Quotes and Sayings about Motivation
"I'd say the most memorable thing for me was my dedication and motivation in how I got so involved in boxing."
- Alexis Arguello
(Related: Motivation, Boxing, Dedication)
"A single prop that does not look real to an audience can louse you up. The same is true of the smallest flaw in setting up the motivation in a story line."
- Desi Arnaz
(Related: Motivation)
"Well, yeah. At a certain point, you've got to be really honest with yourself. Like, 'Why am I doing this? What are my motivations?' Like, if you get into it because you want to be famous? Then you've got a long row to hoe. But if you really feel like it's a labour of love and it's something you're actually legitimately good at, then it's not that hard to keep plugging away."
- Will Arnett
(Related: Love, Famous, Want)
"Motivation will almost always beat mere talent."
- Norman Ralph Augustine
(Related: Motivation, Talent, Will)
"The personality problem is so tough when you're not able to pay people. It's bad enough when you can pay people, but, when you have people working for free, often their motivation is diminished considerably."
- John Badham
(Related: Motivation, People, Personality)
"Motivations are too tangled and complex."
- Russell Banks
"One of the things I have tried to do with this book and with all of them really is avoid that simple, easy, reductionist view of motivation and to show we do things for a complex net of reasons, a real braid of reasons."
- Russell Banks
(Related: Motivation)
"Being here allows me to make the case that not all aging, narcissistic movie actors whose children could be mistaken for their grandchildren necessarily act with the same motivation."
- Warren Beatty
(Related: Motivation, Act, Actors, Being, Children)
"I was not sympathetic to the assumption that criminals had radically different motivations from everyone else."
- Gary Becker
"Yes, my life is a life of combat; I can say that this has never stopped for a single instant. It is a combat that started for me at the age of 16. I'm 90 years old now, and my motivation hasn't changed; it's the same fervour that drives me."
- Ahmed Ben Bella
(Related: Age, Life, Motivation, Now, Old, Years)
"Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity."
- Bo Bennett
(Related: Motivation, Inspiration, Creativity, Enthusiasm, Excitement)
"Iraq did not spontaneously opt for disarmament. They did it as part of a ceasefire, so they were forced to do it, otherwise the war might have gone on. So the motivation has been very different."
- Hans Blix
(Related: War, Motivation, Iraq)
"One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity."
- Edward de Bono
(Related: Motivation, Creativity)
"But now I'm getting that spiritual motivation to visit Africa."
- Dennis Brown
(Related: Motivation, Now, Spiritual, Visit)
"Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way."
- Les Brown
(Related: Motivation, Hunger, Obstacles, Order, Will)
"My motivation for running for Senate was not for the stature of being a senator, but because I wanted to make a difference on issues I feel passionate about."
- Herman Cain
(Related: Motivation, Being, Difference, Running, Senate)
"I wonder sometimes if the motivation for writers ought to be contempt, not admiration."
- Orson Scott Card
(Related: Motivation, Admiration, Contempt, Wonder, Writers)
"People need motivation to do anything. I don't think human beings learn anything without desperation."
- Jim Carrey
(Related: Motivation, People, Desperation)
"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."
- Raymond Chandler
(Related: Motivation, Attitude, Ability)
"It was all about wanting to get revenge. Pathetic, really, but it still is the motivation."
- Julian Clary
(Related: Motivation, Revenge)
"Everybody kind of perceives me as being angry. It's not anger, it's motivation."
- Roger Clemens
(Related: Anger, Motivation, Being)
"In the new economy, information, education, and motivation are everything."
- William J. Clinton
(Related: Education, Motivation, Economy, Information)
"If you must have motivation, think of your paycheck on Friday."
- Noel Coward
(Related: Motivation)
"While many hackers have the knowledge, skills, and tools to attack computer systems, they generally lack the motivation to cause violence or severe economic or social harm."
- Dorothy Denning
(Related: Motivation, Knowledge, Cause, Computer, Harm, Tools, Violence)
"If we take as given that critical infrastructures are vulnerable to a cyber terrorist attack, then the question becomes whether there are actors with the capability and motivation to carry out such an operation."
- Dorothy Denning
(Related: Motivation, Actors, Question)
"Usually a feeling of disappointment follows the book, because what I hoped to write is not what I actually accomplished. However, it becomes a motivation to write the next book."
- Anita Desai
(Related: Motivation, Disappointment, Feeling)
"People want a cop-out, listen I'm a realist and I talk about motivation, talk about all the things it takes to be greater or are important to win and people want to use excuses all the time."
