heroes of the age of discovery; this first heroic impulse to conquer the world emanated from very mortal forces.
—Stefan Zweig (British Novelist, Journalist, Biographer)

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

Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.
—Wendell Willkie (American Politician)

It has been said that idleness is the parent of mischief—which is very true; but mischief itself is merely an attempt to escape from the dreary vacuum of idleness.
—George Borrow (English Writer, Traveler)

Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you’ve got.
—Jim Rohn (American Entrepreneur)

I believe that all religions are true and different religions are only the different ways to the same God. For me God is the power of life and justice and when I am talking about God I am just talking about happiness to live and to enjoy life on earth. I feel that humanity should be one, that mankind should not be divided. The people should together work for much good. Well, this is my belief in God. Maybe I am not clear.
—Svetlana Alliluyeva (Russian Defector, Memoirist)

The measure of greatness in a scientific idea is the extent to which it stimulates thought and opens up new lines of research.
—Paul Dirac (English Theoretical Physicist)

It is always sound business to take any obtainable net gain, at any cost and at any risk to the rest of the community.
—Thorstein Veblen (American Economist)

In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking.
—John Lubbock (English Politician, Biologist)

Sorrow happens, hardship happens, the hell with it, who never knew the price of happiness, will not be happy.
—Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Russian Poet, Dissident)

One good punch on your enemy’s nose, gives more pleasure than hearing well-meaning advice from your elders.
—Tibetan Proverb

The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.
—Henry Ward Beecher (American Protestant Clergyman)

In the search for character and commitment, we must rid ourselves of our inherited, even cherished biases and prejudices. Character, ability and intelligence are not concentrated in one sex over the other, nor in persons with certain accents or in certain races or in persons holding degrees from some universities over others. When we indulge ourselves in such irrational prejudices, we damage ourselves most of all and ultimately assure ourselves of failure in competition with those more open and less biased.
—J. Irwin Miller (American Industrialist)

Many a man never fails because he never tries.
—Norman MacEwen (British Military Leader)

We must be truthful and fair in the ordinary affairs of life before we can be truthful and fair in patriotism and religion.
—E. W. Howe (American Novelist)

Every clique is a refuge for incompetence. It fosters corruption and disloyalty, it begets cowardice, and consequently is a burden upon and a drawback to the progress of the country. Its instincts and actions are those of the pack.
—Soong Mei-ling (Chinese Political Figure)

One individual may die for an idea, but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives.
—Subhas Chandra Bose (Indian Nationalist Leader)

It’s true that heroes are inspiring, but mustn’t they also do some rescuing if they are to be worthy of their name? Would Wonder Woman matter if she only sent commiserating telegrams to the distressed?
—Jeanette Winterson (English Novelist)

Calmness is the cradle of power.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (American Editor, Novelist)

Boredom is like a pitiless zooming in on the epidermis of time. Every instant is dilated and magnified like the pores of the face.
—Jean Baudrillard (French Sociologist, Philosopher)

Tradition wears a snowy beard.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (American Poet, Abolitionist)

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)

One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter.
—James Earl Jones (American Actor)

Plurality should not be assumed without necessity.
—William of Ockham (English Philosopher, Polemicist)

Seek on earth what you have found in heaven.
—George William Russell (Irish Author)

There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.
—Alexandre Dumas pere (French Novelist, Playwright)

In the best of times, our days are numbered anyway. So it would be a crime against nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly that it put off enjoying those things for which we were designed in the first place: the opportunity to do good work, to enjoy friends, to fall in love, to hit a ball, and to bounce a baby.
—Alistair Cooke (British-American Journalist)

Everything that looks to the future elevates human nature; for life is never so low or so little as when occupied with the present.
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon (English Poet, Novelist)

A writer never reads his work. For him, it is the unreadable, a secret, and he cannot remain face to face with it. A secret, because he is separated from it.
—Maurice Blanchot (French Novelist, Critic)

There cannot be a more glorious object in creation than a human being replete with benevolence, meditating in what manner he may render himself most acceptable to the Creator by doing good to his creatures.
—Henry Fielding (English Novelist)

There are no old people nowadays; they are either ‘wonderful for their age’ or dead.
—Mary Pettibone Poole (American Aphorist)

So that ends my first experience of matrimony, which I always thought a highly over-rated performance.
—Isadora Duncan (American Dancer)

He who has known how to love the land has loved eternity.
—Stefan Zeromski (Polish Novelist)

Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent. A man is hated sometimes for pride, when it was an excess of humility gave the occasion.
—William Shenstone (English Poet)

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.
—W. E. B. Du Bois (American Sociologist, Activist)

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

The conductor must make it possible to eliminate himself in the music. If the orchestra feels him doing that, then everything will go well.
—Giuseppe Sinopoli (Italian Conductor, Composer)

Think you are weak, think you lack what it takes, think you will lose, think you are second class—think this way and you are doomed to mediocrity.
—David J. Schwartz (American Self-help Author)

The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself… Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel.
—George Gershwin (American Composer)

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

The entire global business community is learning to learn together, becoming a learning community.
—Peter Senge (American Management Consultant)

The older I grow the more earnestly I feel that the few joys of childhood are the best that life has to give.
—Ellen Glasgow (American Novelist)

Gratitude—the meanest and most sniveling attribute in the world.
—Dorothy Parker (American Humorist, Journalist)

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

Never dig up in unbelief what you have sown in faith.
—James Gordon Lindsay (American Pentecostal Pastor)

O grant me, Heaven, a middle state,
Neither too humble nor too great;
More than enough, for nature’s ends,
With something left to treat my friends.
—David Mallet (Scottish Poet, Dramatist)

Sentimentality—that’s what we call the sentiment we don’t share.
—Graham Greene (British Novelist)

