Quotes on Motivation

If you have to find devices to coax yourself to stay focused on writing, perhaps you should not be writing what you're writing. And if this lack of motivation is a constant problem, perhaps writing is not your forte. I mean, what is the problem? If writing bores you, that is pretty fatal. If that is not the case, but you find that it is hard going and it just doesn't flow, well, what did you expect? It is work; art is work.

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

The greatest mistake a person can make is to be afraid of making one.

Leadership is about tapping the wellsprings of human motivation - and about fundamental relations with one's fellows.

Freud was way off base in considering sex the fundamental motivation. The ruling passion in men is minding each other's business.

There is "what is" only when there is no comparing and to live with "what is" is to be peaceful.

A top-quartile teacher will increase the performance of their class - based on test scores - by over 10 percent in a single year. ... That means that if the entire U.S., for two years, had top-quartile teachers, the entire difference between us and Asia would go away.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

We know where most of the creativity, the innovation, the stuff that drives productivity lies - in the minds of those closest to the work.

Each of these [bacterial] species are masterpieces of evolution. Each has persisted for thousands to millions of years. Each is exquisitely adapted to the environment in which it lives, interlocked with other species to form ecosystems upon which our own lives depend in ways we have not begun even to imagine.

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.

I do have high standards. I look at everything I have done and think, 'Why wasn't that better?' Part of my motivation is from crippling self-doubt - I have got to prove myself wrong.

When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts.

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.

Time makes more converts than reason.

If you want to make life easy, make it hard.

It became motivation as opposed to something else - the thing about poverty is that it starts affecting your mind and your spirit because people don't see you. I chose from a very young age that I didn't want that for my life. And it very much has helped me appreciate and value the things that are in my life now because I never had it.

The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders - people who not only have enormous amounts of energy, but who can energize those whom they lead.

Racism is predictable. It's predicted by interaction or lack thereof with people unlike you, people of other races.

I don't believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game.