Great Encouragement Quotes & Sayings

Before you can be effective in communication with ANYONE else, you must know who YOU are. It begins with you.
Believe me when I say, I don't need anyone's approval in this classroom ... I'm great company for myself. Me, myself, and I ... we laugh a lot. (Said on the first week of class each phase, somewhat rewording each time, but the gist is always there). — Dacia Wilkinson

Indeed, the study of universities and the great men and women who have attended them leads me to think that the best of these schools are characterized not so much by what they teach and how they teach it but by the extent they provide opportunities and encouragement for students to teach themselves. — Paul Johnson

This obsession is a curious thing. Sometimes wonder about the merits of devoting so much of myself to a singular climbing objective. Much of the time it beats me down, leaves me hanging my head in despair. But then there are the moments that bring me to life. When excitement wells up inside my chest in a way that doesn't happen in every day life. Today my fingertips were cracked and bleeding. I made no progress despite great conditions. Now I am on the ground and can hardly contain my excitement to get back on the wall. It's a crazy rollercoaster and I owe my family and partners a great deal for encouraging me through it all. — Tommy Caldwell

Speaking to the Heart is a great encouragement to men who want to be better husbands and fathers. It is both a practical job description of fatherhood-showing how fathers build strength in their children-and an inspiring call to family leadership. Any father who takes this book to heart and puts its wisdom into action will be known to his children as a great man. — James Stenson

Anybody with leisure can do that who is willing to begin where everything ought to be begun
that is, at the beginning. Nothing worth calling good can or ever will be started full grown. The essential of any good is life, and the very body of created life, and essential to it, being its self operant, is growth. The larger start you make, the less room you leave for life to extend itself. You fill with the dead matter of your construction the places where assimilation ought to have its perfect work, building by a life-process, self-extending, and subserving the whole. Small beginnings with slow growings have time to root themselves thoroughly
I do not mean in place nor yet in social regard, but in wisdom. Such even prosper by failures, for their failures are not too great to be rectified without injury to the original idea. — George MacDonald

May you dream great dreams. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Our public education system does a great job. I don't think it's broken. We aren't interested in doing reform for reform's sake. I believe in public education; it did a great job for me. It deserves our support and encouragement. — Denise Juneau

Strange to wake-up this morning as a former ODI cricketer, but it's been a great honour and privilege playing for Sri Lanka during the past 15 years. At the end of the day, I am very fortunate to have enjoyed a long career playing with and against some great players. Thanks for all the encouragement and support over the years. — Kumar Sangakkara

Hope is a great assurance. — Lailah Gifty Akita

May you see great visions. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Happiness is a great contentment. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Medals are great encouragement to young men and lead them to feel their work is of value, I remember how keenly I felt this when in the 1890s. I received the Darwin Medal and the Huxley Medal. When one is old, one wants no encouragement and one goes on with one's work to the extent of one's power, because it has become habitual. — Karl Pearson

In a divine commonwealth holiness must have the principal honor and encouragement, and a great difference be made between the precious and the vile. — Richard Baxter

There's only one power in the world great enough to help us rise above the difficult things we face: the power of God. — Stormie O'martian

Life can only be live with great courage. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Love is a great gift that should be cherished and shared. — Heather Wolf

Years and years ago, I read a great interview with Jam and Lewis, the R&B producers, in which they described what it was like to be members of Prince's band. They'd sit down, and Prince would tell them what he wanted them to play, and they'd explain that they couldn't
they weren't quick enough, or good enough. And Prince would push them and push them until they mastered it, and then just when they were feeling pleased with themselves for accomplishing something they didn't know they had the capacity for, he'd tell them the dance steps he needed to accompany the music.
This story has stuck with me, I think, because it seems like an encapsulation of the very best and most exciting kind of creative process. — Nick Hornby

The first great writer of English, Geoffrey Chaucer, was born in about 1343, the son of a London vintner, and early in life found employment at court, where he married a lady-in-waiting to the queen and in 1374 received from the king exactly the encouragement an author needs, namely "a gallon of wine daily for the rest of his life. — Andrew Gimson

