Inspirational Quotations

No man needs sympathy because he has to work. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

When you sing don’t worry about the sound you hear or you’ll miss the music you could make.
—Unknown

The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.
—Sun Tzu (Chinese Military Leader)

Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.
—Edgard Varese

You can take the day off—but you can’t put it back on again.
—Unknown

Laughter is the closest distance between two people.
—Victor Borge

To be old and wise, you first have to be young and stupid.
—Unknown

The spirit of a person’s life is ever shedding some power, just as a flower is steadily bestowing fragrance upon the air.
—Thomas Starr King (American Unitarian Minister)

Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves, as he loves us better too. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This conflict with difficulty makes us acquainted with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.
—Edmund Burke (Irish Political leader)

All is for the best in the best of the possible worlds.
—Voltaire (French Philosopher)

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.
—Unknown

Go to college and get some knowledge. Stay there till you’re through. If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.
—Muhammad Ali (American Sportsperson)

Your talent is God’s gift to you; what you do with it is your gift to God.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.
—Dale Carnegie (American Author)

The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.
—J. M. Barrie (Scottish Novelist)

No matter how old you are, you are always somebody’s child, and if you are loved, you are always in somebody’s thoughts.
—Unknown

Whether the philosophers praise him or criticize, whether wealth enters the house or goes away as it wishes, whether death is today itself or after an eon, great men never step a foot away from the path of justice.
—Subhashita Manjari

Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.
—James Bryant Conant (American Chemist)

Not being able to do everything is no excuse for not doing everything you can.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (British Cartoonist)

When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.
—Jiddu Krishnamurti (Indian Philosopher)

The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.
—Helen Hayes (American Actor)

We’re drowning in information and starving for knowledge.
—Rutherford D. Rogers

Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one less scoundrel in the world.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Writer)

Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.
—James Bryant Conant (American Chemist)

I’ve learned one thing during my time on the soccer fields:
It’s amazing how fast you can run
And the things you can do when you have a goal in mind.
It applies to the rest of my life, too.
—Unknown

Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other—it doesn’t matter who it is—and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.
—Mother Teresa (Albanian Catholic Humanitarian)

Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.
—Theodore Newton Vail

There is only one happiness in life–to love and be loved.
—George Sand (French Novelist, Dramatist)

There is nothing so powerful as the truth.
—Anonymous

When one is out of touch with oneself, one cannot touch others.
—Anonymous

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life—think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

Man is never helped in his suffering by what he thinks for himself, but only by revelation of a wisdom greater than his own. It is this which lifts him out of his distress.
—Carl Jung (Swiss Psychologist)

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
—English Proverb

What is moral is what you feel good after, and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.
—Ernest Hemingway (American Author)

Never let a day go by without giving at least three people a compliment.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.
—Ernest Hemingway (American Author)

The average man plays to the gallery of his own self-esteem.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)

Men should be judged, not by their tint of skin,
the Gods they serve, the Vintage they drink,
nor by the way they fight, or love, or sin,
But by the quality of the thought they think
—Adela Florence Nicolson (English Poet)

To succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation in the basics of education– literacy, both verbal and numerical, and communication skills.
—Alan Greenspan (American Economist)

She didn’t know it couldn’t be done, so she went ahead and did it.
—Unknown

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
—Chinese Proverb

Kindness is a language which the blind can see and the deaf can hear.
—Anonymous

A person is only as big as the dream they dare to live.
—Unknown

The basic thing about a man is not his specific but his fundamentum.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

To enhance the quality of the day… that is the highest of the arts.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the dumb can understand.
—Paramahansa Yogananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

But though I am an old man, I am but a young gardener.
—Thomas Jefferson (American Head of State)

Take Time
Take time to work … it is the price of success.
Take time to think … it is the source of power.
Take time to play, … it is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to read, … it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to be friendly, … it is the road to happiness.
Take time to dream, … it is hitching your wagon to a star.
Take time to love & be loved, … it is the privilege of the Gods.
Take time to look around … it is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to laugh … it is the music of the soul.
—English Prayer

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
—Harry S. Truman (American Head of State)

It is our experience that, 90% of the time, what passes for commitment is compliance.
—Peter Senge (American Management Consultant)

For every mountain, there is a miracle.
—Robert H. Schuller

Accentuate the positive, Eliminate the negative, Latch on to the affirmative, And don’t mess with mister-in-between.
—Unknown

