Here is a list of the very best motivational quotes which I’ve carefully chosen out of thousands. Some will resonate with you, while some won’t. When you find one that does, remember to write it down. More importantly, use its effect that it has on you to take action. Without action, these inspirational quotes or any other tools on this site for that matter, will be absolutely useless.
This list of quotes is constantly expanding so you can bookmark this page and check on it regularly for more quotes. The quotes on this page are geared towards helping you to take action. If you’d like to see quotes in other categories, scroll down towards the bottom for a list of topics.
List of Awesome Motivational Quotes
“You can have everything you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want in life.”
- Zig Ziglar
“If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
- Gandhi
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
- E. E. Cummings
“Great minds have great purposes, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.”
- Washington Irving
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
- Bill Cosby
“It is during our failures that we discover our true desire for success.” – Kevin Ngo
“The start is what stops most people.”
- Don Shula
“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
- Jim Rohn
“A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose – a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.”
- John Maxwell (Psycho-Cybernetics)
“I realized early on that success was tied to not giving up. Most people in this business gave up and went on to other things. If you simply didn’t give up, you would outlast the people who came in on the bus with you.”
- Harrison Ford
“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.”
- Jesse Owens
“To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.”
- Elbert Hubbard
“So long as there is breath in me, that long I will persist. For now I know one of the greatest principles on success; if I persist long enough I will win.” – Og Mandino
“Show me a person who doesn’t make mistakes and I’ll show you a person who doesn’t do anything.”
- Leonard Rubino
“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”
- Jerry Rice
“Too many people are thinking the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, when they ought to just water the grass they are standing on.”
- Amar Dave
“The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become.”
- Heraclitus
“Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.”
- Denis Waitley
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
“Learn to appreciate what you have, before time makes you appreciate what you had.”
- Unknown
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
- Bruce Lee
“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk – and to act.”
- Maxwell Maltz
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw
“The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.”
- Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich)
“Don’t wait for something big to occur. Start where you are, with what you have, and that will always lead you into something greater.”
- Mary Manin Morrissey
“Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” – George W. Carver
“When the world says, ‘Give up’, Hope whispers, ‘Try it one more time.’”
- Unknown
“I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties.”
- James Cash Penney
“Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.”
- Richard L. Evans
“If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.” – Bruce Lee (The Art of Expressing the Human Body)
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
- Dale Carnegie
“Nothing great has ever been achieved except by those who dared to believe that something inside them was superior to circumstances.”
- Bruce Barton
“Most people would rather be certain they’re miserable, than risk being happy.”
- Robert Anthony
“The real person you are is revealed in the moments when you’re certain no other person is watching. When no one is watching, you are driven by what you expect of yourself.”
- Ralph S. Marston, Jr.
“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself – and be lenient to everybody else.”
- Henry Ward Beecher
“Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.”
- Les Brown (Live Your Dreams)
“When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up.” – Les Brown
“You can’t just sit and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.”
- Diana Ross
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”
- Steve Jobs
“Do just once what others say you can’t do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.”
- James R. Cook
“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.”
- Dale Carnegie
“You must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”
- Jim Rohn
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
- Steve Jobs
“We have no choice of what color we’re born or who our parents are or whether we’re rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we’re here.”
- Mildred Taylor
“Make sure that your actions and behaviors live up to and reflect the words and ideas, promises and commitments that come out of your mouth.”
- Steve Farber
“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.”
- Bertie Charles Forbes
“Don’t be so quick to claim your limitations when you’ve never truly tested them.” – Kevin Ngo
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
- Mark Twain
“The attitude you have as a parent is what your kids will learn from more than what you tell them. They don’t remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.”
- Jim Henson
“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.”
- Dale Carnegie
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
- Harriet Tubman
“All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.”
- Orison Swett Marden
“Each day is a new life. Seize it. Live it.”
- David Guy Powers
“To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.”
- Anatole France
“Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”
- Grandma Moses
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Few people take objectives really seriously. They put average effort into too many things, rather than superior thought and effort into a few important things. People who achieve the most are selective as well as determined.”
- Richard Koch
“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.”
- Jim Rohn
“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”
- Unknown
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
- Marcus Aurelius
“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.”
- Bernice Johnson Reagon
“Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.”
- John Wooden
“It is not what they take away from you that counts. It’s what you do with what you have left.”
- Hubert Humphrey
“You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”
- Gandhi
“Remember you will not always win. Some days, the most resourceful individual will taste defeat. But there is, in this case, always tomorrow – after you have done your best to achieve success today.”
- Maxwell Maltz
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”
- Elbert Hubbard
“Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.”
- Horace Mann
“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts.”
- Unknown
“If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.”
