
„Motivation gets you through the day, but inspiration lasts a lifetime.“
— Nick Vujicic Serbian Australian evangelist and motivational speaker 1982
A collection of quotes on the topic of happiness, success, business, joy.
„Motivation gets you through the day, but inspiration lasts a lifetime.“
— Nick Vujicic Serbian Australian evangelist and motivational speaker 1982
„Do one thing every day that scares you.“
— Eleanor Roosevelt American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States 1884 - 1962
„One cannot live without motives. I have no motives left, and I am living.“
— Emil M. Cioran, book The Trouble With Being Born
The Trouble With Being Born (1973)
„Action isn’t just the effect of motivation; it’s also the cause of it.“
— Mark Manson American writer and blogger 1984
Source: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016), Chapter 7, “Failure Is the Way Forward” (p. 160)
„Sometimes rejections betrayal and failures become the best motivation.“
— Albara Almerf African Asian author 2000
„The greatest prayer motivator in existence is answered prayer.“
— Bill Hybels American writer 1951
Too Busy Not to Pray (2008, InterVarsity Press)
„All transformation appears to be motivated by desperation and emergency.“
— Elizabeth Gilbert American writer 1969
Source: The Signature of All Things
„Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method.“
— Martin Luther King, Jr. American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement 1929 - 1968
Source: The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
„The distance is nothing when one has a motive.“
— Jane Austen, book Pride and Prejudice
Source: Pride and Prejudice
Total 1205 quotes motivation, filter:
— Nigel Cumberland British author and leadership coach 1967
Source: Your Job-Hunt Ltd – Advice from an Award-Winning Asian Headhunter (2003), Successful Recruitment in a Week (2012) https://books.google.ae/books?idp24GkAsgjGEC&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIGjAA#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, Managing Teams in a Week (2013) https://books.google.ae/books?idqZjO9_ov74EC&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIIDAB#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, Secrets of Success at Work – 50 techniques to excel (2014) https://books.google.ae/books?id4S7vAgAAQBAJ&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIJjAC#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, p.107
„If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway!“
— Matka Tereza Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin 1910 - 1997
This is a variant or paraphrase of The Paradoxical Commandments, by Kent M. Keith, student activist, first composed in 1968 as part of a booklet for student leaders, which had hung on the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta, India, and have sometimes become misattributed to her. The version posted at his site http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com begins:
Misattributed
Context: People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
— Maryam Mirzakhani Iranian mathematician 1977 - 2017
Maryam Mirzakhani press conference after winning Field's Medal | august 2014
„Neither pleasure nor pain should enter as motives when one must do what must be done.“
— Julius Evola Italian philosopher and esotericist 1898 - 1974
Source: Ride the Tiger: A Survival Manual for the Aristocrats of the Soul
— Osip Mandelstam Russian poet and essayist 1891 - 1938
Quoted in Nadezhda Mandelstam, Hope Against Hope: A Memoir (1970), ch. 35
„Listen to how everyone is talking about you. You have to use it as fuel for motivation.“
— Kobe Bryant American basketball player 1978 - 2020
— Margaret Mead American anthropologist 1901 - 1978
Attributed in Talent Development for English Language Learners: Identifying and Developing Potential (2013) by Michael S. Matthews, Ph.D. SBN-13:9781618211057
2000s
Variant: Never ever depend on governments or institutions to solve any major problems. All social change comes from the passion of individuals.
— Myles Munroe Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister 1954 - 2014
Source: Waiting and Dating
„A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.“
— Ayn Rand Russian-American novelist and philosopher 1905 - 1982
— Aristotle, book Nicomachean Ethics
Book II, 1109a.27.
Variant translation: Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.
As quoted in The Child: At Home and School (1944) by Edith M. Leonard, Lillian E. Miles, and Catherine S. Van der Kar, p. 203
Nicomachean Ethics
Original: (el) οὕτω δὲ καὶ τὸ μὲν ὀργισθῆναι παντὸς καὶ ῥᾴδιον, καὶ τὸ δοῦναι ἀργύριον καὶ δαπανῆσαι· τὸ δ᾽ ᾧ καὶ ὅσον καὶ ὅτε καὶ οὗ ἕνεκα καὶ ὥς, οὐκέτι παντὸς οὐδὲ ῥᾴδιον
— Hans-Hermann Hoppe Austrian school economist and libertarian anarcho-capitalist philosopher 1949
Interview at quebecoislibre.org (7 December 2002) http://www.quebecoislibre.org/021207-8.htm.
