Motivational quotes
Positive quotes with a real name under every line
Positive quotes by real people, every attribution verified against a source. Short lines for a bad day, a hard week, or the walk to the gym.
I collect positive quotes the way I collect warm-up songs: a short list, played often, nothing I do not believe. This page is that list. Every line on it was said or written by the person named under it, which sounds obvious and is not. Most positive life quotes online are orphans wearing a famous name.
What is in here: lines about attitude, about getting up again, about the difference between a bad morning and a bad life. Some are positive motivational quotes from fighters and coaches. Some are two thousand years old and read like a text from a friend.
Here is where I use them. At my gym the mats get mopped at 6:40, and the first person on them after that is usually me, half awake, not wanting to be there. One line in my head at that point does more than a speech. Positive thinking quotes are not magic. They are a hand on your back for the first ten minutes, and the first ten minutes are the whole fight.
The attributions matter because a quote with a real person behind it carries a real life, and a fake one carries nothing. If you want more, the short ones fit on a sticky note, and the guide on staying motivated is where I explain what to do after the quote wears off. Positive inspirational quotes are a start, not a plan.
40 quotes, every one checked against its source. No misattributed internet favourites.
- 1
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
Marcus Aurelius - 2
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
Marcus Aurelius - 3
Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.
Marcus Aurelius - 4
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
Seneca - 5
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
Seneca - 6
As long as you live, keep learning how to live.
Seneca - 7
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
Seneca - 8
For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn what he thinks that he already knows.
Epictetus - 9
The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs.
Cus D'Amato - 10
A champion is someone who gets up when he can't.
Jack Dempsey - 11
It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.
Muhammad Ali - 12
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
Muhammad Ali - 13
It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
Vince Lombardi - 14
Perfection isn't attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.
Vince Lombardi - 15
I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan - 16
You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take.
Wayne Gretzky - 17
Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise.
Kobe Bryant - 18
If you're afraid to fail, then you're probably going to fail.
Kobe Bryant - 19
The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself are the ones that matter.
Jesse Owens - 20
If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.
Emil Zatopek - 21
I've never been afraid of failure; I would go for it and let the chips fall where they may.
Joe Namath - 22
Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.
Arnold Schwarzenegger - 23
The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it.
Arnold Schwarzenegger - 24
It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.
Edmund Hillary - 25
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
John Wooden - 26
You just can't beat the person who never gives up.
Babe Ruth - 27
Pressure is a privilege.
Billie Jean King - 28
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett - 29
He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.
Friedrich Nietzsche - 30
What does not kill me makes me stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche - 31
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor E. Frankl - 32
If there is no struggle there is no progress.
Frederick Douglass - 33
Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
James Baldwin - 34
It always seems impossible until it is done.
Nelson Mandela - 35
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.
Marie Curie - 36
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
Anais Nin - 37
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
Leo Tolstoy - 38
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao Tzu - 39
Fall seven times, stand up eight.
Japanese proverb - 40
Never give in - never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.
Winston Churchill
If you want one of these without hunting for it, that is what I do every day. Every day I send one verified quote and a photo from wherever my day started, the gym or the street, and I never send the same line twice. Then I am around if you want to tell me how the day went.
The rest of the collections are at the quotes page.
