It’s no secret that I like quotes. I am one of those guys who can get really motivated by the right words. And while some of the best encouraging quotes are in the Bible, there have been a lot of brilliant minds who have said some pretty inspiring words that still help me when I read them. So I decided to gather up the 10 best motivation quotes (in my opinion, of course!).
If any of them resonate with you, I encourage you to write them down and tape them to your fridge or computer screen. I have been greatly helped by having a constant reminder of a scripture or a quote to help keep me in line with what I am shooting for. It’s pretty cool how a little handwritten quote can speak to you when you need it. After all, “Like apples of gold in settings of silver Is a word spoken in right circumstances.” Pro 25:11.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”
- Aristotle
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”
- Dale Carnegie
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that frightens us. Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.”
- Nelson Mandela
“The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.”
- Arthur C. Clarke
“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”
- Samuel Johnson
“As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.”
- Leonardo da Vinci
“It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.
- Paul Bryant
“You will come to know that what appears today to be a sacrifice will prove instead to be the greatest investment that you will ever make.
- Gorden B. Hinkley
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.”
- Charles Swindoll
Need some more motivating quotes?
These are a few other websites full of great famous motivational quotes…
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
The Aristotle quote is a challenging one and a good reminder that repeated actions form habits and those habits over time form your character.
Nothing like a great motivational quote to kick start your mood not just with finances but on any endeavor you take part of. So many good songs as well that can fit in that.
That’s a great list, Bob. I’ve always liked the following quote from Theodore Roosevelt. It’s a great encouragement to anyone who has ever tried something that others thought was crazy. And it doesn’t take much to get the critics chirping!
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
We are what we repeatedly do. Wow. That’s good stuff. Great post!
Thanks for sharing these beautiful quotes. It’s great to find little treasures like these; it’s greater when we’re able to apply them in our way of living.
Matt, that is a great quote! I have read that one before and love it as well!
I love quotes as well, and love the ones you started us off with.
This one has always stuck with me since I first heard it. It motivates me to keep doing the ‘little’ things in life:
“Sow a thought, reap an act;
Sow an act, reap a habit;
Sow a habit, reap a character;
Sow a character, reap a destiny”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I just thought of another great one that motivates me:
“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” – Samuel Johnson
Two by Ben Franklin
“Sloth, like rust consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright”
“Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
Great quotes! Were they all Christian?
I loved the quote by Paul Bryant. Hmm…Everybody wants to win, but how many of us actually get into the receiving mode? If we can begin preparing to celebrate our victory, it shows that we deserve to win, whether or not we end up winning. It shows whether you have the mind of a lion or the mind of a deer. The lion never plans to fail. The deer’s reaction is always – “Run or we’ll die!”
Another quote (don’t know from whom):
“Character is not formed in a crisis – character is revealed in a crisis.”
I love quotes like that – thanks!