Quotes About Motivation

If compliance will get them what they want, they will feign a cooperative spirit. If they think lying is necessary, they will say whatever needs to be said. If it seems profitable to keep secrets or to reveal only partial truths, they will do that.

If you think about all the things you've done in your life and the real, honest-to-God truth as to why you did them, chances are you'll feel kinda sad too.

I don't know any other lifestyle. I get up in the morning and I really do feel that the world is my oyster, and I start that way, the same as I would if I were preparing to write a song: put a blank piece of paper up on the piano and you go for it.

I think I turned to writing really just to wake up in the morning and be a musician and to have something to do, and feel like a musician every day even if I wasn't working.

Freddie's attitude was always, 'But you can, don't you see? You can do it. Put your mind to it, you'll see what you can do.' That was one of the loveliest things about him.

Whenever your focus is on doing what you want and making yourself feel good, you can be confident that the Spirit of God is not the one leading the way.

Emotions are seen as crucial in motivating behavior. People generally do what they feel like doing rather than what reason or logic dictates. It follows that to achieve behavioral change, people need to change the emotions motivating their behavior. Emotion also influences thought. When people feel angry, they think angry thoughts; when they are sad, they recall sad memories. To help people change what they think, therapists must help them change what they feel.

I write because I've always written, can't stop. I am a writing animal. The way a silk worm is a silk-producing animal.

Vanity is the real lever with which Archimedes said he could move the earth;

Her depressive tendency, the flip side of her manic streak, was stirring. Why were they even doing this? it wanted to know. What a waste of time, of effort. Of pencils. Plum needed to get moving, but she was having trouble attaching meanings to things; the meanings kept peeling off like old stickers.

Chop chop. I'm literally losing the will to live." —Eliot

Quentin suppose her unfussy diligence reminded him unpleasantly of the future he was ignoring.

I don't wait for inspiration. Writing is my job.

Don't be afraid to show excitement for what you do. Too often people try to appear above the fray by staying emotionally aloof. Believe me, it doesn't work. If you're looking to stir others to action--from returning your phone calls to getting your project approved--get them excited about what you're doing. You'll see surprising results.

Wouldn't it be nice if life took a cue from horse racing and a gun went off when it was time for us to get moving? Life rarely sends us a signal as clear as a starter's pistol. It's up to us to recognize when it's time to just start.

The wringing of hands may achieve little, but inspiration and education precede intelligent action.

Ambition! We must be careful what we mean by it. If it means the desire to get ahead of other people -- which is what I think it does mean -- then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good. It isn't wrong for an actor to want to act his part as well as it can possibly be acted, but the wish to have his name in bigger type than the other actors is a bad one.

But one of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when there is no one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of forcing yourself.

You call to a dog and a dog will break its neck to get to you. Dogs just want to please. Call to a cat and its attitude is, 'What's in it for me?'

Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.

claim is often made that without the near-term rewards of monopoly privilege, knowledge would not advance. This assumes a strikingly narrow notion of what motivates people to do creative work.

Don't take the will for the deed; get the deed.

If interest promotes effort, effort in turn sustains interest.

Some people are motivated by a need for recognition, some by money, and some by a broad social goal. I start from a different place: from the love of ideas and the urge to put them into motion and see where they might lead.