Potential Quotes
Choose a Pillar of Greatness
Pick a Type of Insight
“Joy is not in things; it is in us.”
“You can find on the outside only what you possess on the inside.”
“What we love we shall grow to resemble.”
“Your visions will become clear only when you look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
“When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'”
“By nature we have no defect that could not become a strength, no strength that could not become a defect.”
“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is knowledge of our own ignorance.”
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”
“You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it in himself.”
“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”
“Greatness is not something to strive for, it's something to remember that we already are.”
“I go forward in time, and I look backwards. I kind of read my history”
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself into one.”
“The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.”
“The greatest fool of all is the man who fools himself.”
“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.”
“If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.”
“A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be.”
“I've always done what I wanted to do, not what others expected”
“I didn't follow the rules - I made my own”
“The secret of success in every field is redefining what success means to you. It can't be your parent's definition, the media's definition, or your neighbor's definition. Otherwise, success will never satisfy you.”
“To me, business isn't about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It's about being true to yourself, your ideas, and focusing on the essentials”
“Never apologize for showing feelings. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.”
“A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.”
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
“Your work should be a reflection of who you are”
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.”
“Don't look for society to give you permission to be yourself.”
“He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.”
“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”
“Success is about staying true to who you are”
“Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we're supposed to be and embracing who we are.”
“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”
“To model yourself after Steve Jobs is like saying, 'I want to be Einstein.' It's not realistic. You've got to be yourself”
“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”
“This above all, to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
“There is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.”
“It matters not what a person is born, but who they choose to be.”
“Life isn't about finding yourself. It's about creating yourself.”
“He can do more for others who has done most for himself.”
“Achievement is talent plus preparation.”
“The person who knows one thing and does it better than anyone else, even if it only be the art of raising lentils, receives the crown he merits. If he raises all his energy to that end, he is a benefactor of mankind and is rewarded as such.”
“There is no heavier burden than an unfulfilled potential.”
“Do something that nobody else in the world would do or can do”
“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.”
“Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?”
“The self is not something that one finds. It is something that one creates.”
“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.”
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it's stupid.”
“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
“Talent alone won't make you a success. Neither will being in the right place at the right time, unless you are ready.”
“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
“Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.”
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.”
“God gives us talent. Work transforms talent into genius.”
“Joy comes from using your potential.”
“It's not what you've got, it's what you use that makes a difference.”
“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”
“Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity.”
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.”
“The reward of a thing well done is having done it.”
“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”
“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.”
“You must go on adventures to find out where you truly belong.”
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
“Watch, listen, and learn. You can't know it all yourself. Anyone who thinks they do is destined for mediocrity”
“Listen to anyone with an original idea, no matter how absurd it may sound at first. If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need.”
“Success leaves clues.”
“A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”
“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.”
“Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”
“We should not only use all the brains we have, but all that we can borrow.”
“The best way to predict the future is to study the past.”
“Remember: Success is nothing but luck. Just ask any failure.”
“Most everything I've done I've copied from somebody else”
“Knowledge talks. Wisdom listens.”
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
“Many receive advice. Only the wise profit from it.”
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
“Learning never exhausts the mind.”
“Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong.”
“The people that best learn how to work with AI are going to be the least likely to be replaced by AI.”
“The more you learn, the more you earn.”
“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.”
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
“Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.”
“The expert in anything was once a beginner.”
“Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.”
“Whoever acquires knowledge but does not practice it is like one who plows his land and leaves it unsown.”
“Knowledge is not power. Applied knowledge is power.”
“The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of its rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.”
“Do what is easy, and your life will be hard. Do what is hard, and your life will become easy.”
“If you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with the rain.”
“Winners are simply willing to do what losers won't.”
“It's a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.”
“Judge your successes by what you had to give up in order to get them.”
“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
“When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees.”
“Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself.”
“Comfort is the enemy of achievement.”
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”
“Great companies are built by people who are willing to do the hard things”
“Everything that is easy and guaranteed to succeed has already been done.”
“In this world, it's not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.”
