Motivational Biography Quotes

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Live your life in such a way that you'll be remembered for your kindness, compassion, fairness, character, benevolence, and a force for good who had much respect for life, in general.
Germany Kent
Because I always feel like running Not away, because there is no such place Because if there was, I would have found it by now Because it's easier to run, Easier than staying and finding out you're the only one who didn't run Because running will be the way your life and mine will be described, As in "the long run" Or as in having "given someone a run for his money" Or as in "running out of time" Because running makes me look like everyone else, though I hope there will never be cause for that Because I will be running in the other direction, not running for cover Because if I knew where cover was, I would stay there and never have to run for it Not running for my life, because I have to be running for something of more value to be running and not in fear Because the thing I fear cannot be escaped, eluded, avoided, hidden from, protected from, gotten away from, Not without showing the fear as I see it now Because closer, clearer, no sir, nearer Because of you and because of that nice That you quietly, quickly be causing And because you're going to see me run soon and because you're going to know why I'm running then You'll know then Because I'm not going to tell you now
Gil Scott-Heron (Now and Then...)
Freedom wanders in the landscape of the mind, and nourishes the deepest yearnings of the soul.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Music is a complete evocation – like a smell. It can bring an entire memory and feeling back to you in a rush. Much more complete than even a photograph. You allow yourself a certain visual distance with photos – not music. It envelopes you – there’s no way to escape it. It’s a great test of sensitivity – the degree of reaction to music. I use it all the time. I call it my ‘Music Test.’ People today don’t want to hear the truth. They’re really afraid of tranquility and silence – they’re afraid they might begin to understand their own motivations too well. They keep a steady stream of noise going to protect themselves, to build a wall against the truth. Like African natives, beating on their drums, rattling their gourds, shaking the bells to scare off evil spirits. As long as there’s enough noise, there’s nothing to fear – or hear. But they will listen. Times are changing.
Anton Szandor LaVey (The Secret Life of a Satanist: The Authorized Biography of Anton LaVey)
Sometimes we have spent so long in the cage that it feels safer to be trapped inside.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Your heart knows there is a greater version of your life available to you.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Stop letting your haters write your bio.
Steve Maraboli
Psychological studies have recently shown that adversity can be a more powerful motivator than support. Successful people often remember being told that they could not do what they have, in fact, done brilliantly. Stubbornness drove them. Their parents or teachers have told them they will never make any money, or that they will never get a college degree, or that they will never marry and have children. The urge to prove authority wrong has often spurred human beings to unusual success.
Susan Cheever (Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography)
The only way to move forward is to focus on the good in your life and the good that you are doing for others and yourself. My past has shown me things in life, others and myself that I wouldn't wish upon anyone, but I can choose to pick up the pieces and build a beautiful life for myself and help others to do the same.
Brittany Burgunder (Safety in Numbers: From 56 to 221 Pounds, My Battle with Eating Disorders)
Jealousy Is An Emotion I’ve Never Felt.Envy Maybe.Like I’d Be Envious Of Say, Rihanna Who Is So Young, So Cool, She’s Done Amazing Work.But I’ve Never Felt The Need To Be Jealous.Maybe, Because I’ve Been Lucky Enough To Have Contentment In What I Do.
Priyanka Chopra
Let us make sure that future generation writes our biography.
Amit Kalantri
Mayor Walmsley is using the typical Jim Crow manipulation tactics to deflect the blame and guilt. He's a classic racist politician with an ulterior motive,” says Ora.
Shaune Bordere (Action Words: Journey of a Journalist)
Having something is not always better than not having it.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
It’s dangerous to be grateful for the cage that traps you.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
If you’re trapped in a cage, you don’t want to start being grateful for the protection of the bars. You need to be grateful that there are gaps in between them so you can see what’s on the other side.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be. Martha said to me, very quietly: “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. As for you, Agnes, you have so far used about one-third of your talent.” “But,” I said, “when I see my work I take for granted what other people value in it. I see only its ineptitude, inorganic flaws, and crudities. I am not pleased or satisfied.” “No artist is pleased.” “But then there is no satisfaction?” “No satisfaction whatever at any time,” she cried out passionately. “There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.
