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30 of the Most Inspirational Leadership Quotes No one can deny the power of a good quote.

By Travis Bradberry Edited by Dan Bova

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No one can deny the power of a good quote. Here are 38 to motivate and inspire you to be your best.

Don't go it alone

"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples." -- Mother Teresa

Make connections

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -- Maya Angelou

Believe in yourself

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

Perfection is not attainable

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." -- Vince Lombardi

Related: 15 Secrets of Really Persuasive People

Take stock

"If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough." -- Oprah Winfrey

Be flexible

"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." -- Jimmy Dean

Nothing is impossible

"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!" -- Audrey Hepburn

Use your heart

"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

Live your dreams

"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears." -- Les Brown

Try your best

"Do or do not. There is no try." -- Yoda

What’s money?

"What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." --Bob Dylan

Think big

"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." -- Napoleon Hill

Explore. Dream. Discover.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

Don't be afraid to fail

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." -- Michael Jordan

Strive not to be a success

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." -- Albert Einstein

You decide your destiny

"I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions." -- Stephen Covey

Find your power

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." -- Alice Walker

Be tenacious

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity." -- Amelia Earhart

Related: Are You Emotionally Intelligent? Here's How to Know for Sure.

Find the light

"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light." -- Aristotle Onassis

It starts with one seed

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Don't give into doubts

"If you hear a voice within you say, 'You cannot paint,' then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced." -- Vincent Van Gogh

Build your own dreams

"Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs." -- Farrah Gray

Luck may not look like what you think

"Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck." -- Dalai Lama

Embrace mistakes

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." -- Albert Einstein

Stretch yourself to achieve your goals

"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do." -- Leonardo da Vinci

Look for opportunities in unexpected places

"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 that has been opened for us." -- Helen Keller

Seek happiness

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy.' They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." -- John Lennon

Related: 13 Habits of Exceptionally Likable People

You are the author of your fate

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Face your fears

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." -- Plato

Nothing will work unless you do

"Nothing will work unless you do." -- Maya Angelou

Travis Bradberry

Bestselling author of Emotional Intelligence Habits

Dr. Travis Bradberry is the bestselling author of Emotional Intelligence Habits and a LinkedIn Top Voice with more than 2.5 million followers. His bestselling books have sold more than 3 million copies, are translated into 25 languages, and are available in more than 150 countries. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the Harvard Business Review.

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