Resources

Mike's Blog

The Power of Hope

You've probably seen the words “faith, hope, and love” on a bookshelf or wall hanging somewhere. Maybe in your own home. Or you’ve seen them mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:13 ...

How to Shape Culture

An oft-cited quote in business is “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” The point being that the influence of culture is stronger than the influence of strategy. That how things are ...

When People Let You Down

Have you ever depended on someone else and they let you down? Maybe they said they would do something and they didn’t. Or they didn’t get it done on time ...

Innovation Best Practices

How many organizations have innovation, creativity, or other similar belief in their list of core values? The answer is: most. Yet how many managers really know how to foster innovation ...

The Power of Community

How important to you is feeling connected to a community of like-minded people? Maybe a group of people who share a common cause or enjoy a mutual hobby? Or working ...

Books by Mike Hawkins

Activating Your Ambition
Activating Your Ambition
Discover how easy it can be to learn new skills, overcome bad habits, and improve performance.
Execution
Book 6 – Scope of Leadership
Describes the capabilities that leaders need to create competitive differentiation and deliver extraordinary value.
Partnerships
Book 5 – Scope of Leadership
Illustrates how to build high-performing teams and work effectively with others across organizational boundaries.
Others
Book 4 – Scope of Leadership
Guides you in building the skills of others and developing top performers.
Communi-cations
Book 3 – Scope of Leadership
Describes how to influence people through positive and trustworthy interpersonal communications.
Self
Book 2 – Scope of Leadership
Sets the foundation for the ability to lead others by developing the competencies of great self-leadership.
Leadership
Book 1 – Scope of Leadership
Explores the essentials of great leadership and establishes the principles that underpin the ability to coach, lead, and achieve high levels of organizational performance.

Favorite Quotes

Chinese proverb

If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.

Chinese proverb

W. Clement Stone

I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.

W. Clement Stone, twentieth century American businessman and author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do..

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, eighteenth century German playwright, poet and novelist

Soren Kierkegaard

Do it or do not do it — you will regret both.

Soren Kierkegaard, philosopher, theologian, poet, writer

Moliere

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.

Moliere, Actor and Playwright

Malcolm De Chazal

The man who can make others laugh secures more votes for a measure than the man who forces them to think.

Malcolm De Chazal, writer and painter (1902-1981)

John Locke

The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.

John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704)

Niels Bohr

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.

Niels Bohr, Physicist, Nobel Laureate

Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don’t care for.

Marie Ebner von Eschenbach, writer (1830-1916)

Maltbie Babcock

Our business in life is not to get ahead of other people, but to get ahead of ourselves.

Maltbie Babcock, clergyman and writer

T.S. Eliot

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

T. S. Eliot, twentieth century British poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Neale Donald Walsch

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Neale Donald Walsch, writer

Abraham Cowley

Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise, as praises from the men, whom all men praise.

Abraham Cowley, poet (1618-1667)

Confucius

Do not be concerned that no one recognizes your merits; be concerned that you may not recognize others’.

Confucius, philosopher and teacher

Mahatma Gandhi

Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle.

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer

Jesse Owens

The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us — that’s where it’s at.

Jesse Owens, four-time Olympic gold medalist (1913-1980)

Rosa Parks

I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

Rosa Parks, United States civil rights leader

Solon

In all things that you do, consider the end.

Solon, 638-538 BC

Erastus Wiman

Nothing is ever lost by courtesy. It is the cheapest of pleasures, costs nothing, and conveys much.

Erastus Wiman, 1834-1904

Hyman G. Rickover

Success teaches us nothing; only failure teaches.

Hyman G. Rickover, US Navy Admiral

C.W. Metcalf

Take your work seriously but yourself lightly.

C.W. Metcalf, American writer

Charles Kettering

If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.

Charles Kettering, inventor

Bob Black

You are what you do. If you do boring, stupid, monotonous work, chances are you’ll end up boring, stupid, and monotonous.

Bob Black, writer

Irish Proverb

You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.

Irish Proverb

Laozi

Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.

Laozi, philosopher

Harold Ross

If you can’t be funny, be interesting.

Harold Ross, journalist, editor

Joseph Addison

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.

Joseph Addison, essayist and poet

Alexander Graham Bell

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

Alexander Graham Bell, scientist and inventor

Joseph Joubert

The goal is not always meant to be reached, but to serve as a mark for our aim.

Joseph Joubert, essayist

Fred Barton

You are surrounded by hundreds of people more timid than you are.

Fred Barton, composer

Marcus Aurelius

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor

E.E. Cummings

To be nobody but myself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.

E.E. Cummings, poet (1894-1962)

Sandra Day O’Connor

We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone … and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.

Sandra Day O’Connor, first female justice of the US Supreme Court

Josh Billings

Ambition is like hunger; it obeys no law but its appetite.

