Nifty Fifty Fridays

50 Inspirational Quotes for Fundraisers

Everyone loves a good inspirational quote. Here are 50 insights from some of the best thinkers of the last 100 years (and one or two that are even older!). If you’d like to find other fundraisers and nonprofit leaders who know the power of inspiring words, come to the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference – Nonprofit Storytelling Conference!

1. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill

2. "Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can." - Arthur Ashe

3. "The only way to do great work is to love what you do." - Steve Jobs

4. "Dream big and dare to fail." - Norman Vaughan

5. "To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." - Eleanor Roosevelt

6. "The best way to predict the future is to create it." - Peter Drucker

7. "Believe you can and you’re halfway there." - Theodore Roosevelt

8. "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." - Thomas Paine

9. "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." – Vince Lomardi

10. "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." - Steve Jobs

11. "Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

12. "We rise by lifting others." - Robert Ingersoll

13. "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill

14. "Leadership is not about being in charge. It's about taking care of those in your charge." - Simon Sinek

15. "It always seems impossible until it’s done." - Nelson Mandela

16. "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." - Vince Lombardi

17. "Don't count the days, make the days count." - Muhammad Ali

18. "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." - Henry David Thoreau

19. "Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life." - Steve Jobs

20. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world." - Margaret Mead

21. "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine

22. "There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." - Nelson Mandela

23. "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." - Mahatma Gandhi

24. "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." - Dr. Seuss

25. "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." - Confucius

26. "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." - Albert Schweitzer

27. "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." - Helen Keller

28. "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F. Kennedy

29. "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

30. "The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are." - John C. Maxwell

31. "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin

32. "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." - Nelson Mandela

33. "The secret of getting ahead is getting started." - Mark Twain

34. "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson 

35. "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein

36. "Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person." - Mother Teresa

37. "Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction." - John F. Kennedy

38. "Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does." - William James

39. "Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle." - Christian D. Larson

40. "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." - Robert Collier

41. "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt

42. "It’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln

43. "Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it." - Charles R. Swindoll

44. "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." - Marie Curie

45. "The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

46. "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller

47. "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." - Jimmy Dean

48. "The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible." - Charles Kingsleigh

49. "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." - Walt Disney 

50. "Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going." - Sam Levenson