120 Famous Quotes Everyone Should Know
Quotes have the power to inspire and motivate people in profound ways. They can capture important life lessons, historical perspectives, and words of wisdom in a memorable form. This article highlights 120 of the most famous and impactful quotes that everyone should be familiar with.
The quotes are from a wide range of notable figures throughout history, including influential leaders, poets, activists, philosophers and more. Ranging in topic from love and life to work, society and humanity, there is a relevant quote included for many different areas of interest and walks of life. Knowing these quotes can enrich conversations and provide insightful perspectives on various subjects.
The article presents the quotes grouped into categories for easy browsing such as relationships, success, change, society and more. Each quote is credited to its original author so readers can learn more about the individuals and time periods that shaped these memorable words. Altogether, exploring this collection of famous quotes can enhance one’s general knowledge and may leave the reader with words to reflect on for years to come.
Famous quotes said by leaders and influencers
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.” – Ann Landers
“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“The price of greatness is responsibility.” – Winston Churchill
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.” – Albert Schweitzer
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” – Rosalynn Carter
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” – Peter F. Drucker
“The most valuable commodities that leaders carry are not so much in their heads as in their hearts.” – Rob Goffee
“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” – Indira Gandhi
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John Maxwell
“Don’t find faults, find remedies.” – Henry Ford
“One can have no smaller or greater destination than the deepest element within one’s self.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” – Rosalynn Carter
“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” – Bertrand Russell
“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.” – Douglas MacArthur
Popular words of wisdom from iconic historical figures
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” – Winston Churchill
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” – Buddha
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” – Albert Einstein
“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” – Nathaniel Branden
“Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.” – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.” – John Lennon
“We must be the change we wish to see.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain
“Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe.” – Mark Twain
“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Motivational quotes that will inspire you
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
“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, remember, you can achieve.” – Mary Kay Ash
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” – Leslie Hamilton Latty, Children’s Maxim #5, 1912.
“Difficulties increase the closer we get to the goal.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh
“When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go.” – Carol Burnett
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” – Norman Vincent Peale
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.” – Steve Jobs
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein
“The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra
“Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” – Julia Child
“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair
“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
“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein
Short lines with deep meanings from renowned authors
“Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.” – Unknown
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
“Let your light shine.” – Matthew 5:16
“Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.” – Henri Frederic Amiel
“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Fall seven times and stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra
“If you change nothing, nothing changes.” – Unknown
“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama
“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.” – William Arthur Ward
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anais Nin
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi
“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark Twain
“Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.” – Basque Proverb
“The surest way to double your troubles is to forget to count your blessings.” – Unknown
Thought-provoking phrases from revolutionary thinkers
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“The time is always right to do what is right.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“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.
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” – Frederick Douglass
“I am for truth, no matter who tells it. I am for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I am a human being, first and foremost, and as such I am for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” – Malcolm X
“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.” – Mohandas Gandhi
“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.” – Rabindranath Tagore
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” – The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“The worst prison would be a closed heart and mind.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton
“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson
Impactful sayings to live by from inspirational public speakers
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
“The surest way to fail is to give up what you really want because someone says it’s impossible.” – Ronald E. Osborn (American writer, speaker and teacher)
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln (American President)
“Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo (American entrepreneur, speaker and author)
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams (American statesman, 6th US President)
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama (44th US President)
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau (American philosopher, poet and author)
“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” – Willie Nelson (American musician and activist)
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi (Indian activist and philosopher)
“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” – Ronald Reagan (American politician, 40th US President)
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt (Former First Lady of the US)
“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth (American baseball player)
“Fall seven times and stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” – J.M. Barrie (Scottish novelist and dramatist)
“The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra (American singer and actor)
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” – Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter book character)
“If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain.” – Dolly Parton (American singer-songwriter)
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs (American businessman, inventor and industrialist)
“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair (American author, speaker and consultant)
“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr. (American author)
Conclusion
In conclusion, the quotes featured in this article represent words of wisdom from some of history’s most influential figures. Whether on topics of life, love, success or failure, their insights continue to inspire and motivate people worldwide. Reflecting on quotes is an excellent way to gain new perspectives and life lessons from those who came before. I encourage you to ponder the meaning and significance of the quotes you found most thought-provoking or relevant to your own experiences. Let the words of these renowned thinkers and leaders spark fresh insights on how to better approach challenges and make the most of opportunities in your own journey.