Agnes de Mille (Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham- A Biography)
It is a deformity in some 'radicals' to imagine that, once they have found the lowest or meanest motive for an action or for a person, they have correctly identified the authentic or 'real' one. Many a purge or show trial has got merrily under way in this manner.
Christopher Hitchens (Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography (Books That Changed the World))
Biographies showed me various paths to walk, but fiction provides me shoes to create my own path...
Hanish Kodali
Liberty is about being free and is granted by laws and conventions and government permissions. Freedom is about feeling free, and the only permission you need for that is your own.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
If you can choose your way into a cage, you can choose your way out.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
In finding the courage and confidence to escape our cages and shine, we help others do the same.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Von Natur aus bin ich jedem Unternehmen gegenüber abweisend, daß ich, um mich zu einem solchen zu entschließen, zuvor in einer Biographie von Alexander oder Dschingis-Khan blättern muss.
Emil M. Cioran
No man is a caricature, no individual can alone bear responibilty for a nation's collapse. The disaster Zaire became, the dull acquiescence of its people, had its roots in a history of extraordinary outside interference, as basic in motivation as it was elevated in rhetoric. The momentum behind Zaire's free-fall was generated not by one man but thousands of compliant collaborators, at home and abroad.
Michala Wrong, In the footsteps of Mr Kurtz
...I particularly loved biographies because they were about people who had to overcome obstacles or prejudices to get ahead. They made me think I could make it when nobody else believed in me, when even I didn't believe in myself.
Yeonmi Park (In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom)
Johnson argued that the most truthful life-writing is when ‘the writer tells his own story’, since only he knows the whole truth about himself. (He does not use the word ‘autobiography’, which only came into circulation in the early 19th century.) Those who write about another may want to over-praise him or ‘aggravate his infamy’; those who write about themselves, he says – optimistically – have no ‘motive to falsehood’ except ‘self-love’, and we are all on the watch for that.
Hermione Lee (Biography: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions))
It makes sense that people who repeatedly make poor decisions in choosing partners and have troubled relationships keep repeating their mistakes. Their motivations are as biological as they are emotional. The woman who can’t stop blaming her husband for every small infraction, the man who can’t stop trying to control his wife: their brains didn’t receive the love needed to foster the critical neural interconnections that create secure, loving attachment. They keep bumping up against the same neurobiological deficits, over and over again.
Donna Jackson Nakazawa (Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal)
Tolkien came to regard the tale of Beren and Tinuviel as 'the first example of the motive (to become dominant in Hobbits) that the great policies of world history, "the wheels of the world", are often turned not by the Lords and Governors, even gods, but by the seemingly unknown and weak'. Such a worldview is inherent in the fairy-tale (and Christian) idea of the happy ending in which the dispossessed are restored to joy; but perhaps Tolkien was also struck by the way it had been borne out in the Great War, when ordinary people stepped out of ordinary lives to carry the fate of nations.
John Garth (Tolkien And The Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth)
All the great biographies of the Bible involve suffering. The great souls grown in the Lord’s vineyard all know what it is to suffer. American Christianity, on the other hand, is conditioned to avoid suffering at all cost. But what a cost it is! Grape juice Christianity is what is produced by the purveyors of the motivational-seminar, you-can-have-it-all, success-in-life, pop-psychology Christianity. It’s a children’s drink. It comes with a straw and is served in a little cardboard box. I don’t want to drink that anymore. I don’t want to serve that anymore. I want the vintage wine. The kind of faith marked by mystery, grace, and authenticity.
Brian Zahnd (Water To Wine: Some of My Story)
Our philosophies have tended to split the world in two: “science” deals only with “hard facts,” while the “arts” are imagined to deal in nebulous questions of inner meanings. Equally, in popular culture, inner feelings and motivations (“ discovering who you really are” or “going with your heart”) are regularly invoked as the true personal reality over against mere outward “identities.
N.T. Wright (Paul: A Biography)
The editors who wanted more than anything else to figure out how much of Trump’s campaign manner was shtick and how much was real venom emerged thinking that they had seen the genuine Trump—a man certain of his views, hugely confident in his abilities, not terribly well informed, quick to take offense, and authentically perplexed by suspicions that he had motives other than making America great again. A
Michael Kranish (Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President)
... nothing is easier than to distance ourselves from great figures, whether through a negative interpretation or through idealization. Denigration and idealization are twins with the same basic motive: to avoid taking responsibility for the discoveries before us and to avoid taking responsibility for emulating the lives of great individuals. If we find severe flaws in the personality of the "genius," we can look upon him as some kind of genetic freak, closely linked to the madman, whose contributions were almost an incidental offshoot of his weird personality. If we consider the great man a triumphant genius with a basically unflawed personality, we can make small demands upon ourselves since we lack genius and possess flaws. Still another way of dealing with the great man is simply through indifference. One explains his loneliness and suffering through the kind of cliches Reich hated: "A genius is always one hundred years ahead of his time," or, "A genius always meets opposition in his lifetime." The need for distance from greatness is especially intense when we are dealing with persons who make the implicit demand: You must change your life if you are truly to understand what I have discovered.
Myron R. Sharaf (Fury On Earth: A Biography Of Wilhelm Reich)
A fierce battle was taking place at Tobruk, and nothing thrilled him more than spirited warfare and the prospect of military glory. He stayed up until three-thirty, in high spirits, “laughing, chaffing and alternating business with conversation,” wrote Colville. One by one his official guests, including Anthony Eden, gave up and went to bed. Churchill, however, continued to hold forth, his audience reduced to only Colville and Mary’s potential suitor, Eric Duncannon. Mary by this point had retired to the Prison Room, aware that the next day held the potential to change her life forever. — IN BERLIN, MEANWHILE, HITLER and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels joked about a newly published English biography of Churchill that revealed many of his idiosyncrasies, including his penchant for wearing pink silk underwear, working in the bathtub, and drinking throughout the day. “He dictates messages in the bath or in his underpants; a startling image which the Führer finds hugely amusing,” Goebbels wrote in his diary on Saturday. “He sees the English Empire as slowly disintegrating. Not much will be salvageable.” — ON SUNDAY MORNING, a low-grade anxiety colored the Cromwellian reaches of Chequers. Today, it seemed, would be the day Eric Duncannon proposed to Mary, and no one other than Mary was happy about it. Even she, however, was not wholly at ease with the idea. She was eighteen years old and had never had a romantic relationship, let alone been seriously courted. The prospect of betrothal left her feeling emotionally roiled, though it did add a certain piquancy to the day. New guests arrived: Sarah Churchill, the Prof, and Churchill’s twenty-year-old niece, Clarissa Spencer-Churchill—“looking quite beautiful,” Colville noted. She was accompanied by Captain Alan Hillgarth, a raffishly handsome novelist and self-styled adventurer now serving as naval attaché in Madrid, where he ran intelligence operations; some of these were engineered with the help of a lieutenant on his staff, Ian Fleming, who later credited Captain Hillgarth as being one of the inspirations for James Bond. “It was obvious,” Colville wrote, “that Eric was expected to make advances to Mary and that the prospect was viewed with nervous pleasure by Mary, with approbation by Moyra, with dislike by Mrs. C. and with amusement by Clarissa.” Churchill expressed little interest. After lunch, Mary and the others walked into the rose garden, while Colville showed Churchill telegrams about the situation in Iraq. The day was sunny and warm, a nice change from the recent stretch of cold. Soon, to Colville’s mystification, Eric and Clarissa set off on a long walk over the grounds by themselves, leaving Mary behind. “His motives,” Colville wrote, “were either Clarissa’s attraction, which she did not attempt to keep in the background, or else the belief that it was good policy to arouse Mary’s jealousy.” After the walk, and after Clarissa and Captain Hillgarth had left, Eric took a nap, with the apparent intention (as Colville
Erik Larson (The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz)
I often noticed that the surrounding mountains inspired Hitler. He once joked that here he stood 'above the world' in an environment comparable to Olympius, legendary mount of the gods, but that alone can never have been the motivation for himto put down his private roots on Obersalzberg.
