The Best Inspirational Quotes, Sayings, and Quotations
Lacking inspiration? When you feel ordinary or not at your best, quotations from famous people can get you ready to take on the next challenge. The words of those who came before us have a profound effect on future actions.
“The man who has done his level best… is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.” — B. C. Forbes
Everyone seems to be searching for success. Do your best, even if you fail. Sometimes it’s about your definition of what you have done, rather than what the world sees. Time may find you’re something else.
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” — Abraham Lincoln
Did you resolve to succeed today? Did you set your mind to procrastination instead? It isn’t easy to stick to what you want to do, but that kind of focus is what brings us closer to success.
“You were not born a winner, and you were not born a loser. You are what you make yourself be.” — Lou Holtz
He does mean ‘what you make yourself to be.’ It’s about choosing to be the person you dream about.
“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
It isn’t enough to talk about the change that is needed. People talk all the time, but it is less common to make the changes discussed.
“Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” — Les Brown
How have you limited yourself today? It’s in your power to change the mindset to make your limitations less a part of your daily routine. Belief in the limitations makes them far more real.
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.” — Charles Dickens
A lot of people feel the burden of the world. It isn’t easy to make someone else’s path easier, and the effort required brings good feelings to both the people involved.
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” — Dale Carnegie
Fun and work may seem to be opposites, but this success master has all the answers.
“You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” — Babe Ruth
You can try, but it doesn’t work.
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” — Mahatma Gandhi
What you learn you take with you, and it changes both you and the world around you.
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.” — Chinese Proverb
Proverbs are difficult to beat for advice since they’ve had so much time to be proven wrong already.
“Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” — Satchel Paige
Make up your own mind about what matters. Numbers don’t have to be anything more than numbers.
“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made, in a very narrow field.” — Niels Bohr
The expert knows.
“Behind every great achievement is a dreamer of great dreams.” — Robert K. Greenleaf
Nothing is possible that did not first emerge as an idea. Don’t be afraid to pursue something that seems crazy.
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” — Scott Adams
Art might be taking risks to know what mistakes to keep.
“Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.” — Henry Ford
Ford certainly followed that motto.
“Do just once what others say you can’t do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.” — James R. Cook
When someone says you can’t do it, it’s too easy to let it become real inside your head.
“He who is afraid of a thing gives it power over him.” — Moorish Proverb
Let yourself dream and then accomplish it.
“Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn’t permanent.” — Jean Kerr
What do you feel today? Tomorrow and every other day will be different, too.
“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstance, would have lain dormant.” — Horace
Meeting a challenge is what separates the common person and the famous people who say these things.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Oscar Wilde
You’re more likely to end up where you want if you aim there.
“What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
That’s why some people are so much stronger than others – they’ve been tested.
“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” — Mark Twain
Honesty leaves room for you to tackle bigger challenges and become more successful.
“There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time.” — Napoleon Bonapart
Never waste time. Choose to spend it doing something that makes you happy, or someone else close to you, but if you can’t wait for things and always skip ahead you will miss things.
“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny…’” — Isaac Asimov
It also spawns stories in Asimov’s case.
“I haven’t failed; I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” — Ben Franklin
That’s perseverance. Keeping track of the failures and not losing the vision of the idea is amazing.
“History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
History has a lot to say about what’s happened, and it’s good to remember that it may have been edited. It doesn’t matter if it might be unbelievable; if you believe you can do it, it’s much more likely to happen.
“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” — H. Jackson Brown
And the same number of hours as everyone else quoted on this list, too.
Next time you wonder what you’re capable of, believe you can be successful. Determination will take you farther than daydreaming. Success may be relative, but it’s worth undertaking. Give yourself permission to take risks for art, dreams, or ideas. You can find more quotations here.
This post was originally published, in a somewhat different form, on Funny Quotes about Life, in 2009.
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This entry was posted on Friday, December 16th, 2011 at 5:00 am and is filed under Inspiration, Quotations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.