— Julian Assange Australian editor, activist, publisher and journalist 1971
Source: [Peter, Farquhar, http://www.news.com.au/technology/ipad/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-adamant-his-site-broke-collateral-murder-encryption/story-fn5knrwy-1225868870785, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange adamant his site broke Collateral Murder encryption, News.com.au, May 19, 2010, 2010-06-17]
— Mahavatar Babaji Hindu Yogi
Source: Autobiography of a Yogi (1946), Ch. 34 : Materializing a Palace in the Himalayas
— Kim Il-sung President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 1912 - 1994
Mainichi Shimbun (17 September 1972) "On Some Problems of Our Party's Juche Idea and the Government of the Republic's Internal and External Policies"
— Malala Yousafzai Pakistani children's education activist 1997
Statements in PBS interview with Margaret Warner (October 11, 2013)
— Ayrton Senna Brazilian racing driver 1960 - 1994
Interview at the 1990 Australian Grand Prix, November 1990 http://youtube.com/watch?v=9j6dGOGftY4
— Rudolf Clausius German mathematical physicist 1822 - 1888
First Memoir. On the Moving Force of Heat and the Laws which may be Deduced Therefrom
The Mechanical Theory of Heat (1867)
„Discussion, therefore, is one of the motive powers of life, and, as such, is not to be deprecated.“
— John Tyndall British scientist 1820 - 1893
p, 125
New Fragments (1892)
— John Locke, book Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Sec. 54
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)
— Max Scheler German philosopher 1874 - 1928
Source: Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912), L. Coser, trans. (1961), pp. 88-92
— Josefa Iloilo President of Fiji 1920 - 2011
Opening address to the Great Council of Chiefs meeting, 27 July 2005 (excerpts)
— Rafael Nadal Spanish tennis player 1986
http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/articles/2010-06-19/201006191276967412350.html?promo=sl_toparticles
— Stanley Kubrick American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor 1928 - 1999
Quoted in Stanley Kubrick at Look Magazine (2013) by Phillipe Mather, p. 46
Context: I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.
— William S. Burroughs, book Junkie
Prologue
Junkie (1953)
Context: The questions, of course, could be asked: Why did you ever try narcotics? Why did you continue using it long enough to become an addict? You become a narcotics addict because you do not have strong motivations in the other direction. Junk wins by default. I tried it as a matter of curiosity.
— Aga Khan IV 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailism 1936
Speech at the Innauguration of the Aga Khan Baug, Versova, India (17 January 1983) http://ismaili.net/speech/s830117.html <!-- ***Source: Selection of Speeches: 1976-1984
Source: Africa Ismaili, XIV, 2 (July 1983), pp. 20-22
Source: American Ismaili, (July 11, 1983), pp. 15-16 -->
Context: There are those... who enter the world in such poverty that they are deprived of both the means and the motivation to improve their lot. Unless these unfortunates can be touched with the spark which ignites the spirit of individual enterprise and determination, they will only sink back into renewed apathy, degradation and despair. It is for us, who are more fortunate, to provide that spark.
— Tenzin Gyatso spiritual leader of Tibet 1935
The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the Buddhist Path to Peace (1988) by Jeffrey Hopkins.
Context: What is the Great Vehicle? What is the mode of procedure of the Bodhisattva path? We begin with the topic of the altruistic intention to achieve enlightenment in which one values others more than oneself. The Great Vehicle path requires the vast motivation of a Bodhisattva, who, not seeking just his or her welfare, takes on the burden of bringing about the welfare of all sentient beings. When a person generate this attitude, they enter within the Great Vehicle, and as long as it has not been generated, one cannot be counted among those of the Great Vehicle. This attitude really has great power; it, of course, is helpful for people practicing religion, but it also is helpful for those who are just concerned with the affairs of this lifetime. The root of happiness is altruism — the wish to be of service to others.
— John Locke, book Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Sec. 81
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)
Context: The foundations on which several duties are built, and the foundations of right and wrong from which they spring, are not perhaps easily to be let into the minds of grown men, not us'd to abstract their thoughts from common received opinions. Much less are children capable of reasonings from remote principles. They cannot conceive the force of long deductions. The reasons that move them must be obvious, and level to their thoughts, and such as may be felt and touched. But yet, if their age, temper, and inclination be consider'd, they will never want such motives as may be sufficient to convince them.
— Simon Sinek British/American author and motivational speaker 1973
Source: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
— David Lane (white nationalist) American white supremacist, convicted felon 1938 - 2007
Revolution by Number
„Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.“
— Oscar Wilde, book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
— Mary Balogh Welsh-Canadian novelist 1944
Source: The Devil's Web
— George Eliot, book Adam Bede
Source: Adam Bede (1859)
Context: These fellow-mortals, every one, must be accepted as they are: you can neither straighten their noses, nor brighten their wit, nor rectify their dispositions; and it is these people — amongst whom your life is passed — that it is needful you should tolerate, pity, and love: it is these more or less ugly, stupid, inconsistent people whose movements of goodness you should be able to admire — for whom you should cherish all possible hopes, all possible patience. And I would not, even if I had the choice, be the clever novelist who could create a world so much better than this, in which we get up in the morning to do our daily work, that you would be likely to turn a harder, colder eye on the dusty streets and the common green fields — on the real breathing men and women, who can be chilled by your indifference or injured by your prejudice; who can be cheered and helped onward by your fellow-feeling, your forbearance, your outspoken, brave justice.