I really enjoy being with my fans. They offer great support and encouragement to me. I like signing autographs and posing for pictures. — Lexi Thompson

The Scriptures are words of great encouragement. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The readiness with which women are apt to forgive the men who have deceived other women; and that inconsiderate notion of too many of them that a reformed rake makes the best husband, are great encouragements to vile men to continue their profligacy. — Samuel Richardson

Great stories strengthen us to be great souls. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Let go of your fears and look ahead with great hope. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Every great accomplishments requires great grace and great enthusiasm. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Knowing how bad you could be is a great encouragement to being good. — Terry Pratchett

Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics. — Bertrand Russell

Great men must go through great pain
The strongest storms
The hardest rain
The toughest climbs
The roughest terrain
Great men must go through great pain — Calvin W. Allison

What an encouragement to realize that God has reserved you and me for a special task in His great work. In His hands we're not only useful, but priceless. — Joni Eareckson Tada

What would be the nicest thing I could say about Newt Gingrich? He may be one of the great supporters of the humanities, because you have people who don't want to study the social sciences, because it's not profitable, and now Newt, as the highest-paid historian in American history, may be an encouragement to people to study history. — Barney Frank

Great suffering brings with it the power of great endurance. When sorrow is deepest all the forces of patience and courage are banded together to do their duty. So while we are cowards before petty troubles, great sorrows make us brave by rousing our truer manhood. — Rabindranath Tagore

You know, my father was a great encouragement for me, because he spoke out for women's rights, he spoke out for girls' education. And at that time I said that 'Why should I wait for someone else? Why should I be looking to the government? To the army, that they would help us? Why don't I raise I my voice? Why don't we speak out for our rights? — Malala Yousafzai

I am a great mother. — Lailah Gifty Akita

You are a great light, brighten the world. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Great spirit, great self-esteem. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Service is the virtue that distinguished the great of all times and which they will be remembered by. It places a mark if nobility upon its disciples. It is the dividing line which separates the two great groups of the world - those who help and those who hinder, those who lift and those who lean, those who contribute and those who only consume. How much better it is to give than to receive. Service in any form is comely and beautiful. To give encouragement, to impart sympathy, to show interest, to banish fear, to build self confidence and awaken hope in the hearts if others, in short - to love them and to show it - is to render the most precious service. — Bryant S. Hinckley

What distinguishes love-driven leaders from tyrants? "Great affection" coupled with the passion to see others "run at full speed towards perfection." Love-driven leadership is not urging others forward without concern for their aspirations, well-being, or personal needs. Nor is it being the nice-guy manager who overlooks underperformance that could damage a subordinate's long-term prospects. Instead, love-driven leaders hunger to see latent potential blossom and to help it happen. In more prosaic terms, when do children, students, athletes, or employees achieve their full potential? When they're parented, taught, coached, or managed by those who engender trust, provide support and encouragement, uncover potential, and set high standards. — Chris Lowney

Every great soul was inspired by another great soul. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Spend sunny afternoons writing. Take weekends in the country. Dream. Drink good wine, eat fabulous cheese and great bread. Make the kind of love that destroys the bed. — Rachel Hauck

A great idea always begins with unbounded inspiration. — Roshan Kolar

I think you'll be a great teacher, said Gary. That's his role in my life: blind encourager and ambassador of false senses of security. — Matthew Norman

Encouragement fuels great strength and great achievement. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Anticipating God's blessings is a great way to begin a new week! When we look for the things that could go wrong, we just may find what we had been looking for. — Diane K. Chamberlain

And here at our Anglican Consultative Council, we have many reports of growth and great encouragement. — George Carey

Diligence and Application have their due Encouragement, even in the remotest Parts of the World, and that no Case can be so low, so despicable, or so empty of Prospect, but that an unwearied Industry will go a great way to deliver us from it, will in time raise the meanest Creature to appear again in the World, and give him a new Case for his Life. — Daniel Defoe