- Robert Fritz
“It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.”
- Dalai Lama
“I do it because I can; I can because I want to; I want to because you said I couldn’t.”
- Unknown
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
- Lao Tzu
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”
– David Brinkley
“In the end, what we regret most are the chances we never took.”
- Frasier Krane
“You were not born a winner, and you were not born a loser. You are what you make yourself to be.”
- Lou Holtz
“Things don’t go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.”
- Charlie Jones
“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”
- Unknown
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’”
- Mary Anne Radmacher
“Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”
- Rikki Rogers
“If you argue for your limitations, sure enough, they’re yours.”
- Richard Bach
“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.”
- William James
“Every time you stay out late; every time you sleep in; every time you miss a workout; every time you don’t give 100%… you make it that much easier for me to beat you.”
- Unknown
“One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.”
- Napoleon Hill
“Believe in possibilities. Believe in human potential. Believe in yourself and you’ll have the power to change your fate.”
- Kevin Ngo
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
- John Quincy Adams
“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”
- Confucius
“Dead last is greater than did not finish which trumps did not start.”
- Unknown
“The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”
- George Bernard Shaw
“Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.”
- Marilyn Vos Savant
“Discipline, not desire, determines destiny.”
- Unknown
“Believe in yourself and all that you are, know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.”
- Christian D. Larson
“Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.”
- W. Clement Stone
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to become.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Take risks: If you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.”
- Unknown
“No matter how slow you go you are still lapping everyone on the couch.”
- Unknown
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
- Nelson Mandela
“Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.”
– Nolan Bushnell
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
- Helen Keller
“Well done is better than well said.”
- Benjamin Franklin
“You were given this life because you were strong enough to live it.”
- Unknown
“Most obstacles melt away when we make up our minds to boldly walk through them.”
- Orison Swett Marden
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
- Arthur C. Clarke
“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
- Confucius
“Everything is hard before it is easy.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible.”
- Miguel de Unamuno
“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.”
- Anthony Robbins
“Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.”
- Douglas MacArthur
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would be doing it. The hard is what makes it great.”
- From “A League of Their Own”
“Don’t let others define you. Don’t let the past confine you. Take charge of your life with confidence and determination and there are no limits on what you can do or be.”
- Michael Josephson
“Don’t be afraid of your fears. They’re not there to scare you. They’re there to let you know that something is worth it.”
- C. JoyBell C.
“Continuous effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking our potential.”
- Winston Churchill
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.”
- Zig Ziglar
“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.”
- William James
“Where you end up doesn’t depend on where you start; it depends on which direction you choose to take from where you currently stand.”
- Kevin Ngo
From the book: Let’s Do This!
“Rewards go to those who get things done, not to those with the best excuses.”
- Kevin Ngo
“You have exactly one life in which to do everything you’ll ever do. Act accordingly.”
- Colin Wright
“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”
- Rosa Parks
“Good things come to those who wait… greater things come to those who get off their ass and do anything to make it happen.”
- Unknown
“Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it.”
- Unknown
“Obstacles can’t stop you. Problems can’t stop you. Most of all, other people can’t stop you. The only one who can stop you, is YOU.”
– Jeffery Gitomer
“You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”
- Gandhi
“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reach, don’t adjust the goals; adjust the action steps.”
- Confucius
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!”
- C.J. Walker
“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”
– Bill Cosby
“Many of the problems in life are because of two reasons: We act without thinking or we keep thinking without acting.”
- Unknown
“We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action. Fear is nature’s way of warning us to get busy.”
- Dr. Henry Link
“If all you can do is crawl, start crawling.”
- Rumi
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
“The secret to living the life of your dreams is to start living the life of your dreams today, in every little way you possibly can.”
- Mike Dooley
“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.”
- Alan Cohen
“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: Not going all the way and not starting.”
- Buddha
“I don’t regret the things I’ve done, I regret the things I didn’t do when I had the chance.”
– Unknown
“Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.”
– Jack Canfield
“How far you can go in life is yet to be seen. Don’t let other people’s limited beliefs about what’s possible diminish your potential.”
- Kevin Ngo
“Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.”
- Dale Carnegie (How to Stop Worrying and Stop Living)
“You gotta get out there, take risks, put in the work, and not be afraid to fail. The longer you wait, the less opportunities you’ll have to try again if you do fail. The longer you put off pursuing your dreams, the less time you’ll have to enjoy your success if you succeed. Time doesn’t stop for any of us.”
- Kevin Ngo
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.”
- Vince Lombardi
“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s when you’ve had everything to do, and you’ve done it.”
- Margaret Thatcher
“One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”
- Paulo Coelho
“An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.”
- Unknown
“What defines us is how well we rise after falling.”
