I’m a big fan of quotes, and whenever I post them people seem to like them. Mostly, they’re motivational type quotes, but I think quotes reflect the person who chooses them.
My favorite quote of all time is this:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. ~Teddy Roosevelt
What’s your favorite inspirational quote?
Photo courtesy of Duke Human Rights Center
About Collin Slattery
“Be the change that you want to see in the world.”
It’s usually attributed to Ghandi, though I recently found out that he probably never said it. I still like it, though.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point. ” — Cary Grant
Zek, I LOVE this. Sorta goes along with my favorite inspirational quote, which completely changed my life about 18 months ago when I hadn’t written a word in years… Because what I wrote was so shitty at the time I kept quitting. Then I read this quote and decided that if I was going to ever get better I had better start at the work of getting through the shitty stage of my writing:
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass
***And your taste is why your work disappoints you*** <— that’s the key to all of it.
I LOVE this! I’ve never heard this before, but it seems true about creating anything. You’re not happy with it because it just isn’t there yet. Nice share!
“While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”
–Eugene Debs–
“We may have democracy, or we may have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few; but we cannot have both.”
–Justice Lous Brandeis–
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
–Isaac Asimov–
And one that’s especially relevant to gender issues:
“What the world needs most is a lot less fighting and a lot more fucking.”
–Anonymous–
Anyone who practises that should keep this quote in mind:
“You vote with your diaphragm, folks.”
George Carlin
(For anyone not aware of birth control of the 1960s and earlier, a diaphragm is a barrier form of birth control.)
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind”
- Dr. Seuss
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
- Maya Angelou
This one from Nigel Barley: “The logic of a situation is purely local.”
“Sine Amore Nihil Sum”
…Without Love, I am Nothing…
You cannot save people. You can only love them.
~Anais Nin
“There’s only one rule that I know of, babies– God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
“Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words ‘make’ and ‘stay’ become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.” Tom Robbins
Success is going from one failure to the next without loss of enthusiasm.
– Winston Churchill. Totally forgot that. I love pretty much all of his quotations.
Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less – Robert E. Lee
“Terry’s gift is forever green.”
Gord Downie
-Terry in this quote is Terry Fox. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox
“Never let an absence of talent preclude you from doing anything.”
Henry Rollins
“If you only do everything once, it’s always your personal best.”
Rick Mercer
The second two are more tongue-in-cheek than ‘inspirational,’ but that’s mostly what works for me.
Man, I’ve got a lot of them collected. I’ve shared them with (real) friends and look at them for a few minutes when I need a pick-me-up. Two of my favorites include:
To be nobody but yourself, in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle that any human being can fight–and never stop fighting–e.e. cummings
and
Unless you’re ashamed of yourself now and then, you’re not honest–William Faulkner
“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell
“Understanding is a two-way street.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“You must do the things you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“The not-yet is the true substace.
What you don’t see is the true reality”
“I’m going to live forever, or die trying” – Yossarian
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
— Margaret Mead
“It has to start somewhere. It has to start sometime. What better place than here. What better time than now?”
– Zach de la Rocha
“It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
“The greatest sin is not to kill when killing needs to be done.”
-unknown