Great Minds: 40+ Inspiring Quotes From History’s Greatest Thinkers

Sometimes you have to look back to go forward, learning from others’ experiences and soaking up their knowledge as you go. Luckily, the decades that came before us gave rise to some of the greatest minds in history—and judging from all their accomplishments, they knew a thing or two about success.

Success isn’t limited to one specific era, and there are plenty of opportunities to be inspired by the wisdom of these great minds’ great quotes. After all, we can all live victorious lives, finding our passions and discovering what success means to us.

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Get inspired by these 40 famous success quotes from great minds. Their powerful words might be just what you need to get started on your own journey of growth and success. Take the insight of some of the brightest minds of all time and make it your own.

Quotes About Success From The World’s Greatest Minds

Great minds have used their knowledge to achieve goals and break barriers to succeed in life. Find inspiration in these quotes about how to succeed from some of history’s greatest minds. After all, famous phrases about success can go a long way to inspire our own excellence.

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” —Dale Carnegie
  • “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” —Dale Carnegie
  • “Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of virtue.” —Albert Einstein
  • “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”—Booker T. Washington
  • “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” —Truman Capote
  • “The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do, well.” —Henry W. Longfellow 
  • “I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” —Gen. George S. Patton
  • “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.” —Oscar Wilde
  • “Action is the foundational key to all success.” —Pablo Picasso
  • “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” —Thomas A. Edison
  • “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.”—Abraham Lincoln
  • “The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.” —John D. Rockefeller Jr.
  • “All successful men have agreed in one thing—they were causationists. They believed that things went not by luck, but by law; that there was not a weak or a cracked link in the chain that joins the first and last of things.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Related: Powerful Quotes From Successful Entrepreneurs 

Thought-Provoking Quotes About Great Minds 

“Great minds think alike,” at least according to 17th-century playwright Dabridgcourt Belchier. But is it true? Here are some great minds’ quotes that may prove he was accurate—or not. 

  • “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” —William Shakespeare
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune, but great minds rise above them.
  • “Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune, but great minds rise above them.” —Washington Irving
  • “Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
  • “A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince. Genius is not a retainer to any emperor.” —Henry David Thoreau
  • “A genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.” —Thomas Edison
  • “To make the common marvellous, as if it were a revelation, is the test of genius.” —James Russell Lowell
  • “The tough mind is sharp and penetrating. It breaks through the crust of legends and myths, and sifts the true from the false.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
  • “You only get one mind and one body, and it’s got to last a lifetime.” —Warren Buffett

Related: 10 Inspiring Quotes On Innovation

What Great Minds Discuss: Motivational Sayings to Expand Your View

What can you do with a great mind? How does the genius of a great mind work? Do great minds discuss ideas, people, things or events? Throughout the ages, many people have had ideas about how to motivate a great mind and why it’s important to push boundaries. Read these quotes and decide for yourself. 

  • “Those who believe they can achieve the object of their definite chief aim do not recognize the word impossible.” —Napoleon Hill 
  • “Times of general calamity and confusion, have ever been productive of  for the greatest minds.” —Charles Caleb Colton 
  • “If the people really set their minds on anything, it is impossible to prevent their getting what they want.” —Henry Ford
Small minds discuss other people, gossip. Good minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.” —Denzel Washington
  • “Small minds discuss other people, gossip. Good minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.” —Denzel Washington
  • “Dedicate yourself to the good you deserve and desire for yourself. Give yourself peace of mind. You deserve to be happy.” —Mark Victor Hansen
  • “Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the Romance of the unusual.” —Ernest Hemingway
  • “Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.” —Emily P. Bissell
  • “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.” —John F. Kennedy
  • “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.” —Steve Jobs 
  • “You are what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind.” —Zig Ziglar
  •  “Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas.” -—Charles Stewart

Related link: 17 Motivational Quotes to Help You Achieve Your Dreams

Powerful Quotes From Some of The Greatest Minds Of All Time 

A strong mindset and willingness to seek wisdom have been the ideals of some of the greatest minds in history. If we reach back in time, we can gain some powerful inspiration. Thanks to these words from some of the greatest minds, we can further our own wisdom and get motivation to grow our intellect.

  • “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” —Aristotle
  • “A great mind becomes a great fortune.” —Seneca the Younger
  • ‘“The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” —Plutarch
  • “Minds are of three kinds: one is capable of thinking for itself; another is able to understand the thinking of others; and a third can neither think for itself nor understand the thinking of others. The first is of the highest excellence, the second is excellent, and the third is worthless.” —Nicolo Machiavelli
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
  • “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” —Sun Tzu
  • “A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation.” —Cicero
  • “A full belly is little worth when the mind is starved.” —Mark Twain

Be Inspired By History’s Greatest Minds 

You don’t have to be famous or a philosopher to find your own inspiration from great minds. So use the ideas and thoughts to move you to think differently in your everyday life. Be motivated by some of the greatest minds of all time to live your life to its fullest. And if great minds discuss ideas with others, you can try sharing these quotes to get the conversation started. 

Photo by Alpha Media Shutterstock/Shutterstock

The post Great Minds: 40+ Inspiring Quotes From History’s Greatest Thinkers appeared first on SUCCESS.



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