Josh Billings, columnist and humorist (1818-1885)

Lord Chesterfield

If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old.

Lord Chesterfield, 1694-1773

Arnold J. Toynbee

The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.

Arnold J. Toynbee, historian (1889-1975)

Henri Matisse

Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.

Henri Matisse, Artist

Horace Mann

A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron.

Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859)

Steven R. Covey

If you aren’t feeling pain, there is rarely enough motivation or humility to change.

Steven R. Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Warren Bennis

The crucible is an essential element in the process of becoming a leader. No matter how cruel the testing, they become more optimistic and more open to experience.

Warren Bennis, author of On Becoming a Leader

Oliver Wendell Holmes

The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894

Napoleon Hill

The starting point of all achievement is desire.

Napoleon Hill, twentieth century American author and pioneer in self-improvement philosophy

George Matthew Adams

There is no such thing as a ‘self-made’ man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts.

George Matthew Adams, newspaper columnist (1878-1962)

Howard Schultz

Victory is much more meaningful when it comes not just from one person, but from the joint achievements of many.

Howard Schultz, American businessman

General Eric Shinseki

If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.

General Eric Shinseki, retired Chief of Staff, U. S. Army

Joseph Addison

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

Joseph Addison, politician and writer

Abraham Lincoln

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States

Murasaki Shikibu

No art or learning is to be pursued halfheartedly … and any art worth learning will certainly reward more or less generously the effort made to study it.

Murasaki Shikibu, Novelist, In The Tale of Genji

Edmund Hillary

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.

Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer

P.D. James

The world is changed not by the self-regarding, but by men and women prepared to make fools of themselves.

P.D. James, novelist

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists, who are dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood. The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific, and religious freedom have always been nonconformists. In any cause that concerns the progress of mankind, put your faith in the nonconformist!

Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator

Gail Sheely

If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships that have lost their meaning. As Dostoevsky put it, ‘taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.’ The real fear should be the opposite course.

Gail Sheely

Dwight Eisenhower

What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.

Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States

Fannie Flagg

Being a successful person is not necessarily defined by what you have achieved, but by what you have overcome.

Fannie Flagg, Writer

Davy Crockett

I have always supported measures and principles and not men. I have acted fearless and independent and I never will regret my course. I would rather be politically buried than to be hypocritically immortalized.

Davy Crockett, frontiersman, soldier, and politician (1786-1836)

Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus

It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from followers.

Warren Bennis and Bert Nanus

William Shakespeare

Experience is a jewel, and it had need be so, for it is often purchased at an infinite rate.

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

Carl Jung

What you resist persists.

Carl Jung, twentieth century Swiss psychologist

Virginia Satir

I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen, heard, understood, and touched by them. The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand, and touch another person.

Virginia Satir, psychotherapist and author

Helen Keller

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Helen Keller, writer and political activist

Thomas Sprat

What you dislike in another take care to correct in yourself.

Thomas Sprat, clergyman and theologian

Henry Ford

If you think you can, you’re right. If you think you can’t, you’re right.

Henry Ford, American automotive pioneer

Desmond Tutu

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

Desmond Tutu, Theologian and Human Rights Activist

Michel de Montaigne

There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.

Michel de Montaigne, sixteenth century essayist

Thomas Pynchon

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.

Thomas Pynchon, Novelist

Judy Garland

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

Judy Garland, singer and actress

Mahatma Gandhi

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

Mahatma Gandhi, social reformer

Robert Quillen

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument is an exchange of ignorance.

Robert Quillen, journalist and humorist

Denis Waitley

A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.

Denis Waitley, author and motivational speaker

Marilyn vos Savant

Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.

Marilyn vos Savant, American columnist

Eleanor Roosevelt

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.

Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady to the 32nd president of the United States

Warren Buffett

In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

Warren Buffett, investor

John Dewey

Education … is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.

John Dewey, psychologist and educational reformer

Baba Amte

I don’t want to be a great leader; I want to be a man who goes around with a little oil can and when he sees a breakdown, offers his help. To me, the man who does that is greater than any holy man in saffron-colored robes. The mechanic with the oilcan: that is my ideal in life.

Baba Amte, social worker and activist

William James

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

William James, psychologist

Walt Disney

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

Walt Disney, twentieth century American Film Producer, Director, Animator

Joe Frazier

Champions aren’t made in the ring, they are merely recognized there.

Joe Frazier, Professional Boxer

Carl Rogers

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.

Carl Rogers, twentieth century American psychologist

Aesop

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

Aesop, Greek fabulist

Nelson Mandela

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.

Nelson Mandela, Activist, South African President, Nobel Laureate

William Hazlitt

The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure very much.

William Hazlitt, essayist, drama and literary critic, social commentator

Usher Raymond IV

Success is about dedication. You may not be where you want to be or do what you want to do when you’re on the journey … but you’ve got to be willing to have vision and foresight that leads you to an incredible end.

