Inspirational Quotes
December 13, 2005 9:11 AM   Subscribe

I need some inspriational quotes.

I need some relatively short but inspirational quotes that I can fit on a 4" x 6" card to hang in frames at a housing community my company is managing. Just for some reference, the project is a housing community that promotes independence for persons with severe physical disabilities that require use of a wheelchair. Avoiding blatantly religious overtones is probably a good idea, but those in a general spiritual nature are ok. Suggestions for pleasant readable fonts would be nice too.
posted by chiababe to Grab Bag (18 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Always happy to help out a neighbor:

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"

George Bernard Shaw, "Back to Methuselah" (1921), part 1, act 1
posted by ND¢ at 9:32 AM on December 13, 2005


If you have a few dollars, try Quotable Cards, as they have an excellent selection of quotes that will meet your criteria and some cool designs as well. And if you don't have any money to spend on the project, browse through the cards for some ideas. Some of the quotes that I have borrowed from them that might work for you:

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
—Leo Buscaglia

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance.
—Bruce Barton

Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
posted by ajr at 9:40 AM on December 13, 2005


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

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. -George Bernard Shaw

Excellence is not a singular act but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do. Aristotle

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. The Dalai Lama

The impossible happens. -R. Buckminster Fuller

Our lives are frittered away with detail ...simplify! simplify! simplify! Henry Thoreau

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. -Charles Kingsley

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.-Albert Einstein

A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner. unknown

Nothing is ever achieved without enthusiasm. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Difficulties increase the nearer we approach our goal. -Goethe

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought. -Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

He is able who thinks he is able. -Buddha

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. - Thomas Edison
posted by dobbs at 9:45 AM on December 13, 2005


"Given enough thrust, pigs fly just fine."

--???
posted by bondcliff at 9:50 AM on December 13, 2005


"Human happiness comes not from infrequent pieces of good fortune, but from the small improvements to daily life."-Benjamin Franklin
posted by Wild_Eep at 9:52 AM on December 13, 2005


There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. - Sir Ranulph Fiennes

We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities. - Pogo

Little by little, one travels far. - J. R. R. Tolkien

Do, or do not. There is no “try.” - Yoda

When flowing water meets with obstacles on its path, a blockage in its journey, it pauses. It increases in volume and strength, filling up in front of the obstacle and eventually spilling past it . . . - I Ching

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. - Sir Winston Churchill
posted by vega5960 at 10:05 AM on December 13, 2005


Check out Andrew Matthews' great collection of inspirational quotes on many topics - you'll find lots of material there
posted by GoshND at 10:11 AM on December 13, 2005


"You must do the things you think you can not do." - Eleanor Roosevelt
posted by SoulOnIce at 10:54 AM on December 13, 2005


"Ambition is action postponed." Krishnamurti
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 11:10 AM on December 13, 2005


Never, Never, Never Give Up!
- Winston Q. Churchill
posted by blue_beetle at 11:28 AM on December 13, 2005


"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." -Abraham Maslow

"It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it." -Joseph Joubert

"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people." (Uncertain origin. Some attribute to Eleanor Roosevelt, others to Admiral Hyman Rickover.)

"Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped." -African proverb

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." -Henry Ford

"Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool." -Unknown
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 11:50 AM on December 13, 2005


Many quotes by Helen Keller would be suitable.
posted by Pigpen at 11:58 AM on December 13, 2005


bondcliff - There is a similar quote about an ugly Navy plane, I forget which one (A-4?). Something with a disproportionally huge engine. The "punchline" being, you'd fly too with that engine shoved up your ass.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 12:28 PM on December 13, 2005


This comes to mind.


Seriously:


"What is required of us is that we love the difficult and learn to deal with it. In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us. Right in the difficult we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are."

"He who does not at some time, with definite determination consent to the terribleness of life, or even exalt in it, never takes possession of the inexpressible fullness of the power of our existence."

-Selected Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

posted by lalochezia at 1:00 PM on December 13, 2005


"My body is just what moves my brain around" - Dean Kamen
posted by phrontist at 1:30 PM on December 13, 2005


(I think that was the wording, I'm not quite sure now...)
posted by phrontist at 1:30 PM on December 13, 2005


"Don't believe everything you think".
I have no idea where this comes from, the Mother of one of my friends had it made into a bumper sticker.
posted by BoscosMom at 1:42 PM on December 13, 2005


"I shall pass this way but once. Therefore, any good that I can do, or any kindness that I can show, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again"
posted by onalark at 3:35 PM on December 13, 2005


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