- Mike Ditka
(Related: Time, Motivation, People, Excuses, Talk, Want)
"I love Nautilus and stretching. The results are immediate, and that gives me the motivation to continue."
- Donna Dixon
(Related: Love, Motivation, Results)
"If money was my only motivation, I would organize myself differently."
- Placido Domingo
(Related: Money, Motivation)
"Well, I actually grew up in the sixties. I feel very lucky, actually, that that was my slice of time that I was dealt. Let's remember that the real motivation in the sixties, and even in the fifties, was the Cold War."
- Ann Druyan
(Related: Time, War, Motivation)
"Deficiency motivation doesn't work. It will lead to a life-long pursuit of try to fix me. Learn to appreciate what you have and where and who you are."
- Wayne Dyer
(Related: Life, Work, Motivation, Pursuit, Will)
"Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
(Related: Art, Motivation, People, Want)
"We have today a fairly thorough knowledge of the early Greco-Roman period because our motivations are the same."
- Arthur Erickson
(Related: Knowledge, Today)
"I don't know if there are words to describe my motivation."
- Lorrie Fair
(Related: Motivation, Words)
"But what was my motivation was music, and the fact that I love to move around. I'm always moving around."
- Suzanne Farrell
(Related: Love, Music, Motivation, Fact)
"Besides the mistakes that are pointed out, I love the way readers become involved with the characters. When readers start asking about character motivations instead of concentrating on the special effects, it means you're connecting with them on a personal level."
- Alan Dean Foster
(Related: Love, Character, Mistakes)
"I have worked enough and I am happy to be touring the country speaking about living with MS to give people inspiration and motivation to help themselves."
- Teri Garr
(Related: Motivation, People, Inspiration, Country, Help, Living)
"If people are really excited about their music, and that's their primary motivation, then that comes through in demo tapes. That's the most important ingredient."
- Greg Ginn
(Related: Music, Motivation, People)
"Motivation aside, if people get better at these life skills, everyone benefits: The brain doesn't distinguish between being a more empathic manager and a more empathic father."
- Daniel Goleman
(Related: Life, Manager, Father, Motivation, People, Being)
"It's what the Pixies always said about music - they were writing songs and just trying not to be boring. That was their main motivation and it worked for them. I remember reading that and thinking that was the way to do it."
- Jonny Greenwood
(Related: Music, Motivation, Reading, Songs, Thinking, Trying, Writing)
"You know looking back on it now I used the fight and after the fight as motivation, to make sure I was going to be the best middleweight in the world for a long time."
- Marvin Hagler
(Related: Time, Motivation, Fight, Now, World)
"The last two years we got beat in this round. They came out with the motivation to win."
- Jimmy Haynes
(Related: Motivation, Years)
"The motivation part is all essential in keeping my voice, but there are the human factors of discipline."
- Jerome Hines
(Related: Motivation, Discipline, Voice)
"When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, ' I say, 'Your salary.'"
- Alfred Hitchcock
(Related: Motivation, Character, Actor)
"If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself - your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers."
- Dee Hock
(Related: Time, Motivation, Character, Purpose, Authority, Ethics, Principles)
"Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated."
- Lou Holtz
(Related: Motivation)
"Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can't be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people."
- Lee Iacocca
(Related: Work, Motivation, People)
"Whatever their motivations, lawmakers on both side of the aisle have certainly discovered that immigration is one of those issues that resonate strongly with the public."
- Gwen Ifill
(Related: Public)
"The biggest problem in rock journalism is that often the writer's main motivation is to become friends with the band. They're not really journalists; they're people who want to be involved in rock and roll."
- Chuck Klosterman
(Related: Motivation, People, Friends, Journalism, Want, Writer)
"We talk on principal, but act on motivation."
- Walter Savage Landor
(Related: Motivation, Act, Talk)
"I don't believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game."
- Tom Landry
(Related: Motivation, Confidence, Play, Will)
"All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love."
- Spike Lee
(Related: Love, Motivation)
"I sat down with my trainers to check my past seasons and to see what could be done to keep me motivated and in good shape. I had to find a new motivation, a new momentum."
- Hermann Maier
(Related: Motivation, Past, Seasons)
"I certainly understand that we're all trying to make a living, but I'm not thinking about that when I'm making it. And if that's your sole motivation, it's going to reflect that narcissistic greed, and you're going to hear it in the music."
