Reading motivational quotes by famous people can give us the strength to keep going. It is always worth paying attention to the advice, experience, and wisdom of those who have achieved great things in life.
Here are 105 motivational quotes by famous people to help you stay motivated to achieve your goals. Also, check out our list of courage quotes for more inspiration.
Feel free to share these motivational quotes by famous people with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.
1. “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” – Benjamin Franklin
2. “Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou
3. “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso
4. “The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” – Tony Robbins
5. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
6. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
7. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
8. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” – Jim Rohn
9. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
10. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” – Vince Lombardi
11. “The mind is everything. What you think you become.” – Buddha
12. “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller
13. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
14. “And in the end it is not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln
15. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs
16. “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” – Napoleon Hill
17. “Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.” – Winston Churchill
18. “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” – Mahatma Gandhi
19. “Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.” – Orison Swett Marden
20. “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Related: 65 Motivational Quotes About Goal Setting
21. “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie
22. “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney
23. “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” – Bruce Lee
24. “The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra
25. “The biggest mistake people make in life is NOT making a living at doing what they most enjoy.” – Malcolm S. Forbes
26. “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge
27. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
28. “Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.” – W. Clement Stone
29. “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” – Swami Vivekananda
30. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
31. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison
32. “Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim.” – John D. Rockefeller
33. “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
34. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay
35. “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” – Farrah Gray
36. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
37. “Every one of us is the sum total of his own thoughts.” – Earl Nightingale
38. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius
39. “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” – Oscar Wilde
40. “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” – Aristotle
Related: 65 Best Hustle Quotes to Motivate You
41. “Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” – Robert Kiyosaki
42. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin
43. “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent Peale
44. “The only people who don’t make mistakes are those who do nothing, and that is the biggest mistake of all.” – Dr William Reilly
45. “Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” – Brian Tracy
46. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” – John A. Shedd
47. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu
48. “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T. S. Eliot
49. “Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.” – Paulo Coelho
50. “Dreams don’t work unless you do.” – John C. Maxwell
51. “Focus on being productive instead of busy.” – Tim Ferriss
52. “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.” – Nelson Mandela
53. “Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem
54. “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” – Les Brown
55. “Success is the child of audacity.” – Benjamin Disraeli
56. “A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” – John Assaraf
57. “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot
58. “Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama
59. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
60. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby
Related: 50 of the Most Powerful Quotes of All Time
61. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
62. “Nothing happens unless first a dream.” – Carl Sandburg
63. “Dream is not the thing you see in sleep but is that thing that doesn’t let you sleep.” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
64. “Greatness begins beyond your comfort zone.” – Robin Sharma
65. “Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life.” – Wayne Dyer
66. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
67. “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
68. “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve.” – Mary Kay Ash
69. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau
70. “You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can because that’s where you will find success, on the other side of failure.” – Thomas Watson
71. “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” – Charles Darwin
72. “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing you can do is keep your mind young.” – Mark Twain
73. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin
74. “Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.” – Winston Churchill
75. “People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals – that is, goals that do not inspire them.” – Tony Robbins
76. “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” – Jim Rohn
77. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – Muhammad Ali
78. “Never give up. You only get one life. Go for it!” – Richard E. Grant
79. “Every man dies. Not every man really lives.” – William Wallace
80. “Diligence is the mother of good fortune.” – Benjamin Disraeli
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81. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou
82. “Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” – Samuel Johnson
83. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar
84. “The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss
85. “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” – Bill Cosby
86. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
87. “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
88. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn
89. “Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.” – Denis Waitley
90. “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” – Dale Carnegie
91. “Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.” – W. Clement Stone
92. “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.” – Robert Kiyosaki
93. “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
94. “The difference between where you are today and where you’ll be five years from now will be found in the quality of books you’ve read.” – Jim Rohn
95. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu
96. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
97. “The important thing is that we must be constantly moving forward – yes, the progress realization of a predetermined goal. And our growth should never end.” – Og Mandino
98. “Men who know exactly what they want of life, and are determined to get it, do not stop with wishing. They intensify their wishes into a burning desire, and back that desire with continuous effort based on a sound plan.” – Andrew Carnegie
99. “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin
100. “The moment a man ceases to progress, to grow higher, wider and deeper, then his life becomes stagnant.” – Orison S. Marden
Related: Top 10 Health Quotes to Inspire You to Live a Healthier Life
101. “Discontent is the first necessity of progress.” – Thomas A. Edison
102. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” – Robert H. Schuller
103. “If you can dream it. you can do it.” – Walt Disney
104. “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” – Paulo Coelho
105. “Your world is a living expression of how you are using and have used your mind.” – Earl Nightingale
SEE ALSO: 65 Positive Thinking Quotes to Inspire You
What are your favorite motivational quotes? Please share in the comment section below.
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