Inspirational Quotations

You just can’t beat the person who won’t give up.
—Babe Ruth (American Baseball Player)

The doctor has been taught to be interested not in health but in disease. What the public is taught is that health is the cure for disease.
—Ashley Montagu (British-American Anthropologist)

That’s the risk you take if you change: that people you’ve been involved with won’t like the new you. But other people who do will come along.
—Lisa Alther (American Novelist)

Never allow a person to tell you ‘no’ who doesn’t have the power to say ‘yes.’
—Eleanor Roosevelt (American Humanitarian)

Happiness should always remain a bit incomplete. After all, dreams are boundless.
—Anatoly Karpov (Russian Chess Player)

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
—Arthur C. Clarke (English Science-fiction Writer)

It is not necessary to live, but to carve our names beyond that point, this is necessary.
—Gabriele D’Annunzio (Italian Writer, Political Leader)

Hateful is the power, and pitiable is the life, of those who wish to be feared rather than to be loved.
—Cornelius Nepos (Roman Historian)

When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won’t do to get it, or what he doesn’t believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn’t believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire… or preserve his freedom.
—Malcolm X (American Civil Rights Leader )

It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you’ve got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not yet a winner.
—Vince Lombardi (American Football Coach)

Anger, lust—these enemies of mine—
Are limbless and devoid of faculties.
They have no bravery, no cleverness;
How then have they reduced me to such slavery?
—Shantideva (Indian Buddhist Scholar)

The defects of a preacher are soon spied. Let him be endued with ten virtues, and have but one fault, and that one fault will eclipse and darken all his virtues and gifts, so evil is the world in these times.
—Martin Luther (German Protestant Theologian)

In a state of mindfulness, you see yourself exactly as you are. You see your own selfish behavior. You see your own suffering. And you see how you create that suffering. You see how you hurt others. You pierce right through the layer of lies that you normally tell yourself, and you see what is really there. Mindfulness leads to wisdom.
—Henepola Gunaratana (Sri Lankan Buddhist Monk)

Happiness, I do not know where to turn to discover you on earth, in the air or the sky; yet I know you exist and are no futile dream.
—Rosalia de Castro (Spanish Writer)

I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.
—Blaise Pascal (French Philosopher, Scientist)

One of the ridiculous aspects of being a poet is the huge gulf between how seriously we take ourselves and how generally we are ignored by everybody else.
—Billy Collins (American Poet)

Only two classes of books are of universal appeal. The very best and the very worst.
—Ford Madox Ford (English Novelist, Poet, Critic)

Clouds and darkness surround us, yet Heaven is just, and the day of triumph will surely come, when justice and truth will be vindicated. Our wrongs will be made right, and we will once more, taste the blessings of freedom.
—Mary Todd Lincoln (American First lady)

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all occasions.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher, Author)

Remember if people talk behind your back, it only means you’re two steps ahead.
—Fannie Flagg (American Comedian, Novelist)

If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.
—David Livingstone (Scottish Missionary, Explorer)

Except for children (who don’t know enough not to ask the important questions), few of us spend time wondering why nature is the way it is.
—Carl Sagan (American Astronomer)

A good traveler is one who does not know where he is going to, and a perfect traveler does not know where he came from.
—Lin Yutang (Chinese Author, Philologist)

The great obstacle to progress is prejudice.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (American Writer, Aphorist)

I thank you God for this most amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes.
—e. e. cummings (American Poet, Writer, Painter)

Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of Nature. And it is because in the last analysis we ourselves are part of the mystery we are trying to solve.
—Max Planck (German Theoretical Physicist)

There is no one who can undertake this task for you. The student’s hunger can never be satisfied by his teacher’s eating a meal for him. It is like competing in a marathon. The winner will only be the person who is either the fittest or the most determined. It is solely up to the individual to win the race. Likewise, to achieve the aim of your practice, do not be distracted by things that are not related to this task. For the time being, just let everything else remain as it is and put it out of your mind. Only when you are awakened will you be able to truly benefit others.
—Kusan Sunim (Korean Buddhist Priest)

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
—Aung San Suu Kyi (Burmese Political Activist)

Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.
—Sandra Day O’Connor (American Jurist)

Everyday I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.
—Claude Monet (French Painter)

The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.
—Warren Buffett (American Investor)

A donkey that is made to have bath in a sacred river does not become a horse. He, who does not have a pure mind, does not listen to any good advice. Even if a sweet juice is fed to a snake, there won’t be any reduction in its poison.
—Tukaram (Indian Marathi Poet)

The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.
—Ross Perot (American Businessman)

When the soul drifts uncertainly between life and the dream, between the mind’s disorder and the return to cool reflection, it is in religious thought that we should seek consolation.
—Gerard de Nerval (French Romantic Poet)

If it is true that love is the pursuit in another of qualities we lack in ourselves, then in our love of someone from another culture, one ambition may be to weld ourselves more closely to values missing from our own culture.
—Alain de Botton (Swiss-born British Philosopher)

A great part of art consists in imitation. For the whole conduct of life is based on this: that what we admire in others we want to do ourselves.
—Quintilian (Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic)

Every book has an intrinsic impossibility, which its writer discovers as soon as his first excitement dwindles.
—Annie Dillard (American Writer)

A small debt makes a man your debtor, a large one makes him your enemy.
—Seneca the Elder (Marcus Annaeus Seneca) (Roman Rhetorician)

There seems to me a thousand occasions when my soul knows more than it can tell, and a has a spirit of it’s own which is far superior to my everyday one. It seems to me too, that men are far superior to all the books they write.
—Pierre de Marivaux (French Dramatist, Author)

