Inspirational Quotations

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.
—Maya Angelou (American Poet)

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul’s resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.
—William James (American Philosopher)

You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.
—Warren Buffett (American Investor)

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
—Bill Gates (American Businessperson)

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
—John Milton (English Poet)

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
—Will Rogers (American Actor)

The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (English Poet)

People don’t understand the sort of fight it takes to record what you want, to record the way you want to record it.
—Billie Holiday

Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (American Novelist)

While it is possible for intelligence to increase the range of benevolent impulse, and thus prompt a human being to consider the needs and rights of other than those to whom he is bound by organic and physical relationship, there are definite limits in the capacity of ordinary mortals which makes it impossible for them to grant to others what they claim for themselves.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (American Protestant Theologian)

An expert is a person who has found out by his own painful experience all the mistakes that one can make in a very narrow field.
—Niels Bohr (Danish Physicist)

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
—Epictetus (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Man is endowed by nature with organic relations to his fellow men; and natural impulse prompts him to consider the needs of others even when they compete with his own.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (American Protestant Theologian)

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.
—E. F. Schumacher (German Mathematician)

An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of a revelation.
—William James (American Philosopher)

Night has come! Leaning from the window, we gaze at the vast sombre stretch of the city below us, pierced with multitudinous points of light. Jeanne presses her hand to her forehead as she leans upon the window-bar, and seems a little sad. And I say to myself as I watch her: All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves: we must die in one life before we can enter into another!|And as if answering my thought, the young girl murmurs to me.|My guardian, I am so happy; and still I feel as if I wanted to cry!
—Anatole France (French Novelist)

A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.
—Carl Sandburg (American Children’s Books Writer)

Doubts and jealousies often beget the facts they fear.
—Thomas Jefferson (American Head of State)

Your purpose is to act on the resources God gives you. If God gives you a bucket of fish, you have to distribute those fish. If you don’t, they’re going to rot, attract a bunch of flies, and start stinking up your soul.
—Russell Simmons (American Entrepreneur)

Valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors.
—N. R. Narayana Murthy (Indian Businessperson)

The answer to your prayer is not according to your faith while you are talking, but according to your faith while you are working.
—Wallace Wattles (American New Thought Author)

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more on a man than he can bear. But worry is rust upon the blade. It is movement that destroys the machinery, but friction.
—Henry Ward Beecher (American Protestant Clergyman)

Love doesn’t just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.
—Ursula K. Le Guin (Science-fiction writer)

The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish Novelist)

We mean by “politics” the people’s business—the most important business there is.
—Adlai Stevenson (American Diplomat)

An unruly patient makes a harsh physician.
—Publilius Syrus (Syrian-born Latin Writer)

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
—Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

He has achieved success, who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
—Bessie Anderson Stanley (American Poet)

At very best, a person wrapped up in himself makes a small package.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick (American Baptist Clergyman)

There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.
—Jules Renard (French Novelist)

The great successful men of the world have used their imagination…they think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building – steadily building.
—Robert Collier (American Self-Help Author)

Let thy child’s first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.
—Benjamin Franklin (American Political leader)

Those indeed who attain any excellence commonly spend life in one pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)

Learning organizations may be a tool not just for the evolution of organizations, but for the evolution of intelligence.
—Peter Senge (American Management Consultant)

How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

I wish more of us could understand that our increasing isolation, no matter how much it seems to express pride and self-affirmation, is not the answer to our problems.
—Arthur Ashe (American Sportsperson)

The cultured give happiness wherever they go. The uncultured whenever they go.
—Swami Chinmayananda (Indian Hindu Teacher)

Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.
—Khalil Gibran (Lebanese-born American Philosopher)

Fortune leaves always some door open to come at a remedy.
—Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish Novelist)

An ounce of application is worth a ton of abstraction.
—Booker T. Washington (American Educator)

Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.
—Robert Frost (American Poet)

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs one step at a time.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in our own sunshine
—Henry Ward Beecher (American Protestant Clergyman)

Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.
—G. K. Chesterton (English Journalist)

A society in which women are taught anything at all but the management of a family, the care of men, and the creation of the future generation, is a society which is on the way out.
—L. Ron Hubbard (American Scientologist Religious Leader)

A thing is worth precisely what it can do for you; not what you choose to pay for it.
—John Ruskin (English Art Critic)

Much rain wears the marble.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (American Head of State)

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action. We cannot learn men from books.
—Benjamin Disraeli (British Head of State)

The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart—this you will build your life by, this you will become.
—James Allen

People are made of flesh and blood and a miracle fibre called courage.
—Mignon McLaughlin (American Journalist)

I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.
—John F. Kennedy (American Head of State)

The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.
—Arthur Ashe (American Sportsperson)

