Vision Quotes

“When I think of vision, I have in mind the ability to see above and beyond the majority”. ~ Chuck Swindoll

“Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son…. He will not necessarily protect us – not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process”. ~ Elizabeth Elliott

“We need a baptism of clear seeing. We desperately need seers who can see through the mist–Christian leaders with prophetic vision. Unless they come soon it will be too late for this generation. And if they do come we will no doubt crucify a few of them in the name of our worldly orthodoxy”. ~ A.W. Tozer

“People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. ~ John C. Maxwell

“Where there is no vision, there is no hope”. ~ George Washington Carver

“The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision. ~ Helen Keller”

“And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions”. ~ Joel 2:28

“Solemnized by the knowledge of the deep need and inspired by the vision of all things made new by the mighty Christ, resolve to give yourselves to encouraging a spiritual awakening”. ~ John R. Mott

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand”. ~ Woodrow Wilson

"No one is less ready for tomorrow than the person who holds the most rigid beliefs about what tomorrow will contain." — Watts Wacker, Jim Taylor and Howard Means

“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.”

— Seneca

“A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.” — Ralph Lauren

“A leader's role is to raise people's aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there.” — David Gergen

"The empires of the future are empires of the mind." — Winston Churchill

“Reflection is looking in so you can look out with a broader, bigger, and more accurate perspective.” — Mick Ukleja and Robert Lorber

"Big thinking precedes great achievement." — Wilferd Peterson

"Dissatisfaction and discouragement are not caused by the absence of things but the absence of vision." — Anonymous

"The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious." — John Scully

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours."

— Henry David Thoreau

"Don't underestimate the power of a vision. McDonald's founder, Ray Kroc, pictured his empire long before it existed, and he saw how to get there. He invented the company motto — 'Quality, service, cleanliness and value' — and kept repeating it to employees for the rest of his life." — Kenneth Labich

"If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise." — Robert Fritz

"The very essence of leadership is [that] you have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet."

— Theodore Hesburgh

“Create your future from your future, not your past.” — Werner Erhard

“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Looking up gives light, although at first it makes you dizzy.” — Mevlana Rumi

“No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities – always see them, for they're always there.” — Norman Vincent Peale

“Nothing stops an organization faster than people who believe that the way you worked yesterday is the best way to work tomorrow.” — Jon Madonna

“You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

— Mark Twain

“Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.” — Mark Twain

“A philosophy of life: I'm an adventurer, looking for treasure.” — Paulo Coelho

“All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, but of choice. Not something to wish for, but to attain.” — William Jennings Bryan

“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be. Your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.”

— James Allen

"The companies that survive longest are the one's that work out what they uniquely can give to the world—not just growth or money but their excellence, their respect for others, or their ability to make people happy. Some call those things a soul." — Charles Handy

"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 their dream with open eyes to make it possible."

— T.E. Lawrence

"Vision is the art of seeing the invisible." — Jonathan Swift

“It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it.”

— Sören Kierkegaard

“Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. ‘Give me a place to stand,’ said Archimedes, ‘and I will move the world.’ These men moved the world, and so can we all.” — Robert F. Kennedy

“To grasp and hold a vision, that is the very essence of successful leadership—not only on the movie set where I learned it, but everywhere.” — Ronald Reagan

“I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can't find anybody who can tell me what they want.” — Mark Twain

"You've got to think about big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction." — Alvin Toffler

"The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious."

— John Sculley

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." — Warren Bennis

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise."

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Where you come from is not nearly as important as where you are going." — Unknown

"To be a successful entrepreneur one needs a vision of greatness for one's work. If we dream extravagantly we will be inspired to forge a reality beyond the straight jacket of practicalities. There is a profound connection between art and enterprise which allows businesses to overcome the limitations of their existing visions." — Sir Ernest Hall

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." — Michelangelo

"If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes." — Andrew Carnegie

"If you are bored with life, if you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things—you don't have enough goals." — Lou Holtz

"The future belongs to people who see possibilities before they become obvious."

— Ted Levitt

"Where you come from is not nearly as important as where you are going." — Unknown

"You want to set a goal that is big enough that in the process of achieving it you become someone worth becoming." — Jim Rohn

"Where there is no vision the people perish." — Proverbs 29:18

"We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present." — Adlai E. Stevenson

"Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done." — Harriet Beecher Stowe

"When you have vision it affects your attitude. Your attitude is optimistic rather than pessimistic." — Charles R. Swindoll

"The paradox of the prophet: his very success is his failure. The prophet whose time has come no longer shocks; he entertains." — Peter Drucker

"A man's life is colored by the dye of his imagination." — Louis Nizer

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then we shall find the way."— Abraham Lincoln

"Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you can imagine it."— George Lucas

"Peak performers want more than merely to win the next game. They see all the way to the championship. They have a long-range goal that inspires commitment and action."

— Charles Garfield

"The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never scoring." — Bill Copeland

"Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one’s levels of aspiration and expectation." — Jack Nicklaus

"Celebrate what you’ve accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed." — Mia Hamm

"In the long run men hit only what they aim at." — Henry David Thoreau

"So many of our dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable."— Christopher Reeve

"In order to be a realist you must believe in miracles." — David Ben-Gurion

"There is no more powerful engine driving an organization toward excellence and long-range success than an attractive, worthwhile, achievable vision for the future, widely shared." — Burt Nanus, Visionary Leadership

"The only way to predict the future is to have the power to shape it." — Eric Hofer

“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” -Father Theodore Hesburgh

"Vision without execution is hallucination.” — Thomas Edison

"If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." Antoine de Saint-E

“Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.” — Vaclav Havel

“Create your future from your future, not your past.” — Werner Erhard

“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt