Top 100 Inspiring Quotes of All Time

A short, finished list rather than an endless feed: 100 of the best inspiring quotes ever written, picked out of the full inspiring archive on QuoteForever. You will find Barack Obama, Dwight L. Moody, Elisabeth Elliot and Gautama Buddha among them.

Read the list top to bottom, or use it as a starting point - every author name links to everything else they said, and every quote has its own page you can share or turn into an image.

1

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

To be successful you don't need to do extraordinary things, you just ... - Jim Rohn 2

To be successful you don't need to do extraordinary things, you just need to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.

3

To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don't wait until you die. If you wait, you die now. If you love, you live now.

4

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.

5

I might not be the same, but that's not important/No freedom till we're equal, damn right I support it

6

Work hard but work smart. Always. Every day. Nothing is handed to you and nothing is easy. You're not owed anything... No job or task is too small or beneath you. If you want to get ahead, volunteer to do the things no one else wants to do, and do it better. Be a sponge. Be open and learn.

7

If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.

8

In every friendship hearts grow and entwine themselves together, so that the two hearts seem to make only one heart with only a common thought. That is why separation is so painful; it is not so much two hearts separating, but one being torn asunder.

9

Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are.

10

I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be

11

What can a pencil do for all of us? Amazing things. It can write transcendent poetry, uplifting music, or life-changing equations; it can sketch the future, give life to untold beauty, and communicate the full-force of our love and aspirations.

12

What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.

13

One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty.

14

I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.

15

I have always had a talent for irritating women since I was fourteen.

16

Don't get mad, get even.

17

Identity is a prison you can never escape, but the way to redeem your past is not to run from it, but to try to understand it, and use it as a foundation to grow.

He tells us that life isn't about what happens to you, it's about ... - Wendelin Van Draanen 18

He tells us that life isn't about what happens to you, it's about what you do about what happens to you.

19

Sometime reality is too complex. Stories give it form.

20

I never saw a fruit-bearing Christian who was not a student of the Bible.

21

I learned to always take on things I'd never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.

22

A leader. . .is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.

23

Oh, don't let's ask for the moon. We've already got the stars.

24

This whole world is wild at heart and weird on top.

25

If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.

26

You know you've achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away.

27

It's a huge change for your body. You don't even want to look in the mirror after you've had a baby, because your stomach is just hanging there like a Shar-Pei.

28

The problem comes up because we ask the question in the wrong way. We supposed that solids were one thing and space quite another, or just nothing whatever. Then it appeared that space was no mere nothing, because solids couldn't do without it. But the mistake in the beginning was to think of solids and space as two different things, instead of as two aspects of the same thing. The point is that they are different but inseparable, like the front end and the rear end of a cat. Cut them apart, and the cat dies.

29

Great ideas come into the world as gently as doves.

30

Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

31

I like to think that I represent myself as a strong woman, so to work with other strong women I find very inspiring.

32

Nelson Mandela is awe inspiring - a person who really sacrificed for what he believed in. I feel truly humbled by him.

33

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

34

He who has made a thousand things and he who has made none, both feel the same desire: to make something.

35

But you have to do what you dream of doing even while you're afraid.

36

Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities.

37

So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you.

38

The art of teaching is tolerance. Humbleness is the art of learning.

39

Be inspired but not proud.

40

Life means to be living.Problems will always be there. When they arise navigate through them with yoga- don't take a break.

41

For in Asia and around the world, India is not simply emerging; India has already emerged. And it is my firm belief that the relationship between the United States and India - bound by our shared interests and values - will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century. This is the partnership I have come here to build. This is the vision that our nations can realise together.

42

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed.

43

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old - is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.

44

I hoped for something else. It's a simple dream, but it speaks to us so powerfully because it is our dream - one that exists at the very center of the American experience. One that says if you're willing to work hard and take responsibility, then you'll have the chance to reach for something else; for something better.

45

Playing scales is like a boxer skipping rope or punching a bag. It's not the thing in itself; it's preparatory to the activity

46

The reality is, sometimes you lose. And you're never too good to lose, you're never too big to lose, you're never too smart to lose, it happens.

47

I don't feel like I have to please anyone. I feel free. I feel like I'm an adult. I'm grown. I can do what I want. I can say what I want. I can retire if I want. That's why I've worked hard.

48

Women have to work much harder to make it in this world. It really pisses me off that women don't get the same opportunities as men do, or money for that matter. Because lets face it, money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define our values and to define what's sexy and what's feminine and that's bullshit. At the end of the day, it's not about equal rights, it's about how we think. We have to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves.

