100 personal development quotes that will make you better

It’s no secret that I love personal development I am constantly looking for different ways for self-improvement. I do believe our role in life is to constantly work on ourselves to be better. However, it’s not every day that we feel so great or acknowledge our potential to be better. Sometimes we need some motivation. One way I get motivation is from some of the best self-improvement quotes out there. Here are some of my favorite personal development quotes. I have put them in different categories of personal development to help you follow and pick according to the area of personal development you are currently working on.

Quotes on self-actualization, and achieving our potential

1. What a man can be, he must be- Abraham Maslow

2. Man’s main task is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is- Erich Fromm

3. In order to enjoy the good life, we need to be fully open to experience, live in the present moment, trust ourselves, take responsibility for our choices, and treat ourselves and others with unconditional positive regard – Carl Rogers

4. The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own.. you realize that you control your own destiny Albert Ellis

5. Our potential is one thing; what we do with it is another – Angela Duckworth

6. People’s beliefs about their abilities have a profound effect on these abilities. Ability is not a fixed property- Albert Bandura

7. Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself- Jean-Paul Sartre

8. Talent is just pursued interest- Bob Ross

9. In any given moment we have two options; to step forward into growth or to step back into safety- Abraham Maslow

10. You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of- Jim Rohn

11. Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness- Sigmund Freud

12. He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how- Viktor E. Frankl

13. The best way to predict your future is to create it- Abraham Lincoln

14. Everything’s in the mind. That’s where it all starts. Knowing what you want is the first step toward getting it-Mae West

15. Discovering what you really want saves you endless confusion and wasted energy- Stuart Wilde

16. If you want to be happy, be- Leo Tolstoy

17. Your core values are the deeply held beliefs that authentically describe your soul- John Maxwell

18. To become what we are, and to become what we can become, is the only end of life- Robert Louis Stevenson

Quotes on resilience, change and adaptability

19. Men are not disturbed by events, but by the views which they take them- Epictetus

20. If we hold onto our own ideas of how things should be rather than accepting how they really are, we arise conflict in ourselves in the form of defensiveness- Carl Rogers.

21. We should accept our negative feelings rather than avoid or repress them. Suffering contributes to psychological growth –Rollo May

22. To turn natural sadness into depression, all you have to do is blame yourself for the disaster that has befallen you- Dorothy Rowe

23. Fall down seven times, get up eight- Japanese proverb

24. Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change- Mary Shelly, Frankenstein

25. To say goodbye is to die a little – Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye

26. When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life -Eckhart Tolle

27. Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare- Angela Duckworth

28. Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it -Michael Jordan

29. Improvise, adapt, overcome- Green Beret

30. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint-Angela Duckworth 

Quotes on Self-awareness

31. Self-awareness is knowing one’s emotions. It is recognizing a feeling as it happens- Daniel Goleman.

32. Character is more than genius- Angela Duckworth

33. Self-awareness is the ability to take an honest look at your life without any attachment to it being right or wrong, good or bad -Debbie Ford

34. Self-awareness allows you to self-correct -Bill Hybels

35. The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself- Plato

36. Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest think we’ll ever do- Brené Brown

Quotes on relationships

37. If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive – Dale Carnegie

38. To love and to work are the twin capacities of full maturity – Sigmund Freud

39. Improving our relationships is improving our mental health – William Glasser.

40. Good social relationships are like food and thermoregulation, universally important to human mood- Martin Seligman

41. Your relationship with yourself sets the tone of every other relationship you have- Robert Holden

42. Two axes in a basket will always clash- African Proverb

43. Relationships help us to define who we are and what we can become. Most of us can trace our successes to pivotal relationships- Donald O. Clifton and Paula Nelson

Quotes on productivity and self-discipline

44. You cannot win buy or win happiness, you must choose it.Like any discipline, your attitude will not take care of itself. You need to attend to it daily- John Maxwell

45. Vision will get you inspired, Discipline will take you there -Christine Caine.

46. Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped – Charles Duhigg

47. Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy -Dale Carnegie

48. Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking, too fast for the other team to react. They follow the habits they’ve learned – Charles Duhigg

49. Someone once defined hard work as the accumulation of the easy things you didn’t do when you should have. — John Maxwell

50. I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.– W. Somerset Maugham

51. You must be careful not to let your current appetites steal away any chance we might have for a future feast- Jim Rohn

52. You may have a million reasons not to get started now. But deep down, none of them can be as compelling as your desire to change, grow, and succeed. In a month or a year or five years from now, you may have only one regret — that you didn’t start now. Today matters. The way you spend today really can change your life. — John Maxwell

53. Let’s stop the glorification of busy. We don’t need to use our busyness as a measure of worthiness – Jennifer Pastiloff.