- Aimee Mann
(Related: Music, Motivation, Greed, Living, Thinking, Trying)
"I don't think any collector knows his true motivation."
- Robert Mapplethorpe
(Related: Motivation)
"Classic economic theory, based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation, could be revolutionized by accepting the reality of higher human needs, including the impulse to self actualization and the love for the highest values."
- Abraham Maslow
(Related: Love, Motivation, Values, Needs, Reality, Self, Theory)
"I fear that our true motivation is about oil and our own flailing economy; about the failure to destroy Al Qaeda and about revenge."
- Dave Matthews
(Related: Motivation, Fear, Failure, Economy, Oil, Revenge)
"Proposals to forbid golf courses have about the same motivations as proposals to forbid skate boarding, although the rationalizations are different."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Golf)
"That moment was very important because it was political. That's what has to be done, so they struck a deal. She figures his is a well-thought-out motivation that she felt was worthy trade-off. The motivation here is survival, and she has to think like a leader."
- Mary McDonnell
(Related: Leader, Motivation, Survival, Trade)
"I explain this not for publicity, nor seeking to win an argument of right or wrong, I explain so that the record is clear as to my thinking and motivations in bombing a government installation."
- Timothy McVeigh
(Related: Government, Argument, Publicity, Right, Thinking, Wrong)
"The motivation for war is simple. The U.S. government started the war with Iraq in order to make it easy for U.S. corporations to do business in other countries. They intend to use cheap labor in those countries, which will make Americans rich."
- Michael Moore
(Related: Business, Government, War, Motivation, Americans, Corporations, Countries, Iraq, Labor, Order, Will)
"We negotiated with the Honduran government the establishment of a regional military training center, for training central American forces, but the primary motivation for doing that was to be able to bolster the quality, improve the quality of the El Salvadoran fighting forces."
- John Negroponte
(Related: Government, Quality, Motivation, American, Fighting, Military, Training)
"An employee's motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager."
- Bob Nelson
(Related: Manager, Motivation, Result)
"We expert teachers know that motivation and emotional impact are what matter."
- Donald Norman
(Related: Motivation, Teachers)
"What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background, but motivation, perseverance, and desire - the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery."
- Ellen Ochoa
(Related: Motivation, Perseverance, Desire, Discovery, Gender)
"I had never even thought I'd be an actress - I was supposed to be a lawyer. But the motivation is the same: when you act, you defend a role; you have to be convincing. It's the same career."
- Anne Parillaud
(Related: Motivation, Thought, Act, Career)
"And, I think, as a kid, I had a strong motivation to do something of my life. And, I think that's the strongest motivation I really got. And, that came obviously from my parents and my grandparents."
- Philippe Perrin
(Related: Life, Motivation, Grandparents)
"Walking your talk is a great way to motivate yourself. No one likes to live a lie. Be honest with yourself, and you will find the motivation to do what you advise others to do."
- Vince Poscente
(Related: Motivation, Lie, Talk, Walking, Will)
"There's always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning."
- Pat Riley
(Related: Motivation, Attitude, Winning, Needs)
"A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning."
- Pat Riley
(Related: Motivation, Winning, Needs)
"Action, reaction, motivation, emotion, all have to come from the characters. Writing a love scene requires the same elements from the writer as any other."
- Nora Roberts
(Related: Love, Motivation, Action, Emotion, Writer, Writing)
"If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around."
- Jim Rohn
(Related: Education, Motivation, Needs, Road, Wrong)
"The initial motivation of the experiment which led to this discovery was a subconscious feeling for the inexhaustible wealth of nature, a wealth that goes far beyond the imagination of man."
- Bruno Rossi
(Related: Imagination, Nature, Motivation, Wealth, Discovery, Feeling, Man)
"But I find with Francis Bacon, some of the things were in the place, and someone who was connected with these schools of thought, and someone who had a motivation that equals the scope of the comedy and the tragedy in the plays."
- Mark Rylance
(Related: Motivation, Thought, Comedy, Schools, Tragedy)
"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."
- Jim Ryun
(Related: Motivation, Habit)
"I think change is possible, but only for individuals who were never truly gay in the first place and who have a strong personal motivation to recover their heterosexuality."
- Marilyn vos Savant
(Related: Change, Motivation, First, Gay)
"It doesn't matter who is playing or how old they are. I just worry about what I can control. It doesn't give me more or less motivation."
- Monica Seles
(Related: Motivation, Control, Old, Worry)
"I try to give both my heroes and villains an emotional dimensionality which provides the motivation for their actions."