Usher Raymond IV, singer, songwriter, dancer

Leo Tolstoy

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Leo Tolstoy, nineteenth century Russian novelist

Francis Bacon

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Francis Bacon, 1561-1626

Lawrence Bossidy

I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.

Lawrence Bossidy, author

Carl Sandburg

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

Carl Sandburg, Poet

Steve Jobs

I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard.

Steve Jobs, entrepreneur, founder of Apple

Dionne Warwick

We are all here to be a service to those who can’t be a service to themselves. We can give people hope and more reasons for being human.

Dionne Warwick, singer

John Henry Newman

Nothing would be done at all, if a man waited till he could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.

John Henry Newman, Theologian

Publilius Syrus

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

Publilius Syrus, writer

Seneca the Younger

The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.

Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher, statesman, dramatist, 4 BC-65 AD

J.K. Rowling

We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.

J.K. Rowling, author (born 1965)

Roger Williams

The greatest crime in the world is not developing your potential. When you do what you do best, you are helping not only yourself, but the world.

Roger Williams, seventeenth century English theologian and author

William Barrett

It is the familiar that usually eludes us in life. What is before our noses is what we see last.

William Barrett, 1913-1992

Theodore Roosevelt

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is the knack of getting along with people.

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President

Stevie Wonder

We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.

Stevie Wonder, musician

Tina Fey

Start with a yes and see where that takes you.

Tina Fey, Actor, Comedian, Writer, Producer

German Proverb

What is the use of running when we are not on the right road?

German Proverb

Randy Pausch

The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.

Randy Pausch, professor

Samuel Johnson

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)

Jack Welch

An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive business advantage.

Jack Welch, corporate leader and author

Michelangelo Buonarroti

If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (1475-1564)

James Joyce

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.

James Joyce, novelist

Maya Angelou

We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.

Maya Angelou, author and poet

Bruce Lee

The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.

Bruce Lee, martial artist, actor and filmmaker

Emile Chartier

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it’s the only one you have.

Emile Chartier, philosopher (1868-1951)

Thomas Paine

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.

Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809)

George Matthew Adams

There is no such thing as a “self-made” man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts.

George Matthew Adams, newspaper columnist

Leo Tolstoy

The most important person is the one you are with in this moment.

Leo Tolstoy, writer

Robert Hughes

The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.

Robert Hughes, art critic

Albert Einstein

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

Albert Einstein, German physicist

Warren Bennis

Managers are people who do things right, and leaders are people who do the right thing.

Warren Bennis, business consultant

Johann Gottfried Von Herder

Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.

Johann Gottfried Von Herder, 1744-1803

John Ruskin

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it.

John Ruskin, Author, Art Critic, and Social Reformer

Paul Marsden

Business is all about solving people’s problems — at a profit.

Paul Marsden, writer

Hank Aaron

Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it. 

Hank Aaron, Professional Baseball Player

Paulo Coelho

The world is changed by your example, not your opinion.

Paulo Coelho, novelist

William James

In any project the important factor is your belief. Without belief, there can be no successful outcome.

William James, 1842-1910

Rosalynn Carter

A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.

Rosalynn Carter, first lady of the United States

André Maurois

To reason with poorly chosen words is like using a pair of scales with inaccurate weights.

André Maurois, author (1885-1967)

Calvin Coolidge

We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.

Calvin Coolidge, 30th U.S. President

Steve Coogan

The important thing is not to be defined by what others think of you.

Steve Coogan, actor, comedian, producer, screenwriter

John Maxwell

It’s easy to have faith in people who have already proved themselves. It’s much tougher to believe in people before they have proved themselves. But that is the key to motivating people to reach their potential.

John Maxwell, writer and motivational speaker

Virgil

They can because they think they can.

Virgil, poet

Nido Qubein

Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.

Nido Qubein, businessman and motivational speaker

E. M. Forster

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

E. M. Forster, novelist (1879-1970)

Loretta Lynn

You’ve got to continue to grow, or you’re just like last night’s cornbread — stale and dry.

Loretta Lynn, Singer, Songwriter

John H. Zenger and Joseph Folkman

A key skill for all successful leaders is the ability to continuously improve themselves.

John H. Zenger and Joseph Folkman, authors of The Extraordinary Leader – Turning Good Managers Into Great Leaders

Maurice Maeterlinck

Each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand mediocre minds appointed to guard the past.

Maurice Maeterlinck, Poet, Dramatist, and Nobel Laureate

Vincent van Gogh

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

Vincent van Gogh, Dutch artist

Stephen Covey

Selfless service has always been one of the most powerful methods of influence.

Stephen Covey, author and educator

Abigail Adams

It is not in the still calm of life or the repose of a pacific station that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties.

