Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
- Marcus AureliusInspiration
The word inspiration literally means breathing in — something arriving from outside. The image is old, and it explains why inspiration is so often discussed as a gift that either comes or does not. The working practice of almost everyone who has made anything says the opposite: it usually shows up in the middle of the work rather than before it.
Quotes in this theme therefore work best as a prompt to begin, not as an explanation. A line read in the morning will not solve the problem, but it can be the reason someone sits down at the desk. That is a modest but real use — and a more honest way to treat the genre than expecting one sentence to change a direction.
It always seems impossible until it's done.
- Nelson MandelaArise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.
- Swami VivekanandaWhen everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
- Henry FordI would rather die of passion than of boredom.
- Vincent van GoghThe higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
- Friedrich NietzscheKeep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
- Theodore RooseveltIf your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world.
- Nikola TeslaImagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will.
- George Bernard ShawThe present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.
- Nikola TeslaYou must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
- Friedrich NietzscheFar away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
- Louisa May AlcottWe are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
- Oscar WildeImagination is more important than knowledge.
- Albert EinsteinTry to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.
- Maya AngelouNo bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
- William BlakeDwell in possibility.
- Emily DickinsonThere is nothing like a dream to create the future.
- Victor HugoThere are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.
- C. S. LewisStart by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
- Francis of AssisiThe creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.
- Ralph Waldo EmersonNever give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
- Harriet Beecher StoweIf you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.
- Martin Luther King Jr.The mountains are calling and I must go.
- John MuirThe greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.
- Michelangelo