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99 Best Personal Development Quotes From Books

Writer's picture: Be More BooksBe More Books

Updated: Apr 30, 2023

My 99 favourite book quotes, mostly from personal development books. This list is subject to change as I read and grow, but as of now, these quotes resonate with me."

  1. "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." - The Apology of Socrates

  2. "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." - On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin

  3. "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." - Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela

  4. "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Lady Windermere's Fan, Oscar Wilde

  5. "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K Rowling

  6. "Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography

  7. "In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity." - The Art of War, Sun Tzu

  8. "Life is like a camera. Focus on what's important, capture the good times, and if things don't work out, take another shot." - The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

  9. “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K Rowling

  10. “Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.” - Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote

  11. "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, from Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill

  12. "The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it." - Steve Jobs, from Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell

  13. "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." - Jim Rohn, from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

  14. "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." - Henry Ford, from The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale

  15. "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." - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

  16. "The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

  17. "The best way to predict your future is to create it." - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

  18. "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." - Bill Gates, from The Lean Startup, Eric Ries

  19. "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay, from Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel H. Pink

  20. "Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." - Paul J. Meyer, from The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale

  21. "The biggest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one." - The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John C. Maxwell

  22. "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill, from The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clason

  23. "If you want to be wealthy and happy, learn this lesson well: Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job." - Jim Rohn, from Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki

  24. "The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing." - Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Philip Fisher

  25. "The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth in what seems to be an instant." - Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki

  26. "It's not about how much money you make, but about how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for." - Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki

  27. "The four most dangerous words in investing are: 'This time it's different." - Sir John Templeton, from The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham

  28. "The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect." - The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham

  29. "The best and most efficient pharmacy is within your own system." - Robert C. Peale, from The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale

  30. "He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything." - Arabian Proverb, from The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale

  31. "The food you eat can either be the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison." - Ann Wigmore, from The Raw Food Revolution Diet, Cherie Soria

  32. "The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another." - William James, from The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle

  33. "It's not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean." - Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins

  34. "The mind is everything; what you think you become." - Buddha, from The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle

  35. "I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." - Michael Jordan: The Life

  36. "I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told." - Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strayed

  37. "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: The Life

  38. "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." - Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela

  39. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Edison: The Man Who Illuminated the World

  40. "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I've ended up where I needed to be." - The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, Douglas Adams

  41. "The best thing a leader can do for a company is to set a good example." - The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership, Richard Branson

  42. "The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest." - Albert Einstein, from The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham

  43. "The best businesses are built by people who are always learning, always growing, always pushing." - How to Win at the Sport of Business, Mark Cuban

  44. "The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said." - The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker

  45. "The most powerful communication is that which is unspoken." - Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins

  46. "The greatest problem with communication is we don't listen to understand. We listen to reply." - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

  47. "I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion." - Muhammad Ali, The Greatest: My Own Story

  48. "I’ve always felt that if you perform to the best of your ability, the public will take to you." - Roger Federer: The Biography

  49. "The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient." - Warren Buffett, from The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham

  50. "The more you learn, the more you earn." - The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham

  51. “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.” - Atomic Habits, James Clear

  52. “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - Atomic Habits, James Clear

  53. “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” - The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy

  54. “Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE” - The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy

  55. “Directing your attention toward the most important object of your choosing—and then sustaining that attention—is the most consequential decision we will make throughout the day. We are what we pay attention to.” - Hyper Focus, Chris Bailey

  56. “Your vision must align with who you want to be. Your choices must align with your vision. Your effort must align with the size of your vision. Your behavior must align with your values and principles.” - Your Next Five Moves: Master The Art of Business Strategy, Patrick Bet-David

  57. “The less your business depends on you, the more valuable it is." - Your Next Five Moves: Master The Art of Business Strategy, Patrick Bet-David

  58. “Ideas don’t make you rich. The correct execution of ideas does.” - How To Get Rich, Felix Dennis

  59. “Thoughts are not facts. They are a mix of opinions, judgments, stories, memories, theories, interpretations, and predictions about the future.” - Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? Julie Smith

  60. “But to change an old habit, you must address an old craving. You have to keep the same cues and rewards as before, and feed the craving by inserting a new routine.” The Power Of Habit, Charles Duhigg

  61. “Value is created when a person makes something useful and shares it with the world.” - The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau

  62. “Think more about what people really want than about what you think they need.” - The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau

  63. "People's emotions are rarely put into words , far more often they are expressed through other cues. The key to intuiting another's feelings is in the ability to read nonverbal channels , tone of voice , gesture , facial expression and the like” - Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Daniel Coleman

  64. “When you have something to say, silence is a lie.” - 12 Rules For Life, Jordan B. Peterson

  65. “To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open. It means deciding to voluntarily transform the chaos of potential into the realities of habitable order." - 12 Rules For Life, Jordan B. Peterson