Abigail Adams, First Lady to the 2nd U.S. President, political adviser

Adam Lindsay Gordon

Life is mostly froth and bubble, / Two things stand like stone, / Kindness in another’s trouble, / Courage in your own.

Adam Lindsay Gordon, poet (1833-1870)

Will Rogers

You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.

Will Rogers, American performer and humorist

Abraham Joshua Heschel

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, rabbi and professor (1907-1972)

Logan Pearsall Smith

The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.

Logan Pearsall Smith, writer

Robert Collier

Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.

Robert Collier, American writer

Melinda Gates

If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.

Melinda Gates, philanthropist

Michael LeBoeuf

A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.

Michael LeBoeuf, writer and management professor

John Wooden

A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player.

John Wooden, College Basketball Coach

Karl Popper

We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong.

Karl Popper, philosopher and a professor (1902-1994)

Francis Bacon

If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.

Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)

P.D. James

The world is changed not by the self-regarding, but by men and women prepared to make fools of themselves.

P.D. James, novelist (1920-2014)

Ovid

Misfortunes often sharpen the genius.

Ovid, 43 BC-17 AD

Thomas Wolfe

You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity.

Thomas Wolfe, novelist (1900-1938)

Mark Twain

There are only two types of speakers in the world. 1. The nervous and 2. Liars.

Mark Twain, American Writer, Humorist, Entrepreneur, Publisher, and Lecturer.

Calvin Coolidge

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States

Henry Ford

One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.

Henry Ford, 1863-1947

Viktor Frankl

No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.

Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist and psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor (1905-1997)

Danny Kaye

Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can.

Danny Kaye, American actor and singer

Seneca

Valor withers without adversity.

Seneca, philosopher

Louis Pasteur

My strength lies solely in my tenacity.

Louis Pasteur, chemist and microbiologist

Aldous Huxley

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.

Aldous Huxley, writer and philosopher

Muriel Rukeyser

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.

Muriel Rukeyser, poet and activist (1913-1980)

Truman Capote

Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.

Truman Capote, writer, screenwriter, playwright

Anais Nin

The basis of insincerity is the idealized image we hold of ourselves and wish to impose on others.

Anais Nin, writer

Lao Tzu

He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.

Lao Tzu, 604 BC-531 BC

Willie Mays

What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all.

Willie Mays, Professional Baseball Player

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Philosopher

Abraham Lincoln

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president

Lucille Ball

I’d rather regret the things I have done than regret the things I have not done.

Lucille Ball, actress

Benjamin Disraeli

Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions.

Benjamin Disraeli, prime minister

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

Attach yourself to those who advise you rather than praise you.

Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, poet and literary critic

Marcus Garvey

With confidence, you have won even before you have started.

Marcus Garvey, political activist and publisher

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher (1770-1831)

Louis Nizer

A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.

Louis Nizer, lawyer (1902-1994)

William James

Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

William James, philosopher and psychologist

Florence Welch

If you do something with your whole heart and it’s a mistake, you can live with that.

Florence Welch, British musician

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

One’s ridiculousness increases in proportion as one denies it.

Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Novelist, In “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”

Haruki Murakami

When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.

Haruki Murakami, Writer

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer, poet, humanist, scientist, philosopher

Zig Ziglar

You are who you are and what you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change who you are and what you are by changing what goes into your mind.

Zig Ziglar, motivational speaker and author

Eddie Rickenbacker

There can be no courage unless you’re scared.

Eddie Rickenbacker, fighter pilot and business leader

Jason Sudeikis

Being polite and grateful will make people more inclined to help you. And if people are willing to help you, you may accidentally get something you want.

Jason Sudeikis, Actor, Comedian, Screenwriter, Producer

Ken Blanchard

People with humility don’t think less of themselves; they just think of themselves less.

Ken Blanchard, author

Old Chinese Proverb

It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.

Old Chinese Proverb

Berthold Auerbach

Discontent is the source of all trouble, but also of all progress, in individuals and nations.

Berthold Auerbach, 1812-1882

H.L. Mencken

There is always an easy solution to every human problem–neat, plausible, and wrong.

H.L. Mencken, American journalist and essayist

Niels Bohr

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.

Niels Bohr, physicist, Nobel laureate (1885-1962)

Ralph Waldo Emerson

He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

Conrad Hilton

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.

Conrad Hilton, hotelier

Peter Senge

People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.

Peter Senge, American Systems Scientist

Norman Vincent Peale

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking

James Matthew Barrie

We are all failures, at least all the best of us.

James Matthew Barrie, writer

Leo Tolstoy

A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction.

Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)

Albert Pike

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.

Albert Pike, Attorney, Soldier and Writer

Saadi

That sorrow which is the harbinger of joy is preferable to the joy which is followed by sorrow.

Saadi, poet (c.1213-1291)

Alexander Graham Bell

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

Alexander Graham Bell, Inventor

Winston Churchill

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body, calling attention to an unhealthy state of things.

