The 60 Most Potent and Greatest Quotes of All Time

To achieve a greatest quotes of all time status, the author must be well known, and the quote must inspire the reader to believe bigger. While there are other famous quotes, these quotes epitomize the best of the best. They encompass wisdom, inspiration, and timeless insights from a diverse group of individuals. All the authors lead by example in their own lives. Each contributes to our understanding of life, success, and human experiences.

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20 of the Greatest and Most Potent Quotes

1. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” — Ayn Rand
3. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” — Jesus Christ
4. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert Frost
5. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke
6. “I raise up my voice—not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard… we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” — Malala Yousafzai
7. “Love has no age, no limit; and no death.” — John Galsworthy
8. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
9. “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
10. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” — Amelia Earhart
11. “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon
12. The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” — H. Jackson Brown, Jr
13. “You have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”     — Harriet Tubman
14. “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” — Abraham Lincoln
15. Keep your face always toward the sunshine  and shadows will fall behind you.” — Walt Whitman
16. “Once you figure out what respect tastes like, it tastes better than attention.” — Pink
17. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
18. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” — Peter Drucker
19. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
20. “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” — Jordan Belfort

20 Additional Greatest Quotes of All-Time

1. “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.” — J.K. Rowling
2. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” — Dr. Seuss
3. “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” — David Viscott
4. “I am my best work—a series of road maps, reports, recipes, doodles, and prayers from the front lines.” — Audre Lorde
5. “The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.” — William Saroyan
6. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” — Buddha
7. “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” — Socrates
8. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
9. “To be yourself is all that you can do.” — Chris Cornell
10. “Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.” — Khalil Gibran
11. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” — William Shakespeare
12. “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” — Plato
13. “The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.” — Gloria Steinem
14. “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” — Dalai Lama
15. “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney
16. “The only thing that is constant is change.” — Heraclitus
17. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Maya Angelou
18. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.” — John Lennon
19. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky
20. “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” — Chinese Proverb

20 More of the Greatest Quotes of All-Time

1. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Nelson Mandela
2. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” — Helen Keller
3. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas A. Edison
4. “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” — Edith Wharton
5. “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” — William G.T. Shedd
6. “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” — Aldous Huxley
7. “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” — Jimmy Dean
8. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
9. “There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them.” —Clare Boothe Luce
10. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke
11. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius
12. “Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.” — A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
13. “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” — Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
14. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” — Napoleon Hill
15. “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.” — Albert Einstein
16. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert Frost
17. “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” — Aesop
18. “Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.” — Sigmund Freud
19. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker
20. “Do not mind anything that anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.”  — Henry James

Pulling It All Together

Now act on what you learned or relearned from these greatest quotes. Apply these quotes to your work, family, and community. Be the kind of person that you would admire. Raise your sights and step forward today. Never look back. As Tony Robbins declared, “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” 

Also, see the eBook: GoalPower, How to Increase Personal Performance and Career Success, you will gain a roadmap that only the best follow. The problem is that goal setting gets a bad rap. Too many people have set goals and never attained them. The action steps in GoalPower are an amalgamation of the best success advice from Napoleon Hill, Dr. Denis Waitley, Tony Robbins, William Clement Stone, Claude Bristol, and others in the self-help field.

In addition, see our RealTime Learning & Training leadership and personal development website–over 250 resources. Micro-learning and career advancement at your fingertips!

Finally, see Rick’s newest book. The 5 Dynamics of Servant Leadership: How to accelerate your career and inspire your team!