Self-Development (32 Quotes)

1.  "Those who seek a better life must first become a better person."
- Jim Rohn

2.  "Let us strive to improve ourselves, for we cannot remain stationary; one either progresses or retrogrades."
- Marie Anne de Vichy

3.  "Personal growth is not a matter of learning new information but of unlearning old limits."
- Alan Cohen

4.  "Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound."
- James Allen

5.  "The key to personal development lies in your daily routine."
- Idowu Koyenikan

6.  "You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight. If you want to reach your goals and fulfill your potential, become intentional about your personal growth. It will change your life."
- Jim Rohn

7.  "Live your life as if you were already the outstanding person that you intend to be sometime in the future."
- Brian Tracy

8.  "There is no limit to self-improvement.  When you ask yourself, 'How can I do better?' sound answers will appear."
- David J. Schwartz (The Magic of Thinking Big)

9.  "Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you."
- Robin Sharma

10.  "If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of."
- Kazuo Ishiguro

11.  "Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.”
- Baltasar Gracian

12.  "First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
- Epictetus

13.  "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."
- Tony Robbins 

14.  "Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

15.  "Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new."
- Brian Tracy

16.  "Growth and comfort do not coexist."
- Ginni Rometty

17.  "More men have become great through practice than by nature."
- Democritus

18.  "No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself."
- Madonna

19.  "If a tree’s strength is judged while it is still a seed, it is mistaken as weak."
- Idowu Koyenikan

20.  "Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today."
- Tim Fargo

21.  "The best investment you can make is in yourself."
- Warren Buffett

22.  "Set a goal so big that you can't achieve it until you grow into the person who can."
- Zig Ziglar 

23.  "Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune."
- Jim Rohn

24.  "I tell people everywhere I go that my success began the day I started focusing on developing who I am as a person."
- Eric Thomas

25.  "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
- Benjamin Franklin

26.  "You make the world a better place by making yourself a better person."
- Scott Sorrell

27.  "Let him who would move the world first move himself."
- Socrates

28.  "Small daily improvements over time lead to stunning results."
- Robin Sharma

29.  "He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate."
- Henry David Thoreau

30.  "The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action."
- John Dewey

31.  "Human beings cannot remain stagnant - we are either growing or dying.  We are either getting better or getting worse."
- Steve Siebold

32.  "Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Other People's Opinions (25 Quotes)

1.  "Care about people’s approval and you will always be their prisoner."
- Lao Tzu

2.  "For your own self-respect and sanity, your creative freedom, you have to be careful that you don't rely too much on other people's opinions of what you do because it can stunt and inhibit you."
- Luke Evans

3.  "Someone else’s opinion of you is none of your business. You’re afraid to move forward because of what he might think or what she might say or what your in-laws think. That fear will keep you small."
- Rachel Hollis

4.  "Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination."
- Mae Jemison

5.  "I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing."
- Richard P. Feynman

6.  "Don’t live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable."
- Wendy Wasserstein

7.  "Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others."
- Roy T. Bennett

8.  "Some people say you are going the wrong way, when it’s simply a way of your own."
- Angelina Jolie

9.  "I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings."
- Mozart

10.  "Some people around you will not understand your journey. They don’t need to; it’s not for them."
- Paulo Coelho

11.  "When someone judges you, it isn’t actually about you. It’s about them and their own insecurities, limitations, and needs."
- Lulu

12.  "No name-calling truly bites deep unless, in some dark part of us, we believe it. If we are confident enough then it is just noise."
- Laurell K. Hamilton

13.  "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

14.  "Why should we worry about what others think of us, do we have more confidence in their opinions than we do our own?"
- Brigham Young

15.  "A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep."
- Vernon Howard

16.  "Just because they disagree, doesn't mean you ain't right."
- Toba Beta

17.  "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed."
- Ray Goforth

18.  "Small minds can't comprehend big spirits.  To be great, you have to be willing to be mocked, hated, and misunderstood."
- Unknown