Good luck needs no explanation.
—Shirley Temple (American Actress, Diplomat)

When saluted with a salutation, salute the person with a better salutation, or at least return the same, for God taketh account of all things.
—The Holy Quran (Sacred Scripture of Islam)

Try never to be the smartest person in the room. And if you are, I suggest you invite smarter people … or find a different room.
—Michael Dell (American Businessperson)

There is nothing as deceptive as an obvious fact.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (Scottish Writer)

Did any man, at his death, ever regret his conflicts with himself, his victories over appetite, his scorn of impure pleasure, or his sufferings for righteousness’ sake?
—William Ellery Channing (American Theologian, Poet)

In every life there comes a time when that dream you dream becomes that thing you do.
—Tom Hanks (American Film Actor)

Meditation is simply about being yourself and knowing about who that is. It is about coming to realize that you are on a path whether you like it or not, namely the path that is your life.
—Jon Kabat-Zinn (American Meditation Teacher, Writer)

Wait for it, wait for it! Anticipation is half the fun. So I’ve been told.
—Phil Collins (British Rock Musician, Singer)

Being at the center of a film is a burden one takes on with innocence—the first time. Thereafter, you take it on with trepidation.
—Daniel Day-Lewis (English Actor )

Very readily one indulges in carnal pleasures; later on, alas, come diseases of the body. Even though in the world the ultimate end is death, even then man leaves not his sinful behavior.
—Adi Shankaracharya (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character.
—Robert E. Lee (American Military General)

If you really understand something, you can: 1) explain it using a clear metaphor and 2) explain the strongest counter-argument to the idea.
—Ben Casnocha (American Entrepreneur, Investor)

It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (American Jurist, Author)

A bad book is as much of a labor to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author’s soul.
—Aldous Huxley (English Humanist)

Although you may spend your life killing, you will not exhaust all your foes. But if you quell your own anger, your real enemy will be slain.
—Nagarjuna (Indian Buddhist Philosopher)

Life is defined by how much you do, how often you took the difficult road and were rewarded for it.
—Ryan Holiday (American Author)

It is the rule of rules, and the general law of all laws, that every person should observe the fashions of the place where he is.
—Michel de Montaigne (French Essayist)

We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.
—E. O. Wilson (American Zoologist )

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.
—W. Somerset Maugham (British Novelist)

A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.
—Jack London (American Novelist)

It’s the moment you think you can’t that you realize you can.
—Celine Dion (Canadian Singer)

Children, you must remember something. A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive.
—Pearl Bailey (American Singer, Actress)

Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
—Herodotus (Ancient Greek Historian)

Pain is the deepest thing we have in our nature, and union through pain and suffering has always seemed more real and holy than any other.
—Arthur Henry Hallam (English Essayist, Poet)

I suppose that leadership at one time meant muscle; but today it means getting along with people.
—Indira Gandhi (Indian Head of State)

Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.
—Anais Nin (French-American Essayist)

The beginning of pride and hatred lies in worldly desire, and the strength of your desire if from habit. When an evil tendency becomes confirmed by habit, rage is triggered when anyone restrains you.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (Persian Muslim Mystic)

Do what you can to show you care about other people, and you will make our world a better place.
—Rosalynn Carter (American Humanitarian, First Lady)

To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness.
—Swami Chinmayananda (Indian Hindu Teacher)

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher, Mathematician)

To regard human beings as tools—as instruments—for the use of other human beings is not only unscientific but it is repugnant, stupid and short sighted. Tools are made by man but have not the autonomy of their maker—they have not man’s time-binding capacity for initiation, for self-direction, and self-improvement.
—Alfred Korzybski (Polish-American Philosopher)

It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of a beginning, and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn. It is possible to believe that all the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening.
—H. G. Wells (English Novelist, Historian)

This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas. The world is crisscrossed by roads that come closer together and move apart, but the important thing is that they lead towards the good.
—Pope Francis (Religious Leader)

Medicine deals with the states of health and disease in the human body. It is a truism of philosophy that a complete knowledge of a thing can only be obtained by elucidating its causes and antecedents, provided, of course, such causes exist. In medicine it is, therefore, necessary that causes of both health and disease should be determined.
—Avicenna (Persian Physician, Philosopher, Polymath)

In fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit.
—Miyamoto Musashi (Japanese Samurai Warrior, Artist)

Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.
—Sojourner Truth (African-American Abolitionist)

There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

There is always a heavy demand for fresh mediocrity. In every generation the least cultivated taste has the largest appetite.
—Paul Gauguin (French Painter)

Too humble is half proud.
—Yiddish Proverb

Race hate isn’t human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature.
—Orson Welles (American Film Director, Actor)

The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave. Otherwise he will move in a world of the dead. He can only gain that conception through personal experience, and he can only use his personal experiences when he is a genius.
—E. M. Forster (English Novelist)

One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (American Basketball Player)

If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.
—Mao Zedong (Chinese Statesman)

When under attack, no country is obligated to collect permission slips from allies to strike back.
—Charles Krauthammer (American Political Columnist)

What luck for the rulers that men do not think.
—Adolf Hitler (German Fascist Dictator)

Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.
—Carl Sandburg (American Poet, Historian)

Success, in a generally accepted sense of the term, means the opportunity to experience and to realize to the maximum the forces that are within us.
—David Sarnoff (American Broadcaster, Businessman )

Wise is the person at either end. Who can in due measure spare as well as spend.
—Lucian (Greek Satirical Writer)

Lasting peace is sought, it is essential to adopt international measures to improve the lot of the masses. The welfare of the entire human race must replace hunger and oppression. People of the world must be taught to give up envy, avarice and rancor.
—Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Founder of the Turkish Republic)

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)