Inspirational & Motivational Quotes

Sometimes a little inspiration or motivation can be just the thing we need to keep going, or get moving. This page is where I'll be saving my own favorite quotes gathered from all over.

Motivation
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." ~Walt Disney
"The greatest failure is the failure to try." ~William Arthur Ward
"Don't wait. The time will never be just right." ~Napoleon Hill
"The best helping hand that you will ever receive is the one at the end of your own arm." ~Fred Dehner
"To succeed you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you." ~Tony Dorsett
"Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it." ~Colin Powell
"Action is the foundational key to all success." ~Pablo Picasso
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." ~Thomas Edison
"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." ~Vidal Sassoon
"It's not what you do once in a while, it's what you do day in and day out that makes the difference." ~Jenny Craig
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." ~Mark Twain
"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." ~Arnold H. Glasow
Inspiration
"Life is a big canvas, throw all the paint on it you can." ~Danny Kaye
"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." ~Confucius
"The greatest danger for most is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that our aim is too low and we reach it." ~Michaelangelo
"Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead." ~Louisa May Alcott
"Success is the good fortune that comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration and inspiration." ~Evan Esar
"Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."  ~Les Brown
Discipline/Determination

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." ~Aristotle
"Energy and persistence conquer all things." ~Benjamin Franklin

Goals/Achieving Greatness
"To achieve greatness, start where you are, use what you have, do what you can." ~Arthur Ashe
"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." ~Lao-Tsu
"It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly." ~Mabel Newcomber
"You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures." ~Charles C. Noble

Boldness/Daring/Courage
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." ~Winston Churchill
"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." ~Christopher Columbus
"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face." ~Eleanor Roosevelt
"If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it." ~Jonathan Winters
"It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'Always do what you are afraid to do.'" ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Many of our fears are tissue paper thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them." ~Brendan Francis
"Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dreams
"If one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." ~Henry David Thoreau
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." ~Eleanor Roosevelt
"Those who cherish a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in their hearts, will one day realize it." ~James Allen
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." ~John Quincy Adams
"Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born." ~Dr. Dale Turner
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up." ~J.M. Power
"Dreams are free, so free your dreams." ~Astrid Alauda
"If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again."  ~Flavia Weedn © Flavia.com
"Don't let anyone steal your dream. It's your dream, not theirs." ~Dan Zadra

Women
"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." ~Judy Garland
"You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back." ~Barbara De Angelis
"You were born an original. Don't die a copy." ~John Mason
"I think the key is for women not to set any limits." ~Martina Navratilova
"I am not afraid…I was born to do this." ~Joan of Arc
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." ~Eleanor Roosevelt
"The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself." ~Anna Quindlen

Mindset
"Whether you think you can or think you can't – you are right." ~Henry Ford
"Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve." ~Mary Kay Ash
"You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. But you can decide how you're going to live now." ~Joan Baez
"Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game." ~Voltaire
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss
Self-Confidence
"What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate." ~Henry David Thoreau
"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." ~George Bernard Shaw
"Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." ~Henry Van Dyke
"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." ~Albert Einstein
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." ~e.e. cummings
"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time." ~Anna Freud
"Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great, make you feel that you too can become great." ~Mark Twain
"You are the only person on earth who can use your ability." ~Zig Ziglar
"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." ~Margaret Fuller
"Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable." ~Wendy Wasserstein
"Life is not about discovering our talents; it is about pushing our talents to the limit and discovering our genius." ~Robert Brault