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the U.K., army officer, writer

Carl Rogers

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.

Carl Rogers, American psychologist

Marshall Goldsmith

Our [delusions of achievement, status and contributions] become a serious liability when we need to change. We sit there with the same godlike feelings, and when someone tries to make us change our ways we regard them with unadulterated bafflement.

Marshall Goldsmith, executive coach and author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

Audre Lorde

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

Audre Lorde, writer and activist

Sophia Loren

Mistakes are part of the dues that one pays for a full life.

Sophia Loren, actor and singer

Sophocles

One must learn by doing the thing; though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.

Sophocles, Greek Tragedian (500 BC)

Paul Harvey

You can tell you’re on the road to success; it’s uphill all the way.

Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster

Sam Walton

There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

Sam Walton, founder of Walmart

Zig Ziglar

I believe that whatever your chosen profession, if you make a strong commitment and have a burning desire in your heart–combined with the conviction that you can make a difference–dogged persistence provides you the best insurance for success.

Zig Ziglar, motivational speaker and author

John Lennon

Every child is an artist until he is told he’s not an artist.

John Lennon, singer and songwriter

C.S. Lewis

You never know what you can do until you try, and very few try unless they have to.

C.S. Lewis, Writer

Mary Kay Ash

Making people feel important is precisely what a leader is paid for — because making people feel important motivates them to do better work.

Mary Kay Ash, entrepreneur

Elbert Hubbard

A failure is a man who has blundered but is not able to cash in on the experience.

Elbert Hubbard, writer and artist

Vince Lombardi

If you are not fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.

Vince Lombardi, coach

Aristotle

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.

Aristotle, philosopher

Samuel Johnson

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

Samuel Johnson, English writer, poet

Jeanette Winterson

It is a true saying, that what you fear you find.

Jeanette Winterson, writer

Zig Ziglar

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker

James Cameron

Don’t put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you.

James Cameron, filmmaker

Jack London

I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself..

Jack London, writer

Robert Louis Stevenson

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

Robert Louis Stevenson, writer

Henry David Thoreau

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

Alicia Keys

I have come to embrace the idea that even the simplest act of understanding, love and attention can produce the biggest results.

Alicia Keys, singer, songwriter, pianist

Washington Irving

One of the greatest and simplest tools for learning more and growing is doing more.

Washington Irving, Writer, Essayist, Historian, Diplomat

Roger Bannister

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.

Roger Bannister, athlete and physician

Earl Nightingale

Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

Earl Nightingale, radio personality and motivational speaker

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

There are undeniably bad bosses, toxic work environments, difficult relationships and real life crises. Nonetheless, we have far more control over our energy than we ordinarily realize. The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not. It is our most precious resource.

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, authors of The Power of Full Engagement

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US president

Deborah Day

A positive attitude from you tends to produce a positive attitude toward you.

Deborah Day, psychologist

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th US president

C.S. Lewis

Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.

C.S. Lewis, British Writer and Theologian

Salvador Dali

The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.

Salvador Dali, Spanish painter

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., writer (1922-2007)

Robert Frost

Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.

Robert Frost, poet

Christian Nestell Bovee

Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.

Christian Nestell Bovee, 1820-1904

Will Rogers

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

Will Rogers, Cowboy and Humorist

Theodore Rubin

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.

Theodore Rubin, American psychiatrist and author

Carl Rogers

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.

Carl Rogers, American Psychologist

Henry van Dyke

Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except the best.

Henry van Dyke, poet (1852-1933)

Laozi

Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.

Laozi, philosopher

Henry Ford

Money doesn’t change men. It merely unmasks them.

Henry Ford, industrialist

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher (1770-1831)

Earl Nightingale

We become what we think about.

Earl Nightingale, radio personality, writer and motivational speaker

Ann Beattie

People forget years and remember moments.

Ann Beattie, novelist (born 1947)

Winston Churchill

To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the U.K., army officer, writer

Tom Peters

Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.

Tom Peters, American businessman and author of In Search of Excellence

Will Durant

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Will Durant, historian and philosopher

Blaise Pascal

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.

Blaise Pascal, Mathematician, Physicist and Theologian

Cicero

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.

Cicero, philosopher

Mary Kay Ash

Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try.

Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

Auguste Rodin

Patience is also a form of action.

Auguste Rodin, sculptor

Leo Buscaglia

It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.

Leo Buscaglia, Author

Benjamin Disraeli

There is no education like adversity.

Benjamin Disraeli, political leader and writer

Henry Adams

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

Henry Adams, historian

Osho

The moment you accept yourself, you become beautiful.

Osho, spiritual teacher

Edith Wharton

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.

Edith Wharton, novelist (1861-1937)

Richard Steele

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools.

Richard Steele, author and editor (1672-1729)

James Cameron

Failure has to be an option. … No important endeavor that required innovation was done without risk.