Heinz Linge (With Hitler to the End: The Memoirs of Adolf Hitler's Valet)
he never perceived U.S. foreign policy as a campaign for American hegemony. In a mid-1947 talk to the Women’s National Press Club he expressed indignation at the charge. “There could be no more malicious distortion of the truth,” he declaimed, “than the frequent propaganda assertions . . . that the United States has imperialist aims or that American aid has been offered in order to fasten upon the recipients some sort of political or economic dominion.”6 In their quest for mid-American support, Marshall and his internationalist Cold War colleagues were not averse to underscoring the economic advantages to American business and agriculture of generous public funding of defensive measures against the advance of foreign Communism. But the secretary of state himself had no ulterior capitalist motives.
Debi Unger (George Marshall: A Biography)
The motivation of love motivates us to give our lives for others. In sum, Rutilio Grande embodied all three of these, and “died loving others,” pardoning his enemies. “Who knows if the murderers that have now fallen into excommunication are listening to a radio in their hideout, listening, in their conscience to this word. We want to tell you, murderous brothers, that we love you and that we ask of God repentance for your hearts, because the church is not able to hate.
Scott Wright (Oscar Romero and the Communion of Saints: A Biography)
The Government’s repeated response, however, even after October 1938, was to continue to attack his motives and judgement, and to seek to minimize the importance of his information. ‘No doubt it is not popular to say these things,’ Churchill had written to his wife on 26 September 1935, ‘but I am accustomed to abuse and I expect to have a great deal more of it before I have finished. Somebody has to state the truth.’ During
Martin Gilbert (Winston S. Churchill: The Prophet of Truth, 1922–1939 (Volume V) (Churchill Biography Book 5))
The Government’s repeated response, however, even after October 1938, was to continue to attack his motives and judgement, and to seek to minimize the importance of his information.
Martin Gilbert (Winston S. Churchill: The Prophet of Truth, 1922–1939 (Volume V) (Churchill Biography Book 5))
If you go through the biography of any famous personality you idolize you are sure to see the how the words ‘I can’ and ‘I believe’ played a very vital role in their fame.
Stephen Richards (Be First: Achieve Every Dream)
connection. In April 1855 my great-granduncle Alexander Carter Jr. and his younger brother, Thomas Marion Carter, left their home in Scioto County, Ohio, and headed west. Starting by steamboat, the two brothers floated down the Ohio River until it joined the Mississippi and then traveled upstream to St. Louis. In St. Louis they found little transportation west, so they walked, hitched rides, and rode horseback to reach St. Joseph, Missouri. There they caught a stagecoach to Council Bluffs, Iowa, riding on top of the stage, with seventeen men and women-a three-day ordeal. On May 14, nineteen days after leaving St. Louis, the brothers crossed the Missouri River and landed on the town site of Omaha, then a community of cotton tents and shanties, where lots were being offered to anyone willing to build on them. They refused this offer and pressed on to their final destination, DeSoto, Washington County, Nebraska Territory, where they found only one completed log house and another under construction. There they homesteaded the town of Blair, Nebraska. For three generations there were Carters in Nebraska, first in Blair and then in Omaha, where I was bom. As a native Nebraskan, I feel a particular affinity for William F. Cody, who lived most of his adult life in Nebraska. My father, George W. Carter, could have seen Buffalo Bill's Wild West when it came to Omaha in August 1908. I wish I had known the old scout personally; I am glad I have come to know him better while writing this book. It is also my fond hope that readers will feel as I do, that Buffalo Bill Cody is well worth knowing. Writing a biography of someone long dead is always a challenge. You must come to understand the person, the motivations, the key events that altered the course of history. And there are the records, the letters, the reminiscences of contemporaries. In Bill. Cody's case the documentation is plentiful but sometimes contradictory. Did Buffalo Bill kill Yellow Hand-the "first scalp for Custer"-for example? There are those who say he did and detractors who say he did not. Who are. we . to ' believe? For the most part, if I found two or three accounts that agreed with each other, particularly if there were official government .records supporting him, I felt sure I could give the credit to Cody.
