Happiness is good, but well-overrated: what we hate most are the very motivators that put us in gear. A man drifts along with little to contribute until something agitates him enough to make a difference, whether for himself or for his communities.

Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it's often one of the great motivations for living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury.

If you truly feel that self esteem and motivation have to happen first before you can make changes in your life, then we’ll probably be sharing walkers at a retirement home as we talk over what might have been.

“I love to play in front of Kentucky fans. It motivates me. In games where we don't have a lot of fans, we've got to bring our own energy. That's what I told the team. I'll bring the energy.”

“If she wins a medal at the Olympics, she can create a big podium to talk about her abuse, how to prevent it from happening to other people. That's what I'm trying to tap into. I want her to use that as motivation.”

“The case was never about blaming the terrorists, ... It was about what the Port Authority should have done. They disregarded the advice of their own experts and other experts. They were motivated by money. They should have thought about the ultimate sacrifice of human lives.”

“The market saw through the Fed's inspiring comments about the economic recovery because it moved to an easing bias. We also had some poor earnings news from U.S. tech and media names after Wall Street closed.”

“I want to get more specific data. I want to learn how to grab that information and bring it back to my parish and be able to teach this information to my congregation. We have to bring it to a level that they can understand and to motivate them.”

Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.

The tremendous danger is that this belief - that genuine happiness comes only from pleasant feelings - becomes a strong motivation to stay closed to anything unpleasant. But by staying closed to all unpleasantness, we also stay closed to our own wellspring of compassion.