The 12 Most Influential Books on MoveMe Quotes in 12 Years of Publishing!

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Excerpt: Check out the 12 most influential books that have impacted MoveMe Quotes in over 12 years of quoting, accompanied with the greatest lesson from each!

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MoveMe Quotes is now 12 years old!  Happy birthday to us!  In celebration of our 12th birthday, we collected the 12 books that have had the greatest impact on our upbringing and website development so far (measured by the number of resources that were published from each book).

In the beginning, MoveMe Quotes was focused on bringing in a quantity of high level quotes, from a variety of resources, so we could build a collection and foundation that the rest of our website could be built off of.  Now, as we have matured, we have focused on bringing in only the highest quality quotes, derived primarily from books, that are each hand-picked and indexed for ease of access and maximum impact. 

We work harder now, more than ever, to bring you unique and hearty insights that will not only satisfy your motivational yearnings, but will inspire you to take action on what you read so that you can continue to keep moving forward (the only direction) in your life.

Below, you’ll find the 12 books that have had the greatest impact on our website (so far) accompanied by the greatest lesson learned from each.  If you stumble across a book you haven’t read, they each come highly recommended and you’ll find both a link to the complete list of resources (for further reading) and a link to Amazon (for more info about the book).

Whether you’re new to our tribe or a veteran who has been with us since the beginning, thank you so much for your support. We hope you have enjoyed the resources we have shared thus far, we hope you continue to find value in what we share, and we hope to hear from you soon! Enjoy!

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#12 | The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

By: Seth Godin
From this Book: 35 Quotes
Our List: Top 29 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: Anyone can become a creator. Being a “creator” is not a special title that is reserved for some gifted-and-talented few. Being a creator is a skillset that can be learned.

Elaborated: Shipping creative work never gets easier. Writing is always hard. Just like sprinting is always hard. Neither ever gets easier—you just get better. And with curiosity, generosity, connection, and a regimented practice—it’s a skillset that can transform, not just your life, but the lives of many others, too.

Seeing yourself as a creator, however, and committing to a regimented practice can be challenging and intimidating. That’s where Seth comes in.

Not only will he convince you of the possibility of becoming a creator, but he brilliantly lays out a case against many of the most common arguments against it. He talks about identity, imposter syndrome, writers block, inspiration, creativity, selling, criticism, fear, and so on. That, and in typical Seth fashion, does so in beautifully concise, easy-to-read chapters.

If you’re already a creator of any kind (or are considering becoming one and sharing your art with the world), this book is for you. 

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#11 | Can’t Hurt Me

By: David Goggins
From this Book: 37 Quotes
Our List: Top 34 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: It takes twenty years to gain twenty years of experience, and the only way to move beyond your 40 percent is to callous your mind, day after day.

Elaborated: On Sunday, August 23rd, 2020, I ran a marathon. I didn’t follow any specific running plans and did but only one training run (13.1 miles) leading up to it the week before. The most I had done besides that was a mile or two around my block at any given time in the whole year prior. Why do I tell you this?  Because while I didn’t do any official running training for that run, I have been training my body for war for over two decades. And if you start doing the same, your body might be able to perform in ways that surpass your wildest expectations as well.

I have been experimenting on-and-off since 2001 to get to where I am today with how I exercise, eat, meditate, read, and write. These five practices that I have been able to comfortably incorporate into my daily routine have completely transformed how I approach living and the challenges in my path. Completing this marathon with essentially no running training is a good example.

Don’t confuse that with me saying I didn’t train.

I sure as hell have been training my ass off for years leading up to this run. I workout religiously in my basement and rarely ever miss a training session. I lift heavy, I condition regularly, I stretch deeply, and I roll (self-myofascial release) quite often. My body was in peak shape going into this run. That, and I have gotten into a groove with optimal nutrition for my body. I eat clean, I eat vegan, I intermittently fast, and I’ve been pushing my mental barriers since I started Martial Arts training in 2001. Goggins solidified the benefits of going to war, daily—and I try to embody that lesson every day. 

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#10 | Happiness is a Choice You Make

By: John Leland
From this Book: 43 Quotes
Our List: Top 23 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: Gratitude can start a positive feedback loop that can significantly improve the quality of your life.

Elaborated: Happiness is something that can only ever be manufactured from within—it isn’t something that can be forced from without. This is the difference between a genuine smile and a fake smile—while the action of the smile is essentially the same, we can all tell the difference between the two. The genuine smile comes from within whereas the fake smile comes from a prompt without. Gratitude on the other hand, is different.

