Inspirational Quotations

These quotations offer inspiring and uplifting wisdom and will hopefully brighten your day.

Showing 1 through 36 of 234 quotations in this category.

"If you treat a person as he is, he will remain as he is. If you treat him for what he could be, he will become what he could be."

-unknown

"Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not."

-George Bernard Shaw

"Make the most of yourself...for that is all there is of you."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Some things cannot be spoken or discovered until we have been stuck, incapacitated, or blown off course for awhile. Plain sailing is pleasant, buy you are not going to explore many unknown realms that way."

-David Whyte

"A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are for."

-John A. Shedd

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

-George Bernard Shaw

"Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself."

-Richard M. Nixon

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin -- real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

-Dr. Alfred D'Souza

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

-Henry David Thoreau

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

-Herman Cain

"Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which, once you've got it, you might be smart enough to see it is what you would have wanted had you known."

-Garrison Keillor

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

-Albert Einstein

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

-Frank Herbert

"The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain."

-Richard M. Nixon

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

-Robert Frost

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds."

-Abraham Lincoln

"A man learns to skate by staggering about making a fool of himself; indeed, he progresses in all things by making a fool of himself."

-George Bernard Shaw

"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."

-Agnes de Mille

"Let us treat men and women well; treat them as if they were real. Perhaps they are."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"One does not discover new continents without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

-Andre Gide

"Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many."

-unknown

"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."

-Albert Einstein

"Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words; they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character for it will become your destiny."

-unknown

"If you stop searching, you stop living, because then you're dwelling in the past. If you're not reaching forward to any growth or future, you might as well be dead."

-Wynn Bullock

"Give me the fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself."

-Vilfredo Pareto

"One ought, everyday, to hear a song, read a fine poem, and, if possible, to speak a few reasonable words."

-Goethe

"If people talk negatively about you, live so that no one will believe them."

-unknown

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."

-Martin Luther King, Jr

"Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within."

-James Baldwin

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."

-Thomas Paine

"There comes a time in each life like a point of fulcrum. At that time you must accept yourself. It is not any more what you will become. It is what you are and always will be."

-John Fowles

"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 share no man's opinions; I have my own."

-Ivan Turgenev

"Let us endeavor to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."

-Mark Twain