Robert A. Carter (Buffalo Bill Cody: The Man Behind the Legend)
Newton’s biography reveals that he was an extreme example of the Psychoticism trait. Psychoticism is important to genius because it describes someone who is uninterested and uninfluenced by the normal human concerns – which are essentially ‘other people.’ Most humans are social animals, who see life through social spectacles, and who are motivated by the desire for friends, sex, status, and so on. But not Newton. In his early and most creative years, he simply wanted to be allowed to get on with his work.
Edward Dutton (The Genius Famine: Why We Need Geniuses, Why They're Dying Out, Why We Must Rescue Them)
Most biographies and autobiographies are each merely a slightly different packaging of the well-known fact that success rarely comes quickly or easily.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
William Holden had his own approach. "Take any picture you can. One out of four will be good, one out of ten will be very good and one out of fifteen will get you an Oscar.
Edward Z. Epstein (Audrey and Bill: A Romantic Biography of Audrey Hepburn and William Holden)
Personally, I can do very little, but I can contribute to a whole chain of events, and that's a marvelous feeling. It's like a bonus to me towards the end of my life. It gives me a voice." (Audrey Hepburn)
Edward Z. Epstein (Audrey and Bill: A Romantic Biography of Audrey Hepburn and William Holden)
They broke up into pairs, and the other two wandered afield and came across a small, humble house that was home to some monks. Welcomed inside, one of Ponticianus’s friends, scanning the shelves, picked up The Life of Antony, a biography of the Egyptian monk by Athanasius. He was immediately pulled in by the book and “set on fire.” Suddenly he was filled with holy love and sobering shame. Angry with himself, he turned his eyes on his friend and said to him: “Tell me, I beg of you, what do we hope to achieve with all our labours? What is our aim in life? What is the motive of our service to the state? Can we hope for any higher office in the palace than to be Friends of the Emperor? And in that position what is not fragile and full of dangers? How many hazards must one risk to attain a position of even greater danger? And when will we arrive there? Whereas, if I wish to become God’s friend, in an instant I may become that now.”19 What is our aim in life? What are we aiming for when we aim our lives at some aspiration? The question isn’t whether we aim our lives. Our existence is like an arrow on a taut string: it will be sent somewhere. It’s not a matter of quelling ambition, of “settling,” as if that were somehow more virtuous (or even possible). The alternative to disordered ambition that ultimately disappoints is not some holy lethargy or pious passivity. It’s recalibrated ambition that aspires for a different end and does so for different reasons. What
James K.A. Smith (On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts)
Major depression also appears to have become unusually widespread in the late Renaissance. This disorder is diagnosed when a person shows a severely depressed mood, a loss of interest and motivation, and withdraws from usual activities. In Elizabethan Malady, Lawrence Babb analyzes references to melancholy in diverse literary works, finding that while they are almost nonexistent in the early Renaissance, by the 1600s they are a principal theme in prose, drama, and biography. Babb concludes that the late Renaissance was characterized by “an epidemic of melancholy.” The poet John Donne, who offered sonnets to the “Holy Sadness of the Soul,” provided a vivid description of this malady, which he himself knew well: “God has seen fit to give us the dregs of misery, an extraordinary sadness, a predominant melancholy, a faintness of heart, a cheerlessness, a joylessness of spirit.
