SelfGrowth.com Inspirational Quotes

Previous Quotes from 2003

December 26, 2003

Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul. - Charles Buxton

He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a king. - John Milton

Even a fool knows you can't touch the stars, but it doesn't stop a wise man from trying. - Harry Anderson, "Night Court"

December 19, 2003

The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident. - Charles Lamb

Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world -- making the most of one's best. - Harry Emerson Fosdick

The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has. - Michelangelo

December 12, 2003

Class is an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky. Class has nothing to do with money. Class never runs scared. It is self-discipline and self-knowledge. It's the sure footedness that comes with having proved you can meet life. - Ann Landers

More important than talent, strength, or knowledge is the ability to laugh at yourself and enjoy the pursuit of your dreams. - Amy Grant

To succeed... you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. - Tony Dorsett

December 5, 2003

It takes less time to do things right than to explain why you did it wrong. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The shy man will not learn; the impatient man should not teach. - Hillel

There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there. - Indira Gandhi

November 28, 2003

Bad habits are like chains that are too light to feel until they are too heavy to carry. - Warren Buffet

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. - Francis Bacon

The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams. - Og Mandino

November 21, 2003

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

To live in the presence of great truths and eternal laws, to be led by permanent ideals - that is what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him, and calm and unspoiled when the world praises him. - Honore De Balzac

Instead of thinking about where you are, think about where you want to be. It takes twenty years of hard work to become an overnight success. - Diana Rankin

November 14, 2003

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to. - Kahlil Gibran

In the final analysis there is no solution to man's progress but the day's honest work, the day's honest decisions, the day's generous utterances and the day's good deed. - Clare Booth Luce

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

November 7, 2003

What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists...and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know EXACTLY what you want...and are fully determined not to quit until you get it. - Alexander Graham Bell

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. - Galbraith's Law

October 31, 2003

"The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be." - Socrates

"Live out of your imagination instead of out of your memory." - Les Brown

Courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence of fear. - Mark Twain

October 24, 2003

Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become. - Jim Rohn

Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other - Brian Tracy

Lack of forgiveness causes almost all of our self-sabotaging behavior. - Mark Victor Hansen

October 17, 2003

"Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great, make you feel that you too can become great." - Mark Twain

"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure." - Abraham Lincoln

"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not forget you." - William Arthur

October 10, 2003

There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment. - Norman Vincent Peale

We must overcome the notion that we must be regular . . . It robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre. - Uta Hagen

My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe, why it as it is and why it exists as all. - Stephen Hawking

October 3, 2003

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best. - Henry Van Dyke

You don't get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour. - Jim Rohn

The man who trims himself to suit everybody will soon whittle himself away. - Charles Schwab

September 26, 2003

The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation. - Mark Twain

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant. - H. L. Mencken

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself. - Galileo

Work as though you would live forever, and live as though you would die today. - Og Mandino

September 19, 2003

It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to. - Walter Linn

Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left. - Hubert Humphrey

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. - Henry David Thoreau

September 12, 2003

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. - Elbert Hubbard

Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have. - Zig Ziglar

A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one. - Mary Kay Ash

September 5, 2003

If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games. - Paul "Bear" Bryant

Every man dies. Not every man lives. - Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption

The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today. - Les Brown

August 29, 2003

A man dies daily, only to be reborn in the morning, bigger, better and wiser. - Emmett Fox

No one's head aches when he is comforting another - Indian Proverb

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff that life is made of- Benjamin Franklin.

August 22, 2003

If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. - Yogi Berri

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. - Elbert Hubbard

Before you build a better mousetrap, it helps to know if there are any mice out there. - Mortimer B. Zuckerman

August 15, 2003

A certain amount of opposition is of great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with the wind. - John Neal

Genius is the gold in the mine; talent is the miner who works and brings it out. - Lady Blessington

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. - Henry J. Kaiser

August 8, 2003

The only way to have a friend is to be one. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately. - Benjamin Franklin

In business, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. - Chester L. Karrass

August 1, 2003

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Alva Edison

A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are for. - John A. Shedd

Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

July 25, 2003

You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it. - Charles Buxton

I am always willing to learn, however I do not always like to be taught. - Winston Churchill

I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says: 'Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.' I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have. - Harry S Truman

July 18, 2003

A 'No' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble. - Mahatma Gandhi

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. - Dolly Parton

Yesterday's the past and tomorrow's the future. Today is a gift-- which is why they call it the present. - Bill Keane

July 11, 2003

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. - Isaac Newton

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. - Winston Churchill

July 4, 2003

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself. - Galileo

Would you like me to give you a formula for... success? It's quite simply, really. Double your rate of failure... You're thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all... You can be discouraged by failure -- or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you'll find success. On the far side of failure. - Thomas J. Watson

Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom. - Michel de Montaigne

June 27, 2003

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor. - James Allen

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. - William A. Ward

Leadership is not magnetic personality--that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not "making friends and influencing people"--that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. - Peter Drucker

June 20, 2003

Formal education will make you a living, self education will make you a fortune. - Jim Rohn

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet. - James Oppenheim

How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. - George Washington Carver

June 13, 2003

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it. - Danny Kaye

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. - Theodore Roosevelt

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. - Confucius

June 6, 2003

Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice. Not something to wish for, but to attain. - William Jennings Bryan

The desire of knowledge, like the thirst for riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it. - Laurence Sterne

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

May 30, 2003

Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. - George Bernard Shaw

No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come. - Victor Hugo

It is funny about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the very best you will very often get it. - W. Somerset Maugham

May 23, 2003

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal. -Napoleon Hill

For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward. -Jim Rohn

I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention. -Diane Sawyer

May 16, 2003

Every man dies. Not every man truly lives. -Braveheart

Don't smother each other. No one can grow in the shade. -Leo Buscaglia.

[about the past] ...the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it. -Rafikki to Simba in Disney's The Lion King

May 9, 2003

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. - Albert Einstein.

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

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

May 2, 2003

The man who has no imagination has no wings. - Muhammad Ali

The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it. - Adam Smith

I discovered a long time ago that if I helped people get what they wanted, I would always get what I wanted and I would never have to worry. -Anthony Robbins

April 25, 2003

The time is always right to do what is right. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nothing happens unless first a dream. -Carl Sandburg

When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So, what the hell, leap. - Cynthia Heimel

April 18, 2003

I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. - Laura Ingalls Wilder

What we see depends mainly on what we look for. - John Lubbock

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. - Dale Carnegie

April 11, 2003

It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts. -Robert H. Schuller

We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present. -Adlai E. Stevenson

Time is the wisest counsellor. -Pericles

April 4, 2003

"You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations of your own mind. -Darwin P. Kingsley

Too much of a good thing is just right - Mae West.

"Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness -- great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy." Jim Rohn

March 28, 2003

To succeed you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. -Tony Dorsett

Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. -Japanese Proverb

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight-it's the size of the fight in the dog. -Dwight D. Eisenhower

March 21, 2003

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do." - Helen Keller

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. - Langston Hughes

March 14, 2003

As a man thinketh, so is he . - Proverbs 23:7

"Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach." -Tony Robbins

"Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, 'What's in it for me?'" - Brian Tracy

March 7, 2003

"The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands." -Robert M. Pirsig

"When you take charge of your life, there is no longer a need to ask permission of other people or society at large. When you ask permission, you give someone veto power over your life." -Geoffrey F. Abert

"It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up." -Vince Lombardi

February 28, 2003

"Be ready when opportunity comes...Luck is the time when preparation and opportunity meet." -Roy D. Chapin Jr.

"Persistent people begin their success where others end in failure." -Edward Eggleston

"History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats. -Bertie C. Forbes

February 21, 2003

"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." -Arthur C. Clarke

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal. -Earl Nightingale

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

February 14, 2003

"Be ready when opportunity comes...Luck is the time when preparation and opportunity meet." -Roy D. Chapin Jr.

"Persistent people begin their success where others end in failure." -Edward Eggleston

"Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; While others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before."-Herodotus

February 7, 2003

"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes." - Benjamin Disraeli

"There is great treasure there behind our skull and this is true about all of us. This little treasure has great, great powers, and I would say we only have learned a very, very small part of what it can do." - Isaac Bashevis Singer

"You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you."- Brian Tracy

January 31, 2003

"Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost." -Robert H. Schuller

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly. -Robert Schuller

It's the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance and sweeps away all obstacles. - Claude M. Bristol

January 24, 2003

The longest journey of any person is the journey inward. - Dag Hammerskjvld

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small. - Lao-Tzu

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

January 17, 2003

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. - Plutarch

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? -Abraham Lincoln

Men always want to be a womans first love - women like to be a mans last romance. -Oscar Wilde

January 10, 2003

It's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it that makes the difference. -W. Mitchell

He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave. - Andrew Carnegie

Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees. -Williard Marriott

January 3, 2003

All successful men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose. -Brian Tracy

That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet. - Emily Dickinson

Looking to the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? - Vincent Van Gogh Submitted

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