Inspirational Quotes to Ponder and Share
We love inspirational quotes! These are our hand picked selection of motivational, educational and inspirational quotes for you to ponder and learn from. You can glean so much wisdom from just a few lines. Plus, you get bite sized insight on many different people from all areas of life - from philosophers and scientists to religious leaders and political activists.
Looking for some inspiration on a certain topic? Check out the links on the left to find a quote on your area of interest!
Recently Added Inspirational Quotes
“You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.”
- Wayne Dyer
If you’re experiencing no anxiety or discomfort, the risk you’re taking probably isn’t worthy of you. The only risks that aren’t a little scary are the ones you’ve outgrown. A high comfort level provides solid evidence that you’re playing it safe, not growing, not really testing your limits at all, and not in the process of making a quantum leap.
- Price Pritchett
“We can let circumstances rule us, or we can take charge and rule our lives from within.”
- Earl Nightingale
“If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree”
- Jim Rohn
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”
- Bertrand Russell
More Inspirational Quotes
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
- Wayne Gretzky
“Where we have reasons for what we believe, we have no need of faith; where we have no reasons, we have lost both our connection to the world and to one another.”
- Sam Harris
“If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree”
- Jim Rohn
Give the world the best you have and the best will come back to you.
- Madeline Bridges
I’m worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel – let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they’re doing. I’m concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that’s handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers. – Howard Zinn
“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
- Henry David Thoreau
“What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly.”
- Lao-tzu
“Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
One of the basic causes for all the trouble in the world today is that people talk too much and think too little. They act impulsively without thinking. I always try to think before I talk.
- Margaret Chase Smith
“Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.”
- Niccolo Machiavelli
Americans have been taught that their nation is civilized and humane. But, too often, U.S. actions have been uncivilized and inhumane.
- Howard Zinn
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”
- Bertrand Russell
“You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.”
- Henry David Thoreau
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
- Henry David Thoreau
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
- Plato
A man may fall many times but he won’t be a failure until he says someone pushed him.
- Elmer G. Letterman
Don’t allow the grass to grow on the path of friendship.
- Native American Proverb
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
“Some men see things as they are and say, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were and say, ‘Why not?’”
- George Bernard Shaw
“In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival. – Noam Chomsky
(Nationalism is) a set of beliefs taught to each generation in which the Motherland or the Fatherland is an object of veneration and becomes a burning cause for which one becomes willing to kill the children of other Motherlands or Fatherlands. – Howard Zinn
“Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.”
- Les Brown
Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. – Howard Zinn
“I count him braver who conquers his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.”
- Aristotle
The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.
- Anthony Robbins
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
- Lao Tzu
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. – Howard Zinn
“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”
- Napoleon Hill
“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.”
- Brian Tracy
“For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.
- Napoleon Hill
We can, for example, be fairly confident that either there will be a world without war or there won’t be a world – at least, a world inhabited by creatures other than bacteria and beetles, with some scattering of others. – Noam Chomsky
“Visionaries are always willing to sacrifice the present for a better future, myopics always sacrifice the future for instant-gratification, thus they have no future.”
- Gene Landrum
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple – that’s creativity.
-Charles Mingus
“The most evolved among us understand that winning is an inside job. It’s not about beating or besting someone else, but rather getting the best from ourselves. Winning is about being better tomorrow than you were today.”
- Bill Gove
“Control is never achieved when sought after directly. It is the surprising outcome of letting go.”
- James Arthur Ray
The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people. – Noam Chomsky
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.
-Zig Ziglar
“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
“Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.”
- Zig Ziglar
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
{EAV_BLOG_VER:5dd1626884cb366d}One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression. – Howard Zinn
Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune. – Noam Chomsky
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
- Aristotle
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.”
- James A. Michener
“All of life is a series of trade offs. The most successful people trade short term pain for long-term gain. They are willing to sacrifice in the short term in order to enjoy even greater benefits in the long term”
- Brian Tracy
“Courage is being scared to death – but saddling up anyway.”
- John Wayne
“If you feel stuck, either let go of wanting to change it or allow yourself to feel the way you do. Either one will help dissolve the feeling of stuckness.”
- Hale Dwoskin
“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
“Visionaries are always willing to sacrifice the present for a better future, myopics always sacrifice the future for instant-gratification, thus they have no future.”
- Gene Landrum
“Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning leadto action.”
- Jim Rohn
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. – Howard Zinn
“Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.”
- Jim Rohn
Is there equality before the law? At every stage of the judicial process – facing the policeman, appearing in court, being freed on bond, being sentenced by the judge – the poor person is treated worse than the rich, the black treated worse than the white, the politically or personally odd character is treated worse than the orthodox. – Howard Zinn
“There’s a common misconception out there that a “sacrifice” means you’re losing something. You’re not losing here. When you’re sacrificing something you’re giving up something of a lower nature to bring in something of a higher nature.”
- Bob Proctor
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”
- Denis Waitley
“Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.”
- Les Brown
Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you.
- William Arthur Ward
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
- Confucius
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts… take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.”
- Marcus Aurelius
Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony. – Noam Chomsky
“If you feel stuck, either let go of wanting to change it or allow yourself to feel the way you do. Either one will help dissolve the feeling of stuckness.”
- Hale Dwoskin
“He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.”
– Chinese Proverb
“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”
- Paul J. Meyer
“It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn’t betray it I’d be ashamed of myself. – Noam Chomsky
War itself is the enemy of the human race. – Howard Zinn
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.
- Carl Sagan
“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.”
- Wayne Dyer
We never touch people so lightly that we do not leave a trace.
- Peggy Tabor Millin
“It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over because there’s nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized.”
- Wayne Dyer
“If a man empties his purse in his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
- Benjamin Franklin
“In the past a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders must be partners with their people… they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.”
- Ken Blanchard
History is important. If you don’t know history it’s as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything and you have no way of checking up on it. – Howard Zinn
“There are no secrets to success: Don’t waste time looking for them. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence.”
- General Colin Powell
“The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized – never knowing.”
- Jim Rohn
“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.”
- Jim Rohn
“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes … and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
“When one door closes another door opens; but we do often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
– Alexander Graham Bell
Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.
- Earl Nightingale
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
- Charles Darwin
“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.”
- W. Clement Stone
Unlimited economic growth has the marvelous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege, a fact that has not gone unnoticed among liberal economists. – Noam Chomsky
The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.
- Anthony Robbins
“There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.”
- Deepak Chopra
“The more credit you give away, the more will come back to you. The more you help others, the more they will want to help you.”
- Brian Tracy
“I’ve missed more than 9000 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
To some degree it matters who’s in office, but it matters more how much pressure they’re under from the public. – Noam Chomsky
The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as long as we live.
- Mortimer Adler
Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. – Howard Zinn
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”
– Native American Proverb
Purpose is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s needs.
– Frederick Buechner
If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion. – Noam Chomsky
“What distinguishes what’s alive from what’s dead is growth, be it in plants or in you .”
- Dr. Wayne Dyer
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
- Winston Churchill
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. – Howard Zinn
