quotes about thesis done

101 Inspirational Quotes for Thesis: Finding the Words

In this article, we’ve compiled a list of inspirational quotes to help you stay motivated and inspired as you work on your thesis. From words of encouragement to motivational reminders, these quotes are perfect for inspiring you to stay focused, positive, and productive throughout the writing process. So, if you’re looking for some inspiration to help you write your thesis or know someone who is, keep reading for 101 uplifting quotes that will inspire and empower you to achieve your academic goals.

101 Inspirational Quotes for Thesis

1. “In the pursuit of knowledge, one finds the courage to redefine possibilities.”

2. “A thesis is not just a conclusion; it’s a journey of self-discovery and growth.”

3. “Through the lens of perseverance, the thesis unveils its true brilliance.”

4. “Doubt not your abilities, for within a thesis lies the power to transform minds.”

5. “In the face of challenges, a thesis becomes a testament to unwavering determination.”

6. “The thesis is the symphony of ideas, harmonizing the rhythm of academia.”

7. “To write a thesis is to sow seeds of wisdom, nurturing the fields of innovation.”

8. “Amidst the darkest doubts, the thesis illuminates the path to enlightenment.”

9. “In the pursuit of truth, a thesis unveils the beauty of intellectual honesty.”

10. “A thesis is the manifestation of dreams woven into scholarly reality.”

11. “The thesis is the mirror reflecting the researcher’s soul.”

12. “Within the labyrinth of knowledge, the thesis becomes the guiding star.”

13. “Like a phoenix rising, the thesis transforms the ashes of uncertainty into knowledge.”

14. “A thesis stands tall on the pillars of curiosity and resilience.”

15. “Through the valleys of research, the thesis climbs mountains of understanding.”

16. “A thesis whispers the language of change, echoing across generations.”

17. “The thesis is the bridge connecting the realm of questions to the land of answers.”

18. “A thesis is a garden where ideas bloom and bloom again.”

19. “In the face of ambiguity, the thesis paints clarity with words.”

20. “Within the binding of a thesis, dreams ascend to new heights.”

21. “The thesis is the constellation of ideas, mapping the universe of knowledge.”

22. “A thesis is the masterpiece of dedication and intellectual artistry.”

23. “Through the storm of doubt, a thesis emerges as a beacon of certainty.”

24. “Within the crucible of research, the thesis forges diamonds of understanding.”

25. “A thesis is the whisper of knowledge, shared through the corridors of time.”

26. “In the symphony of academia, the thesis is the crescendo of brilliance.”

27. “A thesis is not just an end, but a beginning of limitless possibilities.”

28. “Through the tapestry of research, the thesis weaves the fabric of progress.”

29. “The thesis is the elixir of wisdom, nurturing minds for generations to come.”

30. “A thesis is a road less traveled, where innovation finds its way.”

31. “In the garden of academia, the thesis blossoms like a rare and precious flower.”

32. “The thesis is the compass guiding explorers through the seas of knowledge.”

33. “A thesis is the echo of countless voices, shaping the future of understanding.”

34. “Through the dance of words, the thesis paints portraits of enlightenment.”

35. “The thesis is the flame that ignites the torch of wisdom in others.”

36. “A thesis stands firm, an everlasting monument to intellectual achievement.”

37. “In the silence of contemplation, the thesis speaks volumes of insight.”

38. “The thesis is the heartbeat of curiosity, pulsing with the rhythm of discovery.”

39. “A thesis is the symphony of thoughts, composed with the pen of wisdom.”

40. “Through the tunnel of research, the thesis emerges into the light of knowledge.”

41. “The thesis is the lighthouse that guides scholars through uncharted waters.”

42. “A thesis is the constellation of ideas, illuminating the sky of academia.”

43. “In the realm of academia, the thesis reigns as the king of enlightenment.”

44. “The thesis is the gateway to new worlds, unlocked by the key of knowledge.”

45. “A thesis is the river that flows through the valleys of understanding.”

46. “Through the crucible of challenges, the thesis emerges as a beacon of triumph.”

47. “The thesis is the chisel that sculpts the statue of academic brilliance.”

48. “A thesis is the seed that germinates into forests of innovative ideas.”

49. “In the tapestry of research, the thesis weaves the threads of brilliance.”

50. “The thesis is the orchestra, harmonizing the melody of knowledge.”

51. “A thesis is the compass, guiding explorers through the uncharted territory of knowledge.”

52. “Through the dance of ideas, the thesis orchestrates the symphony of enlightenment.”

53. “The thesis is the beacon of light, leading others out of the darkness of ignorance.”

54. “A thesis is the catalyst that sparks the wildfire of curiosity.”

55. “In the garden of academia, the thesis blooms like a rare and exquisite flower.”

56. “The thesis is the constellation of insights, mapping the vast universe of knowledge.”

57. “A thesis is not just an end, but the beginning of a journey into unexplored realms.”

58. “Through the labyrinth of research, the thesis finds the hidden treasure of wisdom.”

59. “The thesis is the heartbeat of scholarly pursuit, pulsing with the rhythm of progress.”

60. “A thesis is the mirror reflecting the soul of the researcher, forever imprinted in ink.”

61. “In the symphony of ideas, the thesis is the crescendo of brilliance.”

62. “The thesis is the bridge that connects the realm of questions to the land of answers.”

63. “A thesis is the seed that sprouts into forests of innovation and progress.”

64. “Through the storm of doubt, the thesis emerges as a beacon of certainty.”

65. “The thesis is the symphony of thoughts, composed with the pen of wisdom.”

66. “A thesis is the whisper of knowledge, shared across generations.”

67. “In the dance of words, the thesis paints portraits of enlightenment.”

68. “The thesis is the compass that guides explorers through the uncharted seas of knowledge.”

69. “A thesis is the lighthouse that shines light on the path of understanding.”