Ian Osborn (Can Christianity Cure Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?: A Psychiatrist Explores the Role of Faith in Treatment)
This was a personal and direct attack on the assembled senators. Caligula presented a historical analysis of the behavior of the aristocracy under Tiberius, evidently supported by the advance work and documentary research of his freedmen. He confronted the senators with the fact that members of their own body, motivated by opportunistic desires to win the emperor’s favor, had denounced other members. Furthermore, they themselves had pronounced the sentences of death against their colleagues. One can vividly imagine how the members of that august body felt as the freedmen on the imperial staff quoted from the records the statements they themselves had made during the trials for treason and then read the verdicts that the whole Senate had handed down. It must have been even worse, however, that in their presence—to their consternation, being senators—Caligula broached the subject of the opportunism and flattery that had characterized the Senate’s communication with the emperor since the time of Augustus. By confronting the aristocrats in the Senate first with the honors they had bestowed on Tiberius and Sejanus and then with their completely contrary behavior after the two men’s deaths—actions no one could deny—he exposed their behavior toward the emperor as consisting of hypocrisy, deception, and lies. Yet
Aloys Winterling (Caligula: A Biography)
Freedom was my daring travel companion on the thrilling ride of life.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
We often build our lives in a way that shuts out freedom.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Freedom is found within.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
... nothing is easier than to distance ourselves from great figures, whether through a negative interpretation or through idealization. Denigration and idealization are twins with the same basic motive: to avoid taking responsibility for the discoveries before us and to avoid taking responsibility for emulating the lives of great individuals. If we find severe flaws in the personality of the "genius," we can look upon him as some kind of genetic freak, closely linked to the madman, whose contributions were almost an incidental offshoot of his weird personality. If we consider the great man a triumphant genius with a basically unflawed personality, we can make small demands upon ourselves since we lack genius and possess flaws. Still another way of dealing with the great man is simply through indifference. One explains his loneliness and suffering through the kind of cliches Reich hated: "A genius is always one hundred years ahead of his time," or, "A genius always meets opposition in his lifetime." The need for distance from greatness is especially intense when we are dealing with persons who make the implicit demand: You must change your life if you are truly to understand what I have discovered.
Myron Sharaf (Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wihelm Reich)
The senior players, meanwhile, understood perfectly well, and as one recognised: ‘He always used us as an example, but he was always fair with us and everyone else.’ Pep was finding solutions to the team’s problems, relying on instinct and experience to motivate, inspire and get the best out of the youngsters.
Guillem Balagué (Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography)
The players are made of skin and bone and they too like this contact. Even if it is a slap. Pep touches constantly, hugs, pushes them, to motivate them, to keep them on their toes, to make them feel loved.
Guillem Balagué (Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography)
I have always found Christian biography to be inherently practical. A book that expounds the history or career of a noble Christian doesn’t usually need to be enhanced with explicit how-to steps or imperatives and admonitions directed at the reader. The testimony of a godly life by itself is sufficient to motivate. That is why I treasure the life stories and memoirs of godly leaders.
John F. MacArthur Jr. (The Book on Leadership)
Guardiola signed for Roma in the summer of 2002, motivated less by the opportunity to play for a bigger club than to be coached by, and to learn from, Fabio Capello, a manager he greatly admires despite their differing approach to the game. Pep was eager to experience Capello’s defensive rigour and discover his secrets in terms of how to apply pressure upon an opponent.
Guillem Balagué (Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography)
Be this as it may, we know on the best authority that Nathanael was a man of great moral excellence. No sooner had Jesus seen him than He exclaimed, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" The words suggest the idea of one whose heart was pure; in whom was no doublemindedness, impure motive, pride, or unholy passion: a man of gentle, meditative spirit, in whose mind heaven lay reflected like the blue sky in a still lake on a calm summer day.
Alexander Balmain Bruce (The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography)
The history of an individual is a mystery to others. It is wonderful, fascinating, and motivating if revealed. The moment you learn about someone's life journey and its details, you wonder and your mind questions never thought such a thing would have happened or existed! That is the individual history of just one person. Imagine how many we are in the world. Of course not only the 7.5 billion current living human beings but also the other many billions who had passed away. Everyone has or had his own life story or even a special event that is or was unique. This is treasure and wealth to others. There are millions of them out there for you to have. All you need to do is to look for them, find where they are, and then wonder. After doing so, it becomes a platform in your own life whether you raise your expectations of things to happen or occur or you move forward with your own set of normal expectations.
Isaac Nash (The Herok)
History is not just about events, but about motivations. Motivations, no doubt, float like icebergs, with much more out of sight than above the waterline. But there is often a good deal visible above the water, often including a strong implicit narrative. We can study that.