19.  "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
- Mark Twain

20.  "History shows us that the people who end up changing the world - the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries - are always nuts until they are right, and then they are geniuses."
- John Eliot

21.  "Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

22.  "There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing."
- Aristotle

23.  "Don't be afraid of losing people.  Be afraid of losing yourself by trying to please everyone."
- Unknown

24.  "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind."
- Dr Seuss

25.  "Freedom on the inside comes when validation from the outside doesn’t matter."
- Richie Norton 

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Your True Self / Authenticity (40 Quotes)

 1.  "This above all: to thine own self be true"
- William Shakespeare

2.  "There is only one you for all time. Fearlessly be yourself."
- Anthony Rapp

3.  "Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?"
- Charles Bukowski

4.  "'Finding yourself' is not really how it works. You aren't a ten-dollar bill in last winter's coat pocket. You are also not lost. Your true self is right there, buried under cultural conditioning, other people's opinions, and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a kid that became your beliefs about who you are. 'Finding yourself' is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you."
- Emily McDowell

5.  "You don't need a mirror to find your authentic self; you only need to stop trying to be anything, and simply just be.  You become your
authentic self by letting go of who you think you should be."
- Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.

6.  "Authenticity is when you say and do the things you actually believe."
- Simon Sinek

7.  "You are who you are when nobody’s watching."
- Stephen Fry

8.  "A person who suppresses his or her own self is in danger of missing the point of his or her own existence, of surrendering what being human means."
- Byron L. Sherwin

9.  "Only when we stop pretending to be something we are not - when we no longer feel the need to hide or overcompensate for either our weaknesses or our gifts - will we know the freedom of expressing our authentic self and have the ability to make choices that are based on the life we truly desire to live.”
- Debbie Ford

10.  "Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you truly love."
- Rumi

11.  "By being yourself, you put something beautiful into the world that was not there before."
- Edwin Elliot

12.  "Existence wants you to be you."
- Osho

13.  "Let's dare to be ourselves, for we do that better than anyone else can."
- Shirley Briggs

14.  "The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you."
- Neil Gaiman

15.  "Give up defining yourself - to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life. And don’t be concerned with how others define you."
- Eckhart Tolle

16. "Be yourself to free yourself!"
- G. Brian Benson

17.  "I don’t want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing."
- Alicia Keys

18.  "Anyone who really loves you wants you to be authentic.  And anyone who doesn't want you to be authentic doesn't really love you."
- Nathaniel Branden

19.  "Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance."
- Brené Brown

20.  "But who can love me, if no one knows me?"
- Sheldon Kopp

21.  "Being honest may not get you many friends, but it’ll always get you the right ones."
- John Lennon

22.  "Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet - thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing - consistently."
- Lance Secretan

23.  "Try not to be too focused on pleasing others and end up losing your true self."
- Edmond Mbiaka

24.  "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

25.  "The superior man follows nobody else’s path."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

26.  "Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

27.  "There is only one you. And there will never be another one. That’s your power."
- Mel Robbins

28.  "Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it."
- Bruce Lee

29.  "Self-improvement isn't about trying to become someone you're not; it's about becoming the best version of yourself."
- T. H. Russo

30.  "It doesn’t matter what everyone else is wearing or eating or watching or buying. Be yourself."
- Joshua Becker

31.  "Always be you, never be someone else; don't pretend to like something that you don't; don't consider anyone a friend who you can't be yourself around; live your life as who you are not who you think others want you to be like."
- Catherine Pulsifer

32.  "Life can't work for you if you don't show up as you."
- Jason Mraz

33.  "When you dance to your own rhythm, life taps its toes to your beat."
- Terri Guillemets

34.  "You know how every once in a while you do something and the little voice inside says, ‘There. That's it. That's why you're here.’ … and you get a warm glow in your heart because you know it's true? Do more of that."
- Jacob Nordby