- Sidney Sheldon
(Related: Motivation, Actions, Heroes)
"Myths are stories that express meaning, morality or motivation. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant."
- Michael Shermer
(Related: Motivation, Morality, Meaning, Myths)
"Corruption has its own motivations, and one has to thoroughly study that phenomenon and eliminate the foundations that allow corruption to exist."
- Eduard Shevardnadze
(Related: Corruption, Study)
"You have to think an awful lot about your motivations or people's behavioral intentions or what their body language can indicate or what's really going on or what makes people sometimes do, sometimes, the irrational things they do."
- Ron Silver
(Related: People, Body, Intentions, Language)
"In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it."
- Jane Smiley
(Related: Experience, Motivation, Desire)
"With my academic achievement in high school I was accepted rather readily at Princeton and equally as fast at Yale, but my test scores were not comparable to that of my classmates. And that's been shown by statistics, there are reasons for that - there are cultural biases built into testing, and that was one of the motivations for the concept of affirmative action to try to balance out those effects."
- Sonia Sotomayor
(Related: Achievement, Action, Balance, School, Statistics, Testing)
"I don't care about motivation. I care about credibility."
- Eliot Spitzer
(Related: Motivation, Care, Credibility)
"I like to put on hardcore when I have to clean my apartment, which I hate to do, but it's motivational. I like old heavy metal when I'm outside working on my car. Music has definite functions for me."
- Peter Steele
(Related: Music, Car, Motivational, Hate, Old)
"I just knew that economics had never been my big motivation."
- Leigh Steinberg
(Related: Motivation, Economics)
"I also like to look at the dynamic that takes place between religion and science because, in a way, both are asking the same questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? The methodologies are diametrically opposed, but their motivation is the same; the wellspring is the same in both cases."
- J. Michael Straczynski
(Related: Religion, Science, Motivation)
"At the same time, it makes me feel like I have to prove myself to the new guys coming in as well as prove myself to the coaching staff, which is a good bit of motivation for me."
- Michael Strahan
(Related: Time, Motivation, Coaching)
"The second draft is on yellow paper, that's when I work on characterizations. The third is pink, I work on story motivations. Then blue, that's where I cut, cut, cut."
- Jacqueline Susann
(Related: Work, Draft)
"That's the motivation of an artist - to seek attention of some kind."
- James Taylor
(Related: Motivation, Artist, Attention)
"We had an opportunity to clinch a playoff berth and I think if that's not enough motivation I don't think you should be playing this game."
- Tina Thompson
(Related: Motivation, Opportunity)
"At the same time it offered the hope, as it still does, that improved understanding could better the lot of mankind. For me, growing up in the 1930s, the two motivations powerfully reinforced each other."
- James Tobin
(Related: Time, Hope, Growing up, Mankind, Understanding)
"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game."
- Donald Trump
(Related: Money, Motivation, Excitement)
"Y'know, the real reason why I was such a failure in the sense of being unable to make any sort of a living was because I was really not motivated. I had no motivation."
- Paul Twitchell
(Related: Motivation, Failure, Being, Living, Reason, Sense)
"In the same period, Polish literature also underwent some significant changes. From social-political literature, which had a great tradition and strong motivation to be that way, Polish literature changed its focus to a psychological rather than a social one."
- Andrzej Wajda
(Related: Motivation, Focus, Literature, Tradition)
"Even though worker capacity and motivation are destroyed when leaders choose power over productivity, it appears that bosses would rather be in control than have the organization work well."
- Margaret J. Wheatley
(Related: Power, Work, Motivation, Control, Bosses, Leaders, Productivity)
"Money was never the motivation. It never should be in sports."
- Katarina Witt
(Related: Money, Sports, Motivation)
"I tried to instill a different motivation, to give them the security and the conviction that they were doing something good, something necessary, something useful - if you want to use a grandiose expression, that they were doing something for peace."
- Markus Wolf
(Related: Peace, Motivation, Conviction, Expression, Security, Want)
"The second thing for me, probably a few clicks down, is the idea that The Sims smoothly age and have different concerns and motivations and needs at different age ranges."
- Will Wright
(Related: Age, Idea, Needs)
"I think a lot of times it's not money that's the primary motivation factor; it's the passion for your job and the professional and personal satisfaction that you get out of doing what you do that motivates you."
- Martin Yan
(Related: Money, Motivation, Job, Passion, Satisfaction)
"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily."
- Zig Ziglar
(Related: Motivation, People)