The sons of Hermes love to play
    And only do their best when they
      Are told they oughtn't.
    Apollo's children never shrink
    From boring jobs but have to think
      Their work important.

  "Never argue with idiots.  They drag you down
      to their level and beat you with experience."
      -- Dilbert


   Always do right. This will gratify some and
      astonish others.  -- Mark Twain


   Practise random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.


   Some people are like Slinkies ... not really good
      for anything, but you still can't help but smile
      when you see one tumble down the stairs.


   The hardest job kids face today is learning
      good manners without ever seeing any.
      -- Fred Astaire.


   The whole theory of modern education is radically
      unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate,
      education produces no effect whatsoever.
      -- Lady Bracknell, The Importance of Being Earnest.


   The young today are casual, bad mannered and have
      no respect for the old. -- Socrates


   Why do we bother bringing this canary down the
      mine?   All the damn thing does is sleep ...


   What we have done for ourselves alone dies with
      us.  What we have done for others and the world
      remains and is immortal. -- Albert Pike

   "Bother," said the Borg as they assimilated Pooh.

   * Just keep walking! * 

this quote is not from a book, not a website, not from a blog, but from a post right here on HN. (and quoted by the OP in another post): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=625644

I find quotes with a background/anecdote attached to it more inspiring. They inspire me on a whole different level...much much better than ones in "look before you leap" and the likes in the idiom based quotes league.

EX: "There's no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. Just keep walking. - Johnnie Walker."

I first saw the quote "Just Keep Walking" in THIS specific context several years ago when Johnnie Walker published an in-magazine booklet targeted to entrepreneurs. I think it was in Fast Company or Business 2.0. Maybe both of them. I sent off and received a free t-shirt from them with that quote and their logo of a silhouetted man walking. The striding man. The booklet talked about persistence and determination, etc. It was called something like "Just keep walking: A handbook for entrepreneurs."

[P.S. - Sorry to ruin your story/anecdote.]

It's akin to the "just do it", which we always see all around, but i see it as an ad, not a motivation.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=727416

  It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
  It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
  And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
  Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
  We are not now that strength which in old days
  Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
  One equal temper of heroic hearts,
  Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
  To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

  from "Ulysses" by Alfred Lord Tennyson

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible."

-T.E. Lawrence

-- Mark Twain

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.

-- George Patton

That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom

For that celestial light? Be it so, since he

Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid

What shall be right: fardest from him is best

Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream

Above his equals. Farewel happy Fields

Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail

Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell

Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings

A mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time.

The mind is its own place, and in it self

Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.

What matter where, if I be still the same,

And what I should be, all but less then he

Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least

We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built

Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce

To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.

-- Lucifer in Milton's Paradise Lost

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery" --James Joyce

"Where will you be when you get where you are going?" --unknown

"We are not so much anti-capitalist (...) We're fortunate enough to have built a very healthy business, even though we haven't attempted to. All we have done is stop short of trying to become insanely wealthy. We have met billionaires and it sounds funny but it's not necessarily a bed of roses to have that kind of money. (...) Their life becomes about figuring out how to employ all that money either by philanthropy or other means. So we don't consider it that revolutionary to have stopped short of that." --Jim Buckmaster, CEO Craigslist

Quoted from Randy Komisar's "The Monk and the Riddle"

My skin I tinted slow to ivory tone.

----------

"Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism." -Hunter S. Thompson

----------

Teen2: Are you being sarcastic, dude?

Teen1: I don't even know anymore. - [3F21] Homerpalooza

----------

"And AC said, 'LET THERE BE LIGHT!'

And there was light --" -Asimov

From "The Teachings of Don Juan"

- Hugh Macleod

-- John Webster

Attributed to Warren Buffet.