Motivational Quotes

I find that one of my biggest barriers to learning is finding the motivation to actually start. There are a number of techniques that I use, which I will cover in a later post. One such technique I use is listening to motivational audio programs, or reading some inspirational books.

Although I can't post the complete contents of these books and audio files to this site, I have decided to post some quotes that I have found particularly helpful.

Oh, I just put in the Teddy Roosevelt quote because it made me laugh out loud.

Most, if not all of these quotes are from The Quotations Page. (new window)

Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labor is immense.
- Arnold Bennett

Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger.
- Arnold Palmer (1929 - )

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
- Frank Tibolt

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
- Jack London (1876 - 1916)

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818), 1780

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
- Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects

Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.
- Eugene S. Wilson

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it.
- Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)

Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.
- Brian Adams

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering you own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.
- Saint Francis de Sales

One of my favourites:
When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win.
- Ed Macauley