Quotes and passages on motivation

Motivation is the fuel necessary
to keep the human engine running.

Zig Ziglar

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together 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 problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday, and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Where did we ever get the crazy idea that in order to make children do better, first we have to make them feel worse? Think of the last time you felt humiliated or treated unfairly. Did you feel like cooperating or doing better? Jane Nelson

We are motivated more by aversion to the unpleasant than by a will toward truth, freedom, or healing. We are constantly attempting to escape our life, to avoid rather than enter our pain, and we wonder why it is so difficult to be fully alive. Stephen Levine A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last

Inspiration fires you up; motivation keeps you burning.

Stuart Aken

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You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward.
But both those methods are only temporary.
The only lasting thing is self-motivation.

Homer Rice

One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to
stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look
at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken
for granted is a powerful source of creativity.

Edward deBono

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what
you want them to do because they want to do it.

Dwight Eisenhower

In motivating people, you've got to engage their minds and their hearts.
It is good business to have an employee feel part of the entire effort . . .
I motivate people, I hope, by example—and perhaps by excitement, by
having provocative ideas to make others feel involved.

Rupert Murdoch

Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you
can't be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next person
down the line and get that person to inspire his or her people.

Lee Iacocca

I am motivated simply by my awareness of the impact today's
actions have on tomorrow's circumstances.

Chase Streetman

The only lifelong, reliable motivations are those that come from within, and
one of the strongest of those is the joy and pride that grow from knowing
that you’ve just done something as well as you can do it.

Lloyd Dobens

View is our orientation, and how we orient our life is intimately connected with our motivation. Traditionally, the Buddhist teachings list three kinds of motivation: small, medium, and large. These levels of motivation describe how we evolve on the path of enlightenment. When we wake up in the morning, where is our mind taking us? Whatever it is, from motivation, everything else will arise.

If our motivation is small, we will use our day getting the "stuff" we think will make us happy--food, clothing, and friends. If it's a little bigger, we might add some yoga to make us feel better. We might even expand it further to think about the karmic consequences of our actions--but it's still all about "me". With a medium-level motivation, we're no longer so fixated on our own happiness; the basis of our actions is loving-kindness and compassion. We're maturing. With the largest motivation, we put the happiness of others before our own. This is the motivation of the Buddha. If we get up in the morning and the first thought that comes to mind is, "There are so many sentient beings; even if I amd the last person on earth, I will stay here to help them," that is a very big view. Motivation is just an attitude, and it's free. So why not have a big motivation?

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

There's a common misconception that a person's skill is their talent. Skills,
however, are not talents. Talents, on the other hand, require skills. People
can have skills and knowledge in areas where their talents do not lie. If
they have a job that requires their skills but not their talents, organizations
will never tap into their passion or voice. They'll go through the motions,
but this will only make them appear to need external supervision and
motivation. If you can hire people whose passion intersects with the job,
they won't require any supervision at all. They will manage themselves better
than anyone could ever manage them. Their fire comes from within,
not from without. Their motivation is internal, not external.

Stephen Covey

The more you are motivated by love,
the more fearless and free your actions will be.

Katherine Mansfield

Deficiency motivation doesn't work. It will lead to a life-long
pursuit of try to fix me. Learn to appreciate what
you have and where and who you are.

Wayne Dyer

The best motivation is self-motivation. Someone says, "I wish someone
would come by and turn me on." What if they don't show up?
You've got to have a better plan for your life.

Jim Rohn

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with
mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.

Andrew Carnegie

We have some inspiring and motivational books that may interest you. Our main way of supporting this site is through the sale of books, either physical copies or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the online reader). All of the money that we earn through them comes back to the site in one way or another. Just click on the picture to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and non-fiction!

Of course motivation is not permanent. But then, neither is bathing;
but it is something you should do on a regular basis.

Zig Ziglar
Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World

The maintenance and enhancement of the perceived self
are the motives behind all behavior.

A.W. Combs