Today's sales should be better than yesterday's...and worse than tomorrow's.

Richard W. Sears, retailer

 

 

Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose...a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, writer

 

 

It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

Henry David Thoreau, naturalist

 

 

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.

Arnold Toynbee (1852-83) economist, reformer

 

 

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist. We create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

Nikos Kazantzakis, writer

 

 

Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.

Julia Child, chef

 

 

Men are most deeply moved not by the reaching of the goal but by the grandness of the effort involved in getting there...or failing to get there.

Max Lerner, political columnist

 

 

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

Seneca, philosopher

 

 

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

Kenny Rogers, singer

 

 

A man is only as good as what he loves.

Saul Bellow, writer

 

 

Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up 'cause they're trying to get ideas.

Paula Poundstone, comedian

 

 

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

William Shakespeare, playwright

 

 

If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme.

Jiminy Cricket, a character in the movie "Pinocchio"

 

 

Start early and begin raising the bar throughout the day.

Bruce Jenner, Olympic decathlon champion

 

A successful individual typically sets his next goal somewhat but not too much above his last achievement. In this way he steadily raises his level of aspiration.

Kurt Lewin, psychologist

 

 

If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it: Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet

 

 

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

George Eliot, novelist

 

 

All men should strive to learn before they die. What they are running from, and to and why.

James Thurber, author, cartoonist

 

 

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

Seneca, philosopher, poet

 

To know yourself is the first and most important step in pursuing your dreams.

Stedman Graham, motivational speaker

 

 

To  "know thyself" must mean to know the malignancy of one's own instincts and to know, as well, one's power to deflect it.

Karl Menninger, psychiatrist

 

 

Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that is humanly possible.

Hannah Arendt, political scientist

 

 

Great effort springs naturally from a great attitude.

Pat Riley, basketball coach