70. “Through the crucible of challenges, the thesis emerges as a beacon of triumph.”

71. “The thesis is the chisel that sculpts the statue of academic brilliance.”

72. “A thesis is the seed that germinates into forests of innovative ideas.”

73. “In the tapestry of research, the thesis weaves the threads of brilliance.”

74. “The thesis is the orchestra, harmonizing the melody of knowledge.”

75. “A thesis is the compass, guiding explorers through the uncharted territory of knowledge.”

76. “Through the dance of ideas, the thesis orchestrates the symphony of enlightenment.”

77. “The thesis is the beacon of light, leading others out of the darkness of ignorance.”

78. “A thesis is the catalyst that sparks the wildfire of curiosity.”

79. “In the garden of academia, the thesis blooms like a rare and exquisite flower.”

80. “The thesis is the constellation of insights, mapping the vast universe of knowledge.”

81. “A thesis is not just an end, but the beginning of a journey into unexplored realms.”

82. “Through the labyrinth of research, the thesis finds the hidden treasure of wisdom.”

83. “The thesis is the heartbeat of scholarly pursuit, pulsing with the rhythm of progress.”

84. “A thesis is the mirror reflecting the soul of the researcher, forever imprinted in ink.”

85. “In the symphony of ideas, the thesis is the crescendo of brilliance.”

86. “The thesis is the bridge that connects the realm of questions to the land of answers.”

87. “A thesis is the seed that sprouts into forests of innovation and progress.”

88. “Through the storm of doubt, the thesis emerges as a beacon of certainty.”

89. “The thesis is the symphony of thoughts, composed with the pen of wisdom.”

90. “A thesis is the whisper of knowledge, shared across generations.”

91. “In the dance of words, the thesis paints portraits of enlightenment.”

92. “The thesis is the compass that guides explorers through the uncharted seas of knowledge.”

93. “A thesis is the lighthouse that shines light on the path of understanding.”

94. “Through the crucible of challenges, the thesis emerges as a beacon of triumph.”

95. “The thesis is the chisel that sculpts the statue of academic brilliance.”

96. “A thesis is the seed that germinates into forests of innovative ideas.”

97. “In the tapestry of research, the thesis weaves the threads of brilliance.”

98. “The thesis is the orchestra, harmonizing the melody of knowledge.”

99. “A thesis is the compass, guiding explorers through the uncharted territory of knowledge.”

100. “Through the dance of ideas, the thesis orchestrates the symphony of enlightenment.”

101. “The thesis is the beacon of light, leading others out of the darkness of ignorance.”

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Market Research

17 research quotes to inspire and amuse you

Being a researcher requires dedication, hard work and more than a little inspiration. Here’s something to boost the last item on that list.

We’ve sourced some of the most interesting and thought-provoking research quotes we can find. We hope they’ll leave you feeling inspired and motivated to start – or complete – your best ever research project.

As these quotes show, research is a common thread running through all kinds of professions and pursuits, from Ancient Rome right up to the present day. If you practice research, you’re part of a long list of people throughout history, all dedicated to finding new knowledge and ideas that ultimately make the world a better place.

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1. “No research without action, no action without research”

- Kurt Lewin

Lewin (1890-1947) was a German-American social psychologist. He’s known for his theory that human behavior is a function of our psychological environment.

2. “Research is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.”

- Albert Szent-Györgyi 

Szent-Györgyi (1893-1986)  was a Hungarian pharmacologist known for his work on vitamins and oxidation. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937.

3. "Bad news sells papers. It also sells market research."

- Byron Sharp 

Sharp is Professor of Marketing Science and Director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, the world’s largest centre for research into marketing.

4. "In fact, the world needs more nerds."

- Ben Bernanke

Bernanke is an American economist and former chair of the board of governors at the United Stares Federal Reserve.

5. "Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."

- Wernher von Braun

Von Braun (1912-1977) was a German-American physicist and rocket engineer whose team launched the first US satellite into space.

6. "Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."

- Zora Neale Hurston

Hurston (1891-1960) was an American anthropologist and writer known for her research and writing on slavery, race, folklore and the African-American experience.

7. "Research is creating new knowledge."

- Neil Armstrong

Armstrong (1930-2012) was an American astronaut famed for being the first man to walk on the Moon.

8. "I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts."

- Bill Gates

Gates needs little introduction – he’s an entrepreneur, philanthropist and the founder of Microsoft.

9. “The best research you can do is talk to people”

- Terry Pratchett

Pratchett is an award-winning British science fiction and fantasy author. He was knighted in 2009. He is known for The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the Discworld series.

10. “Research means that you don’t know, but are willing to find out”

- Charles F. Kettering

Kettering (1876-1958) was an American engineer, known for inventing the electric starter used in combustion engines, as well as other automobile technologies.

11. “Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.”

- Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius (121-180) was a Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher.

12. “It is a good thing for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast.“

- Konrad Lorenz

Lorenz (1903-1989) was an Austrian biologist known for his game-changing research on animal behavior. He was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973.

13. “Research is something that everyone can do, and everyone ought to do. It is simply collecting information and thinking systematically about it.”

- Raewyn Connell

Connell is an Australian sociologist. She is a former professor of at the University of Sydney and is known for her work on gender and transgender studies.

14. “As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.”

- Antoine de Saint Exupery

De Saint Exupery (1900-1944) was a French aviator, author and poet, best known for his story The Little Prince, one of the best-selling books of all time.

15. “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”

- Arthur Conan Doyle (writing as Sherlock Holmes)

Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a British crime writer and creator of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, master of deduction.

16. “If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

- Albert Einstein

Maybe the most famous scientist of all time, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was a German physicist who came up with the theory of relativity. However, it was his description of the photoelectric effect, the interplay between light and electrically charged atoms, that won him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.

17. “The power of statistics and the clean lines of quantitative research appealed to me, but I fell in love with the richness and depth of qualitative research.”

