A Collection of Inspirational Quotes
Finding inspiration and motivation to get through the challenges in our daily lives can be difficult, not to mention if you’re dealing with a tragedy or a conflict. You may be under a lot of stress related to your work, relationships, or just life in general.
If you’re feeling down and are looking for a dose of inspiration, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a collection of inspirational quotes from famous leaders around the world.
“We cannot solve problems with the kind of thinking we employed when we came up with them.”
Albert Einstein
“Learn as if you will live forever, live like you will die tomorrow.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions. Small minds will always do that, but great minds will give you a feeling that you can become great too.”
Mark Twain
“When you give joy to other people, you get more joy in return. You should give a good thought to happiness that you can give out.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“When you change your thoughts, remember to also change your world.”
Norman Vincent Peale
“It is only when we take chances, that our lives improve. The initial and the most difficult risk that we need to take is to become honest.”
Walter Anderson
“Nature has given us all the pieces required to achieve exceptional wellness and health, but has left it to us to put these pieces together.”
Diane McLaren
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”
Winston S. Churchill
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
Herman Melville
“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.”
Colin R. Davis
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy looking for it.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”
Dale Carnegie
“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. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Calvin Coolidge
“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”
Mister Rogers
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”
John Wooden
“Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.”
W. P. Kinsella
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”
Winston Churchill
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.”
Will Rogers
“You learn more from failure than from success. Don’t let it stop you. Failure builds character.”
Unknown
“If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.”
Steve Jobs
“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.”
Vernon Sanders Law
“To know how much there is to know is the beginning of learning to live.”
Dorothy West
“Goal setting is the secret to a compelling future.”
Tony Robbins
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.“
Alexander Graham Bell
“Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
Jim Rohn
“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
Thomas Jefferson
“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
Paulo Coelho
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas Edison
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
Tony Robbins
“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.”
Steve Jobs
“It’s not about better time management. It’s about better life management.”
Alexandra of The Productivity Zone
Women challenge the status quo because we are never it.”
Cindy Gallop
We don’t just sit around and wait for other people. We just make, and we do.”
Arlan Hamilton
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
Oprah Winfrey
“The strongest actions for a woman is to love herself, be herself and shine amongst those who never believed she could.”
Unknown
“Whenever you see a successful woman, look out for three men who are going out of their way to try to block her.”
Yulia Tymoshenko
“Some women choose to follow men, and some choose to follow their dreams. If you’re wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn’t love you anymore.”
Lady Gaga
“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.”
Roseanne Barr
“No woman wants to be in submission to a man who isn’t in submission to God!”
T.D Jakes
“A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.”
George Meredith
“When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier.”
Diane Von Furstenberg
“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”
Margaret Thatcher
“We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women’s voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored.”
Sheryl Sandberg
“It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.”
Madeleine Albright
“Women must learn to play the game as men do.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
Ayn Rand
“He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.”
Confucius
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather become a man of value.”
Albert Einstein
“One man with courage makes a majority.”
Andrew Jackson
“One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”
Benjamin Disraeli
“A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake.”
Confucius
“The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.”
Dale Carnegie
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”
David Brinkley
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
Epictetus
“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.”
George Lorimer
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Nelson Mandela
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”
Amelia Earhart
“You’ll find that education is just about the only thing lying around loose in this world, and it’s about the only thing a fellow can have as much of as he’s willing to haul away.”
John Graham
“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.”
Augustine Og Mandino
“The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs, one step at a time.”
Joe Girard
“Be a positive energy trampoline – absorb what you need and rebound more back.”
Dave Carolan
“Work until your bank account looks like a phone number.”
Unknown
“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”
Oscar Wilde
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
Winnie the Pooh
“Life is like a sewer… what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.”
Tom Lehrer
“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.”
Lily Tomlin
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
Michael Jordan
“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
Vince Lombardi
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”
Andrew Carnegie
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
Henry Ford
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”
Helen Keller
“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”
Patrick Lencioni
“I invite everyone to choose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition.”
Jean-Francois Cope
“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”
Dalai Lama
“Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.”
Chris Grosser
“Love your family, work super hard, live your passion.”
Gary Vaynerchuk
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
George Eliot
“Don’t let someone else’s opinion of you become your reality.”
Les Brown
“If you’re not positive energy, you’re negative energy.”