James Cameron, filmmaker

Seth Godin

Anxiety is practicing failure in advance. Anxiety is needless and imaginary. It’s fear about fear, fear that means nothing.

Seth Godin

Unknown author

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. That’s when you see the most growth.

Unknown

Lewis Timberlake

Only 10% of people actually succeed at what they set out to accomplish. Another 10% accept defeat and try to resolve their feelings of anger and desperation by turning to drugs, alcohol and other obsessions. Finally, 80% of the population simply endures their frustration and blame their lack of success on circumstances.

Lewis Timberlake, author of Its Never Too Soon to Quit

Ray Charles

You got to set your mind right and the rest will come to you naturally.

Ray Charles, Singer-Songwriter, Musician, Composer

Calvin Coolidge

No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.

Calvin Coolidge, 30th U.S. President

Pablo Picasso

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

Pablo Picasso, 20th century Spanish painter

Felix Adler

The Supreme Ethical Rule: Act so as to elicit the best in others and thereby in thyself.

Felix Adler, professor, lecturer, and reformer

Penelope Cruz

You cannot live your life looking at yourself from someone else’s point of view.

Penelope Cruz, Actor

Maria Robinson

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

Maria Robinson, American author

Michael Jordan

I can accept failure; everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.

Michael Jordan, American professional basketball player

Richard Bach

It’s like, at the end, there’s this surprise quiz: Am I proud of me? I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth what I paid?

Richard Bach, Writer

Benjamin Franklin

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Benjamin Franklin, Writer, Philanthropist, Scientist, Statesman, Abolitionist

Nelson Mandela

Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.

Nelson Mandela, activist and political leader

Albert Einstein

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Albert Einstein, German physicist

Daniel Goleman

If people lack the previous experiences that allow them to master a given leadership competence, however, it is still not too late – but it requires motivation. The brain’s ability to sprout fresh connections continues throughout life. It just takes more effort and energy to learn in adulthood lessons that would have come more readily in our early years.

Daniel Goleman, author of Primal Leadership – Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence

J.K. Rowling

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default.

J.K. Rowling, writer

William James

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

William James, philosopher and psychologist

Colleen Barrett

Work is either fun or drudgery. It depends on your attitude. I like fun.

Colleen Barrett, President of Southwest Airlines

Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps

For training and learning purposes, it’s important to create meaningful chunks that condense several pieces of information into one. This facilitates perception, learning and retention. By creating a single chunk, we reduce the short-term memory load.

Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps, specialists in human instruction and performance

Dale Carnegie

You can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

Dale Carnegie, writer and motivational speaker

Dwight D. Eisenhower

By leadership we mean the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th US president

Aldous Huxley

Every gain made by individuals or societies is almost instantly taken for granted.

Aldous Huxley, writer

John Wooden

Manage yourself, so others won’t have to.

John Wooden, legendary college basketball coach

Marcus Aurelius

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor

Robin Sharma

What you befriend, you’ll transcend.

Robin Sharma, author

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.

H. Jackson Brown Jr., Author

George Washington Burnap

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

George Washington Burnap

Aldous Huxleyt

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Aldous Huxley, writer

Lygia Fagundes Telles

We need to do things without expecting benefits in return.

Lygia Fagundes Telles, writer, lawyer

M. Scott Peck

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

M. Scott Peck, American psychiatrist and author

Ann Patchett

The question is whether or not you choose to disturb the world around you, or if you choose to let it go on as if you had never arrived.

Ann Patchett, Writer

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Philosopher

John Wooden

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

John Wooden, basketball coach

Thomas Edison

I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come indirectly through accident, except the phonograph. No, when I have fully decided that a result is worth getting, I go about it, and make trial after trial, until it comes.

Thomas Edison, inventor and businessman

Mike Ditka

You are never a loser until you quit trying.

Mike Ditka, American football coach

Peter F. Drucker

While the leader of the past knew how to tell, the leader of the future will know how to ask.

Peter F. Drucker, Austrian-American Management Consultant, Educator, and Author

Ferdinand Foch

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.

Ferdinand Foch, French military leader

John Churton Collins

In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends.

John Churton Collins, 1848-1908

M. Scott Peck

Our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

M. Scott Peck, American psychiatrist

George Matthew Adams

There is no such thing as a ‘self-made’ man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts.

George Matthew Adams, Newspaper Columnist

Thomas Edison

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.

Thomas Edison, inventor

Jiddu Krishnamurti

The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

The only thing I know that truly heals people is unconditional love.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, psychiatrist

Eugene Ionesco

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.

Eugene Ionesco, playwright

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer and statesman

Winston Churchill

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the U.K., army officer, writer

Arnold Bennett

The chances are that you have already come to believe that happiness is unattainable. But men have attained it. And they have attained it by realizing that happiness does not spring from the procuring of physical or mental pleasure, but from the development of reason and the adjustment of conduct to principles.

