What is the most inspirational quote you've ever heard?

Question

What is the most inspirational quote you've ever heard? I am looking for uplifting quotes to put on the walls of my 7th-grade classroom. Thanks!

Answer 1

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

Answer 2

Not sure of the sources, but here's a few:

Winners never quit, and quitters never win

Don't watch the doors behind you close, for you won't see the ones in front of you open

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars

Keep your eye on the ball and the scoreboard will take care of itself.

"The greater the task, the greater the glory" -Cicero

Also, a great book you may want to read is "The Power Of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale. It's a great book and full of inspirational stories and anecdotes. I'm sure you'll pick up a lot of helpful stuff there.

Hope this helps.

(p.s. Thanks for being a teacher!)

Answer 3

I don't know if I have one "inspirational" quote, here are some that helped me at different times in my life:

1) I did well in school in terms of passing tests and learning the "right" answers, but it was when I was having trouble in an AP History class that the teacher (gave me this quote - along with a "failed" essay:

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."Malcolm Forbes of Forbes Magazine

It really made me think about knowledge, wisdom and education ( I got a 5 on the AP history exam thanks to that teacher!)

2) When I was applying to colleges, I tended to be both literal in my answers o applications and shy about talking/writing about myself. A school counselor gave me this quote:

"The sign on the door of opportunity reads PUSH." anonymous

I keep on my office wall next to this quote I found in an essay:

“Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.”
Anton Chekhov

3) As a college student I was of the school that "sincerity" could best express itself through a raised voiced, quick response, etc. A (very good) friend gave me a card with this on it:

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ~Eric Hoffer

4) This is a quote that I found at age 16 in the Van Gogh Museum in Arles. It has been a personal inspiration for many years:
"The best way to know life is to love many things."
- Vincent Van Gogh

Don't know if any of these do it for you, but thanks for the fun question.

Answer 4

Every exit is an entry somewhere else. -Tom Stoppard

To live is to have problems and to solve problems is to grow intellectually -J. P. Guilford

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.

Always be a little kinder than necessary.
James M. Barrie

A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free. -Nikos Kazantzakis

An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.
-Dr. Edwin Land
( sorry could not make up my mind )

Answer 5

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." -- Stephen Grellet.

For me that sums up what you should do in your life. It may be kind of long though.

Answer 6

Since you have mentioned its for putting on the walls in class...I wish you to consider this which is about education :
"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet"

However, for me inspirational quote is :
"Let us endeavour so to live that when we come to die even the undertake will be sorry." ................. Mark Twain

Answer 7

"Man doth not offer himself up unto the angels, nor unto death utterly, save by the feebleness of his own will."

I read that one in Ligeia by Edgar Allen Poe. I'm not sure if he made it up, or if he was quoting something else. Another good one is:

"The naked senses sometimes see too little -- but then always they see too much."

Poe again.

Answer 8

This is not anything really fancy, but it has inspired me to do what's possible rather than bemoan what's impossible:

"Don't let what you CAN'T do keep you from doing what you CAN do."

Answer 9

"I'd rather get my brains blown out in the wild than wait in terror at the slaughterhouse."
Craig Volk

Morbid but a good one nonetheless

Answer 10

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

-- it has stuck with me for some reason

Answer 11

It is from J.F.Kennedy:

'Ask not what the country has done for you; ask what you've done for your country'

But don't modify it as

'Ask not what the School has done for you; ask, what you've done for the school..

Best of luck,