- Unknown
“No matter how carefully you plan your goals they will never be more than pipe dreams unless you pursue them with gusto.”
- W. Clement Stone
A video I made using content from my book, Let’s Do This!…
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The great thing about these inspiring quotes is that they can help you increase your motivation in order for you to take action and accomplish your goals. The hardest part about obtaining any goal is to get yourself to do the things you need to do when you need to do them. Anyone can take action when they feel like it. If you can motivate yourself to do what needs to be done even when you would rather do something else like procrastinate, you will be ahead of the majority of people.
These short motivational quotes can help you remember the reasons why you are pursuing your goals in the first place. It’s easy to forget the point of our dreams when we are met with difficulty and setbacks. When you feel like giving up the most, these inspirational quotes about life can help you stand back up and keep moving forward.
Sharing these great motivational quotes with a team is a great way to increase their motivation as well. Whether it’s a business setting or a sports setting, these phrases of wisdom can help energize your team and help them step up their game.
Also check out…
Motivational Poems
Motivational Stories
Motivational Speeches
Life Lessons
Forbes
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
All these motivating quotes have inspired me a lot. Thank you.
Thank you.
This is great! I can imagine all sorts of inspirational motivations that has been put up! Excellent! I will use them always as they inspire me, my family, friends, people I work with, the nation and the whole world. Many thanks.
These quotes has changed my life 2 a positive one. I love it
These quotes are superb and have inspired me lot.
This is so great my life has changed since I saw this site thank you
If you think you can’t, you can’t, but if you think you can, you are right.
awesome stuff i love it so much
i luv these quotes. now i’ve regained my self confidence. Am a winner now, 2moro and all my life. Thanks!
Great quotes, great site and i’m glad i found it. here’s another quote:
“The only person that stops YOU from living your dreams life is YOU!!”
very nice.
Really Great Collection of nice Quotes. Thanks a lot!!!
What about your past would you change and why ?….. And this was my answer…….
Nothing…without failure…there is no success…Every aspect of life has molded me into a successful person.. Thankful for all the lessons learned… without the past there is no future…..
“Divorce the past to marry the present and be blessed with a lovely child of future.” ~ Anuj Somany
“Never judge any person by his answers or questions but by his nature of character solely.”
“Efforts depend on individuals, but results rely on mere conditions.”
The Rissen
As night befalls me and the dark devours my hopes, I sway my mind in opposition towards the demon that has erased my future and is ready-ing my past. There is no road towards my destination. My path continues unwillingly and uncertain. I see the light. This battle has begun only when i thought it has ended.
Life is a strugle.what u demanded u hv to earn it.
This is just good
Anyone can do anything if they try. No matter how hard a task, if you just your try best, and believe in yourself anything is possible. WE live in the America, the land of freedom. “Although the poorest of people can do great things here, it’s the believers who become the best.” My grandfather once told me. There may be days when you get up in the morning and things aren’t the way you had hoped they would be. That’s when you have to tell yourself that things will get better. The challenges and changes will only help you to find the goals that you know are meant to come true for you.
THANKS : )
The first quotation on your website attributed to Marianne Williamson is actually from Nelson Mandela’s 1994 Inaugural Speech. She has used both direct quotes and paraphrasing. I think Mandela should be cited. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.”
Hi Betty,
Thanks for comment. I researched this years ago since I saw the quote being attributed to both people which is why I credited the quote to Marianne Williamson. The quote is from her book, “A Return to Love“, which I have. It was written in 1992.
I looked up the sources again after seeing your comment. Nelson Mandela made two inaugural speeches in 1994. You can find the transcript here and here. You could also watch the video of the speech here. I hope that clears things up.
I love those motivation words.
” May you have more ambition and determination than you have excuses. ” – Robert Moore
be happy or regret yourself it is always your choice.
anurag mishra
What a great repository of motivational quotes…I have visited weekly for about the past year…thanks, Kevin! You can visit my collection, “On Topic”, at ralewis.tumblr.com. “Just once daily for vitality!”
“What you seek you already are.” – Buddha
“what you become is what you choose to become. if some one say you cant do it prove them wrong, if you never believed you had a chance prove your self wrong never leave your self wondering what could have happened and find out what will happen.”
What an awesome collection of quotes!! I particularly love this one:
“Too many people are thinking the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, when they ought to just water the grass they are standing on.”
- Amar Dave
keep it up!
Awesome compilation. Thank you very very much for provide such deeply motivating quotes.
It is very usefull to us
very motivational.keeps me going
“I don’t regret the things I’ve done, I regret the things I didn’t do when I had the chance.”
This really helps one to be bold enough and face challenges that may arise in lifetime.