motivation quotes

People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.

Be not simply good – be good for something.

We should never lose an occasion. Opportunity is more powerful even than conquerors and prophets.

I wonder how many times people give up just before a breakthrough – when they are on the very brink of success.

Protect your enthusiasm from the negativity of others.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

Quitting is the easiest thing to do.

I have short goals – to get better every day, to help my teammates every day – but my only ultimate goal is to win an NBA championship. It’s all that matters. I dream about it. I dream about it all the time, how it would look, how it would feel. It would be so amazing.

Hope is not a resting place but a starting point – a cactus, not a cushion.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

I’ve got my Grammys on top of my piano and I look at them when I play.

If an idea isn’t exciting, you shouldn’t do it.

When I do something, I do it full steam ahead.

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.

Of course, I do everything for money.

If your inner life is not producing what you would like on the outside, don’t be discouraged… just be willing to change.

I just kind of wake up with a new idea and new dreams every day, and I follow that dream, as they say.

If it wasn’t for the fun and money, I really don’t know why I’d bother.

Refuse to be a lazy Christian, and resist a passive, apathetic attitude.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?

I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

Everyone, no doubt, remains first and foremost a man of his own country and continues to draw from it his motive force.

I didn’t work hard to sit down and not work.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

I’ve always wanted to live above my means because it inspired me to work harder.

We must not sit still and look for miracles; up and doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do anything.

If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.

What’s amazing is, if young people understood how doing well in school makes the rest of their life so much interesting, they would be more motivated. It’s so far away in time that they can’t appreciate what it means for their whole life.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life.

On Sundays when I speak, I hopefully give somebody something that they can use the next day at work or at home.

Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

Anything that encourages people to pick up an instrument and play, I’m fully behind.

Don’t work for recognition, but do work worthy of recognition.

I don’t believe we are supposed to go through life defeated and not having enough money to pay our bills or send our kids to college.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

Anger is wonderful. It keeps you going. I’m angry about bankers. About the government.

You know, there is always times where you feel discouraged and things coming against you, but I don’t know if I ever wanted to throw in the towel.

I treated it like every day was my last day with a basketball.

Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

I don’t fight in chase of an individual. I hear this sometimes where fighters work their whole careers to reach a matchup with a certain individual. I do not think in that way.

The answer to all writing, to any career for that matter, is love.

When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, ‚Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.‘

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

You know capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it’s really let us down.

Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.

Everything is my demon muse. I have a muse which whispers in my ear and says, ‚Do this, do that,‘ but it’s my demon who provokes me.

You can’t be afraid to fail. It’s the only way you succeed – you’re not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.

My rule is to break one sweat a day.