35.  "Learn to… be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not."
- Henri Frederic Amiel

36.  "Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are."
- Malcolm S. Forbes

37.  "Understand: you are one of a kind. Your character traits are a kind of chemical mix that will never be repeated in history. There are ideas unique to you, a specific rhythm and perspective that are your strengths, not your weaknesses. You must not be afraid of your uniqueness."
- Robert Greene

38.  "Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is you-er than you."
- Dr. Seuss

39.  "No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else."
- P.T. Barnum

40.  "Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."
-  John Stuart Mill

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Small Steps (15 Quotes)

1.  "Getting from point A to point Z can be daunting unless you remember that you don't have to get from A to Z. You just have to get from A to B. Breaking big dreams into small steps is the way to move forward."
- Sheryl Sandberg

2.  "Even if you can’t just snap your fingers and make a dream come true, you can travel in the direction of your dream, every single day and you can shorten the distance between the two of you.”
- Douglas Pagels

3.  "There is always a step small enough from where we are to get us to where we want to be. If we take that small step, there's always another we can take, and eventually a goal thought to be too far to reach becomes achievable."
- Ellen Langer

4.  "The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
- Mark Twain

5.  "With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”
- Mark Victor Hansen

6.  "Big things have small beginnings."
- Promethus

7.  "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."
- Lao Tzu

8.  "Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still."
- Chinese Proverb

9.  "Small steps may appear unimpressive, but don't be deceived. They are the means by which perspectives are subtly altered, mountains are gradually scaled, and lives are drastically changed.”
- Richelle E. Goodrich

10.  “Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tiptoe if you must, but take a step.”
- Naeem Callaway

11.  "Dare to think big and then set a series of smaller goals to get you there."
- Les Brown

12.  "Step by step and the thing is done."
- Charles Atlas

13.  "When in doubt, just take the next small step."
- Paulo Coelho

14.  "If you concentrate on small, manageable steps you can cross unimaginable distances.”
- Shaun Hick

15.  "It's scary to make major changes, but we usually have enough courage to take the next right step. One small step and then another. That's what it takes to raise a child, to get a degree, to write a book, to do whatever it is your heart desires." 
- Regina Brett

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Dream Bigger (9 Quotes)

Dreaming Bigger (9 Quotes)

 1.  "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?"

- Robert Schuller

2.  "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."
- Michelangelo

3.  "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do."
- Mark Twain

4.  "The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them.  If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

5.  "Dreams come in a size too big so that we may grow into them.”
- Josie Bisse

6.  "Don’t live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable.”
- Wendy Wasserstein

7.  "Ten years from now, make sure you can say that you chose your life, you didn't settle for it."
- Mandy Hale

8.  "That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."
- Abraham Lincoln

9.  "I don't want to find myself in a nursing home someday, thinking that all I did was play it safe."
- Charlie Eitel

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Potential (14 Quotes)

1. "None of us is born with a stop-valve on his powers or with a set limit to his capacities."

- Charles M. Schwab

2. "The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good."
- Brian Tracy

3. "We are hoarding potentials so great that they are just about unimagineable."
- Jack Schwartz

4. "The ultimate creative capacity of the brain may be, for all practical purposes, infinite."
- George Leonard

5. "Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action."
- Orison Swett Marden

6. "Each and every one of us are capable of achieving greatness, yet only a few of us actually tap into our talents, passions, and dreams, that would allow us to do great and mighty things, far above and beyond our wildest dreams."
- Curt Hinson

7. "Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible."
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

8. "If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."
- Thoman Edison

9. "Lord we may know what we are, but know not what we may be."
- William Shakespeare

10. "We'll never know our full potential unless we push ourselves to find it."
- Travis Rice

11. “The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could become.”
- Ben Herbster

12. "One of the rarest things that man ever does is to do the best he can."
- Josh Billings

13. "Fear and self-doubt have always been the greatest enemies of human potential."
- Brian Tracy

14. "Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have."
- Zig Ziglar

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Success (8 Quotes)

     Nearly every quote collection I'll be posting will be related to success in some way, so here is a quick list of 8 success quotes that didn't quite fit into other categories.  Many more quotes to come.

