75 Quotes to Inspire, Motivate, and Move You

“I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.” Marlene Dietrich

Quotes, quotations, words of wisdom, pearls of wisdom…we all have our favorites. We call on them when we need motivation, courage, and inspiration. We adopt them as personal mottos. We use them to pass on wisdom to others.

The words and quotes of others sometimes provide us with reminders of what we already know but need to hear in a given moment.

Here are 75 quotes to encourage, inspire, and get you moving.

Motivation | Inspiration

1. “What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.” Ralph Marston
2. “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.” Henry Ford
3. “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.” Helen Keller
4. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” C.S. Lewis
5. “What the mind can conceive and believe, and the heart desire, you can achieve.” Norman Vincent Peale
6. “Don’t count the days; make the days count.” Muhammed Ali
7. “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” Goethe
8. “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.” Helen Keller
9. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Nelson Mandela
10. “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” Goethe
11. “Man, by thinking, can bring into his experience whatsoever he desires–if he thinks correctly, and becomes a living embodiment of his thoughts. This is not done by holding thoughts but by knowing the Truth.” Ernest Holmes
12. “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
13. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar
14. “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” Maya Angelou

Contentment | Hope | Gratitude

15. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” Helen Keller
16. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Albert Einstein
17. “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Desmond Tutu
18. “Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.” Robert H. Schuller
19. “Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.” Helen Keller
20. “It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.” Dale Carnegie
21. “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” Robert Brault
22. “Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.” Pearl S. Buck
23. “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” Oprah Winfrey

Kindness | Generosity | Character

24. “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
25. “Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
26. “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
27. “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” Abraham Lincoln
28. “What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
29. “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” Albert Einstein
30. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
31. “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” Helen Keller
32. “There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.” Marianne Williamson
33. “Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.” Heraclitus
34. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Goals | Action

35. “The moment you put a deadline on your dream, it becomes a goal.” Harsha Bhogle
36. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Yogi Berra
37. “If you have a goal, write it down. If you do not write it down, you do not have a goal—you have a wish.” Steve Maraboli
38. “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” Michelangelo Buonarroti
39. “Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.” Theodore Roosevelt
40. “Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.” Goethe
41. “If you put off everything till you’re sure of it, you’ll never get anything done.” Norman Vincent Peale
42. “Forget yesterday—it has already forgotten you. Don’t sweat tomorrow—you haven’t even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift—today.” Steve Maraboli
43. “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
44. “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” Karen Lamb
45. “Small people remain small because they think small, act alone or don’t act at all.” Robert T. Kiyosaki
46. “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” Goethe
47. “To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.” Anatole France
48. “While intent is the seed of manifestation, action is the water that nourishes the seed. Your actions must reflect your goals in order to achieve true success.” Steve Maraboli

Perseverance | Success

49. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” Robert Collier
50. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle
51. “Great opportunities are not seen with your eyes. They are seen with your mind.” Robert T. Kiyosaki
52. “Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.” Louis Pasteur
53. “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” Walter Elliot
54. “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” Confucius
55. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas Edison
56. “A winner is just a loser who tried one more time.” George M. Moore Jr.
57. “The difference between greed and ambition is a greedy person desires things he isn’t prepared to work for.” Habeeb Akande
58. “The best way out is always through.” Robert Frost
59. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” Dale Carnegie
60. “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” William Feather
61. “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense.” Winston Churchill
62. “Through perseverance, many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.” Benjamin Disraeli
63. “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” Confucius
64. “You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back, and you’ve climbed a mountain.” Tom Hiddleston
65. “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” Abraham Lincoln

Courage | Fear | Doubt | Failure

66. “The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.” Mignon McLaughlin
67. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” Unknown 
68. “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” Theodore Roosevelt
69. “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” William Faulkner
70. “Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.” George Edward Woodberry
71. “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
72. “A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.” B.F. Skinner
73. “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Henry Ford
74. “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
75. “A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failures certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.” Alexandre Dumas

What are your favorite quotes? Share one of yours in the comments!