N.T. Wright (Paul: A Biography)
Finding the right mentor is not always easy. But we can locate role models in a more accessible place: the stories of great originals throughout history. Human rights advocate Malala Yousafzai was moved by reading biographies of Meena, an activist for equality in Afghanistan, and of Martin Luther King, Jr. King was inspired by Gandhi as was Nelson Mandela. In some cases, fictional characters can be even better role models. Growing up, many originals find their first heroes in their most beloved novels where protagonists exercise their creativity in pursuit of unique accomplishments. When asked to name their favorite books, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel each chose “Lord of the Rings“, the epic tale of a hobbit’s adventures to destroy a dangerous ring of power. Sheryl Sandberg and Jeff Bezos both pointed to “A Wrinkle in Time“ in which a young girl learns to bend the laws of physics and travels through time. Mark Zuckerberg was partial to “Enders Game“ where it’s up to a group of kids to save the planet from an alien attack. Jack Ma named his favorite childhood book as “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves“, about a woodcutter who takes the initiative to change his own fate. … There are studies showing that when children’s stories emphasize original achievements, the next generation innovates more.… Unlike biographies, in fictional stories characters can perform actions that have never been accomplished before, making the impossible seem possible. The inventors of the modern submarine and helicopters were transfixed by Jules Vern’s visions in “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “The Clippership of the Clouds”. One of the earliest rockets was built by a scientist who drew his motivation from an H.G. Wells novel. Some of the earliest mobile phones, tablets, GPS navigators, portable digital storage desks, and multimedia players were designed by people who watched “Star Trek” characters using similar devices. As we encounter these images of originality in history and fiction, the logic of consequence fades away we no longer worry as much about what will happen if we fail… Instead of causing us to rebel because traditional avenues are closed, the protagonist in our favorite stories may inspire originality by opening our minds to unconventional paths.
Adam Grant (Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World)
The challenge of separating fact from fiction in retelling the Oatman saga has not been easy. Debunking the rumors that swirled around her in life and death is a fairly simple matter of fact checking; distinguishing between what she truly experienced in captivity and how Stratton presented it in Captivity of the Oatman Girls, the biography he ghostwrote for her, is more challenging. But by analyzing Stratton’s motivations in telling her story, his knowledge of and attitude toward Indians and his theological and colonial vision of the West, and by examining the passages in Captivity of the Oatman Girls that are provably false, a clear pattern of manipulation emerges, and it is possible to disentangle—to a degree—his story from hers.
Margot Mifflin (The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman (Women in the West))
This is what you dont know about me I born to be a fighter winner is my name being an ambassador is in my blood that my logo shortly I 'm a brand of what I mentioned above, the big thing about me is in my days of living I live my calling without waisting any time. I'm not working for my name or being celebrity but I'm doing all of it for the promise of meeting with my master all Mighty God and recieve my rewards,tell me who you are and where you wanna spend your iternity?Oh! almost I forget here's my free advise and tip,will be nice for you to taste Heaven Sweetness.
Nozipho N.Maphumulo
that is, a will which has motives “that are represented completely a priori by reason alone,” and not with human volition, which is characterized by empirically based motives.40
Manfred Kühn (Kant: A Biography)
But granting all this, and even granting that the Sanhedrists had been right in their opinion of the character of the disciples, their theft theory is ridiculous. The disciples, even if capable of such a theft, so far as scruples of conscience were concerned, were not in a state of mind to think of it, or to attempt it. They had not spirit left for such a daring action. Sorrow lay like a weight of lead on their hearts, and made them almost as inanimate as the corpse they are supposed to have stolen. Then the motive for the theft is one which could not have influenced them then. Steal the body to propagate a belief in the resurrection! What interest had they in propagating a belief which they did not entertain themselves? "As yet they knew not the Scriptures, that He must rise again from the dead;" nor did they remember aught that their Master had said on this subject before His decease.
Alexander Balmain Bruce (The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography)
(On Godwin's theories) Personal property is another of the institutions which distorts clear perception and distorts virtuous motive. The economic system, by reinforcing the more vicious aspects of human nature, greed, vanity, envy, and rivalry, inflicts moral damage on the minds both of the rich and the poor. A man who has a better claim to resources than I have has a right to demand them. If a beggar is starving and I have plenty of bread, I must give him some of mine. And there should be no question of requiring or offering gratitude, which is a disguised form of political dependence or deferred obligation.