So I am content to tell my simple story, without trying to make things seem better than they were; dreading nothing, indeed, but falsity, which, in spite of one's best efforts, there is reason to dread. Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. The pencil is conscious of a delightful facility in drawing a griffin — the longer the claws, and the larger the wings, the better; but that marvellous facility which we mistook for genius is apt to forsake us when we want to draw a real unexaggerated lion. Examine your words well, and you will find that even when you have no motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings — much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth.
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Hungarian American psychologist 1934
Source: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
— Rick Riordan, book The Lost Hero
Variant: My point is that love is the most powerful motivator in the world. It spurs mortals to greatness. Their noblest, bravest acts are done for love.
Source: The Lost Hero
— Mark Twain, book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Notice
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
Source: The Adventures of Huck Finn
„Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.“
— Wayne W. Dyer American writer 1940 - 2015
— Jonathan Tropper American writer 1970
Source: This is Where I Leave You
„Hard work is only a prison sentence when you lack motivation“
— Malcolm Gladwell journalist and science writer 1963
Source: Outliers: The Story of Success
„APOLLO'S DAILY MOTIVATIONAL SPEECH
"You are gorgeous and people love you!“
— Rick Riordan, book The Hidden Oracle
Source: The Hidden Oracle
„I wish sometimes you had a few bad motives, you might understand a little more about human beings.“
— Graham Greene, book The Quiet American
Source: The Quiet American
„You think Ivy's a planner? She has nothing on a motivated elf with too much money.“
— Kim Harrison Pseudonym 1966
Source: Pale Demon
— Zig Ziglar American motivational speaker 1926 - 2012
Source: Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World
— Louis-ferdinand Céline, book Journey to the End of the Night
Source: Journey to the End of the Night
— Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
Variant: When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People
— Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955
Wording in Ideas and Opinions: It is therefore easy to see why the churches have always fought science and persecuted its devotees. On the other hand, I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research. Only those who realize the immense efforts and, above all, the devotion without which pioneer work in theoretical science cannot be achieved are able to grasp the strength of the emotion out of which alone such work, remote as it is from the immediate realities of life, can issue. What a deep conviction of the rationality of the universe and what a yearning to understand, were it but a feeble reflection of the mind revealed in this world, Kepler and Newton must have had to enable them to spend years of solitary labor in disentangling the principles of celestial mechanics! Those whose acquaintance with scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results easily develop a completely false notion of the mentality of the men who, surrounded by a skeptical world, have shown the way to kindred spirits scattered wide through the world and through the centuries. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man such strength. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people.
1930s, Religion and Science (1930)
Variant: I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research.
Source: The World As I See It
Context: It is, therefore, quite natural that the churches have always fought against science and have persecuted its supporters. But, on the other hand, I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research. No one who does not appreciate the terrific exertions, and, above all, the devotion without which pioneer creations in scientific thought cannot come into being, can judge the strength of the feeling out of which alone such work, turned away as it is from immediate practical life, can grow. What a deep faith in the rationality of the structure of the world and what a longing to understand even a small glimpse of the reason revealed in the world there must have been in Kepler and Newton to enable them to unravel the mechanism of the heavens in long years of lonely work! Any one who only knows scientific research in its practical applications may easily come to a wrong interpretation of the state of mind of the men who, surrounded by skeptical contemporaries, have shown the way to kindred spirits scattered over all countries in all centuries. Only those who have dedicated their lives to similar ends can have a living conception of the inspiration which gave these men the power to remain loyal to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is the cosmic religious sense which grants this power. A contemporary has rightly said that the only deeply religious people of our largely materialistic age are the earnest men of research.
— Bertrand Russell logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist 1872 - 1970
„Motivation is the fuel, necessary to keep the human engine running.“
— Zig Ziglar American motivational speaker 1926 - 2012
— Wendy Mass American children's writer 1967
Source: 13 Gifts
— Robert M. Pirsig, book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 26
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
„If you ever decide on a career change, I’d avoid motivational speaking.“
— Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Breaks
— Richard Dawkins, book A Devil's Chaplain
"Time to Stand Up"
A Devil's Chaplain (2003)
Source: A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
— Bertrand Russell logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist 1872 - 1970
1930s, The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
— Greta Christina American activist 1961
Source: Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless
— Christopher Hitchens, book The Missionary Position
Source: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
— Scarlett Thomas British writer 1972
Source: Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories