Zen

Inspirational Quotes by Henry David Thoreau

1. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

2. None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

3. Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Inspirational Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

5. We judge of man’s wisdom by his hope.

6. We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.

7. What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say”

8. People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

9. The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people.

10. We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.

Friedrich Nietzsche Inspirational Quotes

11. Enduring habits I hate…. Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to all my misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me that is imperfect, because this sort of thing leaves me with a hundred backdoors through which I can escape from enduring habits.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882

12. A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions–as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.

13. He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Albert Einstein Inspirational Quotes

14. I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

15. Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

16. Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.

17. I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

18. Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.

19. Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

20. Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts..

Inspirational Quotes by Mark Twain

21. The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

22. Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

23. Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.

24. Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

25. 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 the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Robert Frost Inspirational Quotes

26. The best way out is always through.

27. By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day

28. In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.

29. The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.

30. The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

Inspirational Quotes by Mahatma Gandhi

31. You must be the change you want to see in the world.

32. Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

33. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

34. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

35. “An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

36. Man is the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.

37. Satisfaction does not come with achievement, but with effort. Full effort is full victory.

38. “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems”

39. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Rabindranath Tagore Inspirational Quotes

40. By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.

41. I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

42. A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.

43. If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out.

Inspirational Quotes by Swami Vivekananda

44. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

45. If you are a strong man, very good! But do not curse others who are not strong enough for you. …Everyone says, “Woe unto you people!!” Who says, “Woe unto me that I cannot help you?” The people are doing all right to the best of their ability and means and knowledge. Woe unto me that I cannot lift them to where I am!

46. Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it were after his or her heart. But the intelligent ones are those who can convert every work into one that suits their taste.

47. The only test of goods things is that they make us strong.

Winston Churchill Inspirational Quotes

48. Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.

It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic.

49. I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.

50. If you’re going through hell, keep going.

Inspirational Quotes by Aristotle

51. Hope is a waking dream.

52. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.

Voltaire Quotes

53. Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.

54. Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

55. Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.

Michael Jordan Inspirational Quotes

56. “I’ve missed more than 9000 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.”

57. If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.
E. Joseph Cossman

58. Whenever you find whole world against you just turn around and lead the world.
Anonymous

59. Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.
William B. Sprague

Inspirational Quotes by Henry Ford

60. Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.
Henry Ford

61. I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.
Oprah Winfrey

62. What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
Goethe

63. You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.
Zig Ziglar

64. Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.
Napoleon Hill

Truman Capote Inspirational Quotes

65. Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
Truman Capote

66. Vision without action is daydream. Action without vision is nightmare.
Japanese Proverb

67. In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.
Theodore Roosevelt

68. If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a chance of being a prophet.
Isaac B. Singer

69. Success consists of doing the common things of life uncommonly well.
Unknown

70. Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.
Charles F. Kettering, Engineer and Inventor

71. Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success.
Unknown

72. Some succeed because they are destined. Some succeed because they are determined.
Unknown

73. Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.
Dan Stanford

74. A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.
Hugh Downs

75. If you’re going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now.
Marie Osmond

76. Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination.
Roy Goodman

77. In between goals is a thing called life, that has to be lived and enjoyed.
Sid Caesar

78. The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.
Richard Bach

79. If the going is real easy, beware, you may be headed down hill.
Unknown

80. To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
Anatole France

Inspirational Quotes by Eleanor Roosevelt

81. Great minds discuss ideas
Average minds discuss events
Small minds discuss people
Eleanor Roosevelt

82. “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

83. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy

84. The only thing worse than a man you can’t control is a man you can.
Margo Kaufman

85. The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.
Richard B. Sheridan

86. I can’t understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I’m frightened by old ones.
John Cage

87. Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.
Richard Bach

88. Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
John Wooden

89. Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.
Machiavelli.

90. “To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.”
Elbert Hubbard

91. A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in on the experience.
Elbert Hubbard

92. “When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’”
Sydney Harris

93. Do first things first, and second things not at all.
Peter Drucker.

94. The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders.
Foster’s Law

95. We see things not as they are, but as we are.
H. M. Tomlinson

96. Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.
Euripides

97. There is only one success–to be able to spend your life in your own way.
Christopher Morleys.

98. The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
Chinese Proverb

99. If youth knew; if age could.
Sigmund Freud

100. Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.
Bill Hicks

Inspiration takes many forms.  Maybe inspiration your favorite movie quote.  Maybe its a famous person with a disability.  Maybe you share a celebrity birthday with one of your favorite movie stars.  Whatever gets you out of bed in the morning can be considered inspiration.  For the rest of us, its strong coffee and a kick in th pants!