Inspiration Flashcards
Henry David Thoreau on imagination
This world is but a canvas to our imagination.
Robert Louis Stevenson on measuring success
Don’t judge each day by the harvest reaped but by the seeds you plant
Ralph Waldo Emerson on what to do when you’re afraid
Always do what you are afraid to do.
Lucretius on hollowing a stone
Constant dripping hollows out a stone
Jane Goodall on your contribution
What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make
Ernest Hemingway on nobility
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
Edmund Burke on the great mistake
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little
Vince Lombardi on resolve
It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up
John F Kennedy on what we can do
My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country
F Scott Fitzgerald on test of intelligence
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function
Babe Ruth on persistence
It’s hard to beat someone who doesn’t give up
William James on our own actions
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does
Marilyn Vos Savant on being defeated
Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent
Confucious on a man’s words and his actions
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions
F. Scott Fitzgerald on confusing defeat
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat
Maya Angelou on what people will remember about you
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel
Michael Jordan on pregame outlook
I have failed many times, but I have never gone into a game expecting myself to fail
Winston Churchill on what we are the master of
We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls
Albert Einstein on insanity
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Steve Martin on the course
The course was more plodding than heroic: I did not strive valiantly against the doubters but took incremental steps studded with a few intuitive leaps.
Ralph Waldo Emerson on our own power
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us
Jim Ryun on what keeps you going
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going
Maya Angelou on keeping your story silent
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you
Winston Churchill on what’s required
Sometimes it is not enough to do our best; we must do what is required
Albert Einstein on problems and opportunities
Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity
Franklin D Rosevelt on keeping it together
When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on
Abraham Lincoln on whatever you are
Whatever you are, be a good one
Audrey Hepburn on nothing is impossible
Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!
Stella Juarez on stretching beyond our limits
Only the weak attempts to accomplish what he knows he can already achieve
Martin Luther King jnr on faith
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase
Horace on acting
Don’t think, just do
Winston Churchill on failure and success
Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts
Aldous Huxley on achieving happiness
Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities
Nelson Mandela on the impossible
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
Rainer Maria Rilke on facing difficulties
That something is difficult must be one more reason for us to do it
Franklin D. Roosevelt on trying
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something
Sid Caesar on living life
In between goals is a thing called life, that has to be lived and enjoyed
Ralph Waldo Emerson on getting in ones own way
Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine
Winston Churchill on achieving success
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Knute Rockne on practicing sportsmanship
One man practicing sportsmanship is better than a 100 teaching it
Napolean Bonaparte on what a leader is
A leader is a dealer in hope
Albert Einstein on solving problems created by ourselves
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Leo Buscaglia on risk
Risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing
Mark Twain on developing habits
Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time
Mark Twain on what we will regret
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do
Benjamin Franklin on avoiding procrastination
Never leave till tomorrow which you can do today
C. JoyBell C. on what fear means
Don’t be afraid of your fears. They’re not there to scare you. They’re there to let you know that something is worth it
Franklin D. Roosevelt on men’s fate
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
Anonymous on what doesn’t make a skillfull mariner
A smooth sea never made a skillfull mariner
Woody Allen on success
Eighty percent of success is showing up
Franklin D. Roosevelt on standing still
There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still
Guattama Budda on what we are they author of
Every human being is the author of his own health or disease
Franklin D. Roosevelt on fear
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Neale Donald Walsch on discomfit and life
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Confucious on moving a mountain
The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away stones
Will Durant on habits
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit
Lynn Jennings on excercising the mind
Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like muscles of the body
John Dewey on the most important attitude
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning
Ralph Waldo Emerson on enthusiasm
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
Walt Whitman on curiosity
Be curious, not judgmental.
Ernest Hemingway on trust
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them
Socrates on moving the world
To move the world we must first move ourselves
Maya Angelou on Defeat
We may encounter many defeats, but we must never be defeated
Winston Churchill on making a living
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give
Dalai Lama XIV on road to happiness
People take different roads seeking fulfilment and happiness. Just because they are not on the same road as you does not mean they’ve gotten lost
Mark Twain on what the world owes us
Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Joan Baez on action
Action is the antidote to despair
Stephen Convey on force behind our lives
We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals
Mark Twain on secret of getting ahead
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.
Benjamin Franklin on action over words
Well done is better than well said
George Bernard Shaw on making yourself
Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself
Theodore Roosevelt on men making mistakes
The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything
Richard Bach on a winner’s mindset
Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can
Richard Monckton Milnes on where the virtue lies
The virtue lies in the struggle, not in the prize.
