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Quotes about motivation and goals

230 quotes from 178 people

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The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, ’mid snow and ice,
A banner, with the strange device,
Excelsior!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882Excelsior (1841)In context
Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,⁠—act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882A Psalm of Life (1838)In context
- Time
Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.
Niccolò Machiavelli1469–1527
Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great
Niccolò Machiavelli1469–1527The Prince (1532), Chapter XXVIIn context
Better to live one year as a tiger, then a hundred as sheep.
Madonnaborn 1958
Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Nelson Mandela on determination, From a letter to Makhaya Ntini on his 100th Cricket Test (17 December 2009)
- Success
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
Horace Mann1796–1859Address at Antioch College (1859)
- Life & Death
It is not enough to fight. It is the spirit which we bring to the fight that decides the issue. It is morale that wins the victory.
George C. Marshall1880–1959Address at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut (June 1941)
- War & Peace
A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.
Abraham Maslow1908–1970“A Theory of Human Motivation”, in Psychological Review, vol. 50, no. 4 (1943), p. 382
The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
BMBenjamin Mays
We’re not here just to take part; we’re here to take over.
Conor McGregorborn 1988“UFC Fight Night: Dublin” (July 2014), Ultimate Fighting Championship, Zuffa, LLC
- Success
Aye, aye! and I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up.
Herman Melville1819–1891Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter XXXVIIn context
- Anger
One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things.
Henry Miller1891–1980Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (1957), p. 25
If men cease to believe that they will one day become gods then they will surely become worms.
Henry Miller1891–1980The Colossus of Maroussi (1941), Part 3, p. 235
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
John Milton1608–1674Paradise Lost (1667), i.262-263In context
- Power