Gratitude is a verb whereas happiness is a noun.

Gratitude is something that is expressed whereas happiness is a state that is felt. Gratitude is something you have to act on whereas happiness is the result of those actions. Gratitude is the key. Happiness is what’s behind the door. This is your way in to the positive feedback loop. If your default state isn’t happy—don’t try to force happiness. Just like if the default state of the door is “locked,” don’t try to force down the door. Find the key, first. Express gratitude, it will help you feel happy. And when you’re happy, you’ll express more gratitude, which will make you feel happier again—and so it goes. Work smarter—not harder. Unlock happiness by giving thanks.

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#9 | Atomic Habits

By: James Clear
From this Book: 44 Quotes
Our List: Top 10 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: We don’t rise to the level of our goals; we fall to the level of our systems.

Elaborated: Having the goal isn’t enough in actually achieving the goal.  The size of our goal doesn’t necessarily change anything having to do with the size of our results, either.  If I change my goal from wanting to read one book per month to wanting to read five books per month, how many books I’ve read doesn’t change until I change the actions I’m taking.  Yes, it’s important to have the goal identified so you have a direction and focus (and bigger goals might put you on different paths), but once you have that, all of your energy should be directed towards system building.

What do systems look like?  Your system for reading might be to read at least 1 page before bed every night.  Your system for exercising might be to do at least 5 minutes of bodyweight exercise every morning.  Your system for healthy eating might be to eat at least 1 apple every day for lunch.  This, of course, is where size matters—the bigger your systems, the bigger your results.  Systems are the vehicles that are going to take you to your goals—your goals are simply the destination.

This is such an important reminder.  We don’t rise to the level of our goals; we fall to the level of our systems.  Don’t share with me your goals; share with me your systems.  Goals don’t impress me—we all want to change the world and do big things.  Share with me what you’re doing every day that’s going to get you there.

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#8 | The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

By: Robin Sharma
From this Book: 45 Quotes
Our List: Top 20 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: There’s nothing like a near-death experience to bring the preciousness of life into perspective.

Elaborated: In this book we meet a high profile trial lawyer, Julian Mantle whose life is centered around power, prestige, and money.  He’s the type who prioritizes three-thousand-dollar Italian suits, expensive meals at the finest restaurants, sexy young fashion models, and bright red Ferrari’s over gratitude, health, family, compassion, etc. and we quickly see how his life is on the fast track to some deep-seeded problems.  Shortly into the book, while arguing a case in court, Julian collapses from a heart attack and nearly loses his life at the ripe age of fifty-three years old.

After being revived and given a second chance at life, he completely abandons his lavish lifestyle in search for one with greater meaning and significance and he heads to India for spiritual answers. Regardless of whether or not you have had a near-death experience, your ability to put yourself in Julian’s shoes (or in anyone’s for that matter) and mentally take yourself through the same experiences will allow you to take away the same life lessons and learned wisdom closer to heart.

Otherwise, our invincibility mindset carries on and we live our lives as if they’ll continue to last forever. Remember, good judgement comes from bad judgement remembered—and if we can take the bad judgement from another person’s experience and apply it to our own life, we can obtain a significant win that saves us from some pretty significant pain and a ton of wasted time.

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#7 | Between Two Kingdoms

By: Suleika Jaouad
From this Book: 47 Quotes
Our List: Top 32 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: Pain is inevitable. How we channel pain, however, is a choice. And it is our greatest pains, the ones that interrupt our lives, that provide some of the greatest sources of raw energy that we can use to shape, guide, and define our life’s legacy.

Elaborated: Emotionally charged energy is amongst the most powerful sources of energy for a human there is.

Think about the energy of a mom when she’s protecting her child’s life, or the lover after they’ve experienced heartbreak, or even a friend when they see a ref make a bad call during a sports game. It’s during some of our most emotional moments when we are filled with some of our most potent, raw sources of energy.

What matters isn’t where it comes from—whether from perceptively positive or negative emotions—but how we choose to channel and express it.

Choose a constructive outlet and it can fuel the erection of an entire city. Choose a destructive outlet and it can level the likes of an entire city. The worst thing you can do is give it no outlet. For energy left to pressurize without any source of release has but one, ultimate fate: explosion.

And what a tragedy for destruction to come from the energy that could have created so much for so many.

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#6 | Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously

By: Osho
From this Book: 47 Quotes
Our List: Top 35 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: Danger should actually be sought out in our lives—if we want to live our lives in full, that is.

