Inspiring Quotes

[RMDS]

The veracity of your desire for achievement is measured by how many excuses for failure you allow.

[peejay]

My first post.

Many of my favourites already posted, and there are many I have not heard before that I will take away. Here are a few more that I have kept over the years:

I have only good days, and great days: Lance Armstrong

Obstacles are what you see when you look away from your goals
(don't know who, but this alone inspired me to do an ironman triathlon, after seeing it on the t-shirt of a guy who trained for an ironman whilst living in the middle of a desert, with only two roads to ride on... one flat and straight to the east, one flat and straigh to the west...I thought living in HK at the time was tough!)

Man should not ask what the meaning of his life is; but rather must recognise that it is he who is asked: Viktor Frankl

This too shall pass (can't remember who)

Do the little things savagely well: Mark Verstegen

All men die, not all really live (not sure, but have seen it attributed to Braveheart)

The best time to plant a tree was three years ago, the next best time is today (don't know this either)

The only limits we have are those we give ourselves (again, not sure who)

I like the Bruce Lee quotes - can anyone tell me, are they in a book that I can buy?

[Nickolode]

God, grant me, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

[holvoetn]

"Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard." - Kevin Durant

A related quote:

"The dictionary is the only place where Success comes before Work"
(not sure anymore where I read it)

[SublimeJM7]

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." ARISTOTLE

[SublimeJM7]

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

[SublimeJM7]

"If you succeed at everything you try, you've probably set your sights too low"- John Bal

"Hard work can beat talent, when talent doesn't work hard" - Darryl Reaugh

[lovestolift]

I like the Bruce Lee quotes - can anyone tell me, are they in a book that I can buy?

"Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living" ISBN 0-8048-3471-7, Tuttle Publishing

[portmaster1000]

No Booker T. Washington quotes yet? Let me remedy that with my favorites.

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.

[RobCosimo]

"If we do not change direction, we will end up where we are
headed." Lao Tsu

[thefinalsql]

You've always had the power to go back to Kansas ~Glinda, Wizard Of Oz

Get busy living, or get busy dying. ~Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball ~Patches, Dodgeball

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race ~Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States

[Gringo]

Movie quote from Event Horizon:

"Liberate tu te me ex inferis" - Latin for "Save yourself from hell".
Instead of taking it literally, i like to think about hell as hell on earth, like the normal 8-6 life, growing lazy and fat, in a boring life. That's what hell is for me.

The Peripatetic Axom, by Thomas Aquinas.

""Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius in sensu" - Latin for: "Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses".
Thomas thought this up thinking about a more religious meaning, but I like to think of it as a more complex version of "Your body is a reflection of your mind".

[Cynical]

“A beginner does eight repetitions of a certain exercise with his maximum weight on the barbell. As soon as it hurts, he thinks about stopping. I work beyond this point, which means I tell my mind that as soon as it starts aching it is growing. Growing is something unusual for the body when you are over eighteen. The body isn’t used to ten, eleven, or twelve reps with a maximum weight. Then I do ten or fifteen sets of this in a row. No human body was ever prepared for this and suddenly it is making itself grow to handle this new challenge, growing through this pain area. Experiencing this pain in my muscles and aching and going on is my challenge. The last three or four reps is what makes the muscles grow. This area of pain divides a champion from someone who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens. I have no fear of fainting. I do squats until I fall over and pass out. So what? It’s not going to kill me. I wake up five minutes later and I’m OK. A lot of other athletes are afraid of this. So they don’t pass out. They don’t go on.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Does it for me

[LiftingNerd]

On that note...

"You have to push on when you don't think you can do it. You have to have more balls than this if you want to get stronger. Anyone can work this hard. Anyone can get to the point where they think they can go and stop...but you are not anyone." -Dave Tate

[holvoetn]

Abraham Maslow - "If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."

Makes one aware you really need to think 'out-of-the-box'