Motivation quotes
2.8K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside motivation — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"One of the things that I did before I ran for president is I was a professional speaker. Not a motivational speaker - an inspirational speaker. Motivation comes from within. You have to be inspired. That's what I do. I inspire people, I inspire the public, I inspire my staff. I inspired the organizations I took over to want to succeed."
"Beyond the profound federal perks, married people make more money; we're healthier, physically and emotionally; we produce happier, more stable and more successful kids; we have more sex than our supposedly swinging single friends; we even live longer."
"[Newlyweds,] these optimistic young bastards, promise to honor and cherish each other through hot flashes and mid-life crises and a cumulative 50-pound weight gain, until that far-off day when one of them is finally able to rest in peace. You know, because they can't hear the snoring anymore."
"Merely watching a romantic comedy causes relationship satisfaction to plummet. Apparently, the bitter realization that maybe it could happen to us, but it obviously hasn't and it probably never will, makes our lives seem unbearably grim in comparison."
"Our mistakes and failures are always the first to strike us, and outweigh in our imagination what we have accomplished and attained."
"I have learned God doesn't always change those people we want Him to change; instead, He often uses them to change us."
"We should choose our thoughts carefully. We can think about what is wrong with our lives or about what is right with them."
"Clearly, mythology is no toy for children. Nor is it a matter of archaic, merely scholarly concern, of no moment to modern men of action. For its symbols (whether in the tangible form of images or in the abstract form of ideas) touch and release the deepest centers of motivation, moving literate and illiterate alike, moving mobs, moving civilizations."
"The satisfaction that accompanies good acts is itself not the motivation of the act; satisfaction is not the motive, but only the consequence."
"There are guys, the weekenders, who can go out and get loaded and they're having fun and partying - which is a term I deplore, partying - and it's all recreational and they're having a ball. I never had that. It was never about recreation. Not. Ever. That was never my motivation. Not once!"
"In order to find, you must first search."
"When you're younger, you go out and you're convivial because you have to be. But once you don't have to meet people anymore, what's your motivation in going out?"
"Prisoners learn how to make do with less, and many of them want to take this ingenuity that they've learned to the outside ... but there's no training, nothing to prepare them for that."
"For 200 years, the West has been so dominant in the world that it's not really needed to understand other cultures, other civilizations. Because, at the end of the day, it could, if necessary by force, get its own way."
"The Chinese view the state, not just as an intimate member of the family ... but as the head of the family."
"My father Big Max told me many years ago that 'anything you are good at will contribute to your happiness'. Great advice."
"I've never been uncomfortable with the host of modern gurus, and gurus of different motivations I should say, or different intentions. You know, we are moving into a time where it's extremely commercial, but then I keep reminding those that I speak to that consciousness has no products, it really has no commerciality."
"I'll fight anybody my trainer puts me in with because I'm confident I can beat any fighter in the world. If anybody can see I'm almost a master at evading punches coming at me."
"These pigeons have been living with each other for 10 or 15 years, but when I throw feed down, they kill each other to get it, and it's the same with the fighters. We love and respect each other...but we need that money."
"All we do our prayers our work our suffering is for Jesus. Our life has no other reason or motivation."