Elaborated: The good news is that courage can be learned—it’s not something that you either have or you don’t. It’s something that can be improved upon from whatever level it is currently at. Courage is not fearlessness. It is not an absence of fear. It is not only grand, heroic gestures and actions. Courage is simply the ability to act in spite of fear.

Furthermore, courage is not singularly useful—it is universally useful. When you come to a fork in the road and have to decide between telling the truth and lying—courage is what makes the difference in the decision. When you are with the one you like and you have to either “make a move” or not—courage is what convinces you to either lean in or lean away. If you’ve been hurt before and someone else comes along to be a part of your life—courage is what helps you entrust in people again. And the list goes on.

Hence, if there was but one skill that you could invest your time and energy into improving, let it be courage. Label all of the things in your life that you fear and then list ways that you can realistically act more courageously to improve upon them. And don’t be deceived. Your ego will lie to you. It will distract you. It will tell you that you are who you are and there’s nothing you can ever do to change that. It’s a lie. Don’t believe it. Don’t take council from your ego. And don’t take council from your fears. Act, in spite of it all. And lean into the “dangerous” life that only courage can lead you to live. You cannot get to it any other way.

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#5  |  Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

By: Richard Carlson
From this Book: 49 Quotes
Our List: Top 25 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: Life isn’t as bad as we’re making it out to be. And when we’re blowing things out of proportion, we are the ones doing the blowing.

Elaborated: The powerful thing about perspective is that it has the ability to change how we see.  And if how we see changes, well, everything in the world will look different.  In life, many of us disproportionately view our world as larger than it is—we blow it out of proportion.  Why?  Because from our perspective, our world is the world.  The size of our perception of life is the size of our understanding of the world.  And when we hyper focus on the trivialities of our life in comparison to all that’s happening in life throughout the world?  Those trivialities can start to look much bigger than they really are.

In his book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff—and It’s All Small Stuff, Richard Carlson shares simple, anecdotal ideas that can help put many of the trivialities that we experience in our lives back into perspective.  That argument that you just blew up over?  Is now just a thought that’s cycling in your head—you can control those thoughts.  Your favorite cup just broke?  Everything has a beginning and everything has an end—it was your cup’s time.  Your teenager is giving you the worst attitude?  What if they were actually enlightened and they were trying to teach you something?  These are just a few quick examples of some of the ideas that Carlson shares.

When you take back control of your perception towards what happens to you in life—you take back your life.  You have the ability to take thoughts that are viciously vivid and tearing you up inside and literally blur them into the background of your thinking.  You have the ability to take a thought that’s causing you pain and choose to look at it from another perspective that might give you hope instead.  You have the ability to zoom out from the intense focus that you’re putting on the stupid thing someone said to you and you could broaden your scope to include the problems—real problems—that others are facing instead.  These mental strategies, while simple in their explanation, can have a profound impact on the focus of your mind.

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#4  |  The Power Of Now

By: Eckhart Tolle
From this Book: 50 Quotes
Our List: Top 32 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: Our ability to alleviate suffering in our lives is directly connected to our ability to re-connect to the NOW (i.e. our ability to be present-minded).

Elaborated: Being present is not nothing—it demands ALL of you. Don’t trust that you can just be present without trying—our minds don’t work like that. It takes careful planning, deliberate effort, and keen self-awareness. But, when you put forth the effort, you’ll get paid in dividends in all areas of your life.

Are you having problems with relationships?  It’s likely that both parties need to get out of their own heads and listen and communicate more presently.  Are you stressed?  Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there,’ or being in the present but wanting to be in the future.  Do you find yourself complaining often?  To complain is always nonacceptance of what IS.  And the list goes on.

And don’t get it twisted, being present minded is not about ignoring challenges and looking at beautiful scenery.  But rather about taking the weight of your mind away from the problems (which are mostly caused by the mind) and moving that weight to things that can help you with solutions—like being fully present for things that help improve your mood, free up thinking space, or better connect to your real emotions.

This is all to say that this moment is all we have. If you take it for granted, you might miss it—and you’ll never get it back. Get better at being present and you’ll get better—in every single way.

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#3  |  Awaken the Giant Within

By: Tony Robbins
From this Book: 53 Quotes
Our List: Top 44 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: Frustration is a very positive sign. It means that the solution to your problem is within range, but what you’re currently doing isn’t working, and you need to change your approach in order to achieve your goal.

