Motivation quotes
2.8K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside motivation — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"My attitude going into training camp as a rookie was to impress. I wanted to impress my teammates, my coaches, the owners, everybody. I wanted them to say, ?This kid is special. This kid has the right mind, the right skills, the right motivation?."
"Failure gave me strength. Pain was my motivation"
"When I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it's time for me to move away from the game."
"These books ain't window dressing. I think Machiavelli's the most sophisticated writer outside of Shakespeare. Way ahead of his time. Such a manipulative person. Everything he accomplished he did by kissin' ass."
"If you help others with sincere motivation and sincere concern, that will bring you more fortune, more friends, more smiles, and more success. If you forget about others' rights and neglect others' welfare, ultimately you will be very lonely."
"It is important to understand that counterproducti ve actions of body, speech and mind do not arise of their own accord, but spring up in dependence on our motivation. Faulty states of mind give rise to faulty actions. To control negative physical and verbal actions, we need to tame our minds."
"You are the people who are shaping a better world. One of the secrets of inner peace is the practice of compassion."
"Every human action, whether it has become positive or negative, must depend on motivation."
"A good motivation is what is needed: compassion without dogmatism, without complicated philosophy; just understanding that others are human brothers and sisters and respecting their human rights and dignities. That we humans can help each other is one of our unique human capacities."
"Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer."
"The dream is a world in which anyone who has anything bad happen to them has a chance of getting their story uploaded, being seen, being watched."
"A good design is not a democratic consensus."
"Every mode of transport that we use - whether it's planes, trains, automobiles, bikes, horses - is reusable, but not rockets. So we must solve this problem in order to become a space-faring civilization."
"By focusing on positive, healthy motivations and letting the more negative ones pass, you can purify the source of you imaginative power."
"I certainly understand that we're all trying to make a living, but I'm not thinking about that when I'm making it. And if that's your sole motivation, it's going to reflect that narcissistic greed and you're going to hear it in the music."
"After directing awhile, you get an instinct about it, but you have to be able to trust your own feelings. Invariably, two-thirds of the way through a film, you say, "Jeezus, is this a pile of crap! What did I ever see in it in the first place?" You have to shut off your brain and forge ahead, because by that time you're getting so brainwashed. Once I commit myself to a film I commit myself to that ending, whatever the motivations and conclusions are."
"Lack of planning is the cause of most failures."
"A feeling of continuous growth is a wonderful source of motivation and self confidence."
"Winding up unfinished business with another person can give you a great burst of positive energy."
"One of the things we know is that you cannot motivate other people, but you can remove the obstacles that stop them from motivating themselves. All motivation is self-motivation."