“If it was always easy, it wouldn't be worthwhile.”
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
“The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”
“The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either, but their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.”
“One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.”
“What keeps so many people back is simply unwillingness to pay the price, to make the exertion, the effort to sacrifice their ease and comfort.”
“The greatest achievements come from the hardest problems”
“If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you.”
“Pursuing your passion should be rephrased as choosing the suffering that you love”
“To achieve greatness, you must do the things that make people great.”
“There can be no triumph without sacrifice.”
“Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better.”
“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward into the night.”
“Great is the road I climb, but the garland offered by an easier effort is not worth the gathering.”
“If it's too easy or it's already been done, it's probably not worth having.”
“People who ask confidently get more than those who are hesitant and uncertain. When you've figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness and confidence.”
“The confidence of ignorance will always overcome the indecision of knowledge.”
“Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.”
“An attitude of positive expectation is the mark of the superior personality.”
“Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks.”
“Always act like you're wearing an invisible crown.”
“Confidence comes not from always being right, but from not fearing to be wrong.”
“I'd rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right”
“Self-confidence develops when it's used and disappears when it is not.”
“Greatness does not approach him who is forever looking down.”
“With confidence, you have won before you have started.”
“Act confident, even when you're not”
“Act as if you have already achieved your goal and it is yours.”
“Nobody holds a high opinion of a man who holds a low opinion of himself.”
“Confidence is courage at ease.”
“Powerful people impress and intimidate. They don't need to say much.”
“Be confident but humble.”
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.”
“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
“Confidence is a habit that can be developed by acting as if you already had the confidence you desire to have.”
“Carry yourself with the confidence of a man who has already won.”
“The world of achievement has always belonged to the optimist.”
“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute”
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
“Being brave isn't the absence of fear. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it.”
“Courage is the greatest of all the virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.”
“Faith will move mountains.”
“The great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.”
“It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.”
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
“Success goes to the bold and courageous, not the meek and fearful.”
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
“True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful.”
“Fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.”
“Faith is confirmed by the heart, confessed by the tongue, and acted upon by the body.”
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.”
“Great achievements usually involve great risks.”
“Don't be afraid to think different and challenge the status quo”
“Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
“Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice.”
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.”
“Take risks: If you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.”
“Faith is an oasis in the heart which can never be reached by the caravan of thinking.”
“You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.”
“If you are going to doubt anything, doubt your doubts.”
“Reason is the enemy of faith.”
“Face your fears. Allow the fear or anxiety to move through you. Embrace it.”
“Babe Ruth hit more home runs than anyone; he also struck out more often than anyone.”
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.”
“Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.”
“Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.”
“A man of courage is also full of faith.”
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”
“Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.”
“Fear is faith that it won't work out.”
“Success is the child of audacity.”
“Waiting to develop courage is just another form of procrastination. The most successful people take action while they're afraid!”
“The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you.”
“It's better to attempt something great and fail than to attempt nothing and succeed.”
“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”
“Successful people take big risks knowing that they might fall hard. But they might succeed beyond their wildest dreams.”
“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.”
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.”
“All our dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.”
“Where fear controls, significant achievement becomes an impossibility.”
“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”
“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become”
“The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.”
“You have to get to the point where going for it is more important than winning or losing.”
“In order to discover new lands, one must be willing to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”
“Until you are willing to lose it all; you cannot have it all.”
“It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.”
“I've learned that you can't let fear stop you from doing what you want”
“Screw it, let's do it”
“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”
“Do what you fear and your fear will disappear.”
“To achieve great things we must live as if we were never going to die.”
“Don't let the fear of failure stop you - let it fuel you”
“He who is brave is free.”
“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
“Freedom is never letting your fears stop you from following your heart.”
“Fortune favors the brave.”
“If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be too cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”
“Leap, and the net will appear.”
“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.”
“Great work is done by people who are not afraid to be great.”
“Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.”
“If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances.”
“The brave may not live forever - but the cautious do not live at all”
“If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.”
“There is no impossibility to him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard. The fearful are the failing.”