1. "Every man must decide for himself whether he shall master his world or be mastered by it."
- J.C. Penney

2. "The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it, and the perseverance to follow it.”
- Kalpana Chawla

3. "Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do."
- Pele

4. "He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much."
- James Allen

5. "People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, the more they find a way to succeed."
- Tony Robbins

6. "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."
- Colin Powell

7. "What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110 percent all the time."
- Don Zimmer

8. "Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses."
- Marilyn vos Savant

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Peace, Kindness, and Our Power to Change the World (20 Quotes)

Let's make this world a better place.

Words on peace -

1. "Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."
- Martin Luther King Jr.

2. "Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding."
- Albert Einstein

3. "Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures."
- John F. Kennedy


Kindness -

4. "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."
- Dalai Lama

5. "As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might."
- Marian Anderson

6. "No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind."
- Taylor Swift

7. "You gotta show love even when they don't or you become one of them."
- Unknown

8. "Hatred can be overcome only by love."
- Mohandas Gandhi

9. "Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves."
- James M. Barrie

10. "Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.”
- Jackie Chan

11. "A smile costs nothing, but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give."
- Unknown

12. "Everyone has untold stories of pain and sadness that make them love and live a little differently than you do. Stop judging, instead try to understand.”
- Anonymous

13. "When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.”
– Earl Nightingale

14. "Judge tenderly, if you must. There is usually a side you have not heard, a story you know nothing about, and a battle waged that you are not having to fight.”
– Traci Lea LaRussa

15. "Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”
- Scott Adams

16. “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.”
- Amelia Earhart


and our power to change the world -

17. Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama

18. "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
- Anne Frank

19. "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples."
- Mother Teresa

20. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead

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20 Quotes to Kick Off BOBL

    Reading motivational quotes was how I first dipped my toes into self-development.  I collected my favorites for years.  I don't want you to spend hours reading through unnecessarily long lists like I did.  Stay tuned for upcoming collections of quotes that will discuss topics such as:

Going after your dreams

1.  "Live as you will wish to have lived when you are dying."

- Christian Gellert

Dreaming bigger

2.  "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."

- Michelangelo 

Your potential

3.  "We'll never know our full potential unless we push ourselves to find it."

- Travis Rice

Your power

4.  "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."

- Alice Walker 

The power of your thoughts

5.  "Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis is exactly what you will experience in your life.”

- Tony Robbins

Limiting beliefs

6.  "Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours."

- Richard Bach

Excuses

7.  "The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it.”

- Jordan Belfort

Getting out of your own way

8.  "The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you."

- Tom Bradley

The value of time

9.  "Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Your impact

10. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

- Margaret Mead

Your true self

11.  "'Finding yourself' is not really how it works. You aren't a ten-dollar bill in last winter's coat pocket. You are also not lost. Your true self is right there, buried under cultural conditioning, other people's opinions, and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a kid that became your beliefs about who you are. 'Finding yourself' is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you.”

- Emily McDowell

The opinions of others

12.  "Small minds can't comprehend big spirits.  To be great, you have to be willing to be mocked, hated, and misunderstood."

- Unknown

Your comfort zone

13.  "All progress takes place outside the comfort zone."

- Michael John Bobak

Taking action

14.  "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

- Wayne Gretzy

The fear of failure

15.  "Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have."

- Louis E. Boone

Failure itself

16.  "Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up."

- Chinese Proverb

Mistakes

17.  "Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day.  You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Difficult times

18.  "When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow."

- Shauna Niequist

Your past

19.  "Your past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future."

- Marilyn Ferguson

and building your best future

20.  "When in doubt, just take the next small step."

- Paulo Coelho

and much more!

     Follow @buildourbestlives on Instagram and Pinterest for more quotes as well.

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