65 QUOTES TO DARE YOU FOR GREATNESS

65 Quotes That Will Dare You to Do Great Things

If we are to do great things we must always be

motivated to take bold risks. If you're feeling timid

or uncertain, find the inspiration to do what you are

meant to do

BY LOLLY DASKAL

@LollyDaskal

  19.6k SHARES

IMAGE: Getty Images

At some point in life we're all faced with a decision

of whether to take a risk. Whether it's leaving a

miserable job, moving to a different position that

stretches you, starting your own business, or even

taking on a tricky new assignment, greatness

requires risk.

Whether you succeed or fail, the act of taking a risk

will stretch you and give you faith in yourself-- and

the confidence to do even more. Maybe we're

meant to do things that scare us so we can build

greatness in ourselves.

Allow these amazing quotes to dare you:

1. "Keep away from people who belittle your

ambitions. Small people always do that, but the

really great make you feel that you, too, can

become great." --Mark Twain

2. "When I let go of what I am, I become what I

might be." --Lao Tzu

3. "Only those who will risk going too far can

possibly find out how far one can go." --T. S. Eliot

4. "Many great ideas have been lost because the

people who had them could not stand being laughed

at." --Unknown

5. "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ... I took the

one less traveled by, and that has made all the

difference." --Robert Frost

6. "Unless you choose to do great things with it, it

makes no difference how much you are rewarded,

or how much power you have." --Oprah Winfrey

7. "If you do what you've always done, you'll get

what you've always gotten." --Tony Robbins

8. "Success usually comes to those who are too

busy to be looking for it."-- Henry David Thoreau

9. "If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't

ask what seat! Just get on." --Sheryl Sandberg

10. "People who don't take risks generally make

about two big mistakes a year. People who do take

risks generally make about two big mistakes a

year." --Peter F. Drucker

11. "Once we believe in ourselves we can risk

curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any

experience that reveals the human spirit." --e. e.

cummings

12. "If you're going to be thinking anything, you

might as well think big." --Donald Trump

13. "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he

has the courage to lose sight of the shore." --Andre

Gide

14. "The only way to find true happiness is to risk

being completely cut open." --Chuck Palahniuk

15. "You can't outwit fate by trying to stand on the

sidelines and place little side bets about the

outcome of life. Either you wade in and risk

everything to play the game, or you don't play at all.

And if you don't play, you can't win." --Judith

McNaught

16. "If things seem under control, you are just not

going fast enough." --Mario Andretti

17. "Everyone has a 'risk muscle.' You keep it in

shape by trying new things. If you don't, it

atrophies. Make a point of using it at least once a

day." --Roger von Oech

18. "Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail

at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only

people who never tumble are those who never

mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it."

--Oprah Winfrey

19. "The person who risks nothing does nothing,

has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He

may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply

cannot learn and feel and change and grow and

love and live." --Leo F. Buscaglia

20. "Life is inherently risky. There is only one big

risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the

risk of doing nothing." --Denis Waitley

21. "You can measure opportunity with the same

yardstick that measures the risk involved. They go

together." --Earl Nightingale

22. "The universe has no restrictions. You place

restrictions on the universe with your expectations."

--Deepak Chopra

23. "Do one thing every day that scares you." --

Mary Schmich

24. "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in

order that I may learn how to do it." --Pablo

Picasso

25. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living

someone else's life." --Steve Jobs

26. "If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you

will have to settle for the ordinary." --Jim Rohn

27. "There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do

nothing, say nothing, and be nothing." --Aristotle

28. "There's something liberating about not

pretending. Dare to embarrass yourself. Risk." --

Drew Barrymore

29. "If you don't build your dream, someone else

will hire you to help them build theirs." --Dhirubhai

Ambani

30. "You don't concentrate on risks. You

concentrate on results. No risk is too great to

prevent the necessary job from getting done." --

Chuck Yeager

31. "The first step toward success is taken when

you refuse to be a captive of the environment in

which you first find yourself. " --Mark Caine

32. "Always go with your passions. Never ask

yourself if it's realistic or not." --Deepak Chopra

33. "Creative people who can't help but explore

other mental territories are at greater risk, just as

someone who climbs a mountain is more at risk

than someone who just walks along a village lane."

--R. D. Laing

34. "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you

can only connect them looking backwards. So you

have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in

your future. You have to trust in something--your

gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach

has never let me down, and it has made all the

difference in my life." --Steve Jobs

35. "The most important thing to remember is this:

to be ready at any moment to give up what you are

for what you might become." --W. E. B. Du Bois

36. "Leap and the net will appear." --Zen saying

37. "Often the difference between a successful man

and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas,

but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to

take a calculated risk, and to act." --Maxwell Maltz

38. "I don't think you're human if you don't get

nervous." --Sidney Crosby

39. "There can be no vulnerability without risk.

There can be no community without vulnerability.

There can be no peace, and ultimately no life,

without community." --M. Scott Peck

40. "A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what

ships are built for." --John A. Shedd

41. "Our lives improve only when we take chances,

and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to

be honest with ourselves." --Walter Anderson

42. "Think big and don't listen to people who tell you

it can't be done. Life's too short to think small." --

Tim Ferriss

43. "You've got to keep fighting; you've got to risk

your life every six months to stay alive." --Elia

Kazan

44. "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

45. "Because if you're prepared and you know what

it takes, it's not a risk. You just have to figure out

how to get there. There is always a way to get

there." --Mark Cuban

46. "When you take risks you learn that there will

be times when you succeed and there will be times

when you fail, and both are equally important." --

Ellen DeGeneres

47. "To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily.

To not dare is to lose oneself." --Soren Kierkegaard

48. "Don't be too timid and squeamish about your

actions. All life is an experiment. The more

experiments you make the better." --Ralph Waldo

Emerson

49. "The time to take counsel of your fears is before

you make an important battle decision. That's the

time to listen to every fear you can imagine! When

you have collected all the facts and fears and made

your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead!"

--Gen. George S. Patton