Think twice before pointing a finger to any one as other three fingers are always pointing towards you.
—Indira Gandhi (Indian Head of State)

In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
—Charlie Chaplin (British Actor)

A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with—a man is what he makes of himself.
—Alexander Graham Bell (Scottish-born American Inventor)

Any man’s life will be filled with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day of his life—that is, tries to make each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish, useful living.
—Booker T. Washington (American Educator)

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing—that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
—Richard Feynman (American Physicist)

If you have a big problem in your life, all that means is that you are being a small person!
—T. Harv Eker (American Motivational Speaker)

We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrow’s obligations. When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night’s sleep for the chance of extra profits.
—Warren Buffett (American Investor)

The race of mankind would perish, did they cease to aid each other. From the time that the mother binds the child’s head till the moment that some kind assistant wipes the death-damp from the brow of the dying, we cannot exist without mutual help. All, therefore, that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-mortals; no one who holds the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.
—Walter Scott (Scottish Novelist)

We learn best from experience but we never directly experience the consequences of many of our most important decisions.
—Peter Senge (American Management Consultant)

There is a science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches, and once these laws are learned and obeyed by anyone, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty.
—Wallace Wattles (American New Thought Author)

There are moments in history when brooding tragedy and its dark shadows can be lightened by recalling great moments of the past.
—Indira Gandhi (Indian Head of State)

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish Novelist)

We have found that our great philosophers and our great men of action are optimists. So, too, our most potent men of letters have been optimists in their books and in their lives. No pessimist ever won an audience commensurately wide with his genius.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

Come what may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

Change has no constituency—and a perceived revolution has even less.
—Jack Welch (American Businessperson)

We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes, they just don’t know where to look.
—Ronald Reagan (American Head of State)

Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are.
—Niels Bohr (Danish Physicist)

Across the gulfs and barriers that now divide us, we must remember that there are no permanent enemies. Hostility today is a fact, but it is not a ruling law. The supreme reality of our time is our indivisibility as children of God and our common vulnerability on this planet.
—John F. Kennedy (American Head of State)

Man—being made reasonable, and so a thinking creature, there is nothing more worthy of his being than the right direction and employment of his thoughts, since upon this depends both his usefulness to the public and his own present and future benefit in all respects.
—William Penn (American Entrepreneur)

There is beauty everywhere. Just put your heart into your eyes.
—Hans Taeger

Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than a great author. There are but two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written; and to write what is worthy of being read; and the greater of these is the doing.
—Albert Pike (American Military Leader)

We must distinguish between spirituality in general terms, which aims to make us better people, and religion. Adopting a religion remains optional, but becoming a better human being is essential.
—Matthieu Ricard (French Buddhist Monk)

Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.
—Ronald Reagan (American Head of State)

To a people famishing and idle, the only acceptable form in which God can dare to appear is work and promise of food and wages.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Hindu Political leader)

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.
—J. M. Barrie (Scottish Novelist)

The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to. No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.
—Richard Feynman (American Physicist)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
—George Bernard Shaw (Irish Playwright)

Family quarrels have a total bitterness unmatched by others. Yet it sometimes happens that they also have a kind of tang, a pleasantness beneath the unpleasantness, based on the tacit understanding that this is not for keeps; that any limb you climb out on will still be there later for you to climb back.
—Mignon McLaughlin (American Journalist)

Don’t fool yourself that important things can be put off till tomorrow; they can be put off forever, or not at all.
—Mignon McLaughlin (American Journalist)

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.
—J. M. Barrie (Scottish Novelist)

My temper leads me to peace and harmony with all men; and it is peculiarly my wish to avoid any personal feuds or dissensions with those, who are embarked in the same great national interest with myself, as every difference of this kind in its consequence must be very injurious.
—George Washington (American Head of State)

Little friends may prove great friends.
—Aesop (Greek Fabulist)

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
—Theodore Hesburgh (American Catholic Educator)

Be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
—Socrates (Anceient Greek Philosopher)

How feeble are we that we’re swayed more by dubious flattery than by valid suggestions.
—Marty Nemko (American Career Coach, Author)

In my experience, there’s only one thing that will always steer you toward success: That’s to have a vision and to stick with it… Once I have a vision for a new venture, I’m going to ride that vision until the wheels come off.
—Russell Simmons (American Entrepreneur)

Even a high experience is worth nothing, when not polished and kept warm.
—Hans Taeger

It helps a lot looking at life from the perspective of one’s certain death. Try to visualize yourself at the hour of death. Just a couple of minutes each day. It’s basic Buddhist beginners practice.
—Hans Taeger

The individual or the group which organizes any society, however social its intentions or pretensions, arrogates an inordinate portion of social privilege to itself.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (American Protestant Theologian)

Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (American Protestant Theologian)