Motivational & Inspirational Quotes

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

— Thomas Edison, inventor and salesman; often worked more than 40 hours straight

“The world belongs to the energetic.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), American writer and activist

“If we have our own ‘why’ of life, we can bear almost any ‘how.’”

— Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), German philosopher

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly discover how far one can go.”

— T.S. Eliot (1888–1965), American poet

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

— John Wooden (1910–2010), Hall of Fame UCLA basketball coach; winner of 10 NCAA championships

“Activity is contagious.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), American writer and activist

“It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we fail to do.”

— Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (1622–1673), French playwright

“I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the ones who get up, look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, create them.”

— George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Irish playwright and critic

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”

— Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), first woman in European history elected prime minister

“Kites rise highest against the wind — not with it.”

— Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965), British prime minister during WWII

“99% of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”

— George Washington Carver (1864–1943), American agricultural chemist

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the truly great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

— Mark Twain (1835–1910), American writer

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”

— Henry Ford (1863–1947), American industrialist and inventor

“It is when things are hardest — when life becomes most trying — that there is the greatest need for a fixed goal.”

— B.C. Forbes (1880–1954), founder and publisher of Forbes magazine

“There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

— John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), 35th president of the United States

“Only a mediocre person is always at his best.”

— W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965), British writer; one of the highest-paid authors of the 1930s