- Brené Brown

Brown is a researcher and storyteller studying courage, shame, empathy and vulnerability. She is a best-selling author and inspirational speaker. She is a research professor at the University of Houston.

Sarah Fisher

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Thesis Quotes: Inspiring Words for Research Journey

Embarking on a research journey can be both exciting and challenging. As you delve into the depths of your thesis, it’s important to stay motivated and focused. One powerful way to ignite your passion and overcome obstacles is through the use of inspiring thesis quotes.

As you embark on this academic adventure, you may find yourself immersed in a sea of information, striving to present your findings in a compelling and authoritative manner. In an era dominated by digital media, the printed thesis still holds its charm—a tangible manifestation of your hard work and dedication. But how can you make your thesis truly remarkable?

Enter thesis quotes—the transformative words that lend depth, credibility, and inspiration to your scholarly work. In this article, we’ll explore the power of thesis quotes and how they can elevate your research to new heights.

From finding the perfect quotes to seamlessly incorporating them into your writing, we’ll delve into the art of using quotes effectively in academic writing.

Understanding the Role of Thesis Quotes

At their core, thesis quotes serve as building blocks for your arguments and findings. They provide evidence, support claims, and offer diverse perspectives to enrich your research. By incorporating carefully selected quotes, you can bolster the validity of your work, engage readers, and add a touch of eloquence to your prose.

There are various types of thesis quotes that can be employed strategically. Inspirational quotes, for example, can motivate and invigorate both the writer and the reader. Authoritative quotes from renowned scholars lend credibility and support to your claims. Statistical quotes, on the other hand, offer numerical evidence to reinforce your arguments. Additionally, anecdotal quotes can bring personal experiences and narratives to light, resonating with your audience on a deeper level.

To illustrate the power of thesis quotes, let’s explore a few examples:

“Research is to see what everybody else has seen and to think what nobody else has thought.” – Albert Szent-Györgyi “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.” – Stephen Hawking “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny…'” – Isaac Asimov “A successful thesis requires originality, clarity, and a judicious use of quotes.” – Dr. Jane Anderson “Writing a thesis is a journey of self-discovery, where words become your guideposts.” – John Smith

Read: 40+ Funny Master Oogway Quotes to Make You Laugh

Finding the Perfect Thesis Quotes

Now that we understand the importance of thesis quotes, the next step is to find the perfect ones that align with your research objectives. Here are some practical tips to help you on your quest:

• Identify relevant sources: Look for quotes in scholarly articles, books, reputable websites, and interviews related to your field of study. Academic databases such as JSTOR, Google Scholar, and PubMed can be valuable resources.
• Evaluate credibility: When selecting quotes, ensure they come from reputable sources. Consider the author’s expertise, credentials, and the context in which the quote was made. Opt for quotes from established scholars or experts in your field.
• Seek diversity: Aim for a balance of perspectives in your quotes. Include quotes that align with your thesis and those that present contrasting views. This demonstrates your ability to engage with different ideas and strengthens the overall quality of your research.
• Document and organize: As you gather quotes, maintain a systematic approach to organization. Create a dedicated folder or document to store your quotes, including the necessary citation details for proper referencing later.
• Use keyword search: To find quotes specifically related to your research topic, incorporate relevant keywords into your search queries. This can help you discover quotes that directly support your arguments or offer valuable insights.

Incorporating Thesis Quotes into Your Writing

Integrating thesis quotes into your writing is an art that requires finesse and strategic thinking. Follow these guidelines to seamlessly weave quotes into your work:

• Introduce the quote: Before presenting a quote, provide context and introduce it in a way that aligns with your argument. Use transitional phrases such as “According to,” “As stated by,” or “In the words of” to smoothly transition into the quote.
• Embed quotes organically: Avoid dropping quotes abruptly into your writing. Instead, integrate them into your sentences to maintain a natural flow. For example, you could write, “Smith (2019) argues that ‘research is a continuous process of discovery’.”
• Analyze and interpret: After presenting a quote, offer your analysis and interpretation of its significance. Explain how it supports your argument or provides a counterpoint to existing theories. This demonstrates your critical thinking and engagement with the quoted material.
• Provide proper attribution: Accurately attribute quotes to their respective authors and sources. Follow the citation style specified by your academic institution, such as APA, MLA, or Chicago Style.
• Use ellipses and brackets: If you need to omit or modify certain parts of a quote to fit your writing style or maintain clarity, use ellipses (…) to indicate omissions and square brackets [ ] for insertions or modifications.

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Let’s illustrate these techniques with a few examples:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

Example of integration: According to Winston Churchill, the renowned statesman, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” This quote highlights the perseverance required to navigate the challenges of academic research, reminding us that setbacks are an integral part of the journey.

By employing these techniques, you can seamlessly integrate quotes into your thesis, transforming it into a compelling narrative that engages and informs your readers.

Best Practices for Using Thesis Quotes

While thesis quotes can greatly enhance your research, it’s essential to follow best practices to ensure their effective use. Here are some key guidelines to keep in mind:

• Maintain balance: Strike a balance between original ideas and quoted material. Quotes should enhance and support your arguments, not overpower them. Use quotes strategically, ensuring they contribute to the overall coherence and flow of your work.
• Attribute quotes properly: Accurately cite and attribute quotes to their respective authors and sources. Failing to do so could lead to accusations of plagiarism, which can have severe consequences for your academic and professional reputation.
• Avoid over-quoting: Excessive use of quotes can dilute the originality of your work. Use quotes selectively, focusing on those that truly add value to your research and arguments. Aim for a harmonious blend of your voice and the voices of others.
• Analyze and interpret: Remember that quoting is not merely about presenting borrowed words; it’s also an opportunity to engage with the ideas and concepts behind the quotes. Offer thoughtful analysis and interpretation to showcase your understanding and critical thinking skills.
• Revise and edit: During the editing process, carefully review the placement and relevance of quotes. Ensure they align with your thesis objectives and contribute to the overall coherence of your work. Make sure each quote serves a purpose and adds value to your research.

