Inspirational quotes
“All great achievements require time.”
“All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.”
“Anything that works against you can also work for you once you understand the Principle of Reverse.”
“Determine to live life with flair and laughter.”
“Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”
“Effective action is always unjust.”
“Everybody is worth everything.”
“You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.”
“I believe that every person is born with talent.”
“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.”
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
“My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.”
“No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again and bring the dawn.”
“Nothing will work unless you do.”
“The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”
“The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.”
“The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud.”
“To develop courage you have to start developing courage as you do any other muscle. You have to start with small things and build it up.”
“We need much less than we think we need.”
“We need to not be in denial about what we’ve done, what we’ve come through. It will help us if we all do that.”
“When you know you are of worth—not asking it but knowing it—you walk into a room with particular power.”
“Whining is just unbecoming.”
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
“You only are free when you realize you belong no place – you belong every place – no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.”
“Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.”
Quotes about love
“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
“First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love.”
“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
“I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love.”
“I know for sure that love saves me and that it is here to save us all.”
“I’ve never had a dislike for men. I’ve been badly treated by some. But I’ve been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them.”
“If we lose love and self respect for each other this is how we finally die.”
“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”
“If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.”
“If you want to liberate someone, love them. Not be in love with them – that’s dangerous.”
“In a flush of love’s light we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet, it is only love which sets us free.”
“It’s very hard for adults to maintain respect and romance so that a love affair can be sustained over years.”
“Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.”
“Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it empowers us to develop courage; to trust that courage and build bridges with it; to trust those bridges and cross over them so we can attempt to reach each other.”
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
“Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.”
“Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”
“This is what I am learning, at 82 years old: the main thing is to be in love with the search for truth.”
“To those who have given up on love, I say, ‘Trust life a little bit.’”
“We are here to love each other. That is why you are alive. That is what life is for.”
“We are only as blind as we want to be.”
“We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.”
“Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.”
“When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe.”
“If you happen to fall in love with someone in another race, it’s more difficult, because you have to translate yourself.”
“If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die.”
“Suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.”
Quotes about life
“Live as though life was created for you.”
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
“There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.”
“Determine to live life with flair and laughter.”
“This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.”
“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
“Every day I awaken I am grateful. My intent is to be totally present in that day. And laugh as much as possible.”
“Happiness is a chance to talk to a friend, to hear good music, to have a good glass of wine. Happiness is a chance to be myself and to find people with whom I agree or who I don’t agree but I can learn something.”
“I believe in living a poetic life, an art full life. Everything we do from the way we raise our children to the way we welcome our friends is part of a large canvas we are creating.”
“I had to trust life since I was young enough to believe that life loved the person who dared to live it.”
“I try to see every day as a celebration.”
“Love life. Engage in it. Give it all you’ve got. Love it with a passion because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it.”
“I work very hard, and I play very hard. I’m grateful for life. And I live it. I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it.”
“I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.”
“I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.”
“If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully.”
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
“Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.”
“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, “I‘m with you kid. Let’s go”.”
“Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.”
“My mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive: and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style.”
“Open your eyes to the beauty around you, open your mind to the wonders of life, open your heart to those who love you, and always be true to yourself.”
“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
“She comprehended the perversity of life, that in the struggle lies the joy.”
“Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude.”
“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
“The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.”
“Try to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue and inertia and timidity.”
Quotes about Strength
“I am not competing with anyone other than myself. I want to be excellent at whatever I do.”
“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”
“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise!”
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
“Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.”
“The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.”
“I not only have the right to stand up for myself, but I have the responsibility. I can’t ask somebody else to stand up for me if I won’t stand up for myself. And once you stand up for yourself, you’d be surprised that people say, ‘Can I be of help?’”
“Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.”
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.”
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
“Stand up straight and realize who you are, that you tower over your circumstances.”
“In diversity, there is beauty and there is strength.”
“You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, you may tread me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
“The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination.”
“I created myself. I have taught myself so much.”
Quotes about Courage
“We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat, so that we can know who we are.”
“Courage—you develop courage by doing small things just as if you wouldn’t want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself.”
“Courage, I don’t think anybody is born with courage. I think you may be born with a flair to braggadocio, you know. That’s not courage.”
“Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.”
“I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity, is daring to dare.”
“I did get knocked down flat in front of the whole world, and I rose. I didn’t run away – I rose right where I’d been knocked down. And then that’s how you get to know yourself.”
“I have enough of life in me to make somebody jealous enough to want to knock me down. I have so much courage in me that I have the effrontery, the incredible gall to stand up. That’s it. That’s how you get to know who you are.”
“If one has courage, nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”
“If somebody is really trying to take your head off with a baseball bat – I don’t know how long you’re supposed to stand there and turn the other cheek, so he or she can get a better angle at taking your head off.”
“In order to win, we pay with energy and effort and discipline. If we lose, we pay in disappointment, discontent, and lack of fulfillment.”
“In the latter years of your life, your happiness and your self-esteem will be determined by the mountains you surmounted, the valleys you climbed out of, and the life and/or career that you forged for yourself.”
“My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth.”
“The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.”
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”
“Those who have something to say accept the fact that that’s lonely. One already knows that there will be adversaries.”
