Quotes on Never Giving Up – Impossible is Nothing! – How Great People Changed the World by Doggedly Pursuing their Dreams

Words of Wisdom || Quotes on Never Giving Up

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt

Let your ideas sail with the winds of imagination to discover new destinations that lie just beyond the horizon.

Welcome to the Spiritual Bee’s collection of Quotes on Never Giving Up!

To pursue a dream requires tremendous courage because the road to success is rarely straight. Like a roller-coaster it is full of twists and turns, ups and downs.

On the way, there are bound to be many a difficult moments that lead to self-doubt.

Critics and skeptics might try to belittle our ambitions and discourage us by dismissing our ideas. At such times, we may be tempted to give up.

To dispel these moments of self-doubt is enclosed below a powerful collection of quotes on never giving up! These words of encouragement are from some of the world’s greatest people who defied conventional wisdom, and succeeded like never before.

So throw away the anchor and set sail. Remember, in the history book of the world, only those men and women have been able to leave their mark, who despite facing numerous obstacles, courageously stayed the course and never gave up on their dreams.

“If you want to succeed you should strike out new paths rather than travel worn paths of accepted business.”
– John D. Rockefeller

In the powerful words of Swami Vivekananda and Napoleon Hill: “Have faith in yourself. You can do anything and everything. Your only limitations are those that you set for yourself or permit others to set for you. You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest the infinite power lying within you. Believe first in yourself and then in God.”

Moreover, do not fear the world. It has a habit of making room for people who know where they are going. Sooner or later the world is bound to catch up and embrace your ideas.

“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.”
– Paulo Coelho

Quotes on Never Giving Up

Presented below is an extraordinary collection of quotes from some of the world’s greatest minds – people who were often misunderstood, their potentials misjudged and who each overcame numerous obstacles to put into action ideas that revolutionized the world.

These quotes have been categorized into the following subgroups and are best read sequentially from top to bottom.

  1. Impossible is Nothing! Never Give Up!
  2. World’s Greatest People Who Proved Their Critics Wrong
  3. Other Famous Failed Predictions

I hope these powerful quotes on not giving up, inspire you to sail away from the safe harbor, and encourage you to explore, to dream and to discover.

Impossible is Nothing! Never Give Up! Courageously Follow Your Dreams!

Impossible is nothing. Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given, than to explore the power they have to change it.

– Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare.
Muhammad Ali, the world’s most famous boxing champion.

Nothing is impossible; the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!

– Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.

– Robert Goddard, father of modern day space aviation, in a speech given in 1904, at his high school graduation.

Through some strange and powerful principle of mental chemistry which she has never divulged, nature wraps up in the impulse of strong desire, that something which recognizes no such word as impossible, and accepts no such reality as failure.

– Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) one of America’s earliest personal-success authors who wrote the book “Think and Grow Rich”.

Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

– Albert Einstein (1879-1955).

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.

– John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), American President who initiated the program to put man on the moon.

Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace.

– Robert Goddard inventor of the liquid-fueled rocket and father of modern day space aviation, responding to a reporter’s question following criticism of his work in The New York Times (1920).

The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.

– Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), a german philosopher whose metaphysical writings influenced some of the world’s greatest scientists including Erwin Schrödinger and Albert Einstein.

Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).

We are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear and guilt.

There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But know that it’s still there.

– Paulo Coelho, best-selling Brazilian novelist and spiritual writer.

Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

– Paul Hawken, renowned environmentalist and author.

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

– G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936).

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too can become great.

– Mark Twain (1835-1910), one of the world’s greatest literary minds.

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.

– Mark Twain (1835-1910).

World’s Greatest People Who Steadfastly Pursued Their Dreams and Proved Their Critics Wrong

Many of the world’s greatest minds have had to overcome tremendous hurdles and face public ridicule, before their ideas became a part of mainstream acceptance. Yet, these warriors never gave up and courageously persisted in following their dreams.

It doesn’t matter what he does, he will never amount to anything.

– Albert Einstein’s teacher to his father (1895).

Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.

– Pierre Pachet, a professor at Toulouse University, ridiculing Louise Pasteur’s research on pasteurization of milk in 1872. Today, Pasteur is widely regarded as one of the main founders of microbiology.

