It’s no secret that I like quotes.
I am one of those guys who can get really motivated by the right words.
And while some of the best encouraging quotes are in the Bible, there have been a lot of brilliant minds who have said some pretty inspiring words that still help me when I read them.
So I decided to gather up the 10 best motivation quotes (in my opinion, of course!).
If any of them resonate with you, I encourage you to write them down and tape them to your fridge or computer screen.
I have been greatly helped by having a constant reminder of a scripture or a quote to help keep me in line with what I am shooting for.
It’s pretty cool how a little handwritten quote can speak to you when you need it. After all:
“Like apples of gold in settings of silver Is a word spoken in right circumstances.” –Proverbs 25:11.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”
–Aristotle
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”
–Dale Carnegie
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that frightens us. Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.”
–Marianne Williamson
“The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.”
–Arthur C. Clarke
“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”
–Samuel Johnson
“As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.”
–Leonardo da Vinci
“It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.”
–Paul Bryant
“You will come to know that what appears today to be a sacrifice will prove instead to be the greatest investment that you will ever make.”
–Gorden B. Hinkley
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude.
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.”
–Charles Swindoll
Need some more motivating quotes?
These are a few other websites full of great famous motivational quotes…
- Inspirational Quotes
- Motivational Quotes
- Hearts and Minds
The Aristotle quote is a challenging one and a good reminder that repeated actions form habits and those habits over time form your character.
That’s a great list, Bob. I’ve always liked the following quote from Theodore Roosevelt. It’s a great encouragement to anyone who has ever tried something that others thought was crazy. And it doesn’t take much to get the critics chirping!
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Matt, that is a great quote! I have read that one before and love it as well!
We are what we repeatedly do. Wow. That’s good stuff. Great post!
Thanks for sharing these beautiful quotes. It’s great to find little treasures like these; it’s greater when we’re able to apply them in our way of living.
I love quotes as well, and love the ones you started us off with.
This one has always stuck with me since I first heard it. It motivates me to keep doing the ‘little’ things in life:
“Sow a thought, reap an act;
Sow an act, reap a habit;
Sow a habit, reap a character;
Sow a character, reap a destiny”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I just thought of another great one that motivates me:
“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” – Samuel Johnson
Two by Ben Franklin
“Sloth, like rust consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright”
“Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
Great quotes! Were they all Christian?
I loved the quote by Paul Bryant. Hmm…Everybody wants to win, but how many of us actually get into the receiving mode? If we can begin preparing to celebrate our victory, it shows that we deserve to win, whether or not we end up winning. It shows whether you have the mind of a lion or the mind of a deer. The lion never plans to fail. The deer’s reaction is always – “Run or we’ll die!”
Another quote (don’t know from whom):
“Character is not formed in a crisis – character is revealed in a crisis.”
I love quotes like that – thanks!
Aside from some of the scriptures in the Bible, I do not think there is no word more inspiring that the words of Nelson mandela.
yes this powerful quote from Nelson Mandela is incredibly uplifting
Yes, this is one of my favorite quotes also. The author of this quote is actually Marianne Williamson from her book “A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles.” Nelson Mandela used this quote in his inaugural speech. He is not the author, as some people mistakenly think. Nonetheless, a powerful message.
Motivational quotes have the power to give us the initial energy we need to get going and stay motivated. Great collection of inspiring quotes that make us think and see things from a different view. Thanks for posting them.
So awesome quotes here.
This is a favorite of mine I found on LifePulp
“Niney-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” George W. Carver
I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But that was not Nelson Mandela who said that quote. That was Marianne Williamson, new age guru and practitioner of the heretical “Course in Miracles.” That quote was also used in the movie Akeela and the Bee.
Maybe it still works for you. Cool. Regardless, that’s who it’s from.
Great, thanks for the clarification Nick. You know that’s why you can never trust what you read on the “internet” 😉
Bob, you’re a messenger from God for me and my band of “entre-manures” today. We’ve faced an almost firing and an imminent layoff in our ‘real jobs” this week in our corporate lives; on the startup side, we had one manufacturer who was ready and set to provide our “minimum viable product” pull the rug from out from us for one company, and another “minimum viable product” manufacturer go under for another company. In other words, things couldn’t possibly have gone worse this week…
We’re going to keep on trying, even when there seems to be no hope at all…
glad the timing worked out so well! Keep pressing on!
Great quotes!
One of my favorite quotes is by A.W. Tozer (It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply. )
One of my all-time encouragement a: “Eighty percent of success is in just showing up.”
Bob,
Thank you for these great quotes! My favorite (by Marianne Williamson — not Nelson Mandela) has a fourth line that was left out: “It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. (We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?”) Actually, who are you not to be?… Was this left out on purpose or just overlooked? Just curious?
I like quotes – thanks for sharing. I like the Samuel Johnson quote too.
Here are a few:
“If I could get the man I shave with to behave I would be rich AND skinny!” Dave Ramsey
I don’t know the direct quote, but it motivates me to examine my fears –
“Most obstacles in life are self-imposed’ – Rush Limbaugh
Another:
Thomas A. Edison — ‘We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work’
Thanks for the list Bob! Quotes are always so motivational to me, especially when you relate the quote to what the person has been through or accomplished in their life.
Such a wonderful list, thanks! A couple of favorites that have been in the laundry room for almost two decades…
“Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities
no doubt have crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely
and with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with
your old nonsense.
This day is all that is
good and fair.
It is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on yesterdays.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
and
“No pressure,
no diamonds.”
~ Mary Case ~
Great quotes! This one of my favorites:
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.”
-Henry Ford
Interesting ideas! A similar one I have heard is that good art is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. We have Mr. Dave Ramsey’s book on getting out of debt. Between his book and your online course I can see the light at the end of the tunnel….Thanks!
Great quotes! I found several of my orite ones here.:) I do want to point out that the name of an author is misspelled. It is Gordon B. Hinckley, not Gorden. He is deseased president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and has written great books. I recommend all of them, especially “Way to Be!,” one of my favorites, and “Standing for Something.” They advocate great, wholesome, Christian values. I hope TT you check them out! 😀
Great job!!, they are amazing!!. My favorite is “Don’t stop when you’re tired. STOP when you are DONE”
This motivational quotes are useful in real life. i like your website