Motivation Quotes

All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time. (USMC, when surrounded by 8 enemy divisions during the Korean War.).

His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.

Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal — a commitment to excellence — that will enable you to attain the success you seek.

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

John W. Gardner, the president of the Carnegie Corporation, in an address said this: “The most important moral of all is that excellence is where you find it. I would extend this generalization to cover not just higher education but all education from vocational high school to graduate school. We must learn to honor excellence, indeed to demand it in every socially accepted human activity, however humble that activity, and to scorn shoddiness, however exalted the activity. An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”

I had not time to lick it into form, as a bear doth her young ones.

The five excellences include: calligraphy, painting, poetry, medicine, and t'ai chi chuan.

There are many degrees in excellence. — In virtute sunt multi ascensus

There are three marks of a superior man: being virtuous, he is free from anxiety; being wise, he is free from perplexity; being brave, he is free from fear.

Do it the hard way! Think ahead of your job. Then nothing in the world can keep the job ahead from reaching out for you. Do it better than it need be done. Next time doing it will be child's play. Let no one or anything stand between you and the difficult task, let nothing deny you this rich chance to gain strength by adversity, confidence by mastery, success by deserving it. Do it better each time. Do it better than anyone else can do it. I know this sounds old-fashioned. It is, but it has built the world.

There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first time. I owe him my best.

What keeps you motivated? The challenge of putting all the elements of a team together and seeing how you do and what you become is the thing that I still enjoy. I also enjoy the associations and relationships with the players and other coaches — to be in the arena, so to speak. I still enjoy that. I'm also at the point, though, that if we're not doing well — it's tough enough as it is — that I'm not going to be hanging on just to be hanging on. Because it's not anything I need from an ego standpoint or anything else. I just thoroughly enjoy what I'm doing.

What motivates me is not one more championship, it is the challenge each year. I have just thoroughly enjoyed starting in spring with a new team and trying to put all the elements together to make a team.

Highly developed spirits often encounter resistance from mediocre minds.

Excellence is new forever.

The excellent is new forever.

Can We Be Equal And Excellent Too? The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

The most important moral of all is that excellence is where you find it. I would extend this generalization to cover not just higher education but all education from vocational high school to graduate school. We must learn to honor excellence, indeed to demand it in every socially accepted human activity, however humble that activity, and to scorn shoddiness, however exalted the activity. An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

Don't be afraid to be amazing.

There are no speed limits on the road to excellence.