A Compilation of Motivational Quotes for Inspiration

180 Life-Changing
Motivational Quotes
Compiled by James Adonis

James Adonis • www.jamesadonis.com • james@jamesadonis.com • Ph: +61 2 9331 24652
People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with
mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.
—Andrew Carnegie
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of
strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.
—Vincent T. Lombardi
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t
believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people
who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t
find them, make them.
—George Bernard Shaw
Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become
actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they
become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
—Frank Outlaw
Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.
—Henry Ford

James Adonis • www.jamesadonis.com • james@jamesadonis.com • Ph: +61 2 9331 2465 3
I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he
bounces when he hits the bottom.
—General George S. Patton
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
—Walt Disney
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you
become by achieving your goals.
—Zig Ziglar
Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above
the crowd: a little bit more. They did all that was expected of them and a
little bit more.
—A. Lou Vickery
Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.
—Robert Kennedy

Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is
no path and leave a trail.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

The best way you can predict your future is to create it.
—Stephen Covey
If you want to know your past - look into your present conditions. If you want
to know your future - look into your present actions.
—Chinese proverb
There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.
—Mother Teresa
It’s how you deal with failure that determines how you achieve success.
—David Feherty
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do
not dare that they are difficult.
—Seneca

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to
success when they gave up.
—Thomas Edison
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 most
frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented,
fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your
playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about
shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all
meant to shine, as children do.
—Marianne Williamson
The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed.
—Nicholas Chamfort
Faith moves mountains, but you have to keep pushing while you’re praying.
—Mason Cooley
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people
will never forget how you made them feel.
—Maya Angelou

No-one is a failure until they blame somebody else.
—Charles “Tremendous” Jones
The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to
celebrate.
—Oprah Winfrey
The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of
comfort and convenience, but where they stand in times of challenge
and controversy.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
—Mahatma Gandhi
Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take
without forgetting.
—Elizabeth Bibesco

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
—Oscar Wilde
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes
to sit down and listen.
—Winston Churchill
Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take
the risks. Yet most people don’t. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as
if it goes on forever.
—Philip Andrew Adams
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.
—William Jennings Bryan
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his
enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.
—Aristotle

Life’s most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?
—Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in
all the thousand small uncaring ways.
—Stephen Vincent Benet
It’s no use saying, ‘We are doing our best’. You have got to succeed in doing
what is necessary.
Attempt easy tasks as if they were difficult, and difficult as if they were easy;
in the one case that confidence may not fall asleep, in the other that it may
not be dismayed.
—Baltasar Gracian
Too many of us are hung up on what we don’t have, can’t have, or won’t
ever have. We spend too much energy being down, when we could use that
same energy - if not less of it - doing, or at least trying to do, some of the
things we really want to do.
—Terry McMillan
The trick is not how much pain you feel but how much joy you feel. Any idiot
can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live; excuses,
excuses, excuses.
—Erica Jong

Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart
enough to know they were impossible.
—Doug Larson
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other
people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested
in you.
—Dale Carnegie
You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all
the time.
—Charles F. Kettering
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
—John Dryden
Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys,
and dividing our grief.
—Joseph Addison

Some of us might find happiness if we quit struggling so desperately for it.
—William Feather
A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and
endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
—Christopher Reeve
There are two kinds of failures: those who thought and never did, and
those who did and never thought.
—Laurence J. Peter
All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
—Buddha
Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make
them good.
—Elbert Hubbard

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single minute before starting
to improve the world.
—Anne Frank
Laziness grows on people; it begins in cobwebs and ends in iron chains.
The more one has to do, the more he is able to accomplish.
—Thomas Buxton
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the
opportunity in every difficulty.
A man is but the product of his thoughts - what he thinks, he becomes.
—M.K. Gandhi
We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.
—Talmud

The most annoying thing about hindsight is that for
some of us, it was foresight, but no-one would listen.
—Jonar Nader

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a
man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.
—Thomas Huxley
The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.
—Ralph Nader
The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.
—Kenneth Blanchard
It’s not knowing what to do, it’s doing what you know.
—Anthony Robbins
Let no-one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the
living expression of God’s kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in
your eyes, kindness in your smile.
—Mother Teresa

The power of man’s virtue should not be measured by his special efforts, but
by his ordinary doings.
—Blaise Pascal
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts
can be counted.
—Albert Einstein
Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want
to, when all they need is one reason why they can.
—Willis Whitney
Time and health are two precious assets that we don’t recognise and
appreciate until they have been depleted.
—Denis Waitley
We do not sing because we are happy; we are happy because we sing.
—William James

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life
that count. It’s the life in your years.
—Abraham Lincoln

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.
—Charles Spurgeon
Feeling sorry for yourself and your present condition is not only a waste of
energy, but the worst habit you could possibly have.
—Dale Carnegie
Two kinds of gratitude: the sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger
kind we feel for what we give.
—Edwin Arlington Robinson
Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.
—Madonna
For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my
lips you kissed, but my soul.
—Judy Garland

We always take credit for the good and attribute the bad to fortune.
—Jean de la Fontaine
I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.
—Florence Nightingale
A person of intellect without energy added to it, is a failure.
—Sebastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort
Life is like riding a bike. It is impossible to maintain your balance while
standing still.
—Linda Brakeall
The problems of this world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics
whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can
dream of things that never were.
—John. F. Kennedy

Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.
—Napoleon Hill
Will you look back on life and say, ‘I wish I had,’ or ‘I’m glad I did’?
—Zig Ziglar
What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it’s the size of
the fight in the dog.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not help themselves.
You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he be willing to climb himself.
—Andrew Carnegie
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing that
you will make one.
—Elbert Hubbard

Each of my days are miracles. I won’t waste my day;
I won’t throw away a miracle.
—Kelley Vicstrom

We can often do more for other men by trying to correct our own faults than
by trying to correct theirs.
—Francois Fenelon
He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.
—Henry Ward Beecher
Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.
—Grace Hansen
A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring,
sharing person inside.
—Denis Waitley
If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.
—Vincent Lombardi

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change
your attitude. Don’t complain.
—Maya Angelou
Live as you will have wished to have lived when you are dying.
—Christian Furchtegott Gellert
We tend to live up to our expectations.
—Earl Nightingale
A man is not finished when he’s defeated; he’s finished when he quits.
—Richard M. Nixon
If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then
someday you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them.
—Zig Ziglar

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.
—Robert Schuller
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
—Johann von Goethe
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness
without action.
—Benjamin Disraeli
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
—Abraham Lincoln
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
—M.K. Gandhi

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
—Albert Einstein
Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing
your enthusiasm.
—Sir Winston Churchill
The walls we build around us to keep out the sadness also keep out the joy.
—Jim Rohn
Learn how to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that
you want.
—Jim Rohn
Ability is a poor man’s wealth.
—M. Wren

May you live all the days of your life.
—Jonathan Swift

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even
though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor souls
who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray
twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
—Theodore Roosevelt
I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more
I have of it.
—Thomas Jefferson
The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to make sure
that as soon as you set them, you immediately begin to create momentum.
—Anthony Robbins
If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade.
—Thomas J. Peters
A window of opportunity won’t open itself.
—Dave Weinbaum

Life is full of obstacle illusions.
—Grant Frazier
When the student is ready, the master appears.
—Buddhist proverb
When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long
and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones
which open for us.
—Alexander Graham Bell
Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s
own sunshine.
Pessimism never won any battle.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower

You may not realise it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the
best thing in the world for you.
—Walt Disney
Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to
make it easy for them.
—Johann von Goethe
When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your
own failings. Then you will forget your anger.
—Epictetus
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end
of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.
—Mary Anne Radmacher
Never, never, never, never give up.

Failure is an event, never a person; an attitude, not an outcome.
—Zig Ziglar
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning
to live.
—Marcus Aurelius
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it
at someone else; you are the one getting burned.
—Buddha
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. Persistence and determination are omnipotent.
—Calvin Coolidge
It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s just that I stay with problems longer.
—Albert Einstein

Treasure your relationships, not your possessions.
—Anthony J D’Angelo

If you never budge, don’t expect a push.
—Malcolm S. Forbes
A sign of wisdom and maturity is when you come to terms with the
realisation that your decisions cause your rewards and consequences.
You are responsible for your life, and your ultimate success depends on
the choices you make.
—Denis Waitley
The best way to persuade people is with your ears - by listening to them.
—Dean Rusk
We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we
stop playing.
Nothing has any power over me other than that which I give it through
my conscious thoughts.
—Anthony Robbins

Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next.
Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.
—Denis Waitley
Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or
anything outside ourselves will affect us.
—Stephen Covey
Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.
—Maxwell Maltz
If you wait, all that happens is that you get older.
—Mario Andretti
I don’t want to come to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the
length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.
—Diane Ackerman

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you
love what you are doing, you will be successful.
—Albert Schweitzer
Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who
wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise. Give lifting that person your best
shot, but don’t hang around long enough for his or her bad attitude to pull
you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people.
—Zig Ziglar
If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.
—Milton Berle
The more you seek security, the less of it you have. But the more you seek
opportunity, the more likely it is that you will achieve the security that
you desire.
—Brian Tracy
There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and
the other how to live.
—John Adams