Arnold Bennett, 1867-1931

George Woodberry

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.

George Woodberry, American literary critic

Tim Fargo

Mistakes should be examined, learned from, and discarded; not dwelled upon and stored.

Tim Fargo, writer and entrepreneur

Auguste Rodin

Patience is also a form of action.

Auguste Rodin, sculptor

Vincent van Gogh

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

Vincent van Gogh, painter, 1853-1890

Zig Ziglar

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.

Zig Ziglar, motivational speaker and bestselling author

George Bernard Shaw

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950

Ernest Hemingway

You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.

Ernest Hemingway, American writer

Queen Elizabeth II

I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.

Queen Elizabeth II

William R. Inge

There are two kinds of fools: One says, “This is old, therefore it is good”; the other says, “This is new, therefore it is better.”

William R. Inge, clergyman, scholar, and author

Andrew Carnegie

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.

Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist, Business Magnate, Philanthropist

Henry Kaiser

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.

Henry Kaiser, industrialist

Bobby Unser

In time, the people with desire will always rise to the top.

Bobby Unser, auto racer

Rex Stout

Labels are for the things men make, not for men. The most primitive man is too complex to be labeled.

Rex Stout, novelist

Brian Tracy

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.

Brian Tracy, self development author and motivational speaker

Don Shula

I don’t know any other way to lead but by example.

Don Shula, American Football Coach

Christian Nestell Bovee

When all else is lost, the future still remains.

Christian Nestell Bovee, American writer

Mary Shelley

Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.

Mary Shelley, writer

Elbert Hubbard

If you would escape moral and physical assassination, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing — court obscurity, for only in oblivion does safety lie.

Elbert Hubbard, writer and artist

Brian Tracy

People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.

Brian Tracy, self development author and motivational speaker

Publius Terence

Fortune favors the brave.

Publius Terence, c. 190 BC-159 BC

Zig Ziglar

The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.

Zig Ziglar, writer and motivational speaker

Lao Tzu

A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. … When his work is done, his aims fulfilled, they will all say, ‘We did this ourselves.”

Lao Tzu, philosopher

Will Durant

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

Will Durant, writer and historian

Anonymous

There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it’s easy

Anonymous

Colleen Barrett

People admire your strengths, but they love your vulnerability.

Colleen Barrett, former president of Southwest Airlines

Denis Waitley

Time is the most precious element of human existence. The successful person knows how to put energy into time and how to draw success from time.

Denis Waitley, author, speaker and world authority on achievement

Frederick Douglass

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

Frederick Douglass, orator, writer and abolitionist

Walter Elliott

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.

Walter Elliott, clergyman

Vince Lombardi

Confidence is contagious; so is lack of confidence.

Vince Lombardi, coach

Lois McMaster Bujold

His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.

Lois McMaster Bujold, writer

Claude Levi-Strauss

The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions.

Claude Levi-Strauss, Social Anthropologist

George MacDonald

To have what we want is riches, but to be able to do without is power.

George MacDonald, Scottish writer

Tom Wilson

Many of us are more capable than some of us, but none of us is as capable as all of us.

Tom Wilson, cartoonist

Timothy Sykes

Remember this: No matter what happens after taking a risk, you’ll always learn from the experience.

Timothy Sykes, Stock Trader and Entrepreneur

Henry David Thoreau

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

Henry David Thoreau, writer

Charles Darwin

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

Charles Darwin, naturalist and author (1809-1882)

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Your task is not to foresee the future, but to enable it.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, writer and aviator

Shannon Alder

The lesson will always repeat itself, unless you see yourself as the problem — not others.

Shannon Alder, author

William Butler Yeats

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

William Butler Yeats, writer, Nobel laureate (1865-1939)

Jerome Kagan

Genes and family may determine the foundation of the house, but time and place determine its form.

Jerome Kagan, American psychologist

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your reactions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet and philosopher

Akira Kurosawa

There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.

Akira Kurosawa, Film Director, Screenwriter, Producer

Adlai Stevenson II

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.

Adlai Stevenson II, politician and diplomat

Washington Irving

Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.

Washington Irving, writer

George Bernard Shaw

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer

Andreas Nikolaus “Niki” Lauda

What would life be like if we only did what is necessary?

Andreas Nikolaus “Niki” Lauda, Three-Time Formula One Racing Champion

Seneca

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

Seneca, philosopher

Gita Mehta

Without desire there is no life. Everything will stand still. Become emptiness.

Gita Mehta, Indian-American writer

Vernon Law

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.

Vernon Law, Major League Baseball Pitcher

Marcus Aurelius

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

Marcus Aurelius, the fourteenth Roman emperor who governed in the second century A.D.

Herbert Bayard Swope

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure–which is: Try to please everybody.

Herbert Bayard Swope, 1882-1958

Thomas Fuller

All things are difficult before they are easy.

