Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Aspirations

Hope—of all ills that men endure, the only cheap and universal cure; the captive’s freedom, and the sick man s health, the lover’s victory, and the beggar’s wealth.
Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet, Essayist

The American people can have anything they want; the trouble is they don’t know what they want.
Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American Socialist, Union Leader

Happiness is not the end of life; character is.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer

I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.
Leo Rosten (1908–97) Polish-born American Humorist, Screenwriter, Writer

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) American Novelist

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colors of life in all their purity.
George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher

I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.
Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist

People are more inclined to be drawn in if their leader has a compelling vision. Great leaders help people get in touch with their own aspirations and then will help them forge those aspirations into a personal vision.
John Kotter (b.1947) American Management Consultant

Great minds have purposes; others have wishes.
Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian

Aspirations can cure headaches
Robert Half

The grand essentials of happiness in this life are: Something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
George Washington Burnap (1802–59) American Unitarian Priest

Usually obstacles are the things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.
Hannah More

To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist

If you would be Pope, you must think of nothing else.
Spanish Proverb

Refusal to hope is nothing more than a decision to die.
Bernie S. Siegel (b.1932) American Physician, Writer

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist

Man can only receive what he sees himself receiving.
Florence Scovel Shinn (1871–1940) American Illustrator, Spiritual Writer

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer

Laboring toward distant aims set the mind in a higher key and puts us at our best.
Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842–1933) American Clergyman, Civic Reformer

Vision looks outward and becomes aspiration.
Stephen Samuel Wise (1874–1949) American Jewish Rabbi

Life’s objective is life itself.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist

He might never really do what he said, but at least he had it in mind. He had somewhere to go.
Louis L’Amour (1908–88) American Novelist, Short-story Writer

As you emphasize your life, you must localize and define it … you cannot do everything.
Phillips Brooks (1835–93) American Episcopal Clergyman, Author

There is only one meaning of life, the act of living itself.
Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher

Happy is said to be the family which can eat onions together. They are, for the time being, separate, from the world, and have a harmony of aspiration.
Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist

Every true man, sir, who is a little above the level of the beasts and plants does not live for the sake of living, without knowing how to live; but he lives so as to give a meaning and a value of his own to life.
Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) Italian Dramatist, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Author

Just as you have the instinctive natural desire to be happy and overcome suffering, so do all sentient beings; just as you have the right to fulfill this innate aspiration, so do all sentient beings. So on what exact grounds do you discriminate?
The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author

He who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows out that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life. The orderly arrangement of his time is a like a ray of life which darts itself through all his occupations. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incident, chaos will soon reign.
Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist

America has been a land of dreams. A land where the aspirations of people from countries cluttered with rich, cumbersome, aristocratic, ideological pasts can reach for what once seemed unattainable. Here they have tried to make dreams come true. Yet now… we are threatened by a new and particularly American menace. It is not the menace of class war, of ideology, of poverty, of disease, of illiteracy, or demagoguery, or of tyranny, though these now plague most of the world. It is the menace of unreality.
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer

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