By following these best practices, you can effectively leverage thesis quotes to elevate the quality and impact of your research.

Inspiring Thesis Quotes from Notable Scholars

To inspire and motivate you on your research journey, let’s explore a collection of insightful thesis quotes from notable scholars:

“The only source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein “Research is creating new knowledge.” – Neil Armstrong “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” – Thomas Edison “Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind.” – Marston Bates

Each of these quotes reflects the profound wisdom and guidance that can be gleaned from the experiences of accomplished individuals. Let their words fuel your determination and illuminate your path toward academic excellence.

In the realm of academic writing, thesis quotes serve as powerful tools that breathe life and authenticity into your research. They provide a framework of wisdom, inspiration, and evidence to support your ideas and findings. By strategically selecting and seamlessly incorporating quotes, you can elevate the quality and impact of your thesis.

As you embark on your research journey, remember to find quotes that align with your objectives, properly attribute them, and analyze their significance. Use transitional phrases and techniques to integrate quotes organically into your writing, ensuring a smooth and engaging reading experience. By adhering to best practices and finding the right balance between originality and borrowed wisdom, you can create a thesis that resonates with readers and stands the test of time.

So, embrace the power of thesis quotes as you embark on your research odyssey. Let them be your guiding stars, illuminating your path and adding depth to your scholarly work. Remember, a well-placed quote has the potential to inspire, persuade, and transform—making your thesis a masterpiece that leaves a lasting impression.

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Dissertation Quotes

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I once asked a young dissertation writer whether her suddenly grayed hair was due to ill health or personal tragedy; she answered: “It was the footnotes”.

The first point was we wanted power to determine our own destiny in our own black community. And what we had done is, we wanted to write a program that was straightforward to the people. We didn't want to give a long dissertation.

I am so fond of tea that I could write a whole dissertation on its virtues. It comforts and enlivens without the risks attendant on spirituous liquors. Gentle herb! Let the florid grape yield to thee. Thy soft influence is a more safe inspirer of social joy.

My early work and publications centered around expanding on the analysis of life insurance in my dissertation and its relationship to investment banking.

An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say 'Gentlemen' to the person with whom he is conversing.

The true source of our sufferings has been our timidity.

Yo! You’re my dope dealer not my thesis adviser. If I wanted your opinion about my dissertation, I’d have asked for it, Motherfucker!

The rites of passage in the academic world are arcane and, in their own way, highly romantic, and the tensions and unplesantries of dissertations and final oral examinations are quickly forgotten in the wonderful moment of the sherry afterward, admission into a very old club, parties of celebration, doctoral gowns, academic rituals, and hearing for the first time "Dr.," rather than "Miss" Jamison.

If you don't have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won't have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth.

I hate set dissertations,--and above all things in the world, 'tis one of the silliest things in one of them, to darken your hypothesis by placing a number of tall, opake words, one before another, in a right line, betwixt your own and your readers conception.

And if something should be found, particularly in the first part of the dissertation, that one is generally not accustomed to come across in scholarly writings, the reader must forgive my jocundity, just as I, in order to lighten the burden, sometimes sing at my work.

nothing is so pleasant ... as to display your worldly wisdom in epigram and dissertation, but it is a trifle tedious to hear another person display theirs.

History is life; he who has not lived, or has lived only enough to write a doctoral dissertation, is too inexperienced with life to write good history.

In poetry, and in my study in graduate school, I was drawn to a particular poet, Theodore Roethke. I did a dissertation on "The Evolution of Matter and Spirit in the Poetry of Theodore Roethke" for my Ph.D.

Dissertations are not finished; they are abandoned.

My father would conclude his dissertations by saying, "Of course, [Albert] Einstein never believed in gravity. It was a distortion of space." And so my father couldn't believe that an attraction at a distance was a reality.

For the individual, as I can testify, a brief grounding in semantics, besides making philosophy unreadable, makes unreadable most political speeches, classical economic theory, after-dinner oratory, diplomatic notes, newspaper editorials, treatises on pedagogics and education, expert financial comment, dissertations on money and credit, accounts of debates, and Great Thoughts from Great Thinkers in general. You would be surprised at the amount of time this saves.

My uncommon sense told me to write this book [Turn and blossom], even though I was in the middle of making final revisions to my dissertation! Common sense would have said, finish the dissertation and get a good, solid academic position. But instead, I got to do something that no one else has done, because I don't think anyone has written a book quite like this one. And look at how beautiful it is!

History shows us a lot of things. It shows why the Lord's Prayer includes the supplication: "And lead us not into temptation." In my day, dissertations were still written by hand, or drummed out with a typewriter. In the past, you had to round up the literature, find the books and find the passages. Nowadays you click on Wikipedia or Google and you have everything you need. This probably makes it more difficult to resist temptation.

Not everybody is talented for doing research. I think many women prefer to look for an easier job after their dissertations because it is very demanding. You have to be mobile. You have to move to different places for your post-doc training. And if you aren't successful, it isn't a very pleasant job, either.

Second, they [those who disagree with market efficiency] always claim they know a man, a bank, or a fund that does do better. Alas, anecdotes are not science. And once Wharton School dissertations seek to quantify the performers, these have a tendency to evaporate into the air - or, at least, into statistically insignificant t-statistics.

Your tweet is as important as if you would have written a Ph.D. [dissertation] on the subject.

Over the past decade I have watched many friends go through graduate school and write dissertations. Through that process, I have seen how they are guided by mentors to understand particular norms within their disciplines and to learn about what they can and cannot, should and should not say, and which ideas can go together and which cannot. I never went through this process.

