Initiative Quotes

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
― Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”
― Barack Obama

“If you try anything, if you try to lose weight, or to improve yourself, or to love, or to make the world a better place, you have already achieved something wonderful, before you even begin. Forget failure. If things don't work out the way you want, hold your head up high and be proud. And try again. And again. And again!”
― Sarah Dessen, Keeping the Moon

“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.”
― George Eliot

“You are essentially who you create yourself to be and all that occurs in your life is the result of your own making.”
― Stephen Richards, Think Your way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!”
― William Hutchison Murray

“A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to.”
― Banksy, Wall and Piece

“When you take the free will out of education, that turns it into schooling.”
― John Taylor Gatto

“Never interrupt someone doing something you said couldn't be done.”
― Amelia Earhart

“The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained and he only holds the key to his own secret.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I would not sit waiting for some vague tomorrow, nor for something to happen. One could wait a lifetime, and find nothing at the end of the waiting. I would begin here, I would make something happen.”
― Louis L'Amour, Sackett's Land

“It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

“It is better to beg forgiveness, than ask permission.”
― Grace Murray Hopper

“Folks who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do”
― Elbert Hubbard

“When misfortune has thrown us a curveball, and the tentacles of desperation are freezing our mind, foreshadowing a hustle-bustle of confusion, we must inflame the power of our imagination. Let us take a walk on the path of groundbreaking change, take daring initiatives, and create a scheme of inventive intentions, gradually paving the way to a new setting, assessing each stage thoughtfully. ("Check and mate")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Motivation is the fuel, necessary to keep the human engine running.”
― Zig Ziglar

“Don't wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it.”
― Cathy Hopkins

“The mark of man is initiative, but the mark of woman is cooperation. Man talks about freedom; woman about sympathy, love, sacrifice. Man cooperates with nature; woman cooperates with God. Man was called to till the earth, to "rule over the earth"; woman to be the bearer of a life that comes from God.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The World's First Love: Mary, Mother of God

“The gods only go with you if you put yourself in their path. And that takes courage.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“I won't be a slave to the past. I'll love where I choose.”
― Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge

“At seventeen I'm waiting for my life to actually begin. I'm afraid I'll wake up tomorrow eighty years old and I WILL STILL BE WAITING.”
― Frank Warren, A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book

“So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, 'Thou must,'
The youth whispers, 'I can.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson: Poems

“Real men don't dance to other people's tune, instead, they play for others to dance.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Don’t simply exist in this world, but grasp life’s potential by the jacket. Dare it to be all it can. Make life historical—a gripping account of accomplishment. Make life a mystery—a challenging, bold adventure. Make life heartfelt—an enduring, poetic romance. Whatever it is you make of your world, live the fairy tale.”
― Richelle Goodrich, Eena, The Return of a Queen

“When eagles are silent, parrots begin to chatter.”
― Winston Churchill

“People who end up with the good jobs are the proactive ones who are solutions to problems, not problems themselves, who seize the initiative to do whatever is necessary, consistent with correct principles, to get the job done.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“If we seek spiritual heroism ourselves, the old ego is just back in control under a new name. There would not really be any change at all, but only disguise, just bogus self-improvement on our own terms.”
― Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

“You're not lost in the storm, Marilyn. You are the storm.”
― Colin Clark, My Week with Marilyn

“Stop sleeping, Get to work! You will have much time to sleep when you die.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Wherever a man comes, there comes a revolution. The old is for slaves.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson