Motivational Quotes

If you’re reading this, then you’re here for one reason – motivation. These motivational quotes are the place to start when you need a boost.

While it’s sometimes difficult to know what to do, we still have to get started. And what better way than to learn from those who have lived and shared the messages that motivated them.

So whether you’re lacking motivation or just need a little push to get going, get ready to be seriously motivated!

Here are our best motivating quotes to propel you to do more, be more, and achieve your goals today.

Top 10 Motivational Quotes

We talk on principal, but act on motivation.

Walter Savage Landor

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Mark Twain

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Winners never quit, and quitters never win.

Vince Lombardi

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Joe Kennedy

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Abraham Lincoln

Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.

Arnold Palmer

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Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

John D. Rockefeller

Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.

Robert Kiyosaki

The Best Motivational Quotes

It’s ok to need a little something extra to kick start your efforts sometimes. Finding motivation when you need it is often an important step to higher achievement.

Do you know what motivates you? In case that’s not an easy question to answer, we hope you’ll find something to motivate you right here with the best motivational words we could find.

So whether you’re at work, school, or anywhere in between, these lines should stoke your fires.

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.

Ayn Rand

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Herman Melville

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Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

Arthur Ashe

Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.

Nido Qubein

You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.

Michael Jordan

Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.

Oprah Winfrey

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Christopher Columbus

One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.

Michael Korda

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

Martin Luther King Jr.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle

God always strives together with those who strive.

Aeschylus

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

Norman Vincent Peale

It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.

Babe Ruth

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The only person you should try to be better than, is the person you were yesterday.

Matty Mullens

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

Harriet Beecher Stow

The difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone is how high you raise your foot.

Benny Lewis

Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing.

William Arthur Ward

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.

Tommy Lasorda

More powerful than the will to win is the courage to begin.

Orrin Woodward

Don’t be pushed by your problems; be led by your dreams.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You don’t drown by falling in water; you drown by staying there.

Robert Collier

If you’re going through hell, keep going

Winston Churchill

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.

Robert Schuller

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Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

Thomas Edison

Fortune sides with him who dares.

Virgil

If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.

Thomas Jefferson

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

Maria Robinson

Motivational Quotes for Work

Nothing will work unless you do.

Maya Angelou

The more I want to get something done the less I call it work.

Richard Bach

The work you do when you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.

Jessica Hische

Focus on being productive instead of busy.

Tim Ferriss

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

Plato

An employee’s motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager.

Bob Nelson

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If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents- start charging for it.

Kim Garst

Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.

John Wooden

There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.

Michael Phelps

Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.

Farrah Gray

If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.

Steve Jobs

To be successful you must accept all challenges that come your way. You can’t just accept the ones you like.

Mike Gafka

If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.

Thomas J. Watson

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Vidal Sassoon

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.

John C. Maxwell

When someone tells me ‘no,’ it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them.

Karen E. Quinones Miller

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

Albert Einstein

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The individual who says it is not possible should get out of the way of those doing it.

Tricia Cunningham

You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.

George Lorimer

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.

Thomas Jefferson

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.

William Butler Yeats

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.

Greg Anderson

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.

Pearl S. Buck

Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they’ve started.

David Allen

Motivational Quotes for Students

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

John Wooden

The wise does at once what the fool does at last.

Balthasar Gracian

To know and not to do, is not to know.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Zeal without knowledge is fire without light.

Thomas Huxley

Perfection is boring. Getting better is where all the fun is.

Dragos Roua

Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.

Francis Chan

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The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.

Alice Walker

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

Carl Sagan

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

Vernon Sanders Law

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

Theodore Roosevelt

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

Leonardo da Vinci

There are two kinds of people in this world; those who want to get things done, and those who don’t want to make mistakes.

John C. Maxwell

If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.

Jim Rohn

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

Stephen Covey

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

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

Albert Einstein

Always remember that you are absolutely unique; just like everyone else.

Margaret Mead

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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.

Mark Twain

The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare.

Bobby Knight

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up.

Michael Jordan

We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

Ronald Reagan

There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.

Ray Goforth

Motivational Thoughts

We become what we think about most of the time, and that’s the strangest secret.

Earl Nightingale

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.

Dale Carnegie

If you continue to think they way you’ve always thought, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always got.

Kevin Trudeau

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.

William Arthur Ward

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

Aristotle Onassis

The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.

Pele

Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.

Grant Cardone

Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.

Leo Buscaglia

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Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.

Theodore N. Vail

You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.

Booker T. Washington

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

Epictetus

Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.

Benjamin Disraeli

Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.

Coco Chanel

Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it away from you.

Mark Cuban

I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

Stephen Covey

Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you.

George Whitefield

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.

Jimmy Dean

Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.

Michael Jordan

You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the further you get.

Michael Phelps

Whatever the mind of man can conceive, and bring itself to believe, it can achieve.

Napoleon Hill

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Find a victory in every defeat to remain hopeful, and find a defeat in every victory to remain humble.