As president of the American Historical Association, I started a programme to make dissertations into e-books in 1999. Before I knew it, I was involved in other electronic projects. Harvard invited me to become director of the libraries in 2007.

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50 Research Quotes To Inspire The Academic In You

Research is the process of collecting data, saving critical information, then analyzing and interpreting the data.

There are three types of research: exploratory, casual, and descriptive. Each of them is used for a different purpose and in a certain way.

Research is important in all fields of work. For example, clinical research is what permits doctors to determine the way to treat patients best.

It is what makes the event of the latest medicines, new procedures, and new tools doable. If it weren't for clinical analysis, we wouldn't be ready to decide if new treatments are more efficient than the current treatments.

Here on our page, you can find 50 inspiring and funny quotes about research. Let's take a look at these quotes. If you like these quotes, do also read our physics quotes and classic literature quotes .  

Deep Quotes About Research

Here are some famous research quotes in all their glory.

1. "No research without action, no action without research."

- Kurt Lewin.

2. "Research has formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."

- Zora Neale Hurston .

3. "I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research, and you learn the basic facts."

- Bill Gates.

4. "Research means that you don’t know, but are willing to find out."

- Charles F. Kettering.

5. "It is a good thing for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast."

- Konrad Lorenz .

6. "You'd be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever."

- Ernest Cline.

7. "Highly organized research is guaranteed to produce nothing new."

- Frank Herbert.

8. "With a library, it is easier to hope for serendipity than to look for a precise answer."

- Lemony Snicket.

9. "The measure of greatness in a scientific idea is the extent to which it stimulates thought and opens up new lines of research."

- Paul Dirac.

10. "What we find changes who we become."

- Peter Morville.

Select Quotes About Scientific Research

Here are some scientific research quotes (Einstein said a few as well) for our readers.

11. "Research is to see what everybody else has seen and to think what nobody else has thought."

- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi.

12. "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"

- Albert Einstein.

13. "The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them."

- William Lawrence Bragg.

14. "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

15. "The more thoroughly I conduct scientific research, the more I believe that science excludes atheism."

- Lord Kelvin.

16. "Scientific research is one of the most exciting and rewarding of occupations."

- Frederick Sanger.

17. "If we choose to ignore science and refuse to fund important scientific research, we voluntarily cede our place as a world leader in innovation."

- Bill Foster.

18. "We need to have much clearer regulations on things like corporate funding of scientific research. Things need to be made explicit which are implicit."

- Noreena Hertz.

19. "I think, however, that so long as our present economic and national systems continue, scientific research has little to fear."

- John B. S. Haldane.

20. "We need to celebrate and reward people who cure diseases, expand our understanding of humanity, and work to improve people's lives."

- Mark Zuckerberg.

In-Depth Market Research Quotes

Here are some business research quotes - inspirational to many. You'll also find market research quotes that could help your business assess the market.

21. "Without data, you're just another person with an opinion."

- W. Edwards Deming.

22. "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well, the product or service sells itself."

- Peter Drucker.

23. "Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed."

- Dan Zarrella.

24. "When research walks on the field, the judgment does not walk off."

- Dick Kampe.

25. "If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday."

- Pearl Buck.

26. "Understanding human needs is half the job of meeting them."

- Adlai E Jr Stevenson.

Funny Quotes About Research

Enjoy these funny quotes that will tickle your funny bone.

27. "What is research but a blind date with knowledge?"

- Will Harvey.

28. "Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."

- Werner von Braun.

Scholars Quotes About Academia

Here is some research academic quote for our readers.

29. "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go."

- Dr. Seuss.

30. "Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."

- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

31. "In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand."

- Neil Armstrong.

32. "What is the matter with universities is that the students are school children, whereas it is of the very essence of university education that they should be adults."

- George Bernard Shaw.

33. "That afternoon, I came to understand that one of the deepest purposes of intellectual sophistication is to provide distance between us and our most disturbing personal truths and gnawing fears."

- Richard Russo.

34. "What I learned on my own I still remember."

- Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

35. "There are times when wisdom cannot be found in the chambers of parliament or the halls of academia but at the unpretentious setting of the kitchen table."

- E.A. Bucchianeri.

36. "We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."

- J.K. Rowling.

37. "If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place."

- Nora Roberts.

38. " Trust the process and it will bring out the hidden subject as the results.

- David Harris.

Medical Research Quotes

Here are some science research quotes and cancer research quotes. There are also a few stem cell research quotes.

39. "Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history."

- Carl Sagan.

40. "America's doctors, nurses, and medical researchers are the best in the world, but our health care system is broken."

- Mike Ferguson.

41. "Prior to penicillin and medical research, death was an everyday occurrence. It was intimate."

- Katherine Dunn.

42. "Stem cell research can revolutionize medicine, more than anything since antibiotics."

- Ron Reagan.

43. "Medical research in the twentieth century mostly takes place in the lab; in the Renaissance, though, researchers went first and foremost to the library to see what the ancients had said."

- Peter Lewis Allen.

44. "It is certainly important to be looking for cures to medical disorders, but it is equally important to conduct research on human health and well-being."

- Stephen LaBerge.

45. "A wise physician skilled our wounds to heal, is more than armies to the public weal."

- Alexander Pope.

46. "It is false to suggest that medical breakthroughs come only through government research."

- Roger Wicker.

47. "The realities are that it's difficult to find funding for research for a medical cure. I believe in developing technology as opposed to medical research."

- Steve Gleason.

48. "A doctor is a man who writes prescriptions till the patient either dies or is cured by nature."

- William Broome.

49. "A fool will not only pay for a 'cure' that does him no good but will write a testimonial to the effect that he was cured."

- E. W. Howe.

50. "I decided to take two years between finishing undergraduate and beginning medical school to devote fully to medical research. I knew that I wanted to go to medical school during undergraduate, but I was also eager to get a significant amount of research experience."

- Eva Vertes.

Here at Kidadl , we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for research quotes, then why not take a look at funny science quotes , or poetry quotes .

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More for you, 32 thought-provoking please quotes, 53 interesting feedback quotes, 32+ uplifting mission quotes to lift your spirits.

Writvik Gupta

A professional content writer hailing from Kolkata, India, with extensive experience in the corporate sector, Writvik Gupta has worked with several reputed companies, including ITC WelcomHotel Jodhpur, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, Aryan Imaging, and Eduquity. He also serves as a consultant for a startup based in Bangalore. With a passion for the outdoors, Writvik enjoys trekking and traveling to remote destinations. He also has a keen interest in exploring various cuisines and regularly volunteers for social causes.

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Top 20 motivational quotes for PhD students

Everyone needs some extra motivation from time to time. PhD students are no exception. Here is a list of the 20 best motivational quotes for PhD students.

1. You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.

2. we are what we repeatedly do. excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit., 3. do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway., 4. if you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive., 5. act as if what you do makes a difference. it does..

You may also like: The 20 best motivational quotes for academic success

6. Everything is hard before it is easy.

7. our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall..

– Confucius

8. If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.

9. i never lose. either i win or learn., 10. life is a balance between holding on and letting go., 11. remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. try approving of yourself and see what happens., 12. we must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us..

– Joseph Campbell

13. The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.

14. failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure., 15. if you don’t write, nothing will change., 16. action is the foundational key to all success..

– Pablo Picasso

17. If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.

18. done is better than perfect., 19. believe you can and you’re halfway there., 20. to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment., master academia, get new content delivered directly to your inbox, funding sources for phd studies in europe, character traits of 'bad' phd students, related articles, how to strategically prepare for a phd application, establishing an all-round academic profile, the best answers to “what are your plans after graduation”, 10 valid reasons to apply for a scholarship.

• Career Advice

8 Motivational Tips for Dissertation Writing

By  Elisa Modolo

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Writing a dissertation is a grueling process that does not just require academic prowess, an excellent writing style and mastery of a very specific area of knowledge. It also demands discipline (in setting a writing schedule), perseverance (in keeping that schedule) and motivation (to get the writing done and the project completed).

The beginning of the academic year, with its array of looming deadlines, administrative procedures and mandatory adviser/graduate students/department meetings, can make it difficult to find motivation and hold on to it. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its utter disruption of normal operations, exacerbates this problem even further.

So, if you need additional motivation in these trying times, maybe a practice I followed when writing my own dissertation can help. I call it Motivational Post-it: a series of brief slogans to write on Post-it notes and put all over your desk or workstation, so you can see them every time you sit down to work. Here are some of mine.

Start with one (line/page). The idea of writing what may amount to hundreds of pages can feel disheartening, especially if you just started your project. So, if you find yourself staring at a white page while the white page stares back at you, don't think about the arduous work ahead. Focus on the present rather than the future. Start with one line or page. One is better than zero, and the lines, as well as pages, will accumulate over time if you keep it going regularly. Breaking down the work in more manageable chunks will get you writing and help you push through your writer's block.

Obsessing is not progressing. This is for all the perfectionists out there. I know it is not realistic to just stop obsessing on each line/quote/passage if you have done it for years and that is precisely what makes you great in an academic environment. Been there, done that! Thus, I propose what I call a “timed obsession”: leave a brief period -- such as three days -- out of the allotted time to obsess over the details of a specific chapter or phase of the project. Then, whether that chapter/project is now up to your standards or not, after your timed obsession, you let it go . You send it in as it is.

Finished is better than perfect. This is again along the lines of perfectionism, but it applies more broadly to the dissertation in its entirety rather than to the single chapters. Your dissertation is not (yet) an academic book. It has to pass the scrutiny of your dissertation committee -- not be published by a prestigious academic publishing house. Even if you wish to publish it in the future, that is not your goal right now.

Remember: the perfect dissertation does not exist, and a good dissertation is a finished or written dissertation. Prioritize writing all the chapters or completing all the experiments or sets of data rather than spending precious time refining small details in already written chapters.

Interruptions happen. When creating your writing schedule, try to plan with reasonable expectations on the amount and quality of your writing. That means you will need to accommodate the fact that some days you will exceed your writing goals, and some days you will not reach them, so your schedule will have to be adjusted accordingly.

Remember also to account for interruptions: it is normal and human to feel physically exhausted and/or emotionally drained in the middle of the daily emergency that is COVID-19. Recognize that such times will come and that you need a writing schedule flexible enough to allow you to get back on track without feeling overwhelmed.

Work backward. Write your introduction at the end. The intro to your entire dissertation? After you have written all the chapters, so you know precisely where you are going and which considerations to highlight. The intro to each single chapter? Again, after you have conducted your analysis, so you know which points you want your readers to concentrate on. In this way, you will create a more compelling text and avoid losing writing time at the very beginning that should be dedicated to the meat of your argument. (Note: This approach may not apply to those dissertations that acquire a linear approach.)

The most you can do is your best. Give it your best shot. Still feeling like your argument could have been more convincing or better framed? You did what you could, so you are at peace with your conscience. You cannot do more than your best.

Celebrate your accomplishments. Celebrate your achievements to feed your motivation. You sent your chapter in? Take one day to destress -- possibly with some pampering -- and celebrate this milestone. You reached your writing goals for today? Buy yourself a treat and/or your favorite latte and take a walk outside.

You may be tempted to capitalize on the adrenaline rush of completion or on being in the working/productive mind-set and try to tackle the next topic, but that is a recipe for burnout in the long run. Recognizing that you are progressing and getting closer to your main goal provides immediate reward and helps you envision your objective of completing a dissertation as feasible and attainable.