49

People who say they don't see the acceleration of innovation is a wilful blindness. We are innovation at a wonderful speed for the basic things we think everyone should get.

50

It is not a shame to be knocked down by other people. The important thing is to ask when you're being knocked down, 'Why am I being knocked down?' If a person can reflect in this way, then there is hope for this person.

51

A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence.

52

I listen to both oldies and contemporary stations. I enjoy listening to current stuff because there's an energy to it that's inspiring.

53

I think that if you keep your eyes and your ears open and you are receptive to learning, there are skills you can get from any job at all.

54

I would always rather be happy than dignified.

55

It is not that women are really smaller-minded, weaker-minded, more timid and vacillating, but that whosoever, man or woman, lives always in a small, dark place, is always guarded, protected, directed and restrained, will become inevitably narrowed and weakened by it.

56

It's very important to have the right clothing to exercise in. If you throw on an old T-shirt or sweats, it's not inspiring for your workout.

57

You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.

58

I am The Catalyst of Change

59

Storytime is over, Rock. Every time you want to 'bring it,' because it belongs to me, I'm just going to take it!.

60

Until you announce me as the #1 contender for the WWE Championship, I suggest you watch me make snow angels.

61

Something which we think is impossible now is not impossible in another decade.

62

I recently had my annual physical examination, which I get once every seven years, and when the nurse weighed me, I was shocked to discover how much stronger the Earth's gravitational pull has become since 1990.

63

Professionals have to decide on which subjects they are prepared to give nagging rights

64

The normal experience of the body and its aging is a conditioned response (a habit of thinking and behavior). By changing your habits of thinking and behavior, you can change the experience of your body and its aging

65

Religion is believing someone else's experience, spirituality is having your own experience.

66

If you're going to play at all, you're out to win. Baseball, board games, playing Jeopardy, I hate to lose.

67

What's important to me is to share, and being inspired, and inspiring.

68

I realized I love motivating and I love empowering and I love inspiring people. I did that as an athlete for 18 years, and I am able to do that as a motivational speaker now as well as doing work on television.

69

When you see sparkling lights with no physical origin and no medical eye issues, it means that you are seeing Angel Lights, which are the energies of your Guardian Angels and Archangels moving around you.

70

It's high time you were shown That you really don't know all there is to be known.

71

There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord, but few of us are willing to do little things.

72

The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.

73

Church attendance is as vital to a disciple as a transfusion of rich, healthy blood to a sick man.

74

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

75

You have been my friends. That in itself is a tremendous thing.

76

A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.

77

The primary purpose of life is in being in the NOW.

78

Success is the best revenge for anything. Keep ya head down and work hard to achieve.

79

Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.

80

I always said God was against art and I still believe it.

81

Most diseases are the result of medication which has been prescribed to relieve and take away a beneficent and warning symptom on the part of Nature.

82

Getters don't get - givers get.

83

Fear arises when we imagine that everything depends on us.

84

Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business. If I peer anxiously into the fog of the future I will strain my spiritual eyes so that I will not see clearly what is required of me now!

85

When obedience to God contradicts what I think will give me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love Him.

86

Things happen which would not happen without prayer. Let us not forget that.

87

She drove me to ballet class...and she took me to every audition. She'd be proud of me if I was still sitting in that seat or if I was watching from home. She believes in me and that's why this [award] is for her. She's a wonderful mother.

88

There's no one thing that's true. It's all true.

89

The white spruce forest along the banks is most inspiring, magnificent here. Down the terraced slopes and right to the water's edge on the alluvial soil it stands in ranks.

90

It is only in the giving of ourselves to others that we truly live — only with the meeting of our minds — thine and mine — do we become conscious of the divine spark each of us shares — only in sharing in our daily contacts, one with another, in our mutual hopes and fears do we find real peace. The human contribution is the essential ingredient.

91

Uniqueness does not come from external things that people do to themselves or other things like what they wear. All the uniqueness that radiates to the world comes from how you deal with the world, your best inner strengths. It never comes from a tattoo or a designer outfit.

92

Don't agonize, organize.

93

One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.

94

There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction.

95

Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist.

96

Master your words. Master your thoughts. Never allow your body to do harm. Follow these three roads with purity And you will find yourself upon the one way, The way of wisdom.

97

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.

98

The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast.

99

The fragrance of sandalwood and rosebay does not travel far. But the fragrance of virtue rises to the heavens.

100

. . . hell is wanting to be somewhere different from where you are. Being one place and wanting to be somewhere else . . . . Wanting life to be different from what it is. That's also called leaving without leaving. Dying before you die. It's as if there is a part of you that so rails against being shattered by love that you shatter yourself first.

More Inspiring quotes

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