I was a watching a documentary on graffiti art yesterday and read a quote one of the artists painted on a piece: "90% of success is just showing up". My thoughts on that were: yeah, I don't think so. Most people just show up every day and get nowhere. You actually have to do something extraordinary to get what you want.

My favorite quote that actually motivated me for years when I was getting my business/website going was "there are no traffic jams along the extra mile". That quote actually makes more sense!

What are your favorite motivational quotes (good or bad)?

One of my favourites:
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you - but do it first." (JOY)

A couple of my favourites:

"A boast is a gift to an enemy"

" A good warrior is always before their environment"

"Never mind artificial intelligence - I'm waiting for artificial cunning"

Those are fantastic Ian. I love them all especially the second one!

It's one I use with the newbies at Ninjitsu to remind them that the art is more than just the Taijutsu (combat) side and to explore the other sides too.

Another one is

"Perfection is your road- not your destination"

"Action is the foundational key to all success." Pablo Picasso

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." Thomas Jefferson (has some of the best quotes ever!)

"Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can." Martha Graham

"The only sin is mediocrity." Martha Graham

"Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape." William S. Burroughs

"I wanted the whole world or nothing." Charles Bukowski

Hi Ian and Monica, you have some great motivational quotes there! (JOY)

Not so much motivational as guidance are:

"Never eat at a place called 'Moms'
Never play Pool with anyone called Slim, or Poker with anyone called 'Doc".

Don't criticise anyone until you have walked a mile in their shoes - then say what you like. After all you're a mile away and you've got their shoes"

"I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"If you have no critics you'll likely have no success." Malcolm X

"I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself." Mikhail Baryshnikov

Hi Ian, I like the quotes under your signature as well! (JOY)

Hi Monica, in fact the more you concentrate on your own success rather than comparing yourself to others, the more 'at peace' you are. (JOY)

Thanks Joy, that is by far one of the most important lessons I learned in my late 30's : )

Thanks, I like Dali Lama, he makes me think

Yes I forgot to mention your Lama quote Ian. Very nice. My favorite of DL quote is "Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck." I think I could write an amazing book on never getting what I wanted and now having everything I never knew I wanted : )

Hi Monica, it's interesting that even though you opened this thread to both "good" and "bad" motivational quotes, no "bad" ones have been aired. Perhaps there aren't any! Or perhaps in life 'good' always overrides 'bad' ?? (JOY)

How about:

"No matter how good you are there is always someone better"?

"The race is not always to the swift, or the battle to the strong. But that's the way to bet"

"Money can't buy you happiness"

"Everyone has their appointed place"

"It's not what you know it's who you know"

"If you're a pessimist you are never disappointed"

I would go on, but I feel the urge for a tub of triple chocolate ice cream and an action movie.

LOL!!!!!!!!! SO funny, Ian!!! hahaha!!!! You made me laugh today!!!

And now, are you gonna share that ice cream and flick???

I'm trying to think of a quote. Hmmm...

"If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he sits in a boat and drinks beer all day long." ~ anonymous

Or:

"If you teach a man to fish you can sell him graphite rods, special lures, hooks, different strengths of line, a fishing licence...."

LOL, Ian, you are a riot and here's 2 just for you:

"Give a man a fish and he has food for a day; teach him how to fish and you can get rid of him for the entire weekend." Zenna Schaffer (this is exactly why I used to buy my exhusband golf clubs all the time, LOL!!!)

"Marta says the interesting thing about fly-fishing is that it's two lives connected by a thin strand. Come on, Marta. Grow up." Jack Handey

This is my favorite quote on fishing though:

"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." Henry David Thoreau

As we are now half an hour into Christmas Day in the UK, here's a quote for XMas:

"He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree." - Roy L. Smith

Hi Ian, Lori & Monica, I didn�t realise there were so many versions of the �fish� quote! (JOY)

"We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want." (Tao te Ching)

I like "Whether you think you can, or you think you cant, you're right"

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So true! You believe whatever you tell yourself. (JOY)

I often go back to this Bruce Lee quote:

"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

I always liked:

"Life is what happens while you are out making other plans."

Not so much motivational but a reminder that you can't always control everything.

Hi Asha, great quote! And look how powerful water can be - it erodes away mountains! (JOY)

Hi Allison, I love that quote as people often forget that no amount of planning can prepare you for the unexpected. (JOY)

"Better than the one who knows what is right is he who loves what is right" - Confucius

"Sometimes you cannot believe what you see. You have to believe what you feel." ---Morrie Schwartz

That's a good quote about trusting your gut or intuition. (JOY)

More fun quotes that I came across recently by Dr. Robert Anthony.

"You can have anything you want if you will give up the belief that you can't have it."

"Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy."

"When your ship comes in, make sure you are willing to unload it."

"Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait. The truth is there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don't count."

The last one is my favorite. I really want to read one of his books now.

Truly love this one but had forgotten about it. Thanks for posting it : )

"Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option."
� Nina Potts Jefferies

Hi Monica, yes, they are �fun� quotes. They make you smile then you realise the depth to them! (JOY)

Some of my favorite quotes:

"The best gift we can bestow is a good example" - Thomas Morrell

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying '"I will try again tomorrow"
-Mary Anne Radmacher

Fav work/career quotes

"Work is uninspiring, unappreciated and underpaid - unless you're out of it." - Robert Half

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
-Douglas Adams

"We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, "Why did this happen to me? unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way." Author Unknown

"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." Frank A. Clark

"To hell with circumstances. I create opportunities." Bruce Lee

"Conformity is that jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." John F. Kennedy

Hi Dianne, that quote is one of my favourites too. (JOY)

Hi Linda, that's one you need to read more than once to truly realise its significance. (JOY)

Hi Monica, it's a pity that this quote has an unknown author. It�s so true that people generally interrogate themselves when things go wrong and very rarely when things go right. (JOY)

So true. I believe the motivation comes from our ability to activate and carry out our goals based upon the words we choose to speak. With that in mind, no matter how profound the quote, until we activate the change within us, the words are powerless.