There are persons who seem to have overcome obstacles and by character and perseverance to have risen to the top. But we have no record of the numbers of able persons who fall by the wayside, persons who, with enough encouragement and opportunity, might make great contributions. — Mary Barnett Gilson

Every great achiever nurtures a positive mindset. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Trust, encouragement, reward, loyalty ... satisfaction. That's what I'm ... you know. Trust people and they'll be true to you. Treat them greatly, and they will show themselves to be great. — David

Consider, too, how great is the encouragement which all the world gives to the lover; neither is he supposed to be doing anything dishonourable; but if he succeeds he is praised, and if he fail he is blamed. — Plato

In the beginning I thought, and still think, he did great good in giving support and encouragement to this movement. But I did not believe then, and have never believed since, that these ills can be settled by partisan political methods. They are moral and economic questions. — Ray Stannard Baker

Professor Khupe felt his chest swell with pride. It was doing so without his encouragement. If an electrical fault had stopped the elevator from rising, his inflating ego would have powered the remainder of their journey to the twenty-second floor. — Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

I wish to see the sons and daughters of the world in Peace and busily employed in the more agreeable amusement of fulfilling the first and great commandment, Increase and Multiply : as an encouragement to which we have opened the fertile plains of the Ohio to the poor, the needy and the oppressed of the Earth; any one therefore who is heavy laden, or who wants land to cultivate, may repair thither and abound, as in the Land of promise, with milk and honey: the ways are preparing, and the roads will be made easy, thro' the channels of Potomac and James river. — George Washington

I can never do justice to the great feeling of amazement and encouragement I felt when, perhaps for the first time in American history, white citizens of a Southern state banded together to come to Selma and show their indignation about the injustices against the African-Americans. — Amelia Boynton Robinson

...It Isn't actually much of an encouragement to me to read the stories about Jesus. I might as well take encouragement from watching a great athlete run a four-minute mile. Sure, it's a fine sight, but at my age and with my weight I would be lucky to do a mile in 10 minutes, let alone four. I can watch a ballet dancer on stage with great delight, not because I can copy him, but precisely because I know I can't. — N. T. Wright

Proverbs 16:3 'Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.' A great reminder when planning out the school year. — Tamara L. Chilver

It is through that brokenness that we find courage and strength. It is what empowers us to do great things. — K.S. Ruff

There are persons who seem to overcome obstacles and by character and perseverance to have risen to the top. But we have no record of the number of able persons who fall by the wayside, persons who, with encouragement and opportunity, mike make great contributions. — Mary Narnett Gilson

Cookery is a wholly unselfish art: as 'art for art's sake' it is unthinkable. A man may sing in his bath every morning without the least encouragement, but no cook can cook just for his or her own sake in a like manner. All good cooks, like all great artists, must have an audience worth cooking for. — Andre Simon

Among the great names that adorn the roll of Nobel prize-winners in Medicine is that of Otto Meyerhof, my admired teacher and friend, to whose inspiration, guidance and encouragement I owe so very much. — Severo Ochoa

Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent. — Steve Martin

I had a great first year and Mr. MacDonald was my biggest supporter. He gave me the encouragement I needed that first year to get my career started on a positive note. — Jim Evans

The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained in sudden flight but, they while their companions slept, they were toiling upwards in the night. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Great people are not people who have never fallen down. Greatness has to do with how you get back up. — Marianne Williamson

Every great soul nurtures strong positive mental power. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Great faith, great hope and great courage. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Great life, great deeds.
Great deeds, great blessings. — Lailah Gifty Akita

You ought to recognise your special talent, for your specific purpose. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Live daringly with great courage. — Lailah Gifty Akita

The Great stories give us the hope and the courage to survive life. — Lailah Gifty Akita

There are high spots in all of our lives and most of them have come about through encouragement from someone else. I don't care how great, how famous or successful a man or woman may be, each hungers for applause. — George Matthew Adams

The secret of the mystery is: God is always greater. No matter how great we think Him to be, His love is always greater. — Brennan Manning

