Here’s the issue, it’s hard to stay inspired. It’s tough to get yourself to overcome lazy and idle habits. It’s tough to evaluate things from new perspectives. Your body is programmed to maintain homeostasis from top to bottom, and this permeates our behaviors, thought patterns, and habit structures. However, creating a life to be proud of requires going beyond this. It is what’s required to increase the quality of your life where you’re living creatively and not settling for being someone who you know is below your potential.
Quotes from inspired people are an awesome thing and one of the ‘tools’ you can use to create yourself and your life. I’m always on the look out for great quotes and you should be too. They inspire, they motivate, they make you reflect and evaluate. There is nothing like awesome quotes. Here is a quick list of a few of my heroes and some top quotes from them. I’m sure you’ll notice my heroes come from multiple disciplines and are seemingly nothing alike. In spite of this surface level evaluation, each of them brings expertise and insight that I love and gain personal strength and growth through.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.” -Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” -Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Everybody pities the weak; jealousy you have to earn.” -Arnold Schwarzenegger
Eckhart Tolle
“The great arises out of small things that are honored and cared for. Everybody’s life really consists of small things. Greatness is a mental abstraction and a favorite fantasy of the ego. The paradox is that the foundation for greatness is the honoring of small things of the present moment instead of pursuing the idea of greatness.” -Eckhart Tolle
To love is to recognize yourself in another. The others “otherness” then stands revealed as an illusion pertaining to the purely human realm, the realm of form. -Eckhart Tolle
“The brain does not create consciousness, but consciousness created the brain.” -Eckhart Tolle
Michael Jordan
“I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot… when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result.” -Michael Jordan
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” -Michael Jordan (source video)
“I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win.” -Michael Jordan
“If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” -Michael Jordan
George Carlin
“I love and treasure the individual, as I meet them. I loath and despise the groups they identify with and belong to.” -George Carlin
“Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself.” -George Carlin
“Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man…living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you and he needs money.” -George Carlin (source video)
“If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.” -George Carlin
“Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.” -George Carlin
“People who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think.” -George Carlin
James Allen
“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be: your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.” -James Allen
“The true life, the blessed life, the life that is not tormented with passions and pains, is reached only through sacrifice, not necessarily the sacrifice of outward things, but the sacrifice of the inward errors and defilement’s, for it is these, and these only, which bring misery into life. It is not the good and true that needs to be sacrificed but the evil and false; therefore all sacrifice is ultimately gain, and there is no essential loss.” -James Allen
“He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.” -James Allen
Tony Robbins
“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.” -Tony Robbins
“Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.” -Tony Robbins
“How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to?” -Tony Robbins
“I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk.” -Tony Robbins
“In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” -Tony Robbins
“It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute… that gives meaning to our lives.” -Tony Robbins
I’m curious, what are some of your favorite quotes?
“Physical strength (hard work), mental strength (perseverance) and spiritual strength (love & acceptance) are the keys to continuous growth.” – Rickson Gracie
The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back.
The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black.
I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds. – Henry Rollins.
And the best monolouge, or quote, I’ve ever heard –
The world is like a ride at an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it, you think it’s real, because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round and it has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly colored and it’s very loud. And it’s fun, for a while.
Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: ‘Is this real? Or is this just a ride?’ And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and they say ‘Hey! Don’t worry, don’t be afraid — ever — because… this is just a ride.’ And we kill those people.
‘Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride! Shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry; look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real.’ It’s just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that — ever notice that? — and we let the demons run amok. But it doesn’t matter, because… it’s just a ride, and we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. No effort. No worry. No job. No savings and money. Just a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy bigger guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one.
Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, into a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defense each year and, instead, spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would do many times over — not one human being excluded — and we can explore space together, both inner and outer, forever. In peace. – Bill Hicks
Love your blog, for a daily dose of motivation…But i do have a question for u Sam. How do u keep yourself motivated in the long run…i mean, is it possible even with multiple i.e. two or more goals in hand (either physical or mental development) ?
“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… the best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
~Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
“Treat your body like a temple, not a woodshed. The mind and body work together. Your body needs to be a good support system for the mind and spirit. If you take good care of it, your body can take you wherever you want to go, with the power and strength and energy and vitality you will need to get there.”
~Jim Rohn
“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.”
~Samuel Johnson
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to leave the world a better place; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.” ~Victoria Holt
“Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”
~Steve Jobs
Great quotes from some incredible people! Thanks for taking the time to put this article together. I’ll definitely be bookmarking this!!
“Formal education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune” -Jim Rohn