Winston Churchill on hope
Never, never, never give up
Martin Luther King jnr on what time it is
The time is always right to do what is right
Allan K Chalmers on essentials of life
The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for
Winston Churchill on courage
Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend
Edmund Hilary on what we conquer
It’s not the mountain that we conquer but ourselves
John Ruskin on the highest reward
The highest reward for one’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it
Michael Jordan on failure
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying
Walt Disney on dreams and courage
All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them
John F Kennedy on expressing grattitude
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
Mother Teresa on waiting for leaders
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person
Bill Withers on perseverance
You can’t get to good without passing through alright
Maya Angelou on becoming a butterfly
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
Annie Dillard on how we spend our lives
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives
Charles Kettering on clarity
A problem well stated is a problem half solved
Lillian Hellman on what happens over time
Things start out as hopes and end up as habits
Benjamin Desraeli on taking action
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
Ralph Waldo Emerson on experimenting
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better
Margaret Runbeck on getting to happiness
Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling
Henry Ford on outlook
Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right
John Di Lemme on self belief
Believe in yourself. If you don’t, then no one else will have a reason to
Nelson Mandela what courage is
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear
Nido Qubein on cost of discipline
The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret
Ralph Waldo Emerson on our greatest glory
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
George Eliot on choice
It’s never too late to be who you might have been
Theodore Roosevelt on making the most of what you have
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are
Ralph Waldo Emerson on inventors
We are all inventors…guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate
Churchill on price of greatness
The price of greatness is responsibility
Henry Longfellow on how men reach their heights
The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night
Honore De Balzac in what habits make up
The habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the countenance
Joshua J. Marine on overcoming challenges
Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful
John Irving on good habits
Good habits are worth being fanatical about
Aristotle on achieving happiness
Happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusements but in virtuous activities
John M Good on what happiness consists of
Happiness consists in activity: such is the constitution of our nature; it is a running stream, and not a stagnant pool
Andy Rooney on growth
Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it
Christopher Reeve on what out dreams start out as
So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable
Walt Disney on when we believe in a thing
When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.
Oscar Wilde on morality and art similarity
Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace
Dalai Lama on what makes happiness
Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions
Confucious on when our goals seem unreachable
When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.
Mahatma Ghandi on what our values become
Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny
Ralph Waldo Emerson reward for doing things
The reward for a thing done well is to have it done
Horace Mann on what habit is
Habit is a cable; we weave a thread each day, and at last we cannot break it
Arthur C Clarke on what is possible
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible
Michael Jordan on why he is a success
I have failed many times, and that is why I am a success
Lao Tzu on how we start a long journey
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step
Muhammad Ali on what it takes to become a champion
To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are
Zig Ziglar on people who wander around
People don’t tend to wander around and suddenly find themselves at the top of Mt Everest
Napolean Hill on waiting
Don’t wait. The time will never be just right
Titch Nhat Hahn on what to do
Smile, breathe and go slowly
Florence Nightingale on how she achieved her success
I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.
Burton Hills on achieving happiness
Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life
Cicero on gratitude
Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all the others
Anonymous on what the the successful person is
The successful man is the average man, focused
Criss Jami on the climb
The harder you fall, the heavier your heart; the heavier your heart, the stronger you climb; the stronger you climb, the higher your pedestal.
Mahatma Gandhi on living and learning
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever
Eleanor Roosevelt on fear
Do one thing that scares you every day
Bruce Lee on thinking about things
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done
Langston Hughes on protecting dreams
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird, that cannot fly
Paul Brandt on limitations
Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon on
Louis Sachar the way forward
It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward
Marcel Proust on discovery
The real journey of discovery lies not in seeking new lanscapes but in seeing with new eyes
Maya Angelou on courage
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently
T.S. Eliot on next year’s language
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice
Ghandi on being the change
Be the change you want to see in the world
Ralph Waldo Emerson on action over theory
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory
Stephen King on starting
You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will
Aristotle on mental energy
The energy of the mind is the energy of life
Ralph Waldow Emerson on life
Life is journey, not a destination
Antoine de Saint-Exupery on how we must live
But the eyes are blind, one must live with the heart
Eleanor Roosevelt on what the new day brings
With the new day comes strength and new thoughts
Paulo Coelho on the secret of life
The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times
Michael Jordan on doing the work
If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life
Elizabeth Gilbert on where happiness comes from
Happiness is the consequence of personal effort
St Clement of Alexandria on the importance of hope
If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes
Maya Angelou on what achievements require
All great achievements require time
Ralph Waldo Emerson on time
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
Grace Hopper on purpose
A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships were built for
Ralph Waldo Emerson on what god won’t allow
God will not have his work made manifest by cowards
