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Quotes about motivation and goals

230 quotes from 178 people

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Competition is a by-product of productive work, not its goal. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Ayn Rand1905–1982The Ayn Rand Letter (1971–1976)
- Work
All explorers are seeking something they have lost. It is seldom that they find it, and more seldom still that the attainment brings them greater happiness than the quest.
Arthur C. Clarke1917–2008The City and the Stars (1956), Ch. 23, p. 174
- Happiness
I need to have something besides a husband and children to devote myself to! I don’t want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met.
Anne Frank1929–1945The Diary of a Young Girl (1942—1944), 5 April 1944
Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Speech in the House of Representatives (20 June 1848)
Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.
Richard Bachborn 1936Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
- Life & Death
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
I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.
Steve Jobs1955–2011“Jobs: Iconoclast and salesman” by Brian Williams, at MSNBC (25 May 2006)
I never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.
Florence Nightingale1820–1910Letter to a friend, quoted in The Life of Florence Nightingale Vol. II (1914) by Edward Tyas Cook, p. 406
So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
Christopher Reeve1952–2004Speech at the Democratic National Convention (26 August 1996)
- Hope
If the will is fixed on the purpose it sets itself to accomplish, then circumstances will suggest the right course; but the schemer finds himself always tripped up by the unexpected.
Sri Aurobindo1872–1950India’s Rebirth, 22 February 1908
The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Albert Camus1913–1960The Myth of Sisyphus
- Happiness
To hell with more. I want better.
Ray Bradbury1920–2012Beyond 1984: The People Machines (1979)
The greatest danger to our future is apathy.
Jane Goodall1934–2025“The Power of One”, TIME Magazine (26 August 2002)
Whoever hammers a lump of iron, first decides what he is going to make of it, a scythe, a sword, or an axe. Even so we ought to make up our minds what kind of virtue we want to forge or we labour in vain.
Anthony the Great251–357Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum), Antony 35; trans. Benedicta Ward (1975)
- Virtue
One man can make a difference and every man should try.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis1929–1994Written on a card for an exhibit which travelled around the US when the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston was first opening (1979), quoted in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989) edited by Suzy Platt
- Inspiration