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Quotes about motivation and goals

230 quotes from 178 people

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What men want is not talent, it is purpose,⁠—in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labour.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton1803–1873Lucretia (1846), Part II, Chapter XII
- Work
I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.
Joseph Campbell1904–1987The Power of Myth (book), p. 120
- Happiness
You must not surrender. You may or may not get there, but just know that you’re qualified and hold on and hold out.
Jesse Jackson1941–2026Address to the Democratic National Convention (July 19, 1988)
Just because we cannot see clearly the end of the road, that is no reason for not setting out on the essential journey.
Robert F. Kennedy1925–1968Farewell statement, Warsaw, Poland, reported in The New York Times (2 July 1964)
We create our own destiny by the way we do things. We have to take advantage of opportunities and be responsible for our choices.
Ben Carsonborn 1951Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 63
- Responsibility
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 Fosdick1878–1969Statement of 1937 or earlier, as quoted in The New Speaker’s Treasury of Wit and Wisdom (1958) edited by Herbert Victor Prochnow
Have we fallen into a mesmerized state that makes us accept as inevitable that which is inferior or detrimental, as though having lost the will or the vision to demand that which is good?
Rachel Carson1907–1964Silent Spring (1962)
Life is not easy for any of us, but what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted in something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.
Marie Curie1867–1934Letter to her brother Józef (18 March 1894), quoted in Eve Curie, Madame Curie (1937)
- Life & Death
The more you can dream, the more you can do.
MKMichael Kordaborn 1933Success! (1977), p. 121
You’ve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.
John Irvingborn 1942The Hotel New Hampshire, ch. 11
Anything in life is possible and YOU make it happen!
Jack LaLanne1914–2011Jack LaLanne: Live young forever, Robert Kennedy Publishing, Mississauga 2009, P. 15
A journey of a thousand li starts with a single step.
LLaozi580–501 BCTao Te Ching, Ch. 64
I never “worry” about action, but only about inaction.
Winston Churchill1874–1965As quoted in Richard M. Langworth (ed.), Churchill by Himself (2008)
None can reach heaven who has not passed through hell.
Sri Aurobindo1872–1950Savitri, Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going.
Oliver Cromwell1599–1658Statement to Pomponne de Bellievre, as told to Cardinal de Retz in 1651; Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz (1717), p.75; p.286
- Success