Inspirational Quotations

Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other, and the choice we make pursuant to our individual organization.
—Marquis de Sade (French Political leader)

Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money wishes for it. Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsessions, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.
—Napoleon Hill (American Author)

Measure not by the scale of perfection the meager product of reality.
—Friedrich Schiller (German Poet)

An oak and a reed were arguing about their strength. When a strong wind came up, the reed avoided being uprooted by bending and leaning with the gusts of wind. But the oak stood firm and was torn up by the roots.
—Aesop (Greek Fabulist)

A woman’s always younger than a man of equal years.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (English Poet)

Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.
—Napoleon Hill (American Author)

The pride of dying rich raises the loudest laugh in hell.
—John W. Foster

Death is not the enemy; living in constant fear of it is.
—Norman Cousins (American Journalist)

By criticizing other people, we are increasing the behavior that we object to.
—Steve Chandler

If we discovered that we had only five minutes left to say all that we wanted to say, every telephone booth would be occupied by people calling other people to stammer that they loved them.
—Christopher Morley (American Journalist)

You have to believe in happiness or happiness never comes.
—Douglas Malloch

The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Writer)

Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.
—Michel Foucault (French Philosopher)

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
—Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Religious Leader)

Death carries off a man who is gathering flowers and whose mind is distracted, as a flood carries off a sleeping village.
—The Dhammapada (Buddhist Anthology of Verses)

Live your daily life in a way that you never lose yourself. When you are carried away with your worries, fears, cravings, anger, and desire, you run away from yourself and you lose yourself. The practice is always to go back to oneself.
—Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Religious Leader)

I must accept life unconditionally. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don’t set any condition.
—Arthur Rubinstein (Polish-born American Composer)

Every minute of life carries with it its miraculous value, and its face of eternal youth.
—Albert Camus (Algerian-born French Philosopher)

Poverty, frost, famine, rain, disease, are the beadles and guardsmen that hold us to common sense.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
—Martin Luther (German Protestant Theologian)

Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.
—Friedrich Schiller (German Poet)

We forget ourselves and our destinies in health; and the chief use of temporary sickness is to remind us of these concerns.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
—George Goodman (American Economist)

The fact is, the difference between peak performers and everybody else are much smaller than everybody else thinks.
—Charles A. Garfield

Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (American Atheist Politician)

If one man conquer in battle a thousand times thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors.
—The Dhammapada (Buddhist Anthology of Verses)

The worst of all fears is the fear of living.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.
—Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Religious Leader)

Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.
—Doris Lessing (British Novelist, Poet)

You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself.
—Beryl Markham (British-born Kenyan Aviator)

A brave man hazards life, but not his conscience.
—Friedrich Schiller (German Poet)

The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition is so powerful that it is alone, and without any assistance, capable not only of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting 100 impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumbers its operations.
—George Goodman (American Economist)

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.
—Unknown

Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

Seeing, hearing, feeling, are miracles, and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
—Walt Whitman (American Poet)

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often and in the loudest voice.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

No man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes.
—William Ewart Gladstone (British Head of State)

The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

Brave is the lion tamer, brave is the world subduer, but braver is the one who has subdued himself.
—Johann Gottfried Herder (German Lutheran Philosopher)

The condition of the most passionate enthusiast is to be preferred over the individual who, because of the fear of making a mistake, won’t in the end affirm or deny anything.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Writer)

True miracles are created by men when they use the courage and intelligence that God gave them.
—Jean Anouilh

If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing.
—Gail Sheehy (American Journalist)

He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.
—Walt Whitman (American Poet)

The voice of the majority is no proof of justice.
—Friedrich Schiller (German Poet)

The more defects a man may have, the older he is, the less lovable, the more resounding his success.
—Marquis de Sade (French Political leader)

The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (English Poet)

To believe only possibilities is not faith, but mere philosophy.
—Thomas Browne (English Christian Author)

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (French Philosopher)

A good writer is basically a story-teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer (Polish-born American Children’s Books Writer)

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

In the time of darkest defeat, victory may be nearest.
—William McKinley (American Head of State)

A man with a surplus can control circumstances, but a man without a surplus is controlled by them, and often he has no opportunity to exercise judgment.
—Harvey Samuel Firestone (American Businessperson)

It is wonderful what strength and boldness of purpose and energy will come from the feeling that we are in the way of duty.
—John Foster Dulles (American Lawyer)

Let us show, not merely in great crises, but in every day affairs of life, qualities of practical intelligence, of hardihood and endurance, and above all, the power of devotion to a lofty ideal.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes.
—George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (English Political leader)

I cannot sleep for dreaming; I cannot dream but I wake and walk about the house as though I’d find you coming through some door.
—Arthur Miller (American Playwright)

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

The man who does not take pride in his own performance performs nothing in which to take pride.
—Thomas J. Watson (American Businessperson)

Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of his conscience, thus helping to bring the collective conscience to life.
—Norman Cousins (American Journalist)

As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

Lost time is like a run in a stocking. It always gets worse.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (American Author, Aviator)

Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.
—Isaac D’Israeli

The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.
—Norman Cousins (American Journalist)

The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Writer)

Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.
—William Faulkner (American Novelist)

Dreams are great. When they disappear you may still be there, but you will have ceased to live.
—Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor (American-born British Politician)