Get into Action: 77 Thoughts on Motivation
You have a fire inside you, a frictional energy, read these thoughts, think about them and let them propel you into action.
| 1. “I paint very large pictures. I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them, however – I think it applies to other painters I know – is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it.” - Mark Rothko |  |
| 2. “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” - Henry Ford |  |
| 3. “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” -T.S. Eliot |  |
| 4. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” - Albert Einstein |  |
| 5. “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” - Goethe |  |
| 6. “The best way out is always through.” - Robert Frost |  |
| 7. “Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.” - Voltaire |  |
| 8. “We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.” - Emerson |  |
| 9. “When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.” - Nelson Mandela |  |
| 10. “It's kind of fun to do the impossible.” - Walt Disney | 
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| 11. "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." - Steve Jobs |  |
| 12. "The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success." - Bruce Feirstein |  |
| 13. "In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? - the cuckoo clock. " -Orson Wells |
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| 14. "Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal." - Nietzsche |  |
| 15. “Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.” - Leonardo da Vinci |  |
| 16. “It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.” - Mark Twain |  |
| 17. “Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.” - Maya Angelou |  |
| 18. “Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” - George S. Patton |  |
| 19. “Action expresses priorities.” - Mahatma Gandhi |  |
| 20. “Live the life you've dreamed” - Henry David Thoreau |  |
| 21. “It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.” - William Somerset Maugham |  |
| 22. "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' " - Muhammad Ali |  |
| 23. “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” - Pablo Picasso |  |
| 24. “What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.” - Goethe | |
| 25. “I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.” - Tesla |  |
| 26. “Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.” - Machiavelli |  |
| 27. “Eureka! I've got it.” - Archimedes |  |
| 28. “I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” - G. K. Chesterton |  |
| 29. “The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible — and achieve it, generation after generation.” - Pearl S. Buck |  |
| 30. “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.” - Richard branson |  |
| 31. "There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose the ventures before us" - William Shakespeare |
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| 32. “Hell! There ain't no rules around here! We're trying to accomplish somep'n” - Thomas Edison |  |
| 33. “There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything.” - Vauvenargues |  |
| 34. “Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture” - William James |  |
| 35. “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” - André Gide |  |
| 36. “Age considers; youth ventures.” - Rabindranath Tagore |  |
| 37. “Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it.” - Billy Durant |  |
| 38. “The two important things I did learn were that you are as powerful and strong as you allow yourself to be, and that the most difficult part of any endeavour is taking the first step, making the first decision.” - Robyn Davidson |  |
| 39. “It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” - Seneca |  |
| 40. “Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.” - Phillip Adams |  |
| 41. “Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” - Demosthenes |  |
| 42. “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” - Winston Churchill |  |
| 43. “In Ourselves are Triumphs and Defeats.” -Longfellow |  |
| 44. “It matters not the number of years in your life. It is the life in your years.” - Abraham Lincoln |  |
| 45. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” - Mark Twain |  |
| 46. “As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.” - Chanakya |  |
| 47. “The ones who want to achieve and win championships motivate themselves.” - Mike Ditka |  |
| 48. “Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.” - Lou Holtz |  |
| 49. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” - Michael Jordan |  |
| 50. “One of the things that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people's expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expectations, and those are the only things I really care about.” - Tiger Woods |  |
| 51. “Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice.” - François de La Rochefoucauld |  |
| 52. “I still feel like I gotta prove something. There are a lot of people hoping I fail. But I like that. I need to be hated.” -Howard Stern |  |
| 53. “It's funny how all the magazines can dwell on my race, but they could never say that my shit is whack because they know my shit is tight!” - Eminem |  |
| 54. “Actors search for rejection. If they don't get it they reject themselves.” - Charlie Chaplin |  |
| 55. “No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess” - Newton |  |
| 56. “Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions.” - David Hume |  |
| 57. “Anyone can dabble, but once you've made that commitment, your blood has that particular thing in it, and it's very hard for people to stop you.” - Bill Cosby |  |
| 58. “Learning is not child's play; we cannot learn without pain” - Aristotle |  |
| 59. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” - Einstein | |
| 60. “Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what he loves.” - Blaise Pascal |  |
| 61. “When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn. ” - John Wesley |  |
| 62. “One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.” - E. M. Forster |  |
| 63. “Take our 20 best people away, and I will tell you that Microsoft will become an unimportant company” - Bill Gates |  |
| 64. “When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.” -Larry Ellison |  |
| 65. “A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them: they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.” - Sigmund Freud |  |
| 66. “Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power.” - Clint Eastwood |  |
| 67. “Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory.” - Sun Tzu |  |
| 68. “Do not sleep under a roof. Carry no money or food. Go alone to places frightening to the common brand of men.” - Miyamoto Musashi |  |
| 69. “He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.” - Michel de Montaigne |  |
| 70. “All that counts in life is intention.” - Andrea Bocelli |  |
| 71. “Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.” - Cicero |  |
| 72. “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.” - Feynman |  |
| 73. “We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau |  |
| 74. “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” - Emerson | |
| 75. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” - Thomas Edison | |
| 76. "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." - Michelangelo |  |
| 77. “Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” - Buddha |  |
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[...] • 77 Great thoughts on the nature of motivation. [...]
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[...] Thoughts on motivation Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Published: December 12, 2011 Filed Under: Uncategorized [...]
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[...] 34. “Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture” - William James 33. “There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything.” - Vauvenargues Ideas, Strategy & Creatives & Get into Action: 77 Thoughts on... - StumbleUpon [...]
