Top 10 Famous Inspirational Quotes

These famous inspirational quotes are part of my hand-picked list. I continue to collect quotes and sayings of course, and my favorites often rotate to the latest ones I've collected. For this page, I have tried to pick quotes by fairly well known people, balanced against my preferences for the quotes themselves.

1. "Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great."
   -Mark Twain
   
   

2. "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form."
   -Albert Einstein
   
   

3. "The past does not equal the future."
   -Anthony Robbins
   More on Anthony Robbins and quotes from him.
   
   

4. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
   -Thomas Edison
   
   

5. "The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.”
   -Jim Rohn
   
   

6. "Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer."
   -Denis Waitley
   
   

7. "Stop trying to do everything and start delegating everything you possibly can. The peace of mind and the sense of being taken care of is well worth the money spent."
   -Talane Miedaner
   Coach Yourself to Success
   More on Talane.
   
   

8. "Creation acts upon the everlasting possibility that anything that is thought of, can be. Consider some of the numerous great inventions, which we take for granted today: airplanes, electric lights, telephones, television, fax machines, computers. They're all the result of creative ideas by individuals who ignored the ridicule they encountered while they stayed focused on possible rather than impossible."
   -Dr. Wayne Dyer
   The Power of Intention
   -On staying on the active side of infinity and infinite possibilities. More on Wayne Dyer.
   
   

9. "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure."
   -Mark Twain
   
   

10. "I frustrated Bucky. I kept asking about what he believed in: 'Do you believe in God?' or, 'Do you believe society will right itself from its trajectory towards oblivion?' When Bucky asked me questions, I would often reply with the word 'think' in my answer — such as, I think this, or I think that. Bucky coaxed me not to 'think.' He explained that thinking was a process and not a destination. Allowing for thinking as a destination was a cost of believing and the belief system of thinking. Instead, Bucky challenged me to know what I know, know what I don’t know and he pushed me to classify my cache of sentiments into rubrics of know and don’t know. I quickly learned that everything could be divided into two categories, those things that can be divided in to two categories and those that can’t."
    -Ben Mack
    -On his conversations with Buckminster Fuller and believing versus knowing.