54. People often say motivation doesn’t last, well, neither does bathing- that’s why we recommend it daily – Zig Ziglar.

55. Focus on talent distracts us from something that is at least as important, and that is effort- Angela Duckworth

56. Great is many, many individual feats, and each of them is doable- Dan Chamblis

57. To do anything really well, you have to overextend yourself…..in doing something over and over again, something that was never natural becomes second to nature…. The capacity to do something diligently doesn’t come overnight- John Irving

58. Passion for your work is a little bit about discovery, followed by development, and then a lifetime of deepening- Angela Duckworth

59. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good- Voltaire

60. ……the most important thing you could do, is to do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work- Ira Glass.

61. Give me six hours to chop down a tree and ill spend the first 4 hours sharpening the axe- Lincoln

62. You call it procrastination, I call it thinking- Adam Grant

63. The best is the enemy of the good- Voltaire

64. If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word- Margaret Atwood

65. Procrastination is a self-defeating behavior pattern marker by short term benefits and long term costs- Roy Baumeister

Quotes on overcoming fear and self-doubt

66. Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed- Michael Pritchard

67. Fear is when I have caution over a real and present danger. Anxiety is when I have caution over a future imagined danger- Myron Golden.

68. You can choose courage, or you can choose comfort, but you cannot choose both -Brené Brown

69. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than one’s fear -Ambrose Redmoon

70. Confidence is silent. Insecurities are loud, remember that.

71. If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult since we think them happier than they are- Charles de Montesquieu.

Quotes on self-education

72. Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune- Jim Rohn.

73. Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is –Isaac Asimov

74. Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it- Albert Einstein

75. I read a book one day and my whole life was changed – Orhan Pamuk

Quotes on emotional intelligence

76. Our emotions need to be as educated as our intellect. It is important to know how to feel, how to respond, and how to let life in so that it can touch you- Jim Rohn

77. Don’t sweat the small stuff…….and it’s all small stuff- Richard Carlson

78. You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks – Winston Churchill.

79. Comparison is the thief of joy- Theodore Roosevelt

80. Possessing a great attitude is like having a secret weapon- John Maxwell, Today Matters.

81. Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere― Erma Bombeck

82. Envy blinds men and makes it impossible for them to think clearly – Malcolm X

83. Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth- Marcus Aurelius

84. We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are- Anais Nin

85. You can control two things: your work ethic and your attitude about anything- Ali Krieger

Quotes on entrepreneurship

86. The best entrepreneurs are not risk maximizes, they take the risk out of risk-taking– Linda Rottenberg.

87. The single-story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story. -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

88. Many entrepreneurs take plenty of risks, but those are generally the failed entrepreneurs, not the success stories– Malcolm Gladwell.

89. 80% of success is showing up- Woody Allen

90. Devoting a little of yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing- Michael Leboef

91. Never give up on a dream because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway -Earl Nightingale

Wise quotes

92. The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook –William James

93. If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself- Mickey Mantle

94. Time is like oxygen- there is a minimum amount that’s necessary for survival. And it takes quantity as well as quality to develop warm and caring relationships Armand Nicholi

95. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life- Harvey Firestone

96. You have to pay the price. You will find that everything in life exacts a price, and you will have to decide whether the price is worth the prize- Sam Nunn

97. Nothing is easier than saying words. Nothing is harder than living them, day after day-Arthur Gordon.

98. All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every living organism to live beyond its income – Samuel Butler

99. The only person I destine you to become is the person you decide to be- Ralph Waldo Emerson

100. Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment – Stephen Covey

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