Although my road to writing seems like it may have come easily, there were a few bumps in that road. I didn't get a lot of encouragement from friends, although my family were great supporters. I also had many ... what you would call "mind-boggling" moments, when I would doubt myself and what I was writing. It has been said that we, ourselves, are our own worst critics.
All the hard work had payed off though, and I created a children's book that I am proud of, and an unforgettable little girl that will touch the hearts of many."-Nina Jean Slack — Nina Jean Slack

The new captain looked up. Oh, good grief, Vimes thought. It's bloody Rust this time round!
And it was indeed the Hon. Ronald Rust, the god's gift to the enemy, any enemy, and a walking encouragement to desertion.
The Rust family had produced great soldiers, by the undemanding standards of 'Deduct your own casualties from those of the enemy, and if the answer is a positive number, it was a glorious victory' school of applied warfare. But Rust's lack of any kind of military grasp was matched only by his high opinion of the talent he in fact possessed only in negative amounts. — Terry Pratchett

When at the typewriter I am no longer where I site but am away across the mountains, in ancient cities or on the Great Plains among the buffalo. Often I think of what pitiful fools are those who use mind-altering drugs to seek feelings they do not have, each drug taking a little more from what they have of mind, leaving them a little less. Give the brain encouragement from study, from thinking, from visualizing, and no drugs are needed. — Louis L'Amour

The strong spirit empowers others to be stronger souls. — Lailah Gifty Akita

But my absolute favorite part of it is after I finish, so I can wait there to encourage people to keep pushing to the end. By the time I'm finished all the fast people are already passed, so it's good to be able to cheer on those who really need that encouragement to finish. It's a great feeling when you acknowledge someone and they just brighten up and pick up their pace. That cheering at the end makes such a difference for the runners, you see it in the smiles on everybody's face. I love to be a part of that. It's just a tremendously inspiring race. — Chris Cooper

When you consider what you would love to accomplish in your life but feel ill-prepared to bring it about, picture the eighty-nine Michelangelo living five centuries ago, painting, sculpting, and writing. Imagine he is telling you that you can create whatever you desire, and the great danger is not in having too much hope, but in reaching what you have perceived as hopeless. — Wayne Dyer

The power of great thoughts,timeless possibilities. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Failure is the foundation of truth. It teaches us what isn't true, and that is a great beginning. To fear failure is to fear the possibility of truth. — Joan D. Chittister

All great men have declared that they owe their sucess to the aid and encouragement of some brilliant woman. — O. Henry

We spend great sum of money to buy good books, so that we can satisfy our pleasure of reading. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Girls' hearts flourish in homes where they are seen and invited to become ever more themselves. Parents who enjoy their daughters are giving them and the world a great gift. Mothers in particular have the opportunity to offer encouragement to their daughters by inviting them into their feminine world and by treasuring their daughters' unique beauty. — Stasi Eldredge

And yet we are often tempted to encourage others with insincere praise. In this we treat them like children - while failing to help them prepare for encounters with those who will judge them like adults. I'm not saying that we need to go out of our way to criticize others. But when asked for an honest opinion, we do our friends no favors by pretending not to notice flaws in their work, especially when those who are not their friends are bound to notice the same flaws. Sparing others disappointment and embarrassment is a great kindness. And if we have a history of being honest, our praise and encouragement will actually mean something. I — Sam Harris

Dream of dreamers! — Lailah Gifty Akita

I went away, after trying once more to rouse up Bashan by renewed calls and
encouragement. In vain. He cared as little for my going as for my coming. He seemed weighed down by bitter loathing and despair. He had the air of saying: "Since you were capable of having me put in this cage, I expect nothing more from you." And, actually,
had he not enough ground to despair of reason and justice?
[ ... ]
How could I explain to him we were treating him with great distinction, in shutting him up like a jaguar, without sun, air, or exercise, and plaguing him every day with a
thermometer? — Thomas Mann

The Scriptures are the pearls of great words. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Tonight I should like to thank all those who have shared my work and to acknowledge the debt that I owe to my wife whose encouragement to put research before all other things has been a great strength to me. — George Porter

