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
