top 100 inspirational quotes - forbes

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LEADER SHI P | 5/28/2013 @ 11:04AM | 7,962,684 views

Top 100 Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational quotes and motivational quotes have the power to get us

through a bad week, and can even give us the courage to pursue our lifes

dreams. In my book, 4 Keys to Happiness and Fulfillment at Work, I share

surprising research into the true triggers of workplace motivation. So in the

spirit of self motivation, here are 100 inspirational quotes.

1. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. NapoleonHill

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

3. Two roads diverged in a wood, and II took the one less traveled by, And thathas made all the difference. Robert Frost

4. I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse. FlorenceNightingale

5. You miss 100% of the shots you dont take. Wayne Gretzky

6. Ive missed more than 9000 shots in my career. Ive lost almost 300 games. 26times Ive been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. Ive failed overand over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan

7. The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. Amelia Earhart

8. Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. Babe Ruth

9. Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. W. ClementStone

10. The past is a ghost, the future a dream. All we ever have is now. Bill Cosby

11. Life is what happens to you while youre busy making other plans. JohnLennon

12. We become what we think about. Earl Nightingale

13. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that youdidnt do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away fromsafe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. MarkTwain

14. Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. CharlesSwindoll

15. The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they donthave any. Alice Walker

16. The mind is everything. What you think you become. Buddha

17. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Chinese Proverb

18. An unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates

19. Eighty percent of success is showing up. Woody Allen

20. Your time is limited, so dont waste it living someone elses life. Steve Jobs

21. Winning isnt everything, but wanting to win is. Vince Lombardi

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

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23. Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he growsup. Pablo Picasso

24. You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of theshore. Christopher Columbus

25. Ive learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what youdid, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou

26. Either you run the day, or the day runs you. Jim Rohn

27. Whether you think you can or you think you cant, youre right. Henry Ford

28. The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the dayyou find out why. Mark Twain

29. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, powerand magic in it. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

30. The best revenge is massive success. Frank Sinatra

31. People often say that motivation doesnt last. Well, neither does bathing. Thats why we recommend it daily. Zig Ziglar

32. Life shrinks or expands in proportion to ones courage. Anais Nin

33. If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paintand that voice will be silenced. Vincent Van Gogh

34. There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and benothing. Aristotle

35. Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the doorwill be opened for you. Jesus

36. The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. Ralph Waldo Emerson

37. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you haveimagined. Henry David Thoreau

38. When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would nothave a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me. Erma Bombeck

39. Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, andto let him know that you trust him. Booker T. Washington

40. Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart. Ancient Indian Proverb

41. Believe you can and youre halfway there. Theodore Roosevelt

42. Everything youve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. George Addair

43. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life iswhen men are afraid of the light. Plato

44. Teach thy tongue to say, I do not know, and thous shalt progress. Maimonides

45. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. Arthur Ashe

46. When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was thekey to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when Igrew up. I wrote down happy. They told me I didnt understand theassignment, and I told them they didnt understand life. John Lennon

47. Fall seven times and stand up eight. Japanese Proverb

48. When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long atthe closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. HelenKeller

49. Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see. Confucius

50. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting toimprove the world. Anne Frank

51. When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. Lao Tzu

52. Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the momentsthat take our breath away. Maya Angelou



53. Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions. Dalai Lama

54. If youre offered a seat on a rocket ship, dont ask what seat! Just get on. Sheryl Sandberg

55. First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, havethe necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, andmethods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. Aristotle

56. If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. Latin Proverb

57. You cant fall if you dont climb. But theres no joy in living your whole life onthe ground. Unknown

58. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, atwhatever cost, must be attained. Marie Curie

59. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. LesBrown

60. Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makeslife meaningful. Joshua J. Marine

61. If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. Booker T. Washington

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

63. Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, ourpossibilities become limitless. Jamie Paolinetti

64. You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing, noone to blame. Erica Jong

65. Whats money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bedat night and in between does what he wants to do. Bob Dylan

66. I didnt fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. Benjamin Franklin

67. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear offailure. Bill Cosby

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

69. The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who isdoing it. Chinese Proverb

70. There are no traffic jams along the extra mile. Roger Staubach

71. It is never too late to be what you might have been. George Eliot

72. You become what you believe. Oprah Winfrey

73. I would rather die of passion than of boredom. Vincent van Gogh

74. A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands areempty. Unknown

75. It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to dofor themselves, that will make them successful human beings. Ann Landers

76. If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time withthem, and half as much money. Abigail Van Buren

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

78. The battles that count arent the ones for gold medals. The struggles withinyourselfthe invisible battles inside all of usthats where its at. Jesse Owens

79. Education costs money. But then so does ignorance. Sir Claus Moser

80. I have learned over the years that when ones mind is made up, thisdiminishes fear. Rosa Parks

81. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. Confucius

82. If you look at what you have in life, youll always have more. If you look atwhat you dont have in life, youll never have enough. Oprah Winfrey

83. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke ofluck. Dalai Lama

84. You cant use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. Maya



Angelou

85. Dream big and dare to fail. Norman Vaughan

86. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King Jr.

87. Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. Teddy Roosevelt

88. If you do what youve always done, youll get what youve always gotten. Tony Robbins

89. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. Gloria Steinem

90. Its your place in the world; its your life. Go on and do all you can with it, andmake it the life you want to live. Mae Jemison

91. You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you dont try. Beverly Sills

92. Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. EleanorRoosevelt

93. Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. Grandma Moses

94. The question isnt who is going to let me; its who is going to stop me. AynRand

95. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplanetakes off against the wind, not with it. Henry Ford

96. Its not the years in your life that count. Its the life in your years. AbrahamLincoln

97. Change your thoughts and you change your world. Norman Vincent Peale

98. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. Benjamin Franklin

99. Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, Im possible! Audrey Hepburn

100. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. Steve Jobs

101. If you can dream it, you can achieve it. Zig Ziglar

What inspires you? Take the Your Motivation

Quiz to find out.

Check out Kevin Kruses new book, Employee

Engagement 2.0, and discover how to turn

apathetic groups into emotionally committed teams.

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All of these quotes are quite inspiring, but I would go with number 20:

Winning isnt everything, but wanting to win is. Vince Lombardi

Reply

You missed the most inspirational quote ever!

Do or do not; there is no try. Yoda

Reply

What a great compilation of inspirational and motivational quotes. Thank you very much

for getting me inspired today. I found a great blog post about motivational quotes for

work http://www.lifedaily.com/top-10-motivational-quotes-for-work-success/ they

got me through a tough day at work!

But my favourite quote is definitely your number 37!

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single

bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me. Erma Bombeck

Thanks

Jerry

Reply

An amazing compilation!

Reply

This one has always inspired me, strategically: Find your place, and let the world

gravitate to you. None of this mix-and-mingle business. Diana Vreeland, the late

editor-in-chief of Vogue.

Reply

Kevin,

This is so great! Taking the time to really absorb this.

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Inside Forbes

Author

Follow Comments

Congrats Kevin on the self-motivation quote yet let me gently note that the first woman

cited is 24, then 37, 49, 71 and note the number of non-whites we are all still learning in

this increasingly complex yet connected world where mutuality matters. Am a fan of

your book

Reply

Kare, thanks for your note and I dont disagree. I spend a fair amount of time on

diversity issues and obviously finding great quotes from history can be tough

when history has been written through the white-male western lens.

Can you help me out? Why dont you send me your favorite non-white non-

male quotes and Ill consider updating the list. Thanks!

Reply

One of my favorites: A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees

opportunity in every difficulty. Winston Churchhill

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