The 75 Most Motivational Quotes Ever Spoken

Everyone knows these days: you wake up in the morning and you’re not motivated to do anything. You drag yourself out of bed, feeling exhausted, but it does not get any better. Instead of being allowed to do absolutely nothing, you have to address so many issues, duties and responsibilities that it’s impossible to know where to start. Nobody likes to admit it, but we all are struggling to get motivated from time to time. Even the top achievers among us know how difficult it is to keep one’s motivation at a constant high level.

Often times, we have so many great ideas in our mind, but we lack the necessary energy and motivation to implement all these visions. We simply cannot get started with doing what we need to do. It’s a daily struggle, just like a vicious circle one simply cannot seem to escape.

For situations like this it is incredibly beneficial when you have quotes at hand that inspire you to make the most of your life. Many people underestimate the great motivational power that can be found within the lines of a few wisely chosen words, but just by reading a couple of them you will quickly gain new drive. These quotes will help you to get back up on your feet and to face the challenges of life with ambition and energy.

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.”

You will soon notice that just by pondering over the meaning of some of these quotes you will quickly regain the desire to accomplish something great.

Are you struggling with motivation? Looking for something to get you motivated quickly? In the following you can find a hand-picked selection of the most motivating quotes of all times. These sayings from truly inspirational people will help you to reignite the burning fire within you that helps you to pursue your dreams and ambitions.

The Most Motivating Quotes Ever

Get inspired by our carefully selected collection of quotes that are incredibly motivating!

1. When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.
Eric Thomas

Eric Thomas tells us to put our head underwater for a minute. After the minute has passed you will notice the rising urge to breathe. But you don’t go up to the surface, not just yet. The urge to allow fresh air into your lungs will become omnipresent. It is no longer just an urge, but it starts turning into a deep desire.

A couple of seconds later there will be nothing else on your mind, except the wish to breathe. Nothing will be able to distract you in this situation; nothing will be able to diverge your focus and attention away from the situation. In fact, your focus is laser-sharp and directed on only one thing: managing to get up to the surface so that you can fill your lungs with fresh air. Do you want to watch television in this situation? Do you want to surf the Internet? Do you need any rest? NO! Heck no, all you want to do is to breathe. Nothing else.

I can guarantee you that you will succeed in whatever you are doing, if only you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe after being submerged by water for more than a minute.

2. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
Tim Notke

There are so many people who have great talents, but do not seem to use it. Many times you will be able to easily triumph over those who are gifted but unwilling to work hard enough to cope with your efforts.

Hard work and a good dose of determination can lead you anywhere, even if you are not the most talented in this area. Think about all those super talents in your preferred area of sports. Only those talents who are willing to make an extra effort will be able to succeed. Otherwise, less talented people will outperform them with their boundless willingness to do everything they can in order to succeed.

3. A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.
Vince Lombardi

How often do we allow even the most unimportant things to distract our attention away from the pursuit of our dreams? Far too often!

We make little excuses for activities that do not contribute towards the accomplishment of our goals. Doing so will eventually lead us to procrastinate. We stop doing what we need to do: pursuing our goals with the greatest determination and the boldest focus.

Don’t be one of those who tell their grandchildren, “You know what, I had the chance to make the world a better place, but there was a new episode of The Big Bang Theory, so I couldn’t motivate myself to realize my vision.”

4. Every great story on the planet happened when someone decided not to give up, but kept going no matter what.
Spryte Loriano

Your willingness not to give up no matter what will bring you one step closer towards the accomplishment of your dreams. Often times, people start enthusiastically with a new task, but they soon allow challenges and setbacks to decrease their motivation. In the end, they will give up and find new goals to pursue halfhearted, which they will eventually fail as well. That is until they finally find goals that are unimportant but relatively easy to accomplish. What a way to ruin one’s potential.

Once you have set your mind on to something, keep pursuing it until you succeed.

5. Don’t stop when you’re tired. STOP when you are DONE.
Unknown

All too often we stop pursuing a goal as soon as we encounter difficulties. These challenges are not only placing a great burden upon our shoulders, but they also make it a real struggle to move forward. Fighting day in and day out for your mission can be really tiring. However, we must not allow mental and physical tiredness to stop us from pursuing our dreams.

6. Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.
Og Mandino

The question whether we fail or not largely depends upon our own determination. Yes, there are some failures that simply cannot be avoided. In most cases, however, we alone can influence our chances of success. What Og Mandino wants to point out is that we need the mental strength to keep going, no matter how severe the opposition. Equipped with this kind of attitude, failure will not be able to overtake us, as we will persevere until success is achieved.

7. Success… seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.
Conrad Hilton

Success is inevitably connected to action, it will not appear out of thin air. Only those who are willing to plant their seeds in the ground will be able to reap the fruits.

