Inspirational Quotations

Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.
—Hubert Humphrey (American Head of State)

Wisdom is oft times nearer when we stoop than when we soar.
—William Wordsworth (English Poet)

The estimate and valor of a man consists in the heart and in the will; there his true honor lies. Valor is stability, not of arms and legs, but of courage and the soul; it does not lie in the valor of our horse, nor of our arms, but in ourselves. He that falls obstinate in his courage, if his legs fail him, fights upon his knees.
—Michel de Montaigne (French Philosopher)

Why are the words good-bye, I’m sorry, and I love you so easy to pronounce but so hard to say?
—Unknown

Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.
—Woodrow Wilson (American Head of State)

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
—Ayn Rand (Russian-born American Novelist)

The soul has this proof of its divinity: that divine things delight in it.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (Roman Philosopher)

The experiences of camp life show that a man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way. The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even in the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to life.
—Viktor Frankl (Austrian Physician)

Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there.
—John Kotter (American Academic)

Always be able to look back and say: “At least I did not lead no humdrum life.”
—Movie: Forrest Gump

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

That government is best which governs least.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet)

Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.
—David Bly

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

Our fundamental problems are our ignorance and ego-grasping. We grasp at our identity as being our personality, memories, opinions, judgments, hopes, fears, chattering away—all revolving around this me me me me.
—Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (British Buddhist Teacher, Nun)

As long as we believe ourselves to be even the least different from God, fear remains with us; but when we know ourselves to be the One, fear goes; of what can we be afraid?
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.
—Socrates (Anceient Greek Philosopher)

I have always admired the ability to bite off more than one can chew and then chew it.
—William C. deMille (American Screenwriter)

People often say motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)

Success often comes to those who have the aptitude to see way down the road.
—J. Laing Burns, Jr.

And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see – or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.
—Alice Walker

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
—Stewart Brand (American Writer)

Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you’re scared to death.
—Earl Wilson

Good fortune follows honesty.|Fame follows sacrifice.|Education follows practice.|Intelligence follows hard work.
—Subhashita Manjari

Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate
—Indian Proverb

If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.
—Haim Ginott

The delight we inspire in others, has this enchanting peculiarity. That, unlike any other reflection, returns to us more radiant than ever.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
—Steve Jobs (American Entrepreneur)

There’s no understanding the future without the present, and no understanding where we are now without a glance, a least, to where we have been.
—Joyce Maynard

Jealousy is an inner consciousness of one’s own inferiority. it is a mental cancer.
—B. C. Forbes (Scottish-born American Journalist)

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
—Henry Kissinger (American Diplomat)

As you see yourself, I once saw myself; as you see me now, you will be seen.
—Mexican Proverb

The criterion of true beauty is that it increases on examination; if false, that it lessens. There is therefore, something in true beauty that corresponds with right reason, and is not the mere creation of fancy.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick

For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.
—Ivan Panin

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.
—Joseph Joubert (French Essayist)

The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes the ice melt, kindness causes misunderstandings, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
—Albert Schweitzer (French Theologian)

Even as a great fish swims along the two banks of a river, first along the eastern bank and then the western bank, in the same way the Spirit of man moves along beside his two dwellings: this waking world and the land of sleep and dreams.
—The Upanishads

Death is as sure for that which is born, as birth is for that which is dead. Therefore grieve not for what is inevitable.
—The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture)

I hear the words, the thoughts, the feeling tones, the personal meaning, even the meaning that is below the conscious intent of the speaker. Sometimes too, in a message which superficially is not very important, I hear a deep human cry that lies buried and unknown far below the surface of the person. So I have learned to ask myself, can I hear the sounds and sense the shape of this other person’s inner world? Can I resonate to what he is saying so deeply that I sense the meanings he is afraid of, yet would like to communicate, as well as those he knows?
—Carl Rogers (American Psychologist)

Faults become thick where love is thin.
—English Proverb

The ultimate function of prophecy is not to tell the future, but to make it. Your successful past will block your visions of the future.
—Joel A. Barker

The world is governed by opinion.
—William Ellery Channing

Life is a lying dream, he only wakes who casts the World aside.
—Zeami Motokiyo (Japanese Playwright)

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious—the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

When all think alike, then no one is thinking.
—Walter Lippmann (American Journalist)

Confidence is attractive, but vulnerability is disarming.
—Derek Sivers (American Entrepreneur)

Light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

A wise man should keep far away from an unpleasant person, from injuring others, from other’s views, from unrighteous conduct and from untruth.
—Subhashita Manjari

Strength is the sign of vigor, the sign of life, the sign of hope, the sign of health, and the sign of everything that is good. As long as the body lives, there must be strength in the body, strength in the mind, strength in the hand.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument.
—The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture)

Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.
—Robert Bresson

You do not destroy an idea by killing people;
you replace it with a better one.
— Edward Keating

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
— Bertrand A. Russell

A friend is a gift you give yourself.
— Robert Louis Stevenson

Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better, Silence is deep as Eternity; Speech is shallow as Time.
— Thomas Carlyle

Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man
does what he ought to do in circumstances confronting him.
— Thomas Aquinas

The most effective way to ensure the value of the future
is to confront the present courageously and constructively.
— Rollo May

A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks almost instantly.
— Bits and Pieces

We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?
— Niels Bohr

All great discoveries are made by people whose feelings run ahead of their thinking.
— Charles Henry Parkhurst

You can pretend to be serious; you can’t pretend to be witty.
— Sacha Guitry

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Grains collected by ants, honey accumulated by bees, and wealth collected by a greedy miser, all perish along with the source.
—Subhashita Manjari

We often rebel against the strenuousness and chaos of our time. But historically it has always been in such time that man won his great inner victories.
—Unknown

It is not good enough for things to be planned – they still have to be done; for the intention to become a reality, energy has to be launched into operation.
—Vilayat Inayat Khan (British Sufi Mystic)

I don’t want any yes-men” around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.”
—Samuel Goldwyn (Polish-born American Film Producer)

Self-esteem must be earned! When you dare to dream, dare to follow that dream, dare to suffer through the pain, sacrifice, self-doubts, and friction from the world, you will genuinely impress yourself.
—Laura Schlessinger (American Children’s Books Writer)

No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess.
—Isaac Newton (English Physicist)

Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe. No path is wholly rough.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (American Poet)

All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when they are annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation?
—The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture)

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
—Jack London

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
—Khalil Gibran (Lebanese-born American Philosopher)

This body, full of faults, has yet one great quality: whatever it encounters in this temporal life depends upon one’s actions.
—Nagarjuna (Indian Buddhist Philosopher)

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.
—Andrew Carnegie (Scottish-American Industrialist, Philanthropist)

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can play weird–that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple complicated is commonplace–making the complicated simple, awesomely simple–that’s creativity.
—Charles Mingus

The abundant life does not come to those who have had a lot of obstacles removed from their path by others. It develops from within and is rooted in strong mental and moral fiber.
—William Mather Lewis

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
—Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out.
—Russian Proverb

All that is real in me is God; all that is real in God is I. The gulf between God and me is thus bridged. Thus by knowing God, we find that the kingdom of heaven is within us.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

The secret to success is to know something nobody else knows.
—Aristotle Onassis (Greek Businessperson)

Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, they will never cease to be amused.
—Unknown

I think it’s generally a mistake to assume that rationality is going to be perfect even in very able people. I think hubris contributes to it.
—Charlie Munger

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
—Theodore Isaac Rubin (American Psychiatrist)

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
—Niccolo Machiavelli (Florentine Political Philosopher)

Life comes from the Spirit. Even as a man casts a shadow, so the Spirit casts the shadow of life, and, as a shadow of former lives, a new life comes to this body.
—The Upanishads

He who through the error of attachment loves his body, abides wandering in darkness, sensible and suffering the things of death, but he who realizes that the body is but the tomb of his soul, rises to immortality.
—Hermes Trismegistus

If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.
—George Bernard Shaw (Irish Playwright)

Without haste, but without rest.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet)

This above all—to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

Laughter is the greatest weapon that we humans possess and it’s the one we use the least.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

He whom love touches not walks in darkness.
—Plato (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

This I have seen in life—those who are overcautious about themselves fall into dangers at every step; those who are afraid of losing honor and respect, get only disgrace; and those who are always afraid of loss, always lose.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

Dharma means the natural state or condition of beings and things, what sustains, the law of their being, what is right for them to be, the very stuff of their being.
—S. N. Tandon

Be more willing to be impressed than eager to impress.
—Anonymous

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.
—John Stuart Mill (English Philosopher, Economist)

I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

Nothing is ever lost by courtesy. It is the cheapest of the pleasures; costs nothing and conveys much. It pleases him who gives and him who receives, and thus, like mercy, is twice blessed.
—Erastus Wiman (Canadian Journalist)

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
—H. G. Wells (British Novelist)

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
—Samuel Johnson (British Essayist)

The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one’s opportunities and make the most of one’s resources.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (French Moralist)

We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We each have all the time there is; our mental and moral status is determined by what we do with it.
—Mary Blake

In everything the middle course is best:
all things in excess bring trouble to men.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (Roman Playwright)