Thomas Fuller, Writer, Churchman, Historian

Walter Scott

Too much rest is rust.

Walter Scott, novelist, playwright and poet

Albert Einstein

Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: It is character.

Albert Einstein, German physicist

Calvin Coolidge

Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

Calvin Coolidge, 30th US president

Benjamin Disraeli

We are not creatures of circumstance; we are creators of circumstance.

Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881

Alvin Toffler

The illiterate of the future are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

Alvin Toffler

Johann Sebastian Bach

I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well.

Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer

Isaac Asimov

A poor idea well written is more likely to be accepted than a good idea poorly written.

Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)

Aristotle

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

Aristotle, 384 BC-322 BC

Thomas Edison

Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas Edison, American inventor

Joseph Addison

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Joseph Addison, 17th century English writer

Eleanor Roosevelt

The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.

Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady to the 26th US President, diplomat and activist

Pablo Casals

The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all.

Pablo Casals, cellist, conductor, and composer (1876-1973)

John Locke

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704)

Yogi Berra

You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.

Yogi Berra, Hall of Fame American baseball player and manager

Arthur Ashe

You’ve got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing.

Arthur Ashe, professional tennis player

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher (1770-1831)

Louis L’Amour

Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.

Louis L’Amour, American writer

Warren Bennis

The truth is, we’re products of everything – genes, environment, family, friends, trade winds, earthquakes, sunspots, schools, accidents, serendipity, anything you can think of, and more. What distinguishes the leader from everyone else is that he or she takes all of that and creates a new, unique self.

Warren Bennis, a pioneer in the study of leadership

Charles F. Kettering

A problem well stated is a problem half solved.

Charles F. Kettering, US electrical engineer & inventor (1876 – 1958)

Sallust

They envy the distinction I have won; let them therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it.

Sallust, 86 BC-34 BC

Desiderius Erasmus

Fortune favors the audacious.

Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch social critic and scholar

John Wooden

Talent is God-given; be humble. Fame is man-given; be thankful. Conceit is self-given; be careful.

John Wooden, American basketball coach

Alexander Pope

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying … that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

Alexander Pope, poet

Harold Geneen

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.

Harold Geneen, business leader

Marcus Tullius Cicero

What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE)

Dany Garcia

Your job is not to run everything, but make sure everything runs.

Dany Garcia, Co-Founder of Seven Bucks Productions

Naguib Mahfouz

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.

Naguib Mahfouz, writer, Nobel laureate (1911-2006)

Woodrow Wilson

Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.

Woodrow Wilson, 28th U.S. President, 1856-1924

Thomas J. Watson

A man is known by the company he keeps. A company is known by the men it keeps.

Thomas J. Watson, businessman (1874-1956)

Auguste Rodin

Patience is also a form of action.

Auguste Rodin, sculptor (1840-1917)

Alex Marwood

Most people have to get to a point where they don’t have a choice before they’ll change something.

Alex Marwood, writer

Benjamin Franklin

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

Benjamin Franklin, Writer, Philanthropist, Scientist, Statesman, Abolitionist

Isaac Newton

Men build too many walls and not enough bridges.

Isaac Newton, physicist, mathematician, and philosopher

Edith Wharton

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.

Edith Wharton, Novelist

Marilyn Ferguson

It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it’s that place in between that we fear …. It’s like being between trapezes. It’s Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold on to.

Marilyn Ferguson, author

Mark Zuckerberg

The only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.

Mark Zuckerberg, entrepreneur

Martin E. P. Seligman

A pessimistic attitude may seem so deeply rooted as to be permanent. I have found, however, that pessimism is escapable. Pessimists can in fact learn to be optimists, and not through mindless devices like whistling a happy tune or mouthing platitudes, but by learning a new set of cognitive skills.

Martin E. P. Seligman, psychologist and bestselling author on optimism

Margaret Fuller

Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow.

Margaret Fuller, Journalist

Thomas Jefferson

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President

Laurel Mellin

The essential pain is the downside, the risk, the reality of the human condition you must face to follow through with your reasonable expectation. The earned reward is the upside, the advantage, the blessing of life you will receive if you follow through. Experiencing them over and over is how we retrain our feeling brain and grow ourselves up from the inside out.

Laurel Mellin, author and associate clinical professor

Nikos Kazantzakis

True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own.

Nikos Kazantzakis, poet and novelist (1883-1957)

Lucretius

For as children tremble and fear everything in the blind darkness, so we in the light sometimes fear what is no more to be feared than the things children in the dark hold in terror and imagine will come true.

Lucretius, poet and philosopher

Mark Twain

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.

Mark Twain, author, 1835-1910

Harry S. Truman

In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves. … Self-discipline with all of them came first.

Harry S. Truman, 33rd U.S. President

Marilyn Ferguson

Ultimately, we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.

Marilyn Ferguson, author

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