Children just aren’t interested in witches and wizards anymore.

– Anonymous publishing executive writing to J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter series of children’s books (1996).

This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.

– William Orton, president of Western Union, in a response to Alexander Graham Bell who was trying to sell his invention of the telephone (1876).

The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad.

– The president of the Michigan Savings Bank dissuading Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, from investing in the Ford Motor Company (1903). Rackham disregarded his advice and achieved great wealth by becoming one of the original stock holders in Ford.

I’m sorry Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.

– The San Francisco Examiner, rejecting a submission by Rudyard Kipling in 1889. Kipling whose celebrated works included “The Jungle Book” and the inspirational poem “If” went on to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907.

Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.

– Edwin Drake, founder of the modern petroleum industry, being ridiculed by drillers whom he was trying to enlist to drill for oil (1859).

You’re planning to make a ship sail against the wind and the currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I don’t have time to listen to that kind of nonsense!

– Napoleon Bonaparte’s response to Robert Fulton’s plan to make a steamboat (1800’s).

So many centuries after the Creation it is unlikely that anyone could find unknown lands of any value.

– Committee advising King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain regarding Christopher Columbus’ proposal to sail west (1486). Columbus went on to discover America in 1492.

Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.

– A 1920 New York Times editorial, criticizing Robert Goddard’s theories of space flight. Today Goddard, who invented the liquid-fueled rocket, is widely regarded as the father of modern day space aviation.

I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation. No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful.

– Lord Kelvin, renowned British physicist and President of the Royal Society, refusing an invitation to join the Aeronautical Society (1896).

The wireless music box (radio) has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?

– An investor rejecting David Sarnoff’s proposal for investment in the radio (1920). Sarnoff’s pioneering business acumen led to the establishment of the radio and television industry in America.

If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said ‘you can’t do this’.

– Spencer Silver on discovering a novel adhesive that led to the invention of “Post-It” Notepads.

The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.

– A professor at Yale University commenting on Fred Smith’s paper, proposing reliable overnight package delivery. Smith went on to found FedEx Corp.

So we went to Atari and said, “We’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts. What do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary; we will come work for you.” And they said, “No.” So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, “Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.”

– Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers on attempts to get Atari and Hewlett-Packard interested in his invention of the personal computer.

The world’s potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most.

– IBM, to the founders of Xerox, telling them the photocopier market was not large enough to justify production (1959).

Very interesting, Whittle, my boy, but it will never work.

– A Cambridge aeronautics professor’s cynical response to Frank Whittle’s design for the jet engine. Whittle, an engineer with the British Royal Air Force invented the turbojet and is widely regarded as the father of jet propulsion.

You better get secretarial work or get married.

– Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book modeling agency, advising would-be model Marilyn Monroe (1944).

Other Famous Predictions That Failed

Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.

– Dr. Dionysius Lardner, Professor at the University College of London (1800’s).

Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.

– Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox (1946).

No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris. That seems to me to be impossible. What limits the flight is the motor. No known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping.

– Wilbur Wright, inventor of the first airplane (1909).

X-rays will prove to be a hoax.

– Lord Kelvin, renowned British physicist and President of the Royal Society, who formulated the Laws of Thermodynamics (1896).

Space travel is bunk.

– A remark by Sir Harold Spencer Jones, an English astronomer and President of the International Astronomical Union, two weeks before the launch of Sputnik the world’s first artificial satellite (1957).

A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.

New York Times (1936).

Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.

– A remark by Ferdinand Foch, French military strategist who was appointed supreme commander of the Allied forces during World War I.

I would sooner believe that two Yankee professors lied, than that stones fell from the sky.

– Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President, on hearing reports of meteorites (1790s).

With over fifteen foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market.

Business Week magazine (1968). Japan’s Toyota Motors went on to become the world’s largest car maker.

The Beatles are not merely awful – I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are god-awful. They are so unbelievably horrible, so appallingly unmusical, and so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art, that they qualify as crowned heads of anti-music.

– American commentator William Buckley on the iconic English rock band ‘The Beatles’ (1964).

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I hope you enjoyed reading these quotes on never giving up as much as I did researching them! Be sure to explore more such quotes from the outstanding Words of Wisdom collection.

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