When you are seeking motivation, you will certainly find it in a collection of Les Brown quotes. His life is a classic tale of rags-to-riches, filled with experiences that have led to Les becoming one of the most influential motivational speakers in the US. It will help us appreciate the Les Brown quotes that follow if we learn something of his life first.
Leslie Calvin Brown is one of twins and was born in Liberty City, Florida, in 1945. The twins’ birth mother gave the boys into adoption at three weeks old. Mamie Brown, a cook in a cafeteria and domestic help, adopted the boys.
At high school in Miami, Brown encountered an inspirational teacher by the name of LeRoy Washington. He made Les believe in himself. He dreamed of becoming a radio DJ. Knowing he had to start at the bottom, he pestered a local radio station owner for a job. Proving that persistence pays off, he eventually was offered a cleaning job.
Then, he had the chance to prove another truism. When a DJ became incapable through being drunk, Brown took over the microphone and finished the program. He had grabbed an opportunity with both hands and made a success of it. The station owner was duly impressed and took Brown on as a DJ.
When living in Ohio, he stood for election to Ohio State Legislature. He was elected at the first attempt and served three terms before retiring and returning to Florida to care for Mamie Brown.
Inspired to become a motivational speaker, Brown transplanted to Detroit. Through studying books and watching other motivational speakers, Brown developed his style of speaking. This made him believe in the value of education, especially by teaching oneself.
He began his speaking career by giving speeches to grade school students and then to students at high school. This led to speaking gigs at clubs and organizations, and by 1989 Brown had received the highest award that the National Speakers Association could give. He was the first African-American to win the Council of Peers Award of Excellence.
The basis of Les Brown’s philosophy is that we must each live our dreams. Everyone has dreams, and it is all too easy to sit back and make no effort to achieve them. Les firmly believes that each of us can achieve great things, and all we need is the motivation to do that.
How to get motivated is what Les writes about and speaks about. He uses his own life and experiences as an example of how we can all achieve success. Les’s belief that everyone can be motivated to achieve success is at the core of his message.
Les Brown Quotes
Be willing to go all out, in pursuit of your dream. Ultimately it will pay off. You are more powerful than you think you are. Go for it.
Les Brown
If you want to grow and develop yourself, embrace failure. If you want to become the best at what you do, you’ve got to be willing to fail, again and again. And then finally, one day, you can fail your way to greatness.
Les Brown
It has been said,most people die at age 25 and don’t get buried until they are 65.Make an effort to live your life to the fullest.
Les Brown
Listen to yourself the voice that’s in your Heart not your head,it will lead you to your Goal.
Les Brown
Believe that you possess a basic goodness, which is the foundation for the greatness you can ultimately achieve.
Les Brown
There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning.
Les Brown
Tell yourself that if it’s hard, I’ll do it hard. I’m unstoppable!
Les Brown
You have to be willing to allow the person you are today to DIE so that you can give birth to the person you are meant to become.
Les Brown
Les Brown Inspirational Quotes
It really doesn’t matter what’s going on right now. The only thing that matters is what you’re going to do about it. Do something powerful!
Les Brown
Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.
Les Brown
Leave energy drainers alone. Don’t let them slow you down and stop your dream. Your possibilities are too important.
Les Brown
You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.
Les Brown
A lot of people become discouraged too soon. The name of the game is, you’ve got to be relentless.
Les Brown
If you don’t program yourself, life will program you!
Les Brown
Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.
Les Brown
You are the only real obstacle in your path to a fulfilling life.
Les Brown
The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.
Les Brown
If you view all the things that happen to you, both good and bad, as opportunities, then you operate out of a higher level of consciousness.
Les Brown
The greatest revenge is massive success.
Les Brown
When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up.
Les Brown
Live out of your imagination instead of out of your memory.
Les Brown
Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.
Les Brown
Most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit.
Les Brown
Life is a fight for territory and once you stop fighting for what you want, what you don’t want will automatically take over.
Les Brown
Just because Fate doesn’t deal you the right cards, it doesn’t mean you should give up. It just means you have to play the cards you get to their maximum potential.
Les Brown
Align yourself with people that you can learn from, people who want more out of life, people who are stretching and searching and seeking some higher ground in life.
Les Brown
The time is ‘now’ to do something – don’t drag your feet.
Les Brown
I will heighten my life by helping others heighten theirs.
