While it’s sometimes difficult to know our purpose or the meaning of life, we must thrive and move forward. And what better way to move forward than to learn from those who have lived and shared their words of wisdom. So whether you’re lacking motivation or just need a little push to get going, get ready to be seriously motivated!
Here are the best motivational quotes to encourage you to do more, be more, and empower you to reach for your goals.
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
– Joe Kennedy
“Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.”– Chris Grosser
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.”– Anatole France
“Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.”
– Anonymous
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”– Aristotle
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”– Aristotle Onassis
“Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.”– Arnold Palmer
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”– Arthur Ashe
“Don’t wait for your feelings to change to take the action. Take the action and your feelings will change.”– Barbara Baron
“If you continue to think they way you’ve always thought, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always got.” – Kevin Trudeau
“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.”– Benjamin Disraeli
“The difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone is how high you raise your foot.”– Benny Lewis
“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”– Bill Gates
“Success comes from having dreams that are bigger than your fears.”– Bobby Unser
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”– Booker T. Washington
“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Christopher Columbus
“You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.”– Booker T. Washington
“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.”– Bruce Feirstein
“Never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.”– Charles Dickens
“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”– Coco Chanel
“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.”– Colin R. Davis
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln
“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”– CS Lewis
“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”– Dalai Lama
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.”– Dale Carnegie
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”– David Brinkley
“We become what we think about most of the time, and that’s the strangest secret.” – Earl Nightingale
“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.”– Denis Watiley
“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”– Dale Carnegie
“Perfection is boring. Getting better is where all the fun is.”– Dragos Roua
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth
“There are two ways of spreading light. To be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.”– Edith Wharton
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”– Eleanor Roosevelt
“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”– Francis Chan
“There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.”– Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“Your focus determines your reality.” – George Lucas
“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”– Farrah Gray
“Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.”– George Herbert
“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.”– George Lorimer
“Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you.”
– George Whitefield
“Whether you think you can, or you can’t – either way you’re right.” – Henry Ford
“If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it — teach yourself to be impatient.”– Gurbaksh Chahal
“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”– Harriet Beecher Stow
“Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”– Winston Churchill
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”– Henry David Thoreau
“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” – Jimmy Dean
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”– Herman Melville
“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.”– Jamie Paolinetti
“There is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.”– Jane Smiley
“The work you do when you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.”– Jessica Hische
“If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.”– Jim Rohn
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.”– John C. Maxwell
“Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine
“There are two kinds of people in this world; those who want to get things done, and those who don’t want to make mistakes.”– John C. Maxwell
“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”– John D. Rockefeller
“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”– John Wooden
“Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.”– John Wooden
“Why should you continue going after your dreams? Because seeing the look on the faces of the people who said you couldn’t… will be priceless.”– Kevin Ngo
“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.” – Les Brown
“If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents- start charging for it.”– Kim Garst
“Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.”– Laird Hamilton
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”– Leonardo da Vinci
“Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”– Lolly Daskal
“Every now and then it’s good to stop climbing and appreciate the view from right where you are.”– Lori Deschene
“All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.” – Michael John Bobak
“Always remember that you are absolutely unique; just like everyone else.”– Margaret Mead
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”– Margaret Thatcher
“If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough.”– Mario Andretti
“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 safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.”– Mark Twain
“The only person you should try to be better than, is the person you were yesterday.”– Matty Mullens
“Nothing will work unless you do.”– Maya Angelou
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”– Michael Jordan
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up.”