Another important aspect to consider is that you will make mistakes sooner or later. But do not allow your fear of failure to stop you from living your dreams. One characteristic that most, if not all, successful people have in common is that they failed over and over again. What makes them so different and special is their attitude towards mistakes and failures. Instead of allowing mistakes to stop them from what they are doing, they continue. They don’t tell themselves, “I’m a failure, I always fail,” but instead they have developed this fantastic curiosity that tells them, “Another failure? Fantastic, I found another way how it should not be done.” They understand that mistakes provide essential knowledge that helps them in the future, without which they might not even be able to succeed.

8. Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.
W. Clement Stone

The message of Clement Stone is clear: have an ambitious goal and shoot for it. If you miss the goal, you’ll still have achieved something. The quote also indicates that even if things don’t go as planned they can still turn out to be a success. This means for us that we have to be willing to make adaptations as we go along. Without this flexibility we will focus too much of our attention on the fact that we did not reach the moon, while we have already landed on an amazing star.

9. Action is the foundational key to all success.
Pablo Picasso

We all have great dreams, and to a certain degree dreaming is really important. However, in many cases we do not act on our ideas. We simply hope for the fulfillment of our dreams, but we do not take action. For this very reason it is so important to pursue our dreams in an active manner. All it takes is that we start doing whatever we need to do. Once you got started it is easier to stay in motion. Even Newton stated that “a body at rest remains at rest,” so give everything you can to take this initial and highly important step towards your future.

10. The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Unknown

Only if you wholeheartedly believe in yourself and what you are doing you will be able to reach excellence. It is not enough to know that you want to change the world, it’s necessary that every fiber of you knows that you are able to change things for the better. Only if you are convinced of your vision to the toes you will be able to overcome every obstacle that stands in-between you and your mission.

Those who do not wholeheartedly believe in what they are doing will give up eventually.

11. Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.
Jim Rohn

If there is something many of us admire about successful people it is that they do not waste their time complaining about the difficulties they encounter. Sometimes it feels as if they did not even notice the hardship; they were too busy looking for a solution. Instead of focusing all their attention upon the problems and challenges, they are actively looking for ways to improve themselves in order to be able to overcome the issues.

12. The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.
Ayn Rand

A small but profound change in your perspective can do all the difference. Should we be asking ourselves the question who is allowing us to strive for excellence? Or should we rather become proactive and start taking what we want? If you choose the first option, you will always depend upon others and their approval. But with the mental attitude of “Who’s going to stop me,” you free yourself from the dependency on others.

13. It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.
Confucius

Even the largest empire was built by setting one little stone upon another. Just imagine the consequences if someone decided all of a sudden to stop, just because a few difficulties and complications arose.

The only thing that truly matters in life (when it comes to the realization of your goals) is that you keep going, no matter how slow you seem to progress. The going might get tough at times and there will be days where you see absolutely no return from your actions, but don’t allow this to discourage you. Instead, move on. Winston Churchill once said, that if you’re going straight through hell, you need to keep going.

14. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.
Washington Irving

Eventually you will have to decide whether you focus your attention on the problem, or possible ways to rise above it. This decision will either make or break your success. Only those who cultivate the willingness to rise above everything that tries to drag them down will advance in life. Whining and complaining about misfortunes will not lead you anywhere.

15. I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson expresses a concept that is incredibly important to understand: you have to force luck. Luck does most of the time not happen by chance, but only to those who work hard for it. The more actively you pursue your dreams, the more positive coincidences and helpful happenings will be drawn on to your path.

16. 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 safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.
Mark Twain

Far too often we allow our fear of failure to restrain us. We do not want to fail, so it is only logical not to even try. This approach will help you to avoid most, if not all, failures. However, in many situations it is by far more fulfilling to know that you did everything you could rather than feeling remorse about not having tried at all.

17. You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
Zig Ziglar

18. Nothing is impossible, the word itself says “I’m possible”!
Audrey Hepburn

People keep repeating the things they cannot do like a mantra: “It’s impossible to do this, it’s not possible to do that…” This goes on until there is finally one person willing to challenge the status quo. It’s the person that is equipped with the mental strength to see things through, no matter how many people tell them that what they are doing is not possible. These are the people we look up to, because they fundamentally changed the way we are living.

19. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
Neale Donald Walsh

20. The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.
Confucius

21. Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.
John Wooden

Let’s face it, only a small number of people start their lives with the best conditions for success. The rest of us are thrown into the deep and hectic ocean we call life. Does everyone have the best conditions? Certainly not. In fact, we cannot decide about the external factors of our lives.

But we all have the opportunity to take what we have and make the best out of it. Instead of lamenting about our difficult situation we need to redirect our attention towards solutions on how we can make the best out of it. There is, unfortunately, no other choice. Have the courage to accept the way your circumstances are and then try your very best to make the best you can from it.

22. Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.
Vince Lombardi

23. Give me a stock clerk with a goal, and I will give you a man who will make history. Give me a man without a goal, and I will give you a stock clerk.
J.C. Penny

24. Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Unknown

Talent alone is often times not enough in order to succeed. What it takes is the unbound willingness to do whatever it takes until a given goal is accomplished. More often than not, talented people have become so used upon relying on their gifts that they simply are not able to go the extra mile.

25. Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.
Dale Carnegie

Thomas A. Edison once said that most people “did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Persistence is an essential key to success. It helps us to see things through even in situations when all hope seems lost. Without this ability we give up far to quickly, not realizing how close we have come to our goal.

26. Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.
Alfred A. Montapert

27. Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill

Don’t allow the occasional failure to discourage you in any way. We all have failed in the past, and we all will fail in the future. So much is certain.

If we cannot avoid a failure we should try to learn as much as we can from it. Draw the essential conclusions out of the things that happened to you and try to give you very best to avoid similar failures the next time.

28. Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.
Chris Grosser

29. I do not have superior intelligence or faultless looks. I do not captivate a room or run a mile under six minutes. I only succeeded because I was still working after everyone else went to sleep.
Greg Evans

Most of us think we need to be super intelligent and have the most outstanding skills in order to be successful. But in the end, intelligence and talented will only bring you so far. What really matters is your willingness to make an effort and to go the extra mile, wherever necessary and appropriate.

Once you have set yourself a goal, keep pursuing it no matter what. Be willing to invest a great amount of your time towards the accomplishment of your dreams.

30. The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
Walter Bagehot

31. The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Mark Twain

32. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
Dalai Lama

Struggling and not getting what you desire can be quite unpleasant. However, hitting a brick wall can also have its benefits for your development. It will not only make you stronger, but it will also improve your ability to draw essential wisdom out of failure.

33. The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it.
Henry Ford

34. All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney

35. There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.
Ray Goforth

There are numberless excuses for not making a difference in this world. Some of these excuses originate from within us. They are the result of our fears and worries. We think ourselves smaller than we actually are, hence we do not realize how great of an impact we can have. In other cases other people want to keep us small, for whatever nefarious reasons.

Whenever we are confronted with such opposition, it is of the greatest importance to keep going. Only if we are able to ignore our own excuses and other people’s doubts we can strive for excellence.

36. What’s the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable.
Unknown

37. Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.
Sam Levenson

38. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
Marianne Williamson

The motivational power of this fantastic quote lies therein that it makes us ask the question, “Who else should be great and fabulous, if not you?” Great people are not born, they had the courage to become the best they can be. It is a decision to commit oneself to excellence, day after day.

The greatest have arisen from the most ordinary places. They were given the most mundane tools, yet they still managed to shine in the brightest light possible. All these great people share one trait: the willingness to constantly improve themselves in every area of life.

39. I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas A. Edison points out how significantly our own attitude towards failure influences our thinking and behavior. He encourages us not to think of ourselves as losers just because we have failed countless times. Instead, Edison highlights the importance of perseverance. Just imagine what had happened if Edison had only tried 999 times until he gave up: he would not have invented the first commercially viable light bulb.

40. How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.
Trina Paulus

41. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life—think of it, dream of it, live on that 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.
Swami Vivekananda

42. I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.
Jimmy Dean

Many seem to overlook the profound wisdom that can be found within this quote. But what exactly does Jimmy Dean want to tell us with this statement? Dean points out that we cannot change the external circumstances of our lives. There are simply so many variables that we cannot influence. However, we always have the choice to make the best out of the situation, no matter what happens.

Instead of lamenting about opposing wind we can just adjust our sails to reach new and exciting destinations.

43. Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
Henry Ford

44. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.
Michael Phelps

45. Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.  For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.
Charles De Gaulle

46. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you, you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.
Will Smith

47. The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.
Bruce Lee

48. Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.
Stephen R. Covey

Long-lasting motivation can only be accomplished if you have a burning desire within you. You alone are responsible for your motivation. No one else can do it for you and if they try, the fire that they try to light within you will quickly diminish.

49. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
Thomas A. Edison

50. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.
Les Brown

51. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
Helen Keller

The pursuit of your dreams will constantly confront you with insecurities, both internal and environmental. But as Helen Keller has said it so beautifully, you always have the choice to accept the insecurities that come with life. Otherwise your desperate attempts to avoid any danger will restrain you. But if you choose to avoid adventures out of your fear of failure life will become not worth living. Only if you are willing to risk something you will gain something new.

Those who don’t even try will only gain one thing: remorse that it could have been.

52. Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.
Wayne Dyer

53. Nothing great ever came that easy.
Kresley Cole

54. Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.
Francis Chan

Many people claim to be extraordinarily successful in life. However, when having a look at what they are doing, one gets the impression that whatever they are doing is not too important for the advancement of mankind. It might be commercially lucrative, but not at all beneficial for the rest of mankind.

55. A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.
David Brinkley

Other people will criticize you for the things that you do. Use this feedback to continuously improve yourself. Don’t take criticism too personally, use it to build a strong and long-lasting foundation upon which you can build a successful life.

56. The greatest achievement was at first, and for a time, but a dream.
Napoleon Hill

When we see a successful person we often times only see their stunning accomplishments. While we are in awe about what they have achieved we oftentimes forget that they as well started small. There was a time where the successful people took one tiny step after another towards the accomplishment of their goal. Just like a tiny seed these people kept on pursuing their dreams until they had a grown into a large tree.

57. Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.
Unknown

58. Great things come to those who don’t wait.
Unknown

59. The best way to predict the future is to create it.
Peter Drucker

60. People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Tony Robbins

61. When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy”. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
John Lennon

62. Ones best success comes after their greatest disappointments.
Henry Ward Beecher

63. The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There is just less competition for bigger goals. If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.
Timothy Ferris

How many times have we dreamt of pursuing a specific goal, but chose not to because we thought our competitors were far stronger than ourselves?

Often times your competition seems to be larger-than-life, more sophisticated and more experienced than you. But it isn’t the first time that a small David managed to compete successfully with a much larger Goliath. If you believe in your own strength and combine this attitude with a laser-sharp determination to do whatever it takes, then you will be able to challenge your competitors.

64. It’s not about time, it’s about choices. How are you spending your choices?
Beverly Abamo

65. You will succeed because most people are lazy.
Unknown

66. The starting point of all achievement is desire.
Napoleon Hill

67. If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission.
Unknown

68. I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing.
Martha Stewart

69. There are no great men. Just great challenges which ordinary men, out of necessity, are forced by circumstance to meet.
Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr.

70. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
Vidal Sassoon

71. Some people develop a wish bone where their back bone should be.
Unknown

72. All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.
Michael John Bobak

73. No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.
Jack Kornfield

74. Infuse your life with action. Don’t wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen… yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.
Bradley Whitford

75. You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Christopher Columbus

Honorary mentions:

76. If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.
Jim Rohn

77. There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or to accept the responsibility for changing them.
Dennis Waitely

78. More often than not, successful entrepreneurs are givers and not takers of positive energy.
Olaf Isachsen

I hope you enjoyed this collection of motivating quotes.

These thoughts can be an important guidance in so many different situations in life, but especially during times of disparity and great challenges. Reading through these inspiring words can help us to face all our challenges and difficulties with great strength and determination.

What’s the Core Essence of These Quotes?

Summarizing all these quotes with a couple of sentences is extremely difficult. But let us try to draw the core essence out of all the quotes mentioned in the above:

The greatest challenge we need to overcome is the sluggishness that keeps us from starting what needs to be done. Even the greatest journey starts with a small step in the right direction. However, we need to be willing to make this initial effort. But once we have started walking towards our dreams it is important to never stop, no matter what happens. Only with great care and determination will we be able to realize our visions. In fact, our focus on our dreams needs to be laser-sharp. Only if we are willing to make a great effort we will be rewarded with the most astonishing and exciting gratifications.

So have a vision, get up and start pursuing it until you succeeded.

I hope you like this tiny summary, but let’s face it, there could be so much more to say.

The Science behind Motivation

Your ability to tackle your dreams largely depends on the way how you think about doing the required tasks that come along with pursuing your mission. The way you think about your task, either enthusiastically positive or depressingly negative, largely decides on how successful you are able to complete it, if you start it at all.

For this reason it is incredibly important to ask ourselves the question what it is that keeps us from addressing a task. Psychologists identified two major obstacles that can largely decrease your motivation:

• “I have to.” One major obstacle that creates a mental resistance is the feeling of being forced to do something. It doesn’t matter whether someone else is forcing you to do it, or you yourself are using pressure to get yourself going. Telling yourself that you have to do this and do that will keep you from going the necessary extra mile, in the long run. Luckily, you are able to overcome this resistance by making it clear that you choose to do this task in order to accomplish an important goal. Reframing it as, “I chose to,” will help you to realize that success is a choice.
• “I can’t do this.” Often times we are confronted with self-doubt when we face a difficult or challenging task. But more often than not it turns out that we are capable of addressing the issue, even though we previously thought we couldn’t. For this reason, it is important to not allow our own insecurities from preventing the pursuit of our dreams. Reframe situations like this by telling yourself that “I can make it, practice makes perfect.” How else should we grow and advance if we are not willing to face challenging situations and tasks?

Share Your Wisdom

If you have any other motivational quotes that you’d like to share, then by all means feel free to post it in the comment section below.