  66. "If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.” - 12 Rules For Life, Jordan B. Peterson

  67. “Life is a struggle and the potential for failure is ever present, but those who live in fear of failure, or hardship, or embarrassment will never achieve their potential. Without pushing your limits, without occasionally sliding down the rope headfirst, without daring greatly, you will never know what is truly possible in your life.” - Make Your Bed, Admiral William H. McRaven

  68. “Money’s greatest intrinsic value—and this can’t be overstated—is its ability to give you control over your time.” - The Psychology Of Money, Morgan Housel

  69. “Remember, the moment you accept total responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you claim the power to change anything in your life.” - The Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod

  70. “Love the life you have while you create the life of your dreams. Don't think you have to choose one over the other.” - The Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod

  71. “The most extraordinary people in the world do not have careers. What they have is a calling.” - The Code of Extraordinary Mind, Vishen Lakhiani

  72. “By definition, it is not possible for everyone to be above the average.” - Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make The Leap.... and Others Don't, Jim Collins

  73. “Your new life is going to cost you your old one. It’s going to cost you your comfort zone and your sense of direction. It’s going to cost you relationships and friends. It’s going to cost you being liked and understood. It doesn’t matter. The people who are meant for you are going to meet you on the other side. You’re going to build a new comfort zone around the things that actually move you forward. Instead of being liked, you’re going to be loved. Instead of being understood, you’re going to be seen. All you’re going to lose is what was built for a person you no longer are.” - The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery, Brianna Wiest

  74. “Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.” - The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Mark Manson

  75. “We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.” - Mindset: Changing The Way You Think To Fulfil Your Potential, Carol Dweck

  76. “Some say they don’t really know what they are looking for in life. This might be because, instead of getting in touch with how they feel, they have led their lives according to other people’s expectations. Live your life not to satisfy others, but to fulfill what your heart desires.” - The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How To Be Calm and Minful In a Fast-paced World, Haemin Sunim

  77. "Society’s definition of a happy life is everybody’s and nobody’s. The only way to build a meaningful life is to filter out that noise and look within." - Think Like A Monk, Jay Shetty

  78. “Sometimes you have to unplug yourself from the world for a moment, so you can reset yourself.” - Good Vibes, Good Life, Vex King

  79. “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” - Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Other Don't, Simon Sinek

  80. “Returning from work feeling inspired, safe, fulfilled and grateful is a natural human right to which we are all entitled and not a modern luxury that only a few lucky ones are able to find.” - Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Other Don't, Simon Sinek

  81. “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact.” - Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman

  82. “Contrary to popular belief, my experience has shown me that the people who are exceptionally good in business aren't so because of what they know but because of their insatiable need to know more.” - The E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber

  83. “The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is living fully and just existing.” - The E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber

  84. “Culture is the water in which we swim, and just like fish, we usually don’t know that it is there.” - A CEO Only Does Three Things, Trey Taylor

  85. “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.” - The Go-Giver, Bob Burg

  86. “ZERO TO ONE EVERY MOMENT IN BUSINESS happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them.” - Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, Peter Thiel

  87. “All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.” - Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, Peter Thiel

  88. “Every single part of our entrepreneurial journey will begin as an idea that will only become reality when we show up and bring it into the world.” - She Means Business, Carrier Green

  89. “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” - The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss

  90. “The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is boredom.” - The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss

  91. “These seven key result areas are prospecting, building rapport, identifying needs, presenting, answering objections, closing the sale, and getting resales and referrals." - The Psychology of Selling, Brian Tracy

  92. “Where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.” - The Obstacle Is The Way, Ryan Holiday

  93. “People don't think in terms of information. They think in terms of narratives. But while people focus on the story itself, information comes along for the ride.” - Contagious, Jonah Berger

  94. “There’s nine times more to gain by elevating positive customers than by eliminating negative ones.” - The Power Of Moments, Chip Heath

  95. “what sets the best suppliers apart is not the quality of their products, but the value of their insight—new ideas to help customers either make money or save money in ways they didn’t even know were possible.” - The Challenger Sale, Matthew Dixon

  96. “Nothing is more counterintuitive for a leader than saying no to a good idea, and nothing is a bigger destroyer of focus than always saying yes.” - The 4 Disciplines of Execution, Chris McChesney

  97. “when fate gives us lemons, we should try to make lemonade, not apple juice.” - Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, Noah J. Goldstein

  98. “Focus acts like an ax. If you try to cut down a tree by hitting it in thousands of different spots, you’ll never succeed. But when you focus and hit the same spot over and over, you can cut down even the biggest tree. With laser-sharp focus you can achieve almost anything you desire.” - Master Your Focus, Thibaut Meurisse

  99. “stop looking to the competition. Value-innovate and let the competition worry about you.” - Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim


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