– Michael Jordan“One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.”– Michael Korda
“There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.”– Michael Phelps
“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the further you get.” – Michael Phelps
“To be successful you must accept all challenges that come your way. You can’t just accept the ones you like.”– Mike Gafka
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”– Muhammad Ali
“The starting point of all achievement is desire.”– Napoleon Hill
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”– Napoleon Hill
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”– Norman Vincent Peale
“The number one reason people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family, and neighbors.” – Napoleon Hill
“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”– Norman Vincent Peale
“Find a victory in every defeat to remain hopeful, and find a defeat in every victory to remain humble.”– Orrin Woodward
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”– Oscar Wilde
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”– Pablo Picasso
“There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either in or you’re out. There is no such thing as life in-between.”– Pat Riley
“The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.” – Benjamin Mays
“More powerful than the will to win is the courage to begin.” – Orrin Woodward
“Where there is a will, there is a way. If there is a chance in a million that you can do something, anything, to keep what you want from ending, do it. Pry the door open or, if need be, wedge your foot in that door and keep it open.”– Pauline Kael
“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”– Paulo Coelho
“You may only succeed if you desire succeeding; you may only fail if you do not mind failing.”– Philippos
“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”– Plutarch
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” – Tommy Lasorda
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly.”– Proverb
“We aim above the mark to hit the mark.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Don’t be pushed by your problems; be led by your dreams.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.”– Ray Goforth
“You don’t drown by falling in water; you drown by staying there.”– Robert Collier
“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
“Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.”– Robert Kiyosaki
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”– Robert Louis Stevenson
“Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.”– Robert Schuller
“Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.”– Robin Sharma
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pele
“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”– Ronald Reagan
“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.”– Sheryl Sandberg
“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”– Simone de Beauvoir
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”– Stephen Covey
“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”– Stephen R Covey
“Don’t downgrade your dream just to fit your reality. Upgrade your conviction to match your destiny.”– Stuart Scott
“When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.” – Steven Wright
“If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you!”– T. Harv Eker
“When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.”– Terry Bradshaw
“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.”– Theodore Roosevelt
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”– Thomas Edison
“Zeal without knowledge is fire without light.”– Thomas Huxley
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.”– Thomas J. Watson
“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”– Thomas Jefferson
“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.”
– Thomas Jefferson“The individual who says it is not possible should get out of the way of those doing it.”– Tricia Cunningham
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”– Truman Capote
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi
“Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack.”– Unknown
“There are better starters than me, but I’m a strong finisher.”– Usain Bolt
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”– Vidal Sassoon
“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”– Vincent van Gogh
“Fortune sides with him who dares.” – Virgil
“Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.”– W. Clement Stone
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”– Walt Disney
“You must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul.”– Walt Disney
“Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.”– Washington Irving
“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.”– Wayne Dyer
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney
“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.”– William Butler Yeats
“Do or do not. There is no try.”– Yoda
“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 that has been opened for us.”– Helen Keller
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
– Zig Ziglar“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”– Abraham Lincoln
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”– Albert Einstein
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”– Alice Walker
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.”– Anatole France
“Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart.”– Ancient Indian Proverb
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”– Anne Frank
“If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission.”– Anonymous
“Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.” – Theodore N. Vail
“A diamond is merely a lump of coal that did well under pressure.”– Unknown
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley
“All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.”– Orison Swett Marden
“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.””– John Kenneth Galbraith
“An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.”– Thomas Fuller
“The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost
“By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own.”– Mark Victor Hansen
“Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal — a commitment to excellence — that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”– Mario Andretti
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”– Robert Louis Stevenson
“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia.”– Charles Schulz
“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”– James Dean
“Enthusiasm moves the world.” – Arthur Balfour
“Enter every activity without giving mental recognition to the possibility of defeat. Concentrate on your strengths, instead of your weaknesses… on your powers, instead of your problems.””– Paul J. Meyer
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”– Carl Jung
“Give yourself an even greater challenge than the one you are trying to master and you will develop the powers necessary to overcome the original difficulty.”
– William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
“I know what I have to do, and I’m going to do whatever it takes. If I do it, I’ll come out a winner, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else does.””– Florence Griffith Joyner
“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.””– Charles R. Swindoll
“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.”– William Arthur Ward
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” – Greg Anderson
“If you start to think the problem is ‘out there,’ stop yourself. That thought is the problem.”– Stephen Covey
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”– Mahatma Gandhi
“It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.”– Arnold Toynbee
“Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.”– Benjamin Disraeli
“Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.” – Bern Williams
“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.”– Hal Borland
“Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.”– Mary Anne Roadacher-Hershey
“My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.”– Michael Jordan
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” – Maria Robinson
“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”– Calvin Coolidge
“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”– Lance Armstrong
“Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.”– Swami Sivananda
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” – Audrey Hepburn
“Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing.”– William Arthur Ward
“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they’ve started.”– David Allen
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”– Albert Schweitzer
“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair
“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.”– John Maxwell
“There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.”– Maya Angelou
“If you’re going through hell, keep going”– Winston Churchill
“The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.”– Pearl Buck
“With self-discipline most anything is possible.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.”– John Buchan
“We must train from the inside out. Using our strengths to attack and nullify any weaknesses. It’s not about denying a weakness may exist but about denying its right to persist.”– Vince McConnell
“What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?”– Robert H. Schuller
“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” – Nido Qubein
“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”– Thomas J. Watson
“Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.”– Oprah Winfrey
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it – but all that had gone before.”– Jacob Riis
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” – Lyndon Johnson
We hope these motivational quotes have you pumped up to get out there and reach for your goals right now! If we forgot one of your favorites, let us know.
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