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t
believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people
who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find
them, make them.
Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.
—H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn.
Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticise, wait. Before you pray,
forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give.
—William A. Ward
The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference,
ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up
to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
—Marian Wright Edelman

The most important single ingredient in the formula of
success is knowing how to get along with people.
—Theodore Roosevelt

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
Being an optimist after you’ve got the very thing you want doesn’t count.
—Ken Hubbard
Obstacles can’t stop you. Problems can’t stop you. Most of all, other people
can’t stop you. Only you can stop you.
—Jeffrey Gitomer
Things don’t go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and
give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all
that you were intended to be.
—Charles “Tremendous” Jones
Others can stop you temporarily - you are the only one who can do
it permanently.
—Zig Ziglar

Self pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything
wise in the world.
—Helen Keller
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time
we fall.
—Nelson Mandela
Failure is success if we learn from it.
—Malcolm Forbes
Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.
—Robert C. Gallagher
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something
else is more important than fear.
—Ambrose Redmoon

You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with.
—Dr Wayne W. Dyer

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
It doesn’t matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if
you try and fail, and fail to try again.
—Charles Kettering
Smooth seas do not make skilful sailors.
—African proverb
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
—Thomas Edison
If you’re going through hell, keep going.

When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four
of his fingers are pointing at himself.
—Louis Nizer
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
—Benjamin Franklin
There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.
—Napoleon Hill
Peak performance begins with your taking complete responsibility for your life
and everything that happens to you.
—Brian Tracy
Underpromise; overdeliver.
—Tom Peters

The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even
heard but must be felt with the heart.
—Helen Keller
And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
—Erica Jong
Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.
—Malcolm Forbes
Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is
a tragedy.
—Robert Half
In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is
not really the time but the will that is lacking.
—Sir John Lubbock

You aren’t wealthy until you have something money can’t buy.
—Garth Brooks

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of
its shortness.
—Jean de la Bruyere
The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!
—Marvin Phillips
The greatest crime in the world is not developing your potential. When you
do what you do best, you are helping not only yourself, but the world.
—Roger Williams
It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.
—Helen Keller
If you see yourself as prosperous, you will be. If you see yourself as
continually hard up, that is exactly what you will be.
—Robert Collier

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift.
That’s why we call it the present.
—Babatunde Olatunji
Many of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we
didn’t spend half our time wishing.
—Alexander Woollcott
The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
—Thomas Edison
It’s not enough to be busy - so are the ants. The question is, what are
we busy about?
—Henry David Thoreau
Time is like money: the less we have of it to spare the further we make it go.
—Josh Billing

James Adonis, leading international expert on employee
engagement, shows managers around the world how
to engage their employees so that they become loyal
high-performers.
By the time he was 24, James was managing a team
of 100. His major achievements have included taking a
team that had employee turnover exceeding 70% and
reducing it to zero where it was maintained for 2 years.
He has also achieved employee engagement results
that have exceeded not only the industry standard, but
world’s best practice.
Recognised internationally as a premier expert on engagement and retention, James’s
articles are regularly published in many countries. He is frequently featured in the
media as a thought leader on people management and is the author of Love Your
Team: How to halve your employee turnover in less than 90 days!, which is currently on
sale in all bookstores across Australia.
Thought-provoking and entertaining, James’s keynote presentations and workshops
show companies how to solve staff turnover, engage Generation Y, and win the war
for talent. James has presented to audiences across Australia, Europe, Asia, and the
Middle East, and for companies such as McDonald’s, American Express, Coca-Cola,
and Gucci.
In 2008, James is the President of the National Speakers Association of Australia
(NSW Chapter) - the youngest person in the history of the Association to hold such
an honour.
To download complimentary e-books on engagement, retention, and recruit-
ment (valued at $60), or to join over 3,000 managers who receive James’s free
Employee Engagement Newsletter, please visit www.jamesadonis.com and click on
‘With Compliments’.
Compiled by James Adonis
www.jamesadonis.com • james@jamesadonis.com
Ph: +61 2 9331 2465 • Mobile: +61 402 334 987 • Fax: +61 2 9331 3945

© James Adonis, 2008
Feel free to forward this e-book on to anyone else you think
may find it of benefit.
This e-book can be printed, re-sold, and distributed. However,
all that we request is that you do not amend any of the
information contained within it and that you credit James
Adonis as the compiler of this e-book.

A Compilation of Motivational Quotes for Inspiration

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