Inspirational Quotations

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.
—Ralph Nader (American Activist)

When in danger of becoming too self-important remember what the mother whale told her baby. “When you get to the top and start to ‘blow’ that’s when you get harpooned!”
—Unknown

Where love rules, there is no will to power; where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.
—Carl Jung (Swiss Psychologist)

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.
—Buddhist Proverb

Each flower is a soul opening out to nature.
—Gerard de Nerval

I have learned the novice can often see things that the expert overlooks. All that is necessary is not to be afraid of making mistakes, or of appearing naive.
—Abraham Maslow (American Psychologist)

Don’t go through life, grow through life.
—Eric Butterworth

Friends bring out the best in us that other people don’t look hard enough to find.
—Unknown

If you’re not sure whether something is right to do -|Ask yourself how you will feel about it tomorrow.|Will you then think it was right or not?
—Olive Redmond

If you want to be important – that’s wonderful. If you want to be great – that’s wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s your new definition of greatness – it means that everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know the second law of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love…
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

If you have someone special in your life, don’t wait to start loving them. Do not put it off for even one day. Make the choice to love now. Whoever loves you is only on loan from God, and he or she could be taken from you at any moment.
—Unknown

It’s not our job to change other people—it’s our job to love them, while they change themselves.
—Unknown

By the time we hit fifty, we have learned our hardest lessons. We have found out that only a few things are really important. We have learned to take life seriously, but never ourselves.
—Marie Dressler

Death is not the worst than can happen to men.
—Plato (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

The more we co-operate, the better we operate.
—Unknown

Don’t be someone to please everyone else, but be someone to please yourself.
—Unknown

Success is a product of unremitting attention to purpose.
—Benjamin Disraeli (British Head of State)

You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not.
—Isabel Allende

Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle… (or) Einstein’s Theory of Relativity … (or) the Second Theory of Thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

Of course I don’t look as busy as the men, I did it right the first time.
—Unknown

Does that mean I never let my friends down? Does that mean the rhythm is always in step? It means that in spite of, or including these issues, I absolutely can count on them. And what is so valuable is that I don’t believe it is open to question.
—Unknown

Pain nourishes courage. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.
—Mary Tyler Moore (American Actor)

What then was the commencement of the whole matter? Existence that multiplied itself for sheer delight of being and plunged into numberless trillions of forms so that it might find itself innumerably.
—Sri Aurobindo (Indian Yogi, Nationalist)

There is one thing you can do, and one way of doing it, that is better than anyone else on this entire planet.
—Deepak Chopra (Indian-born American Physician)

5 most important words – I am proud of you.|4 most important words – What do you think?|3 most important words – If you please.|2 most important words – Thank you.|1 most important word – Love.
—Gordon B. Hinckley (American Mormon Religious Leader)

He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.
—John Milton (English Poet)

5 most important words—I am proud of you. 4 most important words—What do you think? 3 most important words—If you please. 2 most important words—Thank you. 1 most important word—Love.
—Gordon B. Hinckley (American Mormon Religious Leader)

On life’s journey faith is nourishment, virtuous deeds are a shelter, wisdom is the light by day and right mindfulness is the protection by night. If a man lives a pure life nothing can destroy him; if he has conquered greed nothing can limit his freedom.
—Buddhist Teaching

He who does not attempt to make peace|When small discords arise,|Is like the bee’s hive which leaks drops of honey -|Soon, the whole hive collapses.
—Nagarjuna (Indian Buddhist Philosopher)

The most important thing I’ve learned since becoming CEO is context. It’s how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it.
—Jeffrey Immelt (American Businessperson)

We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
—Friedrich Koenig (German Inventor)

Far away, there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations; I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
—Louisa May Alcott (American Novelist)

Everything in the world may be endured, except continual prosperity.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet)

The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants them to do, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

There is a world out there waiting for me—and I intend to conquer it.
—Unknown

Yesterday is past—we cannot change it. Tomorrow is the future—it is unknown. But today is a gift—that’s why it is called the present.
—Unknown

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
—Louisa May Alcott (American Novelist)

Fear is something to be moved through, not something to be turned from.
—Peter McWilliams (American Author)

The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.
—Abbie Hoffman

All our tomorrows depend on today.
—Anonymous

Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
—Benjamin Franklin (American Political leader)

I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care.
—Unknown

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
—Mother Teresa (Albanian Catholic Humanitarian)

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
—Maya Angelou (American Poet)

It is not enough to fight. It is the spirit which we bring to the fight that decides the issue. It is morale that wins the victory.
—George Marshall (American Military Leader)

Anger is the most impotent of passions.—It affects nothing it goes about, and hurts the one who is possessed by it more than the one against whom it is directed.
—Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon

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

Oh, the comfort—the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person—having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
—Dinah Craik (English Novelist)

