Inspirational Quotes

I have always loved quotes. To me, they act much like songs: provide inspiration, motivation, encouragement, healing, provoke thoughtful dialogue, and challenge oneself. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and to impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” –Woodrow Wilson
“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something, and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” –Edmund Everett Hale, Writer
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” –Anne Frank
“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” –Mahatma Gandhi
“Everyone can be great because anyone can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t even have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The moral test of a society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life—the children; those who are in the twilight of life—the elderly; and those who are in the shadow of life—the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.” –Hubert Humphrey
“Who then can so softly bind up the would of another as he who has felt the same wound himself.” –Thomas Jefferson
“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If you don’t believe one person can make a difference, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” –Anita Roddick
“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.” – Henry Drummond
“It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.” –Eleanor Roosevelt
“If you want to change the world, be that change.” –Gandhi
“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” –Mark Twain
“If you want happiness for an hour--take a nap. If you want happiness for a day—go fishing. If you want happiness for a month—get married. If you want happiness for a year—inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime—help someone else.” –Chinese proverb
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead
“Do small things with great love.” –Mother Theresa
“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead , teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” –Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Wisdom of the Sands
“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” –Winston Churchill
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” –Martin Luther King Jr.
“A candle loses nothing of its light when lighting another.” –Kahlil Gibran
“We can’t do much about the length of our lives, but we can do plenty about its width and depth.” –Evan Esar
“Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.” –Sally Koch
“The best and most beautiful thing in the world cannot be seen nor touched…but felt in the heart.” –Helen Keller
“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” –Henry Ford
“A civilization flourishes when people plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.” –Greek Proverb
“No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor is given by what he gave.” –Calvin Coolidge
“The service we render others is the rent we pay for our room on earth.” –Wilfred Grenfell
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” –Nelson Mandela
“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men. For they may act on their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.” -T.E. Lawrence
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs-ask yourself what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” –Pablo Picasso
“I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.” –C.S. Lewis
“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” –Jawaharial Nehru
“A nomad I’ll remain for life, in love with distant and unchartered places.” –Isabella Eberhardt