While I generally find that great myths are great precisely because they represent and embody great universal truths (and will explore several such myths later in this book), the myth of romantic love is a dreadful lie. Perhaps it is a necessary lie in that it ensures the survival of the species by its encouragement and seeming validation of the falling-in-love experience that traps us into marriage. But as a psychiatrist I weep in my heart almost daily for the ghastly confusion and suffering that this myth fosters. Millions of people waste vast amounts of energy desperately and futilely attempting to make the reality of their lives conform to the unreality of the myth. — M. Scott Peck

Their words of encouragement were just what I needed. I was doing a great job, and I appreciated their cheers.I felt a dormlike camaraderie in the burn unit, since each of us knew the challenges we were facing like no one else could, and therefore how meaningful each triumph was. — Stephanie Nielson

But people need lift, too. People don't get moving, they don't soar, they don't achieve great heights, without someone buoying them up. — Elizabeth Wein

One night, walking along 8th Street in the East Village, I saw some adolescent boys, out too late and unattended. They were playing an arcade video game set up on the sidewalk, piloting a digital spacecraft through starlit infinity, blasting everything in their path to bits. Now and then, the machine would let out a robotic shout of encouragement: You're doing great! So the urchins flew on through the make-believe nothingness, destroying whatever they saw, hypnotized by the mechanical praise that stood in for the human voice of love. That, it seemed to me, was postmodernism in a nutshell. It ignored the full spiritual reality of life all around it in order to blow things apart inside a man-made box that only looked like infinity. You're doing great, intellectuals! You're doing great. Much — Andrew Klavan

Whatever's got you down is causing a great deal of stress. Pick yourself up and reflect on the positive things about your life. You'd be surprised at how one slingshot of optimism can overturn the deep dark thoughts affecting your mood and making you vulnerable. — Bianca McCormick-Johnson

The purpose of confessing our sins is not to render us miserable by simply reminding us what great sinners we are. It is to remind us of what a great Savior we have. We confess that "there is no health in us" in order that our hearts may be drawn afresh to the Great Physician of our souls, who has provided for our desperate need for cleansing in the gospel. For that reason, we always follow our prayer of confession with a scriptural assurance of pardon: God's authoritative declaration of the forgiveness of each and every one of the sins of his people in Jesus Christ. This is our only hope in life and death. These assurances, too, we have endeavored to make specific, providing gospel encouragement tailored to our particular failings and pointing us afresh to the new life that is ours in Christ. — Barbara R. Duguid

Don't believe it when people tell you that you will never accomplish anything great in life, or that you're ordinary or should just stay the same as everybody else. Don't let them define you, your life or your future. Don't let society or people restrict or blind you with their definitions of what's beautiful and what's not, and what's successful and what's not, follow your heart. — Auliq Ice

Don't be afraid when you have to pray fervently because of your circumstances. God is wanting to do something great through you! — Stormie O'martian

So Jesus is a great model of how to live, pray, and relate to people. But remember that if Jesus is only a model for us, then he is no encouragement - for he is too good. No one could live up to his standard. Jesus came not just to be a model but a savior. — Timothy Keller

So often we think that to be encouragers we have to produce great words of wisdom when, in fact, a few simple syllables of sympathy and an arm around the shoulder can often provide much needed comfort. — Florence Littauer

We see the greatness of God in times of great challenge. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Plants of great vigor will almost always struggle into blossom, despite impediments. But there should be encouragement, and a free genial atmosphere for those of more timid sort, fair play for each in its own kind. — Margaret Fuller

Hopefully I get to come back [to Israel] next year. It's really great to see the encouragement [from] my friends, especially within the Hollywood circle, for me to be an ambassador [for Israel]. Because I'm in love with Israel, and I know everyone else will if they just take the opportunity. — Kellan Lutz

The broader problem is that a great deal of popular preaching and teaching uses the bible as a pegboard on which to hang a fair bit of Christianized pop psychology or moralizing encouragement, with very little effort to teach the faithful, from the Bible, the massive doctrines of historic confessional Christianity. — D. A. Carson