A bird does not sing because he has an answer. He sings because he has a song.
—Joan Walsh Anglund

The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.
—Margot Fonteyn

Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
—Jane Austen (English Novelist)

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
—Moshe Arens

Accountability starts with yourself. “I am responsible.”
—Rudy Giuliani (American Politician)

Every human mind is a great slumbering power until awakened by a keen desire and by definite resolution to do.
—Edgar V. Roberts

There’s no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love. There is only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen.
—Wayne Dyer (American Motivational Writer)

When a man begins to understand himself he begins to live. When he begins to live he begins to understand his fellow men.
—Noruin G. McGranahan

Doubt is the vestibule which all must pass before they can enter the temple of wisdom.—When we are in doubt and puzzle out the truth by our own exertions, we have gained something that will stay by us and will serve us again.—But if to avoid the trouble of the search we avail ourselves of the superior information of a friend, such knowledge will not remain with us; we have not bought, but borrowed it.
—Charles Caleb Colton (English Angelic Priest)

Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who’ll never find out.
—Frank A. Clark

No matter what I do, someone is going to hate me for it, so I might as well do it anyways.
—Unknown

One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again.
—Henry Ford (American Businessperson)

In spite of all wanderings, happiness is always found within a narrow compass and among objects which lie within our immediate reach.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (English Poet)

We can only learn to love by loving.
—Iris Murdoch (English Novelist)

Let a man strive to purify his thoughts. What a man thinketh, that is he; this is the eternal mystery. Dwelling within himself with thoughts serene, he will obtain imperishable happiness. Man becomes that of which he thinks.
—The Upanishads

Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference.
—Unknown

There is nothing so comfortable as money, but nothing so defiling if it be come by unworthily; nothing so comfortable, but nothing so noxious if the mind be allowed to dwell upon it constantly. If a man have enough, let him spend it freely. If he wants it, let him earn it honestly.
—Anonymous

Pain is inevitable but suffering is your own decision.
—M. Kathleen Casey

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
—Babe Ruth (American Sportsperson)

When you judge others, you are revealing your own fears and prejudices.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American Author)

Talent is that which is in a man’s power; genius is that in whose power a man is.
—James Russell Lowell (American Poet)

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.
—Henry Ward Beecher (American Protestant Clergyman)

Live, love, laugh.
—Anonymous

Joy increases as you give it, and diminishes as you try to keep it for yourself. In giving it, you will accumulate a deposit of joy greater than you ever believed possible.
—Norman Vincent Peale (American Clergyman, Self-Help Author)

The key is not to prioritize your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. Do the important things first – because where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going.
—Stephen Covey (American Management Consultant)

What comes first, the compass or the clock? Before one can truly manage time (the clock), it is important to know where you are going, what your priorities and goals are, in which direction you are headed (the compass). Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. Rather than always focusing on what’s urgent, learn to focus on what is really important.
—Unknown

Only necessity understood, and bondage to the highest is identical with true freedom.
—William James (American Philosopher)

What love we’ve given, we’ll have forever. What love we fail to give, will be lost for all eternity.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

It takes as much time to wish as to plan.
—Unknown

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
—Mark Twain (American Humorist)

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.
—Akhenaten (Egyptian Monarch)

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.
—Omar Bradley (American Military Leader)

I touch the future, I teach.
—Christa McAuliffe (American Teacher)

Laughter is the shock absorber that softens and minimizes the bumps of life.
—Anonymous

Either I will find a way, or I will make one.
—Philip Sidney (English Soldier, Poet, Courtier)

Love doesn’t make the world go ’round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
—Franklin P. Jones

The greatest secret of success in life is for a person to be ready when their opportunity comes.
—Benjamin Disraeli (British Head of State)

Whatever expensive toy you give your little child, they will always like the box better.
—Olive Redmond

Humor is laughing at what you haven’t got when you ought to have it.
—Langston Hughes (American Novelist)

There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

When we don’t speak up about something through cowardice we must remember, silence is not always golden, sometimes it’s just plain yellow.
—Unknown

We are, each of us, angels with only one wing. And we can only fly embracing each other.
—Luciano de Crescenzo

The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus

A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.
—Denis Waitley (American Motivational Speaker)

The crisis of yesterday is the joke of tomorrow.
—H. G. Wells (British Novelist)

A leader is someone who creates infectious enthusiasm.
—Ted Turner (American Businessperson)

Remember Yesterday
Dream of Tomorrow
But Live for Today.
—Anonymous

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

Remember yesterday, dream of tomorrow, but live for today.
—Anonymous

Chance is always powerful. – Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (Roman Poet)

Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
—Vince Lombardi (American Sportsperson)

May you live all the days of your life.
—Irish Blessing

Pain is only weakness leaving your body, so don’t give up because it hurts keep going cause it makes you stonger.
—Unknown

There is no off position on the genius switch.
—David Letterman (American TV Personality)