William St. Clair (The Godwins and the Shelleys: A Biography of a Family)
Edward IV’s second reign (1471–83): The involvement of household retainers in local government was one aspect that was common to all counties. There were a number of household sheriffs, as shown, and there seems to have been little difference in this policy from Edward’s first reign or, indeed, from that of Henry VI (p. 264). During his second reign, Edward persisted in pursuing his ideal of regional governance: his favourites were established as provincial ‘governors’ just as during the 1460s (p. 264)… However, just as in his first reign, the serious faults of this vicegerential system inevitably re-surfaced: focusing royal patronage on a limited number of courtiers encouraged the view that the regime was exclusive; but, more importantly–given the motivation–any regional magnate would have had the resources and capacity, potentially, to depose the king (pp. 264–5).
Robert E. Stansfield-Cudworth (Political Elites in South-West England, 1450–1500: Politics, Governance, and the Wars of the Roses)
In Chia’s experiments, professional musicians learn about two pianists whose biographies are identical in terms of prior achievements. The subjects listen to a short clip of these individuals playing piano; unbeknownst to the listeners, a single pianist is, in fact, playing different parts of the same piece. What varies is that one pianist is described as a “natural” with early evidence of innate talent. The other is described as a “striver” with early evidence of high motivation and perseverance. In direct contradiction to their stated beliefs about the importance of effort versus talent, musicians judge the natural to be more likely to succeed and more hirable.
Angela Duckworth (Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance)
AS STRATEGY SESSIONS BEGAN IN HAWTHORNE, THE Handlers made a brilliant tactical move. They commissioned a toy study from Ernest Dichter, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Motivational Research in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. The study cost a staggering $12,000 and took six months to complete, but when it was finished the charge seemed low. Dichter had masterminded a cunning campaign to peddle Barbie. Dichter was already a legend when the Handlers approached him. Quoted on nearly every page of Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders, a bestseller in 1957, Dichter was hailed as a marketing Einstein—an evil Einstein, but an Einstein nonetheless. He pioneered what he called "motivational research," advertising's newest, hippest, and, in Packard's view, scariest trend—the manipulation of deep-seated psychological cravings to sell merchandise.
M.G. Lord (Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll)
Freedom is found within, in the shape of our laughter and the way we love, in the truths that we live by and the stories we become
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Feeling free is a choice that is ours for the making, ours for the taking at any time, at any age. 
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
I am a Freedom Seeker and I choose to feel free. 
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
I am a Freedom Seeker, willing and able to choose my own path.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
I am a Freedom Seeker, committed to experiencing my life as my true self.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
We aren't either afraid or brave, we’re usually both.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
The feeling of freedom is as precious as a fortune waiting to be told.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Live more. Worry less. Do what you love.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
When you are trapped in a cage with broken wings, freedom can seem like a faraway deeply buried treasure. But it is always within reach.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Freedom seeking is the path to coming alive again.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Freedom is the willingness and ability to choose your own path and experience your life as your true self.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
We all have the innate capacity to feel free.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
While you cannot always change your situation, you can always change the way you respond to it.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
You are not alone. There are Freedom Seekers everywhere.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Deep down we all know that freedom is a choice, yet so many of us don’t feel that truth.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
Escape is a process, not a pill.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
The journey of the Freedom Seeker isn’t always easy. But it is essential, and it is urgent, for it is the path to coming alive again.
Beth Kempton (Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.)
The debate lasted for thirteen days of private and public sessions during which de Valera behaved as if he were motivated, not by precepts of Republicanism, but by notions of the divine right of kings. One commentator has written: ‘Whenever the President wanted to say something he seemed to act almost as if he had a right to determine his own procedure.’87 In all he interrupted the proceedings more than 250 times.
Tim Pat Coogan (Michael Collins: A Biography)
What impressed me most about José Mourinho was his capacity to mould a young team in his image-an aggressive, motivated and winning team-with the available ''raw material'', i. e. human material, and make any player believe that he was the best in the world in his position, when perhaps he wasn't.
Luis Lourenco (José Mourinho - Made in Portugal: the official biography by Luis Lourenço)
It is not the ultimate achievement that makes you extraordinary; it is what you become on the way to that achievement that people celebrate. This is what fills 295 pages of your 300 page (auto)biography!
Saidi Mdala (Know What Matters)