I wanted the whole world or nothing.

Hi Anderson, that's an interesting goal... (JOY)

Love this! I was just writing about this the other day. You must be willing to go beyond the quote and take action : ) My best friend told me about a book called Beyond Positive Thinking that I'm dying to read!

I posted that in a different way a few weeks ago "I wanted the whole world or nothing." Charles Bukowski and even though I think it's motivating to think that way sometimes I don't think it's a good attitude in general. The all or nothing mentality is the perfectionists mantra and it rarely gets you anywhere.

"That's the key to having it all: stop expecting it to look like what you thought it was going to look like. Cindy Chupack, Sex and the City, Plus One Is The Loneliest Number, 2002

Hi Monica, so true! You can read mountains of books but nothing will change in your life until you actually take some action, no matter how small. Let us know what you think of �Beyond Positive Thinking� once you�ve read it. (JOY)

I just remembered two other all or nothing quotes that I thought were kind of funny.

"Give me liberty or give me death!" Patrick Henry
"California or Bust" (not sure who said this first)

Those first two can get you fired up but this one is more practical "The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything - or nothing." Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess

Here's a bad motivational quote from my own mother:

"You look good from behind. Why don't you walk into a room backwards?"

We've only been posting motivational quotes. This wouldn't really qualify as one especially since it's so negative. How about we stick to positive productive quotes : )

Oh, sorry. I saw the title of the thread and it says "good and bad motivational quotes."

Okay, here's a positive one:

"Happiness and love are just a choice away."
Author: Leo Buscaglia

Motivational quotes that can be construed as good or bad vs. just something bad someone said to you to motivate you. I probably should have explained better.

Maybe we should start a post on that one. I'm sure plenty of us have heard nasty things that only drove us to succeed.

My high school counselor told me "you should go to trade school, you'll never graduate from college." What he said [censored] off my mom but I knew he was a complete loser who liked smoking pot with some of the students so I ignored his de-motivational advice and gradated with honors in my major. Can you believe that moron being a school counselor. I hope some of the other students ignored his advice too.

Hi Monica, so true! (JOY)

Hi Lori, that's a bad one all right. It's also quite funny. (JOY)

Hi Monica, in the UK, "bad motivational quotes" also means "really corny" ones. Saying that, I can't actually think of one at this moment! (JOY)

Thanks Dr. Joy. As usual a complete disconnect for me in the humor dept. I speak American English and think like a Mexican so the comment Lori posted is not corny/humorous to me. In Mexico if somebody says something like that to you they usually mean it and not as a joke or a motivational tool. They're saying it to hurt you. I think it's so interesting how different cultures find humor in different things. I still have trouble with the English or American sense of humor when it comes to personal jokes. MIL is English and sometimes I just don't get that she's poking fun and being corny but I'm learning : )


"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes." Mahatma Gandhi

Hi Monica, yes, the way humour is told (and accepted) across the world is really interesting. Brits can have a very dry/dark sense of humour and it is not uncommon for things they say to be taken as insults rather than the compliments they actually are.

The next time your MIL says something that upsets you, just listen to her actual words and consider what else they could mean. I�m sure you�ll find that her comments have much affection behind them! (JOY)

Thanks so much for the tip. That helps a ton!

"A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life." William Arthur Ward

"A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke - and that the joke is oneself." Clifton Paul Fadiman (yes, I'm working on this one)

"Humor is something that thrives between man's aspirations and his limitations. There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth." Victor Borge

My mother loves me and she just has a really biting sense of humor. She thought she was being funny *and* constructive!

She did mean it. My body is thin, except for my belly (typical diabetic body shape). Aw, the truth hurts sometimes! :p

Hi Lori, on the topic of cultural differences, if you were in the West Indies and a comment was made about someone�s big hips say, that would be a real compliment! (JOY)

"Don't worry so much about your self-esteem. Worry more about your character. Integrity is its own reward."

"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment, it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone." Orison Swett Marden

"The greatest difficulty is that men do not think enough of themselves, do not consider what it is that they are sacrificing when they follow in a herd, or when they cater for their establishment." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hi Monica, that's a great quote about self-esteem. Yes, if you live an honest life with integrity, nothing can touch your character or self-esteem. (JOY)

Came across this amazing passage this morning by George Bernard Shaw "This is the true joy of life: the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

Hi Monica, Shaw's text is not that easy to understand straight away, but I agree, that's a good quote. (JOY)

I agree it's a bit confusing at first but by the end it really gets to the point about finding happiness in your life purpose, being a might force of nature, and not giving in to selfish whining and complaining that just gets in the way.

I found some new ones today that helped me get closer to a new domain for my new site. I really love that last one:

"Well done is better than well said." Benjamin Franklin

"Inspirations never go in for long engagements; they demand immediate marriage to action." Brendan Francis

"A barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion." Washington Irving, adapted from a verse in the Bible

"The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs." Vance Havner

Hi Monica, yes, that's a great one. Dreams come true by taking the action needed. (JOY)

Amazing how all the best stuff just crosses your path when you have that mindset. This is what I came across today on greatness:

"I take nothing for granted. I now have only good days or great days." Lance Armstrong

"To be great is to serve." Matthew 20

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well then...I am still rising.

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. William Shakespeare