As the saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough get going — but even the toughest people still need a boost every now and then.
If you’ve hit a wall while in pursuit of your goals, it can be tempting to give up altogether. Setbacks are frustrating, and failure is a scary thing to contemplate.
However, nobody ever said that achieving your dreams is easy, and sometimes the hardest challenges will take you to the greatest heights.
Whether you’re sweating through a hard workout at the gym, chipping away at a long project, or pushing toward a promotion at work, a few words of encouragement can go a long way.
When you need an extra push towards your goal, these artists, leaders, athletes, activists, and entrepreneurs have excellent words of wisdom to motivate you to keep going.
Here are 50 motivational quotes that will inspire you to keep chasing your dreams.
Motivational quotes
- “You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.” — Tina Fey
- “All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney
- “Fortune favors the bold” — Latin proverb
- “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “We have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.” — Michelle Obama
- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas Edison
- “There is only one road to human greatness: through the school of hard knocks.” — Albert Einstein
- “When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go.” — Carol Burnett
- “We need to take risks. We need to go broke. We need to prove them wrong, simply by not giving up.” — Awkwafina
- “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” — Dale Carnegie
- “I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.” — Serena Williams
- “No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.” — Helen Keller
- “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs
- “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” — Maya Angelou
- “Be courageous. Challenge orthodoxy. Stand up for what you believe in. When you are in your rocking chair talking to your grandchildren many years from now, be sure you have a good story to tell.”— Amal Clooney
- “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” — Booker T. Washington
- “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” — Estée Lauder
- “The power to question is the basis of all human progress.” — Indira Gandhi
- “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
- “Failure is the true test of greatness.” — Herman Melville
- “If you don’t know what your passion is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it.” — Oprah Winfrey
- “We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell
- “Failure is not fatal but failure to change might be.” — John Wooden
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
- “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” — Rosa Parks
- “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
- “Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” — Ella Fitzgerald
- “Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “If I can’t change the world, at least I want to change the way people look at it.” — Antoni Tàpies
- “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” — Randy Pausch
- “I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.” — Marie Curie
- “Will we march only to the music of time, or will we, risking criticism and abuse, march to the soul-saving music of eternity?” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “Dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen. It’s hard work that creates change.” — Shonda Rhimes
- “You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible.” — Deepak Chopra
- “Be not afraid of greatness: some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” — William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night”
- “I never had a doubt I would make it, because refusing to think I couldn’t make it is the reason I could.” — Dolly Parton
- “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious effort.” — Henry David Thoreau
- “The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day. After all, a movement is only people moving.” — Gloria Steinem
- “Almost anything difficult, any challenge takes time, patience, and hard work.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
- “To strive tirelessly and at all times to reach one’s goal — therein lies the secret of success.” — Anna Pavlova
- “Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.” — Bruce Lee
- “I attribute my success to this — I never gave or took any excuse.” — Florence Nightingale
- “I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance.” — John D. Rockefeller
- “So please ask yourself: What would I do if I weren’t afraid? And then go do it.” — Sheryl Sandberg
- “I am grateful for all my victories, but I am especially grateful for my losses, because they only made me work harder.” — Muhammad Ali
- “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
- “It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.” — Nelson Mandela
- “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” ― Robert F. Kennedy
- “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” — Pablo Picasso
