Inspirational Quotes
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In our classroom we have an "Inspirational Quotes" board that I update every 2-3 weeks. I put up the quote, and then the students, throughout the 2-3 week period, grab a sticky note and write what that quote means to them and they stick it underneath the quote.
I was amazed at the level of deep, meaningful quotes that I have seen over the years! Here are some of our favorite quotes...
"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go." - T.S. Eliot
"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." - Diane Ackerman, American Writer
"Great ideas...come into the world as gently as doves...if we listen attentively, we shall hear, amid the uproar...a faint flutter of wings, the gentle stirring of life and hope." - Albert Camus, author and philosopher
"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good." - Minor Myers Jr., Author
"Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Norman MacEwan, Senior Commander, Royal Air Force
"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Seneca, Roman Philosopher
"When we do face the difficult times, we need to remember that circumstances don’t make a person, they reveal a person." - Emma Jameson
"If you want trust, trust others. If you want respect, respect others. If you want help, help others. If you want love and peace in your life, give them away. If you want great friends, be one. That’s how it works." - Dan Zadra, Businessman and Writer
"Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction." - Al Bernstein, Sportscaster
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." - Albert Einstein
"While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." - Apple Computer Inc.
"Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world." - Etty Hillesum, Holocaust Survivor
"Let's give the historians something to write about." - Propertius, Latin poet
"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will never be shortened. Happiness never ceases by being shared." - Chinese Proverb
"We have enough people who tell it like it is - now we could use a few who tell it like it can be." - Robert Orben, Magician
"We can choose to be affected by the world or we can choose to affect the world." - Heidi Wills, Author
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." - Henry David Thoreau, Author
"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" - Unknown
"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in the quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow." - Mary Jean Irion, Writer
"Work and live to serve others, leave the world a little better than you found it and garner for yourself as much peace of mind as you can. This is happiness." - David Sarnoff, Founder of NBC
"I haven’t a clue how my story will end, but that’s all right. When you set out on a journey and night covers the road, that’s when you discover the stars." - Nancy Willard, Children's Author
"Life is better because you know more, not just because you have more." - Unknown
"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely." - Roald Dahl, British Novelist
"You can't lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse." - John Peers, American businessman
"If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear." - Joanna Macy, Environmental activist and author
"At the heart of each of us, whatever our imperfections, there exists a silent pulse of perfect rhythm, which is absolutely individual and unique, and yet which connects us to everything else." - George Leonard, Writer
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." - Robert Frost, Poet
"You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right." - Rosa Parks, Civil Rights Activist
"Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well." - Josh Billings, Humorist
"You cannot be wimpy out there on the dream-seeking trail. Dare to break through barriers, to find your own path." - Les Brown, Motivational speaker
"Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." - Roald Dahl, British novelist
"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, day and night, to make you everybody but yourself—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight—and never stop fighting." - E. E. Cummings, Playwright
"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner, Nobel Prize winner and Novelist