Quotes about motivation and goals
230 quotes from 178 people
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
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
Anne Frank1929–1945The Diary of a Young Girl (1942—1944), 5 April 1944Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us.
Benjamin Franklin1706–1790“On True Happiness”, Pennsylvania Gazette (20 November 1735).
Lady Gagaborn 1986“The Rise of Lady Gaga” by Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone (11 June 2009), pp. 57-61
Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948Harijan (19 November 1938) p. 343Things don’t turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.
James A. Garfield1831–1881As quoted in E. E. Brown, The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield (1881), p. 437
Kahlil Gibran1883–1931The Forerunner (1920)There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.
André Gide1869–1951Si le grain ne meurt [If It Die] (1924), ch. IIIWhile Man’s desires and aspirations stir,
He cannot choose but err.
Jane Goodall1934–2025“The Power of One”, TIME Magazine (26 August 2002)
Anthony the Great251–357Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum), Antony 35; trans. Benedicta Ward (1975)