“To develop courage you have to start developing courage as you do any other muscle. You have to start with small things and build them up.”
“Whining lets the brute know there’s a victim for him in the neighborhood.”
“Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.”
“You have to deal with what you encounter. But you must not be reduced. And so a way not to be reduced is don’t whine! Don’t let the incidents which take place in life bring you low.”
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
Quotes about Success
“Success is loving life and daring to live it.”
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
“Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more.”
“All great achievements require time.”
“All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.”
“Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it.”
“Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.”
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
“Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.”
“I do my best because I’m counting on you counting on me.”
“I think a hero is any person really intent on making his a better place for all people.”
“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.”
“If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”
“My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.”
“Nothing will work unless you do.”
“Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.”
“Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.”
“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.”
“A leader sees greatness in other people. He nor she can be much of a leader if all she sees is herself.”
Quotes about woman
“A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.”
“A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and herself only.”
“A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek him just to find her.”
“Courage allows the successful woman to fail – and to learn powerful lessons from the failure – so that in the end, she didn’t fail at all.”
“Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent ourselves daily. If a person does not invent herself, she will be invented. So, to be bodacious enough to invent ourselves is wise.”
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
“I am a woman phenomenally, phenomenal woman that is your grandmother, that is your mother, that is your sister, that is you and that is me.”
“I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.”
“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels.”
“I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.”
“Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.”
“Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives.”
Quotes about friendship
“In order to be a friend you have to be a friend.”
“Only equals can become friends.”
“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.”
“We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”
“No one can take the place of a friend, no one.”
“The most called upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.”
“A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.”
“There is an intimate laughter to be found only among friends.”
“Only equals can become friends.”
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”
Quotes about family
“I believe everything is energy. I believe that the meal you serve yourself, you prepare, is energy. And if you serve it to your family, it’s your gift of energy to them.”
“I sustain myself with the love of family.”
“If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. ”
“The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society.”
“My mother raised me, and then freed me.”
“My mother is full of joy and life, I am her child, and that is better than being the child of anyone else in the world.”
“To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing falling colors of a rainbow.”
“Families are held together by choice. Members are alike and unalike, yet there is comfort in the sameness and excitement in the differences. ”
“When we respect and relish both conditions, we can call ourselves family.”
“Home is a refuge, not only from the world but a refuge from my worries, my terrible concerns.”
“A mother’s love liberates.”
“I do not believe that the accident of birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them siblings. Gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood are conditions people have to work at. It’s a serious matter. You compromise, you give, you take, you stand firm, and you’re relentless…And it is an investment. Sisterhood means if you happen to be in Burma and I happen to be in San Diego and I’m married to someone who is very jealous and you’re married to somebody who is very possessive, if you call me in the middle of the night, I have to come.”
“I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.”
“If I have a monument in this world, it is my son.”
“If you’re in love with your children, you’re in their lives all the time. Leave them alone. Let them grow and make some mistakes.”
Quotes about education
“I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.”
“I do hope that young men and women will start to think for themselves and start to take responsibility for their own thoughts.”
“We need to remember to teach our children that solitude can be a much-to-be-desired condition. Not only is it acceptable to be alone; at times it is positively to be wished for…..In the silence we listen to ourselves. Then we ask questions of ourselves. We describe ourselves to ourselves, and in the quietude we may even hear the voice of God.”
“I think we have systematically and critically harmed ourselves and many young people by advising them not to try things.”
“My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.”
“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”
“Each child belongs to all of us and they will bring us a tomorrow in direct relation to the responsibility we have shown to them.”
“The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.”
“There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”
Quotes about Black History, Racism
“I’m a descendant of someone bought and sold, and brought in 1619 in what was to become the United States.”
“All of my history as an African-American woman, as a Jewish woman, as a Muslim woman. I’m bringing everything I ever knew, and all the stories I’ve read – everything good, strong, kind and powerful. I bring it all with me into every situation, and I will not allow my life to be minimized by anybody’s racism or sexism or ageism.”
“As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.”
“Don’t hesitate to learn the most painful aspects of our history, understand it.”
“For Africa to me… is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.”
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”
“I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people.”
“I have great respect for the past.”
“I would encourage us all, African Americans, Asians, Latinos, Whites, Native Americans to study history. I long for the time when all the human history is taught as one history. I am stronger because you are stronger. I am weaker if you are weak. So we are more alike than we are unlike.”
“It is imperative that young white men and women study the black American history. It is imperative that blacks and whites study the Asian American history.”
“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
“My people couldn’t have survived slavery without having hope that it would get better.”
“The country didn’t get that way in a week; we’ve had years and years of getting behind in our economy. So President Obama stepped into a hellhole and people wanted him to change it as soon as he came in. But he’s got his adversaries to deal with in the House and Senate, so it’s not easy.”
“The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.”
“There’s racism and sexism and ageism and all sorts of idiocies. But bad news is not news. We’ve had bad news as a species for a long time. We’ve had slavery and human sacrifice and the holocaust and brutalities of such measure.”
“There’s something beautiful about the fact that Obama was not just elected, but elected decisively across racial, and socio-economic and cultural groups and that we all celebrated in his win.”
“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.”
