Mind blowing Inspirational quotes from the Famous in history.

by Darpan Sachdeva

Embark on a transformative journey through the corridors of time as we unveil a collection of mind-blowing inspirational quotes from the luminaries of history. We delve into the profound words of visionaries who have left an indelible mark on the tapestry of human thought. These timeless nuggets of wisdom are not just words; they are beacons that have the power to ignite your spirit and propel you towards greatness. Get ready to be inspired beyond measure.

1.Socrates

Socrates (470/469 – 399 BC) was a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy.

“Strong Minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.” ― Socrates.

“If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.” ― Socrates.

“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” ― Socrates

2.Rumi

Rumi (1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. His work has been translated in many languages around the world.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” ― Rumi

“You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.”
― Rumi

“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
― Rumi

3.Zeno of Elea

(c. 490 – c. 430 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy and a member of the monistic Eleatic school founded by Parmenides. Aristotle declared him the inventor of the dialectic, which involves a dialogue between two or more people who may hold differing views yet wish to pursue truth by seeking agreement with one another; in contrast to debate, in which two or more people hold differing views and wish to persuade an audience or prove one another wrong.

“By silence, I hear other men’s imperfections and conceal my own.”
― Zeno of Elea

“The avaricious man is like the barren sandy ground of the desert which sucks in all the rain and dew with greediness but yields no fruitful herbs or plants for the benefit of others.”
― Zeno of Elea

“The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.”
― Zeno of Elea quotes

4.Parmenides of Elea

Was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea in Magna Graecia (Greater Greece, included Southern Italy). He was the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy. The single known work of Parmenides is a poem, On Nature, which has survived only in fragmentary form. In this poem, Parmenides describes two views of reality. In “the way of truth” (a part of the poem), he explains how reality (coined as “what-is”) is one, change is impossible, and existence is timeless, uniform, necessary, and unchanging. In “the way of opinion,” he explains the world of appearances, in which one’s sensory faculties lead to conceptions which are false and deceitful.

“We can speak and think only of what exists. And what exists is uncreated and imperishable for it is whole and unchanging and complete. It was not or nor shall be different since it is now, all at once, one and continuous.”
― Parmenides

“It is all one to me where I begin.
for I shall come back again there.”
― Parmenides

Change is an illusion.”
― Parmenides

5.Christopher Columbus

Was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World.

“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
― Christopher Columbus

“And the Sea Will Grant Each Man New Hope, As Sleep Brings Dreams of Home” ―Christopher Columbus

“I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone.”
― Christopher Columbus

6.Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was an Indian polymath. He reshaped Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Gitanjali is a collection of poems by Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, largely for the English translated version of Gitanjali.

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

―Rabindranath Tagore

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” ―Rabindranath Tagore

“The small wisdom is like water in a glass:
clear, transparent, pure.
The great wisdom is like the water in the sea:
dark, mysterious, impenetrable.” ―Rabindranath Tagore

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” ―Rabindranath Tagore

7.Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven (baptised 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis and an opera, Fidelio.

“What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

“Even in poverty I lived like a king for I tell you that nobility is the thing that makes a king.”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

“Recommend to your children virtues, that alone can make them happy, not gold.”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

8.Martin Luther King Jr

(January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the African American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”
― Martin Luther King Jr

“I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
― Martin Luther King Jr

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But…the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
― Martin Luther King Jr

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
― Martin Luther King Jr

9.George Bernard Shaw

(26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright, critic and polemicist. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
― George Bernard Shaw

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”
― George Bernard Shaw

“You see things; you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were, and I say, ‘Why not?”
― George Bernard Shaw

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
― George Bernard Shaw

10.Alan Watts

(6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, England, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York.

“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.”
― Alan Watts

“I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.”
― Alan Watts

“Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.”
― Alan Watts

11.Confucius

(551–479 BC) was a teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. Confucius teachings deeply influenced East Asian life and thought. The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity.

Confucius’s principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He championed strong family loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives. He also recommended family as a basis for ideal government. He espoused the well-known principle “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself”, the Golden Rule.

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
― Confucius

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
― Confucius

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
― Confucius

“When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.”
― Confucius

12.Napoleon Bonaparte

(born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and its associated wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and again in 1815. One of the greatest commanders in history, his campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide and he remains one of the most celebrated and controversial political figures in Western history.

