Inspirational Quotations

Beauty is power; a smile is its sword.
—Charles Reade

Little drops of water, little grains of sand,|Make the mighty ocean, and the pleasant land:|So the little minutes, humble though they be,|Make the mighty ages of eternity.|Little deeds of kindness, little words of love,|Help to make earth happy, like Heaven above.
—Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney (American Educator)

It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher)

Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.
—Richard L. Evans (American Mormon Religions Leader)

Intensity coupled with commitment is magnetic.
—Warren Bennis (American Scholar)

For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.
—Unknown

It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check once in awhile and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.
—George Horace Lorimer (American Editor)

The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of his or her organization is going to blow the competition away.
—Walter Wriston

When you love someone all your saved-up wishes start coming out.
—Elizabeth Bowen (Irish Novelist)

Man is a rational animal—so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher)

What does not kill me makes me stronger.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (German Philosopher, Scholar)

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
—Abraham Lincoln (American Head of State)

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.
—Denis Diderot (French Philosopher)

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the byproduct of other activities.
—Aldous Huxley (English Humanist)

My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener providing water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course, I had to pull out some weeds, too.
—Jack Welch (American Businessperson)

In peace, love tunes the shepherd’s reed; in war, he mounts the warrior’s steed; in halls, in gay attire is seen; in hamlets, dances on the green. Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, and men below, and saints above; for love is heaven, and heaven is love.
—Walter Scott (Scottish Novelist)

One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.
—Moliere (French Playwright)

Not a day passes over the earth but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words, and suffer noble sorrows. Of these obscure heroes, philosophers, and martyrs the greater part will never be known till that hour when many that were great shall be small, and the small great.
—Charles Reade

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
—Henry Ford (American Businessperson)

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.
—Auguste Rodin (French Sculptor)

I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.
—Muriel Strode (American Author, Businesswoman)

If there is one thing upon this earth that mankind loves and admires better than another, it is a brave man, it is the man who dares to look the devil in the face and tell him he is a devil.
—James A. Garfield (American Head of State)

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.
—Howard H. Aiken (American Physicist)

Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.
—Gilda Radner

I just want to leave a committed life behind.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Civil Rights Leader)

The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you’re playing by other people’s rules, while quietly playing by your own.
—Michael Korda

Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

The joys we expect are not so bright, nor the troubles so dark as we fancy they will be.
—Charles Reade

“I am alone and helpless. I am old and destite”. Such thoughts do not worry a lion even in its dreams.
—Subhashita Manjari

The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself.
—Wang Yangming

Experience teaches only the teachable.
—Aldous Huxley (English Humanist)

Let your enthusiasm radiate in your voice, your actions, your facial expressions, your personality, the words you use, and the thoughts you think! Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Philosopher)

It is what you do from now on that will either move our civilization forward a few tiny steps, or else… begin to march us steadily backward.
—Patrick Stewart

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The “sure thing” boat never gets far from shore.
—Dale Carnegie (American Author)

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it, you will land among the stars.
—Les Brown

There are souls in this world which have the gift of finding joy everywhere and of leaving it behind them when they go.
—Frederick William Faber (British Hymn writer)

The chief duty I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
—Helen Keller (American Author)

Hail thy brother’s boat across, and lo! thine own has reached the shore.
—Indian Proverb

When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.
—Thomas Szasz (Hungarian Psychiatrist)

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
—Walter Bagehot (English Businessperson)

The best rules to form a young man are, to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one’s own opinions, and value others’ that deserve it.
—William Temple

Don’t think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.
—Malaysian Proverb

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)

Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.
—William Temple

If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it, you almost don’t have to manage them.
—Jack Welch (American Businessperson)

In modern business it is not the crook who is to be feared most, it is the honest man who doesn’t know what he is doing.
—Owen D. Young (American Businessperson)

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet)

We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.
—Stevie Wonder (American Singer)

In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined.
—Thomas Szasz (Hungarian Psychiatrist)

I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.
—Donald Trump (American Businessperson, Head of State)

I have yet to meet a successful business owner who has not failed before. What’s the difference between them and the owner-turned-9-to-5? They didn’t let one setback cripple their hunger for success. Don’t you.
—William O. Douglas (American Judge)

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves—there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.
—Joan Didion

The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian Head of State)

It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards. But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forwards.
—Soren Kierkegaard (Danish Philosopher, Theologian)

Affliction comes to us all not to make us sad, but sober; not to make us sorry, but wise; not to make us despondent, but by its darkness to refresh us, as the night refreshes the day; not to impoverish, but to enrich us, as the plough enriches the field; to multiply our joy, as the seed, by planting, is multiplied a thousand-fold.
—Henry Ward Beecher (American Protestant Clergyman)

More important than talent, strength, or knowledge is the ability to laugh at yourself and enjoy the pursuit of your dreams.
—Amy Grant

Be great in act, as you have been in thought. Suit the action to the word and the word to the action.”
—William Shakespeare (British Playwright)

Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all.
—G. K. Chesterton (English Journalist)

Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober, not to make us sorry but wise.
—Henry Ward Beecher (American Protestant Clergyman)

The finest lives, in my opinion, are those who rank in the common model, and with the human race, but without miracle, without extravagance.
—Michel de Montaigne (French Philosopher)

The law of the harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
—George Boardman (American Baptist Minister)

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.
—Aldous Huxley (English Humanist)

Don’t smother each other. No one can grow in the shade.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.
—Italian Proverb

Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader.
—George S. Patton (American Military Leader)

Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.
—Thomas Szasz (Hungarian Psychiatrist)

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
—William Blake (English Poet)

It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks, and the greatest of all prizes are those connected with the home.
—Theodore Roosevelt (American Head of State)

Be neither a conformist or a rebel, for they are really the same thing. Find your own path, and stay on it.
—Paul Vixie (American Scientist)

In actual life every great enterprise begins with and takes its first step forward in faith.
—August Wilhelm Schlegel

Just because something is tradition doesn’t make it right.
—Anthony J. D’Angelo

To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions.
—Sam Keen

Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.
—Malcolm Muggeridge (English Journalist)

There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.
—Peter Drucker (Austrian-born Management Consultant)

Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in stranger’s gardens.
—Douglas William Jerrold (English Dramatist)

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
—Aldous Huxley (English Humanist)

Confidence is a habit that can be developed by acting as if you already had the confidence you desire to have.
—Brian Tracy (American Author)

Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise.
—Alice Walker

Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.
—Alice Walker

Examine the contents, not the bottle.
—The Talmud (Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith)

The moment avoiding failure becomes your motivation, you’re down the path of inactivity. You stumble only if you’re moving.
—Roberto Goizueta (Cuban Businessperson)

Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

To get to heaven we must take it with us.
—Henry Drummond

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.
—George S. Patton (American Military Leader)

Throw a lucky man into the sea, and he will come up with a fish in his mouth.
—Arabic Proverb

Climb high, climb far.|Your goal is the sky, your aim the star.
—Unknown

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn … and change.
—Carl Rogers (American Psychologist)

By depending on the great,|The small may rise high.|See: the little plant ascending the tall tree|Has climbed to the top.
—Sakya Pandita

Learn to be silent. Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.
—Pythagoras (Greek Philosopher)

Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.
—Plato (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you could n’t hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that ‘s just the place and time that the tide ‘ll turn. Never trust to prayer without using every means in your power, and never use the means without trusting in prayer.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (American Abolitionist)

The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
—Eric Hoffer (American Philosopher)

There is no gathering the rose without being pricked by the thorns.
—Panchatantra

There is one art of which every man should be a master—the art of reflection.—If you are not a thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at all?
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (English Poet)