Why do you like it? If you got midway through your dissertation and are now feeling stuck, try focusing on the part of your project that you enjoy the most. That might be the close analysis of a particularly poignant passage or the application of a specific theory, method or approach to your data. If possible, see if you can start writing the chapter you are stuck on not from the beginning but from the portion that speaks to you the most.

Ask yourself: Which part of this study am I most looking forward to writing/dealing with? Then go there. The rest, the connective tissue between sections, will come. The goal is to get you going.

It can also be useful to just look at the beginning of your journey: Why did you choose this project? Focus on the reasons that got you interested in it in the first place. Remember the enthusiasm you felt when you started? The eagerness to jump right in? Tap in to that to motivate you to bring your project to the finish line.

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Motivational Quotes to Help Fuel your Writing

19th June 2018

There’s no doubt about it, writing can be hard. Often we just need a little extra motivation to jump start our creativity or give us a push to help get us over the latest hurdle. Sometimes that can come in the form of rereading our favorite book, watching our favorite inspirational movie, or brainstorming with friends. Did you know we can also help? Our dissertation coaches work one-on-one with clients to provide dissertation consulting that helps identify impasses, develop work plans, and short-term and long-term goals. Our editing services also provide critical feedback to help you further develop your thesis or dissertation, as well as assist you in figuring out what’s working, what’s not, and where to go next. Here are some quotes to help inspire you to keep writing. Copy your favorite onto a sticky note and tack it up over your work desk, or put it on your laptop for some extra inspiration when things get tough. “Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.” – Ernest Hemingway “To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.” – Herman Melville “All good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” – Anne Lamott “Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer.” – Ray Bradbury “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or tools) to write. Simple as that.” – Stephen King “Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.” – William Faulkner “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne “This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after the other until it’s done. It’s that easy, and that hard.” – Neil Gaiman “I hate writing, I love having written.” – Dorothy Parker “You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” – Octavia Butler “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” – Louis L’Amour What are your favorite inspirational quotes? If you’re stuck and need some direction, contact us today! We have dissertation coaches who provide one-on-one coaching and guidance to help you push through that impasse and develop a work plan. If you’re stuck in a rut with editing , we can help with that, too! Our team of experienced editors can look at your project with fresh eyes and provide critical feedback on your writing to help you make it even better.  

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How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement: 4 Steps + Examples

What’s Covered:

What is the purpose of a thesis statement, writing a good thesis statement: 4 steps, common pitfalls to avoid, where to get your essay edited for free.

When you set out to write an essay, there has to be some kind of point to it, right? Otherwise, your essay would just be a big jumble of word salad that makes absolutely no sense. An essay needs a central point that ties into everything else. That main point is called a thesis statement, and it’s the core of any essay or research paper.

You may hear about Master degree candidates writing a thesis, and that is an entire paper–not to be confused with the thesis statement, which is typically one sentence that contains your paper’s focus. 

Read on to learn more about thesis statements and how to write them. We’ve also included some solid examples for you to reference.

Typically the last sentence of your introductory paragraph, the thesis statement serves as the roadmap for your essay. When your reader gets to the thesis statement, they should have a clear outline of your main point, as well as the information you’ll be presenting in order to either prove or support your point. 

The thesis statement should not be confused for a topic sentence , which is the first sentence of every paragraph in your essay. If you need help writing topic sentences, numerous resources are available. Topic sentences should go along with your thesis statement, though.

Since the thesis statement is the most important sentence of your entire essay or paper, it’s imperative that you get this part right. Otherwise, your paper will not have a good flow and will seem disjointed. That’s why it’s vital not to rush through developing one. It’s a methodical process with steps that you need to follow in order to create the best thesis statement possible.

Step 1: Decide what kind of paper you’re writing

When you’re assigned an essay, there are several different types you may get. Argumentative essays are designed to get the reader to agree with you on a topic. Informative or expository essays present information to the reader. Analytical essays offer up a point and then expand on it by analyzing relevant information. Thesis statements can look and sound different based on the type of paper you’re writing. For example:

• Argumentative: The United States needs a viable third political party to decrease bipartisanship, increase options, and help reduce corruption in government.
• Informative: The Libertarian party has thrown off elections before by gaining enough support in states to get on the ballot and by taking away crucial votes from candidates.
• Analytical: An analysis of past presidential elections shows that while third party votes may have been the minority, they did affect the outcome of the elections in 2020, 2016, and beyond.

Step 2: Figure out what point you want to make

Once you know what type of paper you’re writing, you then need to figure out the point you want to make with your thesis statement, and subsequently, your paper. In other words, you need to decide to answer a question about something, such as:

• What impact did reality TV have on American society?
• How has the musical Hamilton affected perception of American history?
• Why do I want to major in [chosen major here]?

If you have an argumentative essay, then you will be writing about an opinion. To make it easier, you may want to choose an opinion that you feel passionate about so that you’re writing about something that interests you. For example, if you have an interest in preserving the environment, you may want to choose a topic that relates to that. 

If you’re writing your college essay and they ask why you want to attend that school, you may want to have a main point and back it up with information, something along the lines of:

“Attending Harvard University would benefit me both academically and professionally, as it would give me a strong knowledge base upon which to build my career, develop my network, and hopefully give me an advantage in my chosen field.”

Step 3: Determine what information you’ll use to back up your point

Once you have the point you want to make, you need to figure out how you plan to back it up throughout the rest of your essay. Without this information, it will be hard to either prove or argue the main point of your thesis statement. If you decide to write about the Hamilton example, you may decide to address any falsehoods that the writer put into the musical, such as:

“The musical Hamilton, while accurate in many ways, leaves out key parts of American history, presents a nationalist view of founding fathers, and downplays the racism of the times.”

Once you’ve written your initial working thesis statement, you’ll then need to get information to back that up. For example, the musical completely leaves out Benjamin Franklin, portrays the founding fathers in a nationalist way that is too complimentary, and shows Hamilton as a staunch abolitionist despite the fact that his family likely did own slaves. 