Orrin Woodward

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.

Denis Watiley

The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

Benjamin Mays

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia.

Charles Schulz

Don’t downgrade your dream just to fit your reality. Upgrade your conviction to match your destiny.

Stuart Scott

Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.

W. Clement Stone

Quotes about Motivation

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.

Zig Ziglar

Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.

Stephen Covey

There is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it.

Jane Smiley

Everything boils down to motivation.

Brendon Burchard

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.

Wayne Dyer

Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal — a commitment to excellence — that will enable you to attain the success you seek.

Mario Andretti

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Competition is the best form of motivation.

Cordae

Motivation, passion, and focus have to come from the top.

Kevin Plank

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

Jim Ryun

Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you’re willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.

Lou Holtz

Music – it’s motivational and just makes you relax.

Taika Waititi

When you fail you learn from the mistakes you made and it motivates you to work even harder.

Natlaie Glubis

I’m not one for those motivational speeches. I’ve always been more of an example guy.

Carey Price

People always need to hear good motivational speeches.

Rudy Ruettiger

Real obsession needs an unconscious motivation behind it.

Damon Galgut

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

With the new year comes a refueled motivation to improve on the past one.

Gretchen Bleiler

Once something is a passion, the motivation is there.

Michael Schumacher

A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.

Pat Riley

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For me, motivation is a person who has the capability to recruit the resources he needs to achieve a goal.

Arsene Wenger

Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable – and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short.

Jocko Willink

Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.

Bo Bennett

I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.

Edmund Hillary

Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can’t be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people.

Lee Iacocca

I didn’t need to be motivated by other people overlooking me. My motivation was internal, to be better every day.

Adam Thielen

Our greatest motivation in life comes from not knowing the future.

Thomas Frey

The changing of the goals helps keep the motivation fresh.

Bradley Wiggins

Other people’s success spurs me on to do well and gives me motivation.

Nicholas Hoult

Self-Motivation Quotes

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

Booker T. Washington

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.

A.A. Milne

I’m self-motivated. I’m motivated for myself to be the best I can be – for me to do that, I have to have my own motivation, my own positive energy.

Deshaun Watson

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I am not afraid… I was born to do this.

Joan of Arc

The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.

Bruce Feirstein

Don’t wait for your feelings to change to take the action. Take the action and your feelings will change.

Barbara Baron

If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your problems and start focusing on the size of you!

T. Harv Eker

Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.

Arthur Christopher Benson

If people are doubting how far you can go, go so far that you can’t hear them anymore.

Michele Ruiz

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.

Laird Hamilton

It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

Lewis Carroll

The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It’s what you’re made of. Not the circumstances.

Anthony J. James

You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

Andrew Murphy

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

Plutarch

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Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.

Bern Williams

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.

Muhammad Ali

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

Norman Vincent Peale

The number one reason people fail in life is because they listen to their friends, family, and neighbors.

Napoleon Hill

Where there is a will, there is a way. If there is a chance in a million that you can do something, anything, to keep what you want from ending, do it. Pry the door open or, if need be, wedge your foot in that door and keep it open.

Pauline Kael

When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

Paulo Coelho

With self-discipline most anything is possible.

Theodore Roosevelt

When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.

Terry Bradshaw

Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack.

Suzanne Collins,
The Hunger Games

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.

Arnold Toynbee

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

Vince Lombardi

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Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.

Washington Irving

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.

Orison Swett Marden

Motivating Quotes

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.

Dale Carnegie

Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.

Sam Levenson

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.

Anatole France

Never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.

Charles Dickens

You may only succeed if you desire succeeding; you may only fail if you do not mind failing.

Philippos

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

Benjamin Disraeli

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.

George Addair

Your passion is waiting for your courage to catch up.

Isabelle Lafleche

Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

George Herbert

There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either in or you’re out. There is no such thing as life in-between.

Pat Riley

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Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Winston Churchill

Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.

Mary Anne Roadacher-Hershey

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

Abraham Lincoln

Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.

Robin Sharma

Do or do not. There is no try.

Yoda,
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.

Sheryl Sandberg

Give yourself an even greater challenge than the one you are trying to master and you will develop the powers necessary to overcome the original difficulty.

William J. Bennett,
The Book of Virtues

Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.

Simone de Beauvoir

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

Anne Frank

Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.

James Dean

Enter every activity without giving mental recognition to the possibility of defeat. Concentrate on your strengths, instead of your weaknesses… on your powers, instead of your problems.

Paul J. Meyer

My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.

Michael Jordan

If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission.

Brian Tracy

Taking it easy won’t take you anywhere.

Nike Slogan

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

Neil Gaiman

Do what you feel in your heart to be right―for you’ll be criticized anyway.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.

George S. Patton

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it – but all that had gone before.

Jacob Riis

We hope all of these motivational quotes have you pumped up and ready to take action.

Whatever type of motivation works for you, the important part is to use it to achieve your goals. We all have the potential to do more and be more when we want to be. So go find yours and live up to it today!