Mark Cuban
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
Stephen R. Covey
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.”
William James
“One of the differences between some successful and unsuccessful people is that one group is full of doers, while the other is full of wishers.”
Edmond Mbiaka
“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.”
Lucille Ball
“You cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind. To begin, begin.”
Gordon B. Hinckley
“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love…”
Marcus Aurelius
“Mondays are the start of the work week which offer new beginnings 52 times a year!“
David Dweck
“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.”
Wayne Dyer
“Your Monday morning thoughts set the tone for your whole week. See yourself getting stronger, and living a fulfilling, happier & healthier life.”
Germany Kent
“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
Zig Ziglar
“Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.”
Pablo Picasso
“Don’t settle for average. Bring your best to the moment. Then, whether it fails or succeeds, at least you know you gave all you had.”
Angela Bassett
“Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.”
Isabel Allende
“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ballpark. Aim for the company of immortals.”
David Ogilvy
“I have stood on a mountain of no’s for one yes.”
Barbara Elaine Smith
“If you believe something needs to exist, if it’s something you want to use yourself, don’t let anyone ever stop you from doing it.”
Tobias Lütke
“Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.”
Anne Lamott
“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Warren Buffet
“True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.”
Mortimer J. Adler
“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.”
A.A. Milne
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.”
Martha Graham
“Small is not just a stepping-stone. Small is a great destination itself.”
Jason Fried
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
Benjamin Franklin
“The only one who can tell you “you can’t win” is you and you don’t have to listen.”
Jessica Ennis
“Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.”
Bo Jackson
“Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don’t settle for them.”
Mia Hamm
“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
Steve Jobs
“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
Mark Twain
“If you can’t yet do great things, do small things in a great way.”
Napoleon Hill
“If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”
Jim Rohn
“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”
Abraham Lincoln
“Live out of your imagination, not your history.”
Stephen Covey
“Do not wait for the perfect time and place to enter, for you are already onstage.”
Unknown
“The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.”
Epicurus
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.”
Mary Anne Radmacher
“If the decisions you make about where you invest your blood, sweat, and tears are not consistent with the person you aspire to be, you’ll never become that person.”
Clayton M. Christensen
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Clayton M. Christensen
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Confucius
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Wayne Dyer
“We must reach out our hand in friendship and dignity both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy.”
Arthur Ashe
“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
Bill Gates
“The two most important days in your life are the day you’re born and the day you find out why.”
Mark Twain
“Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.”
Pema Chodron
“We can see through others only when we can see through ourselves.”
Bruce Lee
“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.”
Octavia Butler
“The best way out is always through.”
Robert Frost
“The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself—the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us — that’s where it’s at.”
Jesse Owens
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
Frederick Douglass
“Someone will declare, “I am the leader!” and expect everyone to get in line and follow him or her to the gates of heaven or hell. My experience is that it doesn’t happen that way. Others follow you based on the quality of your actions rather than the magnitude of your declarations.”
Bill Walsh
“Courage is like a muscle. We strengthen it by use.”
Ruth Gordo
“Relentlessly prune bullshit, don’t wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That’s what you do when life is short.”
Paul Graham
“More is lost by indecision than wrong decision.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
“If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.”
Thomas Aquinas
“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”
Dita Von Teese
“Keep a little fire burning; however small, however, hidden.”
Cormac McCarthy
“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”
Charlie Munger
“You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.”
Tina Fey
“When I believe in something, I’m like a dog with a bone.”
Melissa McCarthy
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Anaïs Nin
“The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept.”
David Hurley
“I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees.”
Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill
“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
Vince Lombardi
“Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right.”
Walt Disney
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
Helen Keller
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
Elon Musk
“When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go.”
Carol Burnett
“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!'”
Audrey Hepburn
“There is nothing impossible to they who will try.”
Alexander the Great
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”
Michael Altshuler
“Life has got all those twists and turns. You’ve got to hold on tight and off you go.”
Nicole Kidman
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.”
Walt Whitman
“Be courageous. Challenge orthodoxy. Stand up for what you believe in. When you are in your rocking chair talking to your grandchildren many years from now, be sure you have a good story to tell.”
Amal Clooney
“You make a choice: continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it. You draw your own box.”
