What’s Your Favorite Motivational Quote?


Getting productive – and awesomely so – isn’t easy by any means.  Some people use music to get them going; some people use a combination of the aforementioned with a Diet Coke.

A popular way to get clear and then get going is through the inspiration that comes from motivational quotes.

Do you use motivational quotes to get moving?  What are some of your favorites?


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favorite motivational quotes, favorite motivational quote, when life seems hard quotes

Mike Vardy an editor on Work Awesome. We could tell you where his personal productivity parody site, Eventualism and all of his other projects reside on the web, but you'd be best served going to Vardy.me and following the trail of virtual bread crumbs from there.

Discussion

  1. Eric Granata on the 27th May

    “We do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation.” -Oswald Chambers

  2. Jakob on the 27th May

    My desktop wallpaper says:
    expect the best, be prepared for the worst, f*** what others think & do your own thing

  3. mkjones on the 27th May

    When life seems hard, remember, you are going to die.

  4. Mark Bowley on the 27th May

    Many favourites, but here are a couple of good ones:

    “Unless you move, the place where you are is the place where you will always be.” ~ Ashleigh Brilliant

    “If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you aren’t doing anything very innovative.” ~ Woody Allen

    Lot’s more here http://marksquotes.posterous.com

  5. Anton on the 27th May

    “The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.” – Lee Iacocca

  6. Ab Erratio on the 27th May

    “When i hear somebody sigh -life is hard I’m always tempted to ask compared to what?”

  7. Brandon on the 27th May

    Lazy hands make a man poor,
    but diligent hands bring wealth.

    -Solomon

  8. James on the 27th May

    “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
    – Confucius

    Or the same but with Japanese brevity

    “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”
    – Japanese Proverb

  9. Jesper Bylund on the 27th May

    “Everyone has the same amount of hours in the day as Einstein or Madame Curie”

  10. Mike Vardy on the 27th May

    “You’ll often have to push through something in order to pull through for someone.”

    I think that can be attributed to me…but I’m also thinking that I may not be wise enough to have come up with it! 🙂

  11. Ricardo on the 27th May

    “To be old & wise, first you have to be young & stupid”

  12. Vishwas on the 27th May

    Live as if today is your last in this world and see miracles happen!

  13. Neil on the 27th May

    “Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, ‘I’ve never seen anyone run like that before.’ It’s more than just a race, it’s a style. It’s doing something better than anyone else. It’s being creative.”
    — Steve Prefontaine

    “Fortune favors the bold.”
    — Virgil

    “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”
    — Steve Prefontaine

    “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
    — Albert Einstein

    “Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance.”
    — Bruce Barton

    “To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.”
    — Bernadette Devlin

    “It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”
    — Carl Sagan

    “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”
    –Aristotle

  14. Rasmus Willemoes Paulsen on the 27th May

    I dont know if its a specific “motivational” quote, but i like this one

    “Luck’s just the door, you gotta use the window. That’s where your skills come in!”

  15. Debbie Iverson on the 27th May

    How do you eat an elephant?
    One bite at a time.

  16. Jaemie Gyurik on the 27th May

    “You don’t have to get it right; you just have to get it going.” – Mike Litman

  17. Steve on the 27th May

    “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”
    – Wayne Gretzky

    “Once you learn how to quit, it becomes a habit”
    – Vince Lombardi

  18. Vasu Adiga on the 27th May

    Don’t wish it was easier; wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges; wish for more wisdom – Jim Rohn

    Whatever good things we build end up building us. – Jim Rohn

    The most important question to ask on the job is not “What am I getting?” The most important question to ask on the job is “What am I becoming? – Jim Rohn

  19. Patty Hatch on the 27th May

    “If no one ever took risks, Michelangelo would have painted on the Sistine floor.” (Neil Simon)

    “I do not seek. I find.” Pablo Picasso

    “A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all.” (Georges Bernanos)

    “If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.” (Katharine Hepburn)

  20. Kyle W. on the 27th May

    “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. ” – Abraham Lincoln

  21. Steve on the 27th May

    “To be old & wise, first you have to be young & stupid”

  22. Victor Reano on the 28th May

    Why join the navy when you can be a pirate? — Steve Jobs

  23. suhail on the 28th May

    my favourite motivational quotes

    “Energy and Persistence conquer all things” – Benjamin Franklin.

    “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference. ” – Robert Frost

  24. Jonathan Davis on the 28th May

    Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power
    to choose. In our choice lies our growth and our freedom.
    -Viktor Frankl

  25. Gregory Pike on the 31st May

    “Darker nights always result in brighter stars”
    – Unknown

    “We are the music-makers and we are the dreamers of the dreams.”
    – Willy Wonka

  26. suhail on the 1st June

    When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. – Paulo Coelho

  27. Ohoo R. Holik on the 2nd June

    “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
    It may be a quote by Darth Vador, but there is much more to it that motivates you. 😉

  28. Paul da Silva on the 4th June

    “Nobody ever won a war by dieing for their country. They did it by making some other bastard die for their’s.” Gen George Patton

  29. Surabh Shah on the 16th August

    If you can dream it, You can do it !
    – Walt Disney

  30. ArunRaj on the 23rd November

    The Future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
    -Eleanor Roosevelt

    Changing the face can’t change anything But facing the change can change anything!

    Go confidently in the direction of your dream!! Live the life you have imagined !!

  31. LivelyWorks on the 7th December

    “Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow. ” – Doug Firebaugh

  32. Mauricio on the 31st January

    “It doesn’t matter how slowly you go-so long as you do not stop”

    This keeps me motivated when learning something new, while others already know or know better.

    • Jason on the 5th June

      Thank you Mauricio. I needed to read that today (and when I was in school). I am wrestling with ‘returning to college or picking a trade,’ and your quote helped level off some of the doubts.

  33. Patrick McNamara on the 3rd September

    Life is full of mountains, to look at your mountain from below is easy, to climb it is a challenge, to take those unknown paths takes courage..you will never know how beautiful the view from the top is if you just look at your mountain..

    By Patrick McNamara..

  34. Muskie on the 28th September

    “Don’t dream it, be it.” — Richard O’Brien (Rocky Horror Show)

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