“There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind”
― Napoléon Bonapart

“The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.”
― Napoléon Bonaparte

“Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.”
― Napoléon Bonaparte

“Imagination governs the world.”
― Napoléon Bonaparte

“Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength.”
― Napoléon Bonaparte

“The world suffers a lot. Not because the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of the good people.”
― Napoléon Bonaparte

“History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.”
― Napoléon Bonaparte

13.Steve Jobs

Steve was an American college dropout from Reed college,Portland, Oregon, United States, who later became one of the most charismatic, inspirational, and influential people in the field of consumer electronics. Despite the fact that Steve Jobs was a dropout student, he became a Billionaire and Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc., Co-founder and CEO of Pixar Animation Studio, and Founder and CEO of NeXT Inc.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. ― Steve Jobs

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. ― Steve Jobs

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.
― Steve Jobs

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations. ― Steve Jobs

14.Aristotle

(384BC – 322 BC) was one of the most influential Greek philosopher and Scientist. Aristotle was student of Plato. When he was 18 years’ old, he joined Plato’s academy in Athens, and remained there until the age of 37. Aristotle was teacher of Alexander the great, and teaching Alexander gave him many opportunities in future. He was associated with many subjects such Physics, Biology, Ethics, Politics, Metaphysics, Logic, aesthetics, poetry, Philosophy, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, Zoology. Aristotle is one of the world’s most influential and inspirational personality.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
― Aristotle

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
― Aristotle

“To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”
― Aristotle

“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”
― Aristotle

“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.”
― Aristotle

15.Siddhartha Gautama 

Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha, l. c. 563 – c. 483 BCE) was, according to legend, a Hindu prince who renounced his position and wealth to seek enlightenment as a spiritual ascetic, attained his goal and, in preaching his path to others, founded Buddhism in India in the 6th-5th centuries BCE.

“Your soul is the whole world.”
―Siddhartha

“A person is never entirely holy or entirely sinful.”
―Siddhartha

“Knowledge can be conveyed, but not wisdom. It can be found, it can be lived, it is
possible to be carried by it, miracles can be performed with it, but it cannot be expressed in words and taught.” ―Siddhartha

“When someone is seeking,” said Siddartha, “It happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.” ―Siddhartha

16.Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American politician, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest serving First Lady of the United States, holding the post from March 1933 to April 1945 during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms in office. President Harry S. Truman later called her the “First Lady of the World” in tribute to her human rights achievements.

On a few occasions, she publicly disagreed with her husband’s policies. Following her husband’s death, Eleanor remained active in politics for the rest of her life. She pressed the United States to join and support the United Nations and became one of its first delegates. In 1999, she was ranked ninth in the top ten of Gallup’s List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. After discovering her husband’s affair with Lucy Mercer in 1918, Eleanor resolved to seek fulfillment in a public life of her own.

In April 1946, she became the first chairperson of the preliminary United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and she also served as the first United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The United Nations posthumously awarded her one of its first Human Rights Prizes in 1968 in recognition of her work.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt

“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt

“When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt

“If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt

17.Henry Ford

Was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. He developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle-class Americans could afford. As owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. Henry Ford was born on a farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan. His family was not a rich family but through his hard work and talent he became one of the richest people in the world.

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail.” ―Henry Ford

“We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.” ―Henry Ford

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.”
-Henry Ford

“A business that makes nothing, but money is a poor business.” -Henry Ford

“Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.” -Henry Ford

18.Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

(15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, composer, and Latin and Greek scholar. He wrote several critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor and irony.

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

19.Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer.
He is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book The Prophet.

“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don’t, they never were.”
― Khalil Gibran

“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”
― Khalil Gibran

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”
― Khalil Gibran

“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but what he aspires to.”
― Khalil Gibran

20.Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

(2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. Gandhi attempted to practice nonviolence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn hand-spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

21.Sir Isaac Newton

(January 4, 1643 – March 31, 1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, inventor, theologian and natural philosopher. He is widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. Issac Newton is most famous for discovering the Laws of Gravity

“Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” ―Sir Isaac Newton

“God created everything by number, weight and measure.” ―Sir Isaac Newton

“Men build too many walls and not enough bridges.” ―Sir Isaac Newton

“What we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean.” ―Sir Isaac Newton

Darpan Sachdeva is the CEO and Founder of Nobelthoughts.com. Driven by a profound dedication to Entrepreneurship, Self-development, and Success over an extended period, Darpan initiated his website with the aim of enlightening and motivating individuals globally who share similar aspirations. His mission is to encourage like-minded individuals to consistently pursue success, irrespective of their circumstances, perpetually moving forward, maintaining resilience, and extracting valuable lessons from every challenge.