Quotes about motivation

„Everything that is past is either a learning experience to grow on, a beautiful memory to reflect on, or a motivating factor to act upon.“

—  Denis Waitley American writer 1933

„Death is our best motivator in life. The idea of dying or not seeing the sun tomorrow will keep you up on your toes.“

—  Mwanandeke Kindembo 1996

„I think it's rarely about what you actually learn in class it's mostly about things that you stay motivated to go and continue to do on your own.“

—  Maryam Mirzakhani Iranian mathematician 1977 - 2017

Maryam Mirzakhani press conference after winning Field's Medal | august 2014

„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.

„Listen to how everyone is talking about you. You have to use it as fuel for motivation.“

—  Kobe Bryant American basketball player 1978 - 2020

„The preservation of freedom, is not the task of soldiers alone. The whole nation has to be strong. We all have to work in our respective spheres with the same dedication, the same zeal and the same determination which inspired and motivated the warrior on the battle front. And this has to be shown not by mere words, but by actual deeds.“

—  Lal Bahadur Shastri The second Prime Minister of the Republic of India and a leader of the Indian National Congress party 1904 - 1966

About Freedom

„It is frequently insufficient to identify the motives that guide our conduct, or that shape our attitudes and our thinking, just by observing vaguely that there are various things we want. That often leaves out too much. In numerous contexts, it is both more precise and more fully explanatory to say that there is something we care about.“

—  Harry G. Frankfurt Philosopher 1929

The Reasons of Love (2004)

„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)

„… there occurred to me the simple epitaph which, when I am no more, I intend to have inscribed on my tombstone. It was this:
"He was a man who acted from the best motives. There is one born every minute.“

—  P.G. Wodehouse, book My Man Jeeves

Source: My Man Jeeves

„People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.“

—  Andrew Carnegie American businessman and philanthropist 1835 - 1919

„In your career you have a lot of good moments and bad ones. The important thing is to have enough motivation to keep working all the days with humility and trying to be a better player than before. I am going to try to continue doing this.“

—  Rafael Nadal Spanish tennis player 1986

http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/articles/2010-06-19/201006191276967412350.html?promo=sl_toparticles

„Your suffering like your fate is without motive. To suffer, truly to suffer, is to accept the invasion of ills without the excuse of causality, as a favor of demented nature, as a negative miracle…“

—  Emil M. Cioran, book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

„But where is the antidote for lucid despair, perfectly articulated, proud, and sure? All of us are miserable, but how many know it? The consciousness of misery is too serious a disease to figure in an arithmetic of agonies or in the catalogues of the Incurable. It belittles the prestige of hell, and converts the slaughterhouses of time into idyls. What sin have you committed to be born, what crime to exist? Your suffering like your fate is without motive. To suffer, truly to suffer, is to accept the invasion of ills without the excuse of causality, as a favor of demented nature, as a negative miracle...“

—  Emil M. Cioran, book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

„Why settle for what is provided instead of being motivated to achieve what you want. Complacency is your contentment.“

—  RJ Intindola (Gandolfo)

1987

„No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby naturally explores everything it can get at, unless restraining forces have already been at work. And this tendency doesn't die out, it's wiped out.“

—  B.F. Skinner, Walden Two

Source: Walden Two

„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

„Sometimes rejections betrayal and failures become the best motivation.“

—  Albara Almerf African Asian author 2000

„One of the greatest advantages of the totalitarian elites of the twenties and thirties was to turn any statement of fact into a question of motive.“

—  Hannah Arendt, book The Origins of Totalitarianism

Source: The Origins of Totalitarianism

„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)