Motivational quotes

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

Written from prison.

God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

Self-respect, originating in self-love, instigates the first step of improvement.

There is a dignity in the very effort to save with a worthy purpose, even though the attempt should not be crowned with eventual success.

Thrift does not require superior courage, nor superior intellect, nor any superhuman virtue.

Smiles insisting that the habit he is recommending is available to anyone: it merely requires common sense and the power of resisting selfish enjoyments.

Do not, I beg you, dread those things which the immortal gods apply to our minds like spurs: misfortune is virtue's opportunity.

From the dialogue addressed to Lucilius on why misfortunes befall good men.

Fortune lashes and mangles us: well, let us endure it: it is not cruelty, it is a struggle, in which the oftener we engage the braver we shall become.

Misfortunes press hardest on those who are unacquainted with them: the yoke feels heavy to the tender neck.

If a man stumbles, it is a good thing to help him to his feet. Every one of us needs a helping hand now and then.

There is little place in active life for the timid good man.

From the Sorbonne address better known for the man in the arena, a few paragraphs further on.

almost any man can do a great deal, if he will, by getting the utmost possible service out of the qualities that he actually possesses

Roosevelt telling Cambridge undergraduates that he was never an athlete and that it made no difference.