“He who risks nothing can gain nothing.”
“One man with courage is a majority.”
“Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid.”
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor”
“You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith.”
“Dance above the surface of the world. Let your thoughts lift you into creativity that is not hampered by opinion.”
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
“Thus to be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great.”
“The greatest prison people live in is the fear of what other people think.”
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway.”
“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
“Don't let the noise of the world drown out your inner voice”
“Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice”
“The unhappiest people in this world are those who care the most about what other people think.”
“Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember - the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.”
“The man who is anybody and who does anything is surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood...”
“The unhappiest people in this world are those who care the most about what other people think.”
“Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.”
“Let everyone else call your idea crazy - just keep going”
“It's probably unfair to expect the world at large, or even most people, to see us for all we are...”
“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”
“Confidence is not 'they will like me.' Confidence is 'I'll be fine if they don't.'”
“When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts”
“If you have no critics you'll likely have no success.”
“The best revenge is massive success.”
“Criticism is easier to take when you realize that the only people who aren't criticized are those who don't take risks”
“You've got to stay focused on what you're trying to achieve and not get distracted by the noise”
“If you can't tolerate critics, don't do anything new or interesting”
“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”
“I believed in my vision, even when others didn't”
“Seek respect mainly from thyself, for it comes first from within.”
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”
“The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.”
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.”
“You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.”
“Your potential is limited only by your imagination and your willingness to act”
“If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing.”
“I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary”
“I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.”
“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.”
“Have a healthy disregard for the impossible”
“You can become a winner only if you are willing to walk over the edge.”
“If you are good enough, you are old enough.”
“There is no man living that cannot do more than he thinks he can.”
“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
“I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.”
“It is not what we get, but who we become, and what we contribute that gives meaning to our lives.”
“Excellence is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends.”
“The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you.”
“The only limits in life are the ones you make.”
“Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to; others only need one reason why they can. Which are you?”
“It's never too late to be who you might have been.”
“There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is being superior to your previous self.”
“Good enough never is.”
“If you're good enough, there are no precedents.”
“Only the mediocre are always at their best.”
“You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.”
“If you want to be extraordinary, you have to stop being ordinary.”
“Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is.”
“Better is the enemy of good.”
“Don't compare to others. Compare to how you progressed.”
“If you're green, you're growing. If you're ripe, you're rotting.”
“When you're through changing, you're through.”
“Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
“Never mind what others do; do better than yourself - beat your own record from day to day, and you are a success.”
“We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.”
“Success isn't how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.”
“He who stops being better stops being good.”
“The ultimate is not to win, but to reach within the depths of your capabilities and to compete against yourself.”
“Do not confuse notoriety and fame with greatness. For you see, greatness is a measure of one's spirit, not a result of one's rank in human affairs.”
“Growth and comfort do not coexist.”
“You are rewarding the teacher poorly if you always remain a pupil.”
“Good is the enemy of great.”
“When you let go of what you are, you become what you might be.”
“Don't go through life, grow through life.”
“There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there - you must go beyond them.”
“It is only as I let go of the lesser that I can take hold of the greater, only as I drop confusion that I can entertain peace, only as I transcend doubt and fear that I can be lifted to the hilltops of inner life.”
“Faith is the force of life.”
“To achieve something you've never had, you must do something you've never done.”
“The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”
“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.”
“The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.”
“It's amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.”
“Belief in limitation is the one and only thing that causes limitation.”
“Greatness after all, in spite of its name, appears to be not so much a certain size as a certain quality in human lives.”
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
“If you're not doing some things that are crazy, then you're doing the wrong things”
“Every day is a chance to improve”
“Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds.”
“If we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone.”
“Change is inevitable, personal growth is a choice.”
“No dream is too big. No challenge is too great. Nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach”
“It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not.”
“Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
“The wisest mind has something yet to learn.”
“The comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.”
“The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur”
“'I can't do it' never yet accomplished anything: 'I will try' has accomplished wonders.”
“Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do...”
“A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations.”
