+100 Truly Inspiring Quotes from Historical Figures — The Yogi Press (2024)

1. “Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most” – Gautama Buddha

2. “The longest journey begins with a single step.” – Patanjali

3. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

4. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”- Albert Einstein

5. “Thoughts are giant-powers. They are more powerful than electricity. They control your life, mould your character, and shape your destiny.” – Sivananda Saraswati

6. “Yoga is not an ancient myth buried in oblivion. It is the most valuable inheritance of the present. It is the essential need of today and the culture of tomorrow” – Swami Satyananda Saraswati

7. “A journey of a thousand leagues begins beneath one’s feet.” – Lao Tzu

8. “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

9. “Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.” – Ramana Maharishi

10. “Illness begins with "I", Wellness begins with "we.” – Swami Sivananda

11. “If you love a flower, don’t pick it up.
Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love.
So if you love a flower, let it be.
Love is not about possession.
Love is about appreciation.” ― Osho

12. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”–Mahatma Gandhi

13. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha

14. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

15. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde

16. “Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” – Plato

17. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain

18. “Be — don't try to become”― Osho

19. “Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent

20. “The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.” – Chinese Proverb

21. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu

22. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford

23. “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” – Henry Ford

24. Memory is deceptive because it is colored by todays events” – Albert Einstein

25. “The mind is everything. What you think you become.” – Buddha

26. “Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.” – Lao Tzu

27. “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” – Isaac Newton

28. “This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.” – Isaac Newton

29. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo Da Vinci

30. “Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”– Leonardo Da Vinci

31. “Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.” – Galileo

32. “You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.” – Galileo

33. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

34. “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” – Aristotle

35. “Quality is not an act; it is a habit.” – Aristotle

36. “The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena; it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” – Nikola Tesla

37. “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” – Nikola Tesla

38. “The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.” – Nikola Tesla

39. “My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration.” – Nikola Tesla

40. “So astounding are the facts in this connection, that it would seem as though the Creator, himself had electrically designed this planet…” – Nikola Tesla

41. “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. ” ― Archimedes

42. “One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.” – Socrates

43. “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” – Socrates

44. “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.” – Socrates

45. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” – Shakespeare

46. “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” – Michelangelo

47. “Genius is eternal patience.” – Michelangelo

48. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way” – Napoleon Hill

49. “Silence is better than unmeaning words.” – Pythagoras

50. “Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life.” – Pythagoras

51. “Nature uses as little as possible of anything.” – Johannes Kepler

52. “I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.” – Johannes Kepler

53. “Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” – Beethoven

54. “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” – Darwin

55. “A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.” – Darwin

56. “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” – Stephen Hawking

57. “Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.” – Stephen Hawking

58. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
― Benjamin Franklin

59. “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” ― Benjamin Franklin

60. “Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.” – Max Planck

61. “Words empty as the wind are best left unsaid.” – Homerus

62. “To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” – Nicolaus Copernicus

63. “Without music, life would be a mistake.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

64. “There are no facts, only interpretations.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

65. “Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius

66. “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius

67. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi

68. “Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.” – Rumi

69. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken” – Oscar Wilde

70. “The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” – Oscar Wilde

71. “You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” – Rabindranath Tagore

72. “Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” - Rabindranath Tagore

73. “Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.” - Rabindranath Tagore

74. “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

75. “Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

76. “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney

77. “It's kind of fun to do the impossible.” – Walt Disney

78. “There is nothing impossible to him who will try.” – Alexander the Great

79. “Experience is the teacher of all things.” – Julius Caesar

80. “Veni, vidi, vici. (I came, I saw, I conquered.).” – Julius Caesar

81. “An action committed in anger is an action doomed to failure.” ― Genghis Khan

82. “The less people know, the more stubbornly they know it.” ― Osho

83. "Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." - Napoleon Bonaparte

84. "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

85. "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." - Malcolm X

86. "I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." - Galileo

87. "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein

88. "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."- Mahatma Gandhi

89. "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." - Nelson Mandela

90. "Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself." - Charlie Chaplin

91. “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” ― C.G. Jung

92. “The trouble is, you think you have time” – Buddha

93. “I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” — Abraham Lincoln

94. “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

95. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

96. “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” – Dalai Lama

97. “Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart.” – Ancient Indian Proverb

98. “To conquer oneself is a greater victory than to conquer thousands in a battle.” – Dalai Lama

99. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.” – Mark Twain

100. “Love is the absence of judgment.” – Dalai Lama