Elaborated: Frustration is not the enemy. And you need to really hear me out on this because it’s really easy for me to say this and really easy for you to read this, but really hard for either of us to internalize this: frustration is your ally. It’s your compass. It’s one of the most important signals you could ever ask for on your quest for never-ending growth. I would even go as far to say it’s an absolute blessing!

Frustration literally indicates where you stand in relation to your comfort zone. Really, really frustrated?  Then you’re really, really far outside of your comfort zone. Content?  Then you’re inside of your comfort zone. Frustrated?  Then you’re just outside of your comfort zone;  the sweet spot. The spot where you challenge, question, and put to the test your current domain of thinking; your current set of skills; your current understanding of the world. And what comes out on the other side of this consistent trial and error? That’s right. The holy grail of life—growth. That is, if you have the grit and wherewithal to see it through.

Here’s the game plan: change the way your mind responds to frustration. Stop running from it. Seek it! Follow your frustration. And when you find it? Welcome that beautiful blessing with open arms! Most people naturally respond with anger, disappointment, and spite. The most successful people respond with smirks, determination, and playfulness. Remember: If you keep on doing what you’ve been doing you’re going to keep on getting what you’ve been getting. You need to resolve to NOT keep getting what you’ve been getting. You need to resolve to the process—both short-term and long-term—of overcoming those barriers of frustration.

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#2  |  Stillness is the Key

By: Ryan Holiday
From this Book: 66 Quotes
Our List: Top 47 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: Being present demands all of us.  It’s not nothing.  It may be the hardest thing in the world.

Elaborated: Trying to be present is hard enough. Trying to be present in a world of distractions makes it harder. Trying to be present when we’re not even trying, makes it the hardest. The reason many of us are only making it harder for ourselves is because we’re living our lives reactively rather than responsibly. We wake up and have a blurry vision of what we want to accomplish for the day and rather than respond to what comes up proactively (and take responsibility), we react because we’re never mentally where we need to be—not really at least.

We wake up in the morning and check our phones for what happened while we were asleep. We move from one task to whatever task “feels right” while trying to remember all that we have to do throughout the day. We sit down to do one task and we think about the next. We get to that next task and think about the task we just left. We try to get important work done but we end up checking our phones again. We put our phones down and then think about what we just read on one of our timelines. We look outside and think about how the weather was better on a past day. We project ourselves into the future and imagine a day when we’ll have that kind of beautiful weather again. We turn on the TV and escape from the reality of thinking at all and just veg out.

Being present is not nothing—it demands ALL of you. Don’t trust that you can just be present without trying—our minds don’t work like that. It takes careful planning, deliberate effort, and keen self-awareness. This is all to say that this moment is all we have. If you take it for granted, you might miss it—and you’ll never get it back. Get better at being present and you’ll get better. In every single way that I can think of.

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#1  |  12 Rules for Life

By: Jordan B. Peterson
From this Book: 72 Quotes
Our List: Top 48 Quotes
Start Reading: Buy Book →

Greatest Lesson Learned: If you will not reveal yourself to others, you cannot reveal yourself to yourself. When you explore boldly, when you voluntarily confront the unknown, you gather information and build your renewed self out of that information.

Elaborated: When you avoid the world, yes, you’re avoiding all of the mess and danger, but you’re also avoiding all of the very lessons that would lead you to become more intellectually well-rounded, thick-skinned, strong-willed, socially competent, and boldly independent. There is no lesson without an opposing experience of some kind. And an experience implies that there is some kind of action into an unknown.

That unknown might be the teacher’s classroom, or a book, or a hike into the woods, or a protest, or a conversation, or a trip to another part of the world. It’s an action (whereas hiding implies inaction) that causes a reaction, that challenges your skills, abilities, and thought-processes. This type of learning—experiential learning—is the very tool, the fundamental practice, for unleashing your best self. There is no better way.

When you reserve your judgment, avoid confrontation, stand down against injustice, and speak only to yourself—you will stay only where you currently are—both physically and developmentally. There will be no reactions for you to contemplate, talk about, research, or explore. These reactions that you get after every action act as a sort of mirror that allow you to see yourself better. For, how you respond to the actions of the world act as the true revealer of your character.

We cannot be judged by our intentions. We cannot be judged by our wishes. We cannot be judged by our thought processes. We can only ever TRULY be judged by our actions. And if you really want to see a person for who they are, judge them not based solely on how they act during times of comfort and calm—judge them by how they act during times of adversity and conflict. This goes for you, too. 

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