Inspirational Quotes

inspirational quotesHere is a collection of some of my favorite inspirational quotes. It’s nice to write them down sometimes and post them in various spots around the home or office. These inspirational quotes span history and multiple cultures and prove that good ideas and reasoning don’t change. In fact the nature of people doesn’t change. Look at these inspirational quotes and you’ll see that mankind has always had irrational fears, weakness, and sin. But too, man has had hope, faith, and a sense of what’s right.

Don’t waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who aims at excellence will be above mediocrity; who aims at mediocrity will be far short of it
– Burmese Saying

When I first saw you I was afraid to talk to you, when i first talked to you I was afraid to like you, when I liked you I was afraid to love you, now that I love you I’m afraid to lose you
– unknown


It is not work that kills men, it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more on a man than he can bear. But worry is rust upon the blade. It is not movement that destroys the machinery, but friction.
– Henry Ward Beecher

Every man dies but not every man really lives.
– Braveheart

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader
– John Quincy Adams

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope and fear;
But grateful take the good I find,
The best of now and here.
– John G. Whittier

The virtue lies in the struggle, not in the prize
– Richard Monckton Milnes

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
– Mother Teresa

Oh yes, the past can hurt. But, you can either run from it or, learn from it.
– The Lion King

It is absurd that a man should rule others, who cannot rule himself
– Latin Proverb

Be just, and fear not.
Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s,
Thy God’s and truth’s.
– William Shakespeare

Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement
– Eat that Frog

Love is the master key that opens the gate of happiness.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power
– Abraham Lincoln


Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is
– Vince Lombardi

Ask yourself this question:
“Will this matter a year from now?”
– Richard Carlson

Love is patient and kind, Love is not jealous, conceited, proud or boastful, it is not arrogant, selfish, irritable or rude. Love does not keep a record of wrongs. Love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth, Love never gives up, and its faith, hope and patience never fail. Love is eternal.
– 1-corinthians 13 4

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.
– Benjamin Franklin

Oh yes, the past can hurt. But, you can either run from it or, learn from it.
– The Lion King

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail
– Harold R. McAlindon

Imagine every day to be the last of a life surrounded with hopes, cares, anger and fear. The hours that come unexpectedly will be much the more grateful.
– Horace

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds
– Francis Bacon

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer.
– The Lord of the Rings

How much pain have cost us the evils that have never happened.
– Thomas Jefferson

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander
– Aristotle

The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret to outward success
– Henry Ward Beecher

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
– Carl Jung

Life is not the amount of breaths you take. It’s the moments that take your breath away.
– Hitch

A leader is a dealer in hope
– Napoleon Bonaparte

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do
– Epictetus

Kindness in words creates confidence, Kindness in thinking creates profoundness, Kindness in giving creates love.
– Lao Tse

Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times when one only remembers to turn on the light
– Dumbledore

The power of imagination makes us infinite
– John Muir

Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.
– Gladiator

If you would be loved, love and be lovable.
– Benjamin Franklin

Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary
– John Keating

Do or do not, there is no try
– Yoda

Let him who would be moved to convince others, be first moved to convince himself
– Thomas Carlyle

Every shadow, no matter how deep, is threatened by morning light.
– Isabel

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm
– Publilius Syrus

A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward
– Ovid

I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don’t think that’s quite it; it’s more like jazz. There is more improvisation
– Warren Bennis

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.
– Henry David Thoreau

We also deem those happy, who from the experience of life, have learned to bear its ills and without descanting on their weight.
Junvenal
It is idle to dread what you cannot avoid.
– Publius Syrus

Thus each person by his fears gives wings to rumor, and, without any real source of apprehension, men fear what they themselves have imagined.
– Lucan

I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.
– Albert Einstein

The rose is fairest when ‘t is budding new,
and hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.
– Walter Scott

He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
Who dares not put it to the touch
To gain or lose it all.
– Marquis of Montrose

I hope these inspirational quotes help you as words of encouragement often do. May you find peace and serenity and as always – do not be discouraged.