I absolutely love motivational quotes, inspirational quotes, and quotes having to do with productivity and leadership. Good, thought-provoking motivational quotes have the power to get us through a bad day, to get us off the couch and into the gym, and they can even give us the courage to pursue our life’s dreams.
Here are 80 motivational quotes to think about, mediate upon, or even to disagree with…in order to help you build confidence for whatever you put your hand to. Enjoy!
80 Motivational Quotes
Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. –Napoleon Hill
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. –Albert Einstein
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. –Robert Frost
I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse. –Florence Nightingale
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. –Michael Jordan
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. –Amelia Earhart
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. –Babe Ruth
Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. –W. Clement Stone
The past is a ghost, the future a dream. All we ever have is now. –Bill Cosby
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
Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. –Charles Swindoll
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. –Alice Walker
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. –Chinese Proverb
An unexamined life is not worth living. –Socrates
Eighty percent of success is showing up. –Woody Allen
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. –Steve Jobs
Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. –Vince Lombardi
I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. –Stephen Covey
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. –Pablo Picasso
You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. –Christopher Columbus
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou
Either you run the day, or the day runs you. –Jim Rohn
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. –Henry Ford
The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. –Anais Nin
If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. –Vincent Van Gogh
There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. –Aristotle
The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. –Henry David Thoreau
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
Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him. –Booker T. Washington
Believe you can and you’re halfway there. –Theodore Roosevelt
Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. –George Addair
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. –Plato
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. –Arthur Ashe
Fall seven times and stand up eight. –Japanese Proverb
When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. –Helen Keller
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. –Anne Frank
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. –Maya Angelou
First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. –Aristotle
If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. –Latin Proverb
You can’t fall if you don’t climb. But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground. –Unknown
We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. –Marie Curie
Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. –Les Brown
Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. –Joshua J. Marine
If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. –Booker T. Washington
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
Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. –Jamie Paolinetti
I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. –Benjamin Franklin
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. –Bill Cosby
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. –Albert Einstein
The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it. –Chinese Proverb
There are no traffic jams along the extra mile. –Roger Staubach
It is never too late to be what you might have been. –George Eliot
I would rather die of passion than of boredom. –Vincent van Gogh
A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. –Unknown
It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings. –Ann Landers
Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs. –Farrah Gray
The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself–the invisible battles inside all of us–that’s where it’s at. –Jesse Owens
Education costs money. But then so does ignorance. –Sir Claus Moser
I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear. –Rosa Parks
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. –Maya Angelou
Dream big and dare to fail. –Norman Vaughan
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. –Martin Luther King Jr.
Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. –Teddy Roosevelt
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. –Tony Robbins
Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. –Gloria Steinem
It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. –Mae Jemison
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. –Beverly Sills
Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. –Eleanor Roosevelt
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. –Ayn Rand
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. –Henry Ford
It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. –Abraham Lincoln
Change your thoughts and you change your world. –Norman Vincent Peale
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. –Benjamin Franklin
Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, “I’m possible!” –Audrey Hepburn
The only way to do great work is to love what you do. –Steve Jobs
If you can dream it, you can achieve it. –Zig Ziglar
COMMENT BELOW with any other motivational quotes you have heard…or even tell us your own motivational quote below!
* Content originally found at Forbes
* Image credit: flickr