Duchess Meghan
“I just want you to know that if you are out there and you are being really hard on yourself right now for something that has happened … it’s normal. That is what is going to happen to you in life. No one gets through unscathed. We are all going to have a few scratches on us. Please be kind to yourselves and stand up for yourself, please.”
Taylor Swift
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Winston Churchill
“You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.”
Oprah Winfrey
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
Malala Yousafzai
“At the end of the day, whether or not those people are comfortable with how you’re living your life doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you’re comfortable with it.”
Dr. Phil
“People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you’re lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life.”
Carrie Ann Moss
“For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.”
Michelle Obama
“Spread love everywhere you go.”
Mother Teresa
“Do not allow people to dim your shine because they are blinded. Tell them to put some sunglasses on.”
Lady Gaga
“If you make your internal life a priority, then everything else you need on the outside will be given to you and it will be extremely clear what the next step is.”
Gabrielle Bernstein
“You don’t always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go and see what happens.”
Mandy Hale
“You can be everything. You can be the infinite amount of things that people are.”
Kesha
“We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.”
Joseph Campbell
“Find out who you are and be that person. That’s what your soul was put on this earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth, and everything else will come.”
Ellen DeGeneres
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“Wake up determined, go to bed satisfied.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
“Nobody built like you, you design yourself.”
Jay-Z
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“I tell myself, ‘You’ve been through so much, you’ve endured so much, time will allow me to heal, and soon this will be just another memory that made me the strong woman, athlete, and mother I am today.”‘
Serena Williams
“Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Our lives are stories in which we write, direct and star in the leading role. Some chapters are happy while others bring lessons to learn, but we always have the power to be the heroes of our own adventures.”
Joelle Speranza
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Albert Einstein
“Don’t try to lessen yourself for the world; let the world catch up to you.”
Beyoncé
“Sharing motivational inspirational quotes so you can feel feelings you’ve never felt.”
Shawn
“Faith is love taking the form of aspiration.”
William Ellery Channing
“When it comes to luck, you make your own.”
Bruce Springsteen
“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one!”
Dolly Parton
“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
“The moral of my story is the sun always comes out after the storm. Being optimistic and surrounding yourself with positive loving people is for me, living life on the sunny side of the street.”
Janice Dean
“We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action.”
Dr. Henry Link
“Dreams don’t have to just be dreams. You can make it a reality; if you just keep pushing and keep trying, then eventually you’ll reach your goal. And if that takes a few years, then that’s great, but if it takes 10 or 20, then that’s part of the process.”
Naomi Osaka
“We are not our best intentions. We are what we do.”
Amy Dickinson
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.”
Zig Ziglar
“Someday is not a day of the week.”
Denise Brennan-Nelson
“Hire character. Train skill.”
Peter Schutz
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
Steve Jobs
“Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect.”
W. Clement Stone
“Everyone lives by selling something.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
“If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.”
Bob Hooey
“The golden rule for every businessman is this: Put yourself in your customer’s place.”
Orison Swett Marden
“The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are. They are frank in admitting this and are willing to pay for such talents.”
Antos Parrish
“Beware of monotony; it’s the mother of all the deadly sins.”
Edith Wharton
“Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.”
J.M. Barrie
“Without a customer, you don’t have a business — all you have is a hobby.”
Don Peppers
“To be most effective in sales today, it’s imperative to drop your ‘sales’ mentality and start working with your prospects as if they’ve already hired you.”
Jill Konrath
“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.”
Mary Kay Ash
“It’s not just about being better. It’s about being different. You need to give people a reason to choose your business.”
Tom Abbott
“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”
Andy Warhol
“Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.”
Stephen Covey
“Without hustle, talent will only carry you so far.”
Gary Vaynerchuk
“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stressed; working hard for something we love is called passion.”
Simon Sinek
“I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.”
Estée Lauder
“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.”
Og Mandino
“The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he’s dead.”
Bette Davis
“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
“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”
Joshua J. Marine
“Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.”
Robert Kiyosaki
“How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?”
Seth Godin
“Someday is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.”
Tim Ferriss
Wrapping Up
Inspirational quotes can help you to reach your potential each new day, especially when you’re just on the verge of giving up or are struggling to get to the next level. This list of quotes will help you to jumpstart your day and uplift your spirits. If you enjoy them, don’t forget to share them with your loved ones to give them a dose of motivation as well.