It is almost impossible to smile on the outside without feeling better on the inside.
—Unknown

It is Good to know; it is better to do; it is best to be. To be pure and strong, to be honest and earnest, to be kindly and thoughtful, and in all to be true, to be manly and womanly and Christly—this is the greatest ambition in life. It is not in knowing or having or doing, but through knowing and having and doing the best, it is in being, in what a man is in himself. He can do more for others who has done most with himself. Mastery of circumstances comes only through mastery of self.
—Samuel Dickey Gordon

Failure accepts no alibis. Success requires no explanation.
—Unknown

Two stonecutters were asked what they were doing.|The first said, I’m cutting this stone into blocks”.|The second replied, “I’m on a team that’s building a catherdral”.”
—Anonymous

There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals.
—John Ruskin (English Art Critic)

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy.—He that rises late must trot all day, and hall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.
—Benjamin Franklin (American Political leader)

There are no unimportant jobs, no unimportant people, no unimportant acts of kindness.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

I have come one step away from everything. And here I stay, far from everything, one step away.
—Antonio Porchia (Italian Poet)

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
—Buddhist Teaching

In some measure all that comes after you is going to be influenced and determined by the kind of life you make in your business of living. When viewed from such a height of vision, even the seemingly least important life gathers round it a glory which truly passes understanding.
—Unknown

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (American First Lady)

A man takes a drink, the drink takes another, and the drink takes the man.
—Sinclair Lewis

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
—Mother Teresa (Albanian Catholic Humanitarian)

Silence is ever-speaking; it is a perennial flow of language; it is interrupted by (human) speaking. These words obstruct that mute language.
—Ramana Maharshi (Indian Hindu Mystic)

Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival.
—W. Edwards Deming

Aspire, break bounds. Endeavor to be good, and better still, best.
—Robert Browning (English Poet)

If your dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.
—Don Ward

If you’re not using your smile, you’re like a man with a million dollars in the bank and no checkbook.
—Les Giblin

All you’ll get from strangers is surface pleasantry or indifference. Only someone who loves you will criticize you.
—Judith Crist

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
—Frank Tibolt

Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action is of infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated with celestial air, until it eclipses the sun and moon.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (Roman Poet)

The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (Austrian Philosopher)

When you can’t change the direction of the wind—adjust your sails.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

Our noisy years seem moments in the being of the eternal silence.
—William Wordsworth (English Poet)

Skills are not copyright – they are transferable.
—Unknown

Better Management. Don’t manage stress or nuisances—get rid of them.
—Unknown

Change is the end result of all true learning. Change involves three things: First, a dissatisfaction with self—a felt void or need; second, a decision to change to fill the void or need; and third, a conscious dedication to the process of growth and change—the willful act of making the change, doing something.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
—Alexander Pope (English Poet)

Make your life itself a creative work of art.
—Michael Ray

Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.
—Walt Whitman (American Poet)

A friend is a person who tells you all the nice things you always knew about yourself.
—Anonymous

People buy what they want when they want it more than the money it costs.
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)

The world belongs to the enthusiast who keeps cool.
—William McFee

Always be a little kinder than necessary.
—J. M. Barrie (Scottish Novelist)

Depression is frozen rage—anger that has never been dealt with.
—Unknown

There is no room for road-rage on the straight and narrow.
—Unknown

Let your love be stronger than your hate or anger. Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little than to break.
—H. G. Wells (British Novelist)

In an argument, retaliation leads to escalation.
—Unknown

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

There is a strange reluctance on the part of most people to admit that they enjoy life.
—William Lyon Phelps (American Author)

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.
—Malcolm Forbes (American Publisher)

Athletes are driven by commitment to their sport, to themselves, to excellence itself. Commitment fuels the extra mile, the final set, the last quarter, the sprint to the line, going on when the body begs to stop.
—Unknown

When clouds form in the skies we know that rain will follow but we must not wait for it. Nothing will be achieved by attempting to interfere with the future before the time is ripe. Patience is needed.
—I. Ching

You have only one life, and it will soon be past, and only what’s done for God will last.
—Unknown

Life always bursts the boundaries of formulas.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (French Novelist, Aviator)

A gentleman that loves to hear himself talk, will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)