Les Brown
This is an age of awareness, an age of the mind. Those who can think or create, those who are educated or trained, those who are resourceful, those who are good business people are the ones who will determine their own destiny.
Les Brown
Perfection does not exist — you can always do better and you can always grow.
Les Brown
Remember, wisdom comes form everywhere, I am always searching for ideas that can inspire me or others to reach another level.
Les Brown
Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.
Les Brown
It’s necessary to know that everybody won’t see it. That everybody won’t join you, that everybody won’t have the vision. It’s necessary to know that. That a lot of people like to complain but they don’t want to do anything about their situation. That you are UNCOMMON breed.
Les Brown
No one rises to low expectations.
Les Brown
I advise you to say your dream is possible and then overcome all inconveniences, ignore all the hassles and take a running leap through the hoop, even if it is in flames.
Les Brown
Our ability to handle life’s challenges is a measure of our strength of character.
Les Brown
Life is challenging. Find ways in which you can begin to give mor of yourself, ways in which you can begin to help others. Help somebody and help yourself because what you give is what you get.
Les Brown
A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand.
Les Brown
If you look the part and act the part, you’ll be surprised as the results you will produce. This is true with negative impressions as well as positive ones.
Les Brown
Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.
Les Brown
You are better than anything that is happening to you right now. If you’re facing challenge of drugs and alcohol orang kind of addiction, get some help. Remember that nobody can help you unless you hold on to your commitment to regain, and retain, control of your life. Like my friend, resist all temptation to backslide into the thoughts and actions that cause you to lose control in the first place.
Les Brown
Make sure when you fall you land on your back if you can look up you can get up.
Les Brown
If you want to begin to alter your circumstance and alter your life, it’s very important that you begin to change your attitude about yourself.
Les Brown
If you set goals and go after them with all the determination you can muster, your gifts will take you places that will amaze you.
Les Brown
Don’t waste time bathing in the negative experience. Spin your energy and focus your attention on moving on.
Les Brown
You don’t get in life what you want; you get in life what you are.
Les Brown
Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours.
Les Brown
Luck is nice, but work is something you can control. So get working!
Les Brown
Les Brown Famous Quotes
Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.
If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness.
Les Brown
Make change a tool for your success. Let it happen, and celebrate the possibilities.
Les Brown
Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner.
Les Brown
Focus your energy. Find one thing and drop your buckets there. Do that one thing until it blesses you.
Les Brown
The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today.
Les Brown
More Les Brown quotes about life and success
You take on the responsibility for making your dream a reality.
Les Brown
It is as though complaining is a substitute for action. I always appreciate people who are willing to tell you what they think is wrong, but who are just as willing to tell you what they think is right, especially if they are willing to take action on the court they recommend.
Les Brown
There are winners, there are losers and there are people who have not yet learned how to win.
Les Brown
Dig in, and expect good things, the things shortcuts won’t allow you to have.
Les Brown
No one will take better care of your dream than you.
Les Brown
If no one answered right away, just keep knocking until you wake them up
Les Brown
If you run around with 9 losers pretty soon you’ll be the 10th loser.
Les Brown
What you have right now in your life is a reflection of your thoughts. Start by controlling your thoughts. We can’t control the thoughts that come into our mind but we can control what we dwell on. Start dwelling on the positive things in your life.
Les Brown
Your dream was given to you. If someone else can’t see it for you, that’s fine, it was given to you and not them. It’s your dream. Hold it. Nourish it. Cultivate it!
Les Brown
When I talk about consciousness, I;m talking about a combination of your hopes, your thoughts and your emotions, used as a force to act on what you see within yourself.
Les Brown
You must remain focused on your journey to greatness.
Les Brown
Every day, we can either choose to be a victim or we can choose to live life victoriously.
Les Brown
Know your gifts and share them.
Les Brown
Families are who we are, after all. They are a looking glass, and in the best of cases, they can be a source of empowerment and support for getting the thing we can’t out of life.
Les Brown
The people that want to step into their greatness are hungry.
Les Brown
I can’t control what life hands me. What I can control is how I handle it.
Les Brown
In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.
Les Brown
You need to make a commitment, and once you make it, then life will give you some answers.
Les Brown
With his career now well-established, he gives speeches and lectures throughout the US, at one time was the host on The Les Brown Show on TV, and also did radio work in New York City.
He continues to write inspirational texts and has released videos of his speeches. Read the Les Brown quotes here and realize that you, too, can succeed when you put in the hard work.
