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Quotes about motivation and goals

230 quotes from 178 people

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To do that would mean, not merely to be defeated, but to acknowledge defeat⁠—and the difference between these two things is what keeps the world going.
Upton Sinclair1878–1968The Jungle (1906), Chapter IIn context
- Failure
They wrote me off, I ain’t write back though.
GSGeno Smithborn 1990During first post-game interview after being named Seahawks’ starter (September 12, 2022).
Let him that would move the world first move himself.
Socrates470–399 BC
Who seeks shall find;
Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind.
Sophocles496–406 BCOedipus the King (c. 429 BC), spoken by CreonIn context
If you want to accomplish something in the world, idealism is not enough — you need to choose a method that works to achieve the goal. In other words, you need to be pragmatic.
Richard Stallmanborn 1953Copyleft: Pragmatic Idealism (1998)
To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881), El Dorado.
- Success
When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you could n’t hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that ‘s just the place and time that the tide ‘ll turn.
Harriet Beecher Stowe1811–1896Oldtown Folks (1869), Ch. 39
- Hope
Ambition often puts men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same posture with creeping.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892Ulysses (1842)In context
- Age
- Life & Death
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892Ulysses (1842)In context
- Courage
I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Walden (1854), p. 364In context
We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989), Author unknown; attributed to Henry David Thoreau, but not found in his works.
- Success
What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the exertions they daily make to improve them.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book Three, Chapter XIX.
- Democracy
All my life, I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.
Lily Tomlinborn 1939The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1985), As “Chrissy”
- Comedy
All successful people 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 Tracyborn 1944
- Success