There is a wide difference between speaking to deceive, and being silent to be impenetrable.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher, Author)

How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success.
—Sophie Swetchine (Russian Mystic, Writer)

The years of getting up again after a tremendous collapse, these are the good growth years of the people.
—Hans Carossa (German Novelist)

I do not think anyone can be taught anything about humor, but I do think that certain persons may be taught the mechanism of producing humorous copy that will sell to magazines and newspapers.
—Don Marquis (American Humorist, Journalist)

Absence is one of the most useful ingredients of family life, and to dose it rightly is an art like any other.
—Freya Stark (British Explorer, Writer)

A dream is a scripture, and many scriptures are nothing but dreams.
—Umberto Eco (Italian Novelist)

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

Atheism deprives superstition of its stand ground, and compels Theism to reason for its existence.
—George Holyoake (English Social Reformer)

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

All religions have based morality on obedience, that is to say, on voluntary slavery. That is why they have always been more pernicious than any political organization. For the latter makes use of violence, the former—of the corruption of the will.
—Alexander Herzen (Russian Revolutionary, Writer)

Intrinsic is the belief that quality does not happen by accident, it must be planned!
—Joseph Juran (American Quality Scholar)

A desire to “give back” needn’t imply giving to the neediest. It could mean giving to those with the most potential to benefit.
—Marty Nemko (American Career Coach)

Use your weaknesses; aspire to the strength.
—Laurence Olivier (English Actor, Producer,, Director)

The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.
—Emma Goldman (American Anarchist)

There is a certain justice in criticism. The critic is like a midwife—a tyrannical midwife.
—Stephen Spender (English Poet, Critic)

Our hearts of stone become hearts of flesh when we learn where the outcast weeps.
—Brennan Manning (American Franciscan Priest Theologian, Author)

A human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is, is a human being by definition only, having much more in common with the bedbug, the tapeworm, the cancer, and the scavengers of the deep sea.
—James Agee (American Man of Letters)

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

Only by standing on their shoulders can we build a better world, but we should use the wise as advisers, not masters.
—William Coperthwaite (American Builder, Designer)

There are as many paths to God as there are stars in the firmament, or pores in body; searching through any one of them a true seeker can find Him, feel satisfied and can sing his achievement.
—Malik Muhammad Jayasi (Indian Poet)

If a man coaches himself, then he has only himself to blame when he is beaten.
—Roger Bannister (British Athlete, Neurologist)

Personal information is increasingly used to enforce standards of behavior. Information processing is developing, therefore, into an essential element of long-term strategies of manipulation intended to mold and adjust individual conduct.
—Shoshana Zuboff (American Social Psychologist)

The most subtle flattery a woman can receive is that conveyed by actions, not by words.
—Suzanne Curchod (French-Swiss Salonist, Writer)

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
—Rick Warren (American Evangelical Pastor)

A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets.
—Gloria Stuart (American Actress)

In what light soever we regard the Bible, whether with reference to revelation, to history, or to morality, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.
—John Quincy Adams (American Head of State)

The sage, who is living outside the routine of the world, contemplates his own character, not as an isolated ego manifestation, but in relation to the laws of life. He judges freedom from blame to be the highest good.
—I Ching (Ancient Chinese Divination Text)

Victory becomes, to some degree, a state of mind. Knowing ourselves superior to the anxieties, troubles, and worries which obsess us, we are superior to them.
—Basil King (Canadian Clergyman)

The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up.
—Dorothy Day (American Journalist Reformer)

Well, love is insanity. The ancient Greeks knew that. It is the taking over of a rational and lucid mind by delusion and self-destruction. You lose yourself, you have no power over yourself, you can’t even think straight.
—Marilyn French (American Feminist Author)

One of the grandest things in having rights is that though they are your rights you may give them up.
—George MacDonald (Scottish Poet, Novelist)

The most successful businessman is the man who holds onto the old just as long as it is good and grabs the new just as soon as it is better.
—Waid Vanderpoel (American Financier, Conservationist)

We have a problem. “Congratulations.” But it’s a tough problem. “Then double congratulations.”
—W. Clement Stone (American Self-help Guru)

Why are we born? We’re born eventually to die, of course. But what happens between the time we’re born and we die? We’re born to live. One is a realist if one hopes.
—Studs Terkel (American Oral Historian)

Does history repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce? No, that’s too grand, too considered a process. History just burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago.
—Julian Barnes (British Novelist, Critic)

Make good use of bad rubbish.
—Elisabeth Beresford (British Children’s Writer)

What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast. We suffer for nothing. Our own death wish is our only real tragedy.
—Mario Puzo (American Novelist)

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher, Writer)

Men freely believe that which they desire.
—Julius Caesar (Roman Ruler)

We’ve made great medical progress in the last generation. What used to be merely an itch is now an allergy.
—Modern Proverb

Weary the path that does not challenge. Doubt is an incentive to truth and patient inquiry leadeth the way.
—Hosea Ballou (American Theologian)

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.
—Harold Wilson (British Political Leader)

Until the rise of American advertising, it never occurred to anyone anywhere in the world that the teenager was a captive in a hostile world of adults.
—Gore Vidal (American Novelist)

Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide.
—Ben Okri (Nigerian Novelist, Poet)

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

Turning away from the world and toward your own happiness is the path of authenticity.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (American Self-help Author)

The individual activity of one man with backbone will do more than a thousand men with a mere wishbone.
—William J. H. Boetcker (American Presbyterian Minister)

You don’t understand anything until you learn it more than one way.
—Marvin Minsky (American Computer Scientist)

The horse does abominate the camel; the mighty elephant is afraid of a mouse; and they say that the lion, which scorneth to turn his back upon the stoutest animal, will tremble at the crowing of a cock.
—Increase Mather (American Theologian)