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[...] Get into Action: 77 Thoughts on Motivation [...]
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[...] If you need some words to auto-motivate yourself: http://dudye.com/get-in-to-action-77-thoughts-on-motivation/ [...]
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[...] from Michaelangelo and Aristotle to Freud, Abe Lincoln and Churchill. You can find the list on dudye.com. This entry was posted in leadership by Tom Bishop. Bookmark the [...]
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[...] of Thoughts on Motivation Share this:TwitterFacebookStumbleUponPinterestTumblrLike this:LikeBe the first to like [...]
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[...] Get into action: 77 thoughts on motivation: I'm a fan of quotes. I've always wanted to start a little quote library for myself. The only problem is that so many of them are mis-attributed, and so many times I find an interesting quote and want to share it, but don't want to contribute to the problem of mis-attributed quotes so I research and find out that the dude never even said that. -Michael Scott [...]
Life and everything in it ,
is a gift from the Infinite mind,
and the only way life can go wrong
is through the limits of the Finite mind
Thank You for this.
Brilliant quotes from brilliant minds. Thanks!
Some of the most incredible quotes I've never heard here. Wow. Having a moment... My Facebook and Twitter friends are going to hate me for posting so many of these.
Many thanks, great post!
So inspiring!
Some amazing and inspirational thoughts , never get tired of reading them
Grat post! Great thoughts of even greater people! Many thanks for the lecture!
Oh, I really liked reading all these at the very end of a long, long day. Helps make all the work seem lighter.
An opportunity, a relationship, a marriage, your life...................is as good as you make it.
Don Fineberg
Great collection of inspirational quotes. I was surprised at how many of these I had never encountered before.
Amazing quotes. Worth the read. There will always be one out there that is perfect for your current situation.
The moral: All great minds have one thing in common--the will. Will can carry you to dizzying heights; from nowhere to everywhere. If the will is there, nothing is insurmountable, nothing impossible.
Wonderful
Thank you for the wonderful collection here. As others have said, there were so many I had never read before and all were genuinely inspiring. Thank you for the boost of motivation that is necessary in starting something new!
"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And when I am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"
-Hillel, Ethics of Our Fathers, Talmud
the only limits we have, are those we create by ourselves, ....go act the word is within reach....
Excellent post: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” - Thomas Edison
3 women out of 77 quotes? Thanks for representing.
Doesn't 29 make you think immediately of mark zuckerburg?
Live each day as it was your last.. someday you will be correct.
“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” - Demosthenes . This is so true... to have a great enterprise from scratch, requires great skills and natural talents.
Some great and inspiring quotes, I am bookmarking your page for later.
They are great thinkers, Thank you for your article, and sometimes we are always on some simple mistakes, and will repeat, many times to do one thing, we need to think calmly
Share this article later, very good
Visteme despacio, que ando de prisa. Napoleon Bonaparte
Before the game I know everybody and I love them, after the game I know everybody and ai love them. For 90 minutes ai know nobody. Jose Mourinho
What’s the difference between motivation and inspiration? Motivation impels us to do; inspiration compels us to feel. A few rare things…and people…do both. ~ Scott Allen
I found lots of great wisdom in your quotes. I'll have to "borrow" a few.
I just spend almost a full hour reading and meditating on each and every
quote from all these great human beings. These wonderful collection of
thoughts could as well be contained in a small pocket book to carry around wherever we go, and basically read them whenever one needs a little boost of "inspirational motivation". Great job!!!
It’s not the work that is hard, it’s the discipline.... Love this site!
Why is there nothing Jesus said on this list?
Great minds do indeed think alike!
Thank You
I appreciate all of the quotes above and especially this one by Larry Ellison “When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.” -Larry Ellison
To read them is not enough though. We need to meditate upon them until we feel them in our hearts and spirits. We will than understand them and apply the wisdom within.
Enjoy!
Stephane
I was very inspired until getting to Maya Angelou's gutter mouth attempt at the profound. "Kick Ass", how profound.
No matter what you do; I strongly believe this 77 motivational thoughts can help you!
We are living in a highly competitive and challenging world. To stay relevant and contribute to the society, we need to constantly be positive and look at the bigger scheme of things.
All you're missing are some Warren Buffet quotes. Otherwise, great inspiring list.
That's inspiring and thanks for such great quotes....
When your glass is full quit pouring. I would rather know what's right than be right.
thanks for the great quotes.
Big minds make big history. our every day life is history making whether great or small,
I don't think you could fit more priviledged white men in there if you tried.
thanks for great quotes, if we follow the quotes our life will be full of joy and happiness.
great men create much but enjoys less. they are the best gift of god. so they are respected years after years. thnx.
Brilliant!
In my youth, I was fond of the Orson Welles quote regarding the Borgias and Switzerland. Now, I think he misunderstood. Intrigue and power struggles don't necessarily produce genius. Five centuries of peace and democracy is the accomplishment of note; the cuckoo clock is merely a by-product.
Great personalities to get inspiration!
I wish you could have added one of the greatest quotes of Allama Dr Mohammad Iqbal (a great poet and philosopher of the East). His personality is much above many of the above great people. I would say that Gandhi himself was also a great admirer of Allama Dr Mohammad Iqbal.
His motivational quotations are second to none!!!
Good number of suggestions one to pick, encouraging. keep visiting the site,
lovable.
Excellent; A very good idea to start each day with a new quote.
Really it's awesome collection
thanks for great quotes.
A great and inspiring quotes.
Thank you