101 Inspirational Quotes About Success and Happiness

Inspiration can come from anywhere, but one of my favorite sources is inspirational quotes.

101 Inspirational Quotes About Work and Success

Here are 101 Inspirational quotes from some legendary people either gently hinting or loudly proclaiming that if you want to succeed, you must first make a conscious decision to be happy in the here and now:

“Emptiness is a symptom that you are not living creatively. You either have no goal that is important enough to you, or you are not using your talents and efforts in a striving toward an important goal.” – Maxwell Maltz.
“The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term is the indispensable prerequisite for success.” – Maxwell Maltz
“All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.” – Orison Swett Marden
“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” – Les Brown
“For imagination, sets the goal picture which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.”- Maxwell Maltz
“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny, but what we put into it is ours.”- Dag Hammarskjold
“Once you have a clear picture of your priorities that is values, goals, and high leverage, activities organize around them.” – Stephen Covey
“Dreaming is wonderful, goal setting is crucial, but action is supreme. To make something great happen you must get busy and make it happen. Take that action step today that will put you on your path to achievement.” – Greg Werner
“A vision keeps the Wealthy Soul focused on the path and not on the boulders.”- Michael Norwood
“The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart this you will build your life by, and this you will become.” – James Lane Allen
“A goal is not the same as a desire, and this is an important distinction to make. You can have a desire you don’t intend to act on. But you can’t have a goal you don’t intend to act on.” – Tom Morris
“You need to make a commitment, and once you make it, then life will give you some answers.” – Les Brown
“Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.” – Jawaharlal Nehru
“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice, it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” – William Jennings Bryan
“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.” – Jack and Garry Kinder
“We’ve got to have a dream if we are going to make a dream come true.”- Denis Waitley
“Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all of your energies on a limited set of targets.” – Nido Qubein
“Goals are new, forward-moving objectives. They magnetize you towards them.” – Mark Victor Hansen
“Big goals get big results. No goals get no results or somebody else’s results.” – Mark Victor Hansen
“When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.” – Larry Bird
“A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.” – Denis Waitley
“When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.” – Greg Anderson
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he had imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau
“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.” – Richard Bach
“The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart this you will build your life by, and this you will become.” – James Lane Allen
“When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound. Rebuild those plans and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.” – Napoleon Hill
“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.” – John Maxwell
“We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success.” – Henry David Thoreau
“Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.” – Napoleon Hill
“This one step, choosing a goal and sticking to it, changes everything.” – Scott Reed
“People with goals succeed because they know where they are going. It’s as simple as that.” – Earl Nightingale
“Having a vision for your life allows you to live out of hope, rather than out of your fears.” – Stedman Graham
“Visualize this thing you want. See it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin.” – Robert Collier
“The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.” – Joseph Joubert
“Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.” – Elbert Hubbard
“The secret to productive goal setting is in establishing clearly defined goals, writing them down and then focusing on them several times a day with words, pictures and emotions as if we’ve already achieved them.” – Denis Waitley
“When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take choose the bolder.” – W.J. Slim
“There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.” – Napoleon Hill
“Goals give you more than a reason to get up in the morning, they are an incentive to keep you going all day. Goals tend to tap the deeper resources and draw the best out of life.” – Harvey Mackay
“A good plan today is better than a great plan tomorrow.” – George S. Patton
“Be able to stick with a job until it is finished. Be able to bear an injustice without having to get even. Be able to carry money without spending it. Do your duty without being supervised.” – Ann Landers
“The finest eloquence is that which gets things done.” – David Lloyd George
“To aim at the best and to remain essentially ourselves is one and the same thing.” – Janet Erskine Stuart
“Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point.” – Harold B. Melchart
“Our aspirations are our possibilities.” – Robert Browning
“Our real duty is always found running in the direction of our worthiest desires.” – Randolph S. Bourne
“The starting point of all achievement is desire. Weak desire brings weak results.” – Napoleon Hill
“Nothing happens unless first a dream.” – Carl Sandburg
“Not every one of our desires can be immediately gratified. We’ve got to learn to wait patiently for our dreams to come true, especially on the path we’ve chosen.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach
“Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.” – Belva Davis
“Plan for the future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life.” – Mark Twain
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” – Henry Ford
“The life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of planning in life, and the tragic brevity of time.”- W.J. Davison
“Teaching kids how they can create their futures is a powerful and critical character-building attribute. Goals education gives them the tools needed for designing a productive life, of benefit to themselves, our country and for future generations.” – Gary Ryan Blair
“Learning how to set and achieve a goal is perhaps the single most important thing your child can learn to prepare for school, adulthood, and employment. The more adept your child is at understanding this important life skill, the more options he or she will have.” – Gary Ryan Blair
“For every disciplined effort, there is multiple rewards.” – Jim Rohn
“A goal is created three times. First as a mental picture. Second, when written down to add clarity and dimension. And third, when you take action towards its achievement.” – Gary Ryan Blair
“Goal setting starts with a pad of paper, a pen, and you.” – Gary Ryan Blair
“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” – Henry David Thoreau
“Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principals which direct them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“You cannot discover oceans unless you have the courage to leave the shore.” – Andre Gide
“Quiet your mind and picture yourself attaining your dreams. Without even realizing it, your confidence soars and you become a magnet for good things.” – Dr. Dennis Deaton
“Old habits can’t be thrown out the upstairs window. They have to be coaxed down the stairs one step at a time.” – Mark Twain
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
“Nothing happens, unless first a dream!” – Carl Sandburg
“We are what and where we are because we have first imagined it.” – Donald Curtis
“What changes your life is not learning more. What changes your life is making decisions and using your personal power and taking action.” – Anthony Robbins
“Deeds, not words shall speak to me.” John Fletcher
“I have had dreams, and I have had nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams.” – Dr. Jonas Salk
“If you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way. Don’t wait for great opportunities. Seize common, everyday ones and make them great.” – Napolean Hill
“You don’t just luck into things. You build step by step, whether it’s friendships or op-opportunities.” – Barbara Bush
“It is often wonderful how putting down on paper a clear statement of a case helps one to see, not perhaps the way out, but the way in.” – A.C. Benson
“If you want to reach a goal, you must see the reaching in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.” – Zig Ziglar
“Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – St. Francis of Assisi
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” – Henry Ford
“If you don’t set goals for yourself, you are doomed to work to achieve the goals of someone else.” – Brian Tracy
“Celebrate any progress. Don’t wait to get perfect.” – Ann McGee Cooper
“You, too, can determine what you want. You can decide on your major objectives, targets, aims, and destination.” – W. Clement Stone
“Do the next thing.” – John Wanamaker
“Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all of your energies on a limited set of targets.” – Nido Qubein
“You, too, can determine what you want. You can decide on your major objectives, targets, aims, and destination.” – W. Clement Stone
“There’s no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love. There is only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen.” – Wayne Dyer
“The most important thing about goals is having one.” – Geoffry F. Abert
“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams.” – Og Mandino
“Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.” – Jonathan Swift
“Continuous excellent effort, not maximum strength or superior IQ, is the key to unlocking your potential as an achiever.” – Greg Werner
“Creative ideas reside in people’s minds but are trapped by fear of rejection. Create a judgment-free environment and you’ll unleash a torrent of creativity.” – Alex Osborn
“The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck.” – Anthony Robbins
“The more you can dream the more you can do.” – Michael Korda
“Make no small plans for they have not the power to stir men’s blood.” – Niccolo Machiavelli
“Make progress one time and it makes you happy. Make progress day after day, week after week and it makes you a champion.” – Greg Werner
“If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.” – Jim Rohn
“I like a person who knows his own mind and sticks to it, who sees at once what, in given circumstances, is to be done, and does it.” – William Hazlitt
“The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.” – Lee Iacocca
“Vision doesn’t usually come as a lightning bolt. Rather it comes as a slow crystallization of life challenges that we one day recognize as a beautiful diamond with great value to ourselves and others.” – Dr. Michael Norwood
“The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling.” – Orison Swett Marden
“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.” – Ayn Rand
“Questions focus our thinking. Ask empowering questions like What’s good about this? What’s not perfect about it yet? What am I going to do next time? How can I do this and have fun doing it?.” – Charles Connolly

And with that last Inspirational quote, always remember, this is your life, your success, your happiness. Never let anyone else define what these things mean for you.