Step 4: Revise and refine your thesis statement before you start writing

Read through your thesis statement several times before you begin to compose your full essay. You need to make sure the statement is ironclad, since it is the foundation of the entire paper. Edit it or have a peer review it for you to make sure everything makes sense and that you feel like you can truly write a paper on the topic. Once you’ve done that, you can then begin writing your paper.

When writing a thesis statement, there are some common pitfalls you should avoid so that your paper can be as solid as possible. Make sure you always edit the thesis statement before you do anything else. You also want to ensure that the thesis statement is clear and concise. Don’t make your reader hunt for your point. Finally, put your thesis statement at the end of the first paragraph and have your introduction flow toward that statement. Your reader will expect to find your statement in its traditional spot.

If you’re having trouble getting started, or need some guidance on your essay, there are tools available that can help you. CollegeVine offers a free peer essay review tool where one of your peers can read through your essay and provide you with valuable feedback. Getting essay feedback from a peer can help you wow your instructor or college admissions officer with an impactful essay that effectively illustrates your point.

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199 quotes about goal setting.

• December 1, 2014
• Posted by: Mike Rucker
• Category: Coaching Philosophy

Unstick.Me has compiled 199 famous goal setting quotes to help inspire, motivate, and encourage you. We have curated these from a large range of sources and have tried to cover as many topics within goal setting as possible. If there are goal setting quotes you feel we missed, or if you believe we have misquoted someone, please let us know in the comments section below.

1) “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always.” – Oprah Winfrey

2) “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” – Theodore Roosevelt

3) “Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies Opportunity.”” – Albert Einstein

4) “Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin

5) “There is only one success… to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it.” – Christopher Morley

6) “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” – Lou Holtz

7) “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

8) “The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.” – Andrew Carnegie

9) “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell

10) “Behind every successful man there’s a lot of unsuccessful years.” – Bob Brown

11) “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz

12) “The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.” – Napoleon Hill

13) “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

14) “Entrepreneurs don’t waste time/energy worrying about being better than someone else. Focus on being the very best version of YOU.” – Abdulaziz Aljouf

15) ” There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.” – Chinese Proverb

16) “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.” – Mark Twain

17) “If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it – teach yourself to be impatient.” – Gurbaksh Chahal

18) “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

19) “The entrepreneur is essentially a visualizer and actualizer… He can visualize something, and when he visualizes it he sees exactly how to make it happen.” – Robert L. Schwartz

20) “Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility… in the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have… is the ability to take on responsibility.” – Michael Korda

21) “No man becomes rich without himself enriching others.” – Andrew Carnegie

22) “Success belongs to those who believe in the power of their ideas.” – Michael Irwin

23) “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius

24) “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” – Pablo Picasso

25) “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – Thomas Jefferson

26) “By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own.” – Mark Victor Hansen

27) “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein

28) “None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

29) “Life isnt about learning how to weather the storm. its about learning how to dance in the rain.” – Monica Fish

30) “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” – William G.T. Shedd

31) “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” – Eric Thomas

32) “The greater 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

33) “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

34) “The starting point of great success in your life begins, in the simplest terms, when you discipline yourself to think and talk about only the things you want and refuse to think and talk about anything you don’t want.” – Brian Tracy

35) “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. “ – Winston Churchill

36) “Things come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle” – Abraham Lincoln via Tina MiModels

37) “The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

38) “The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.” – Benjamin Mays

39) “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney

40) “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” – Vince Lombardi Jr.

41) “Forget all the reasons it won’t work and believe the one reason that it will.” – Unknown

42) “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door” – Milton Berle

43) “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” – Dale Carnegie

44) “Success doesn’t mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war, not every battle.” – Edwin Bliss

45) “How you start is important, but it is how you finish that counts. In the race for success, speed is less important than stamina. The sticker outlasts the sprinter.” – B. C. Forbes

46) “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” – Randy Pausch

47) “Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction.” – Bernstein, Al

48) “There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. “ – Author unknown

49) “Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” – Calvin Coolidge

50) “A strong, successful man is not the victim of his environment. He creates favorable conditions. His own inherent force and energy compel things to turn out as he desires.” – Orison Swett Marden

51) “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

52) “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie

53) “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison

54) “There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” – Ray Goforth

55) “Vision without execution is just hallucination.” – Henry Ford

56) “Four things for success: work and pray, think and believe.” – Norman Vincent Peale

57) “Attach yourself to your passion, but not to your pain. Adversity is your best friend on the path to success.” – Author Unknown

58) “Whenever you see a successful person you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.” – Vaibhav Shah

59) “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer

60) “our success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” – Helen Keller

61) “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” – Norman Vincent Peale

62) “Every accomplishment begins with the decision to try.” – Anonymous

63) “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going” – Helen Keller

64) “The starting point of all achievement is desire.” – Napolean Hill

65) “There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” – Aldous Huxley

66) “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” – Mother Teresa

67) “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind. “ – William James

68) “If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission.” – Anonymous

69) “Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” – John Maxwell

70) “I’ve been blessed to find people who are smarter than I am, and they help me to execute the vision I have.” – Russell Simmons

71) “The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance. The wise grows it under his feet.” – James Oppenheim

72) “The road to success is always under construction” – Lily Tomlin

73) “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” – Tony Robbins

74) “When you can’t change the direction of the wind, just adjust your sails.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr

75) “Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” – Les Brown

76) “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – Tim Notke

77) “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain

78) “Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” – George Bernard Shaw

79) “The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

80) “Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.” – Winston Churchill

81) “If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut” – Albert Einstein

82) “Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” – Charles F. Kettering

83) “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.” – Dhirubhai Ambani

84) “Get going. Move forward. Aim High. Plan a takeoff. Don’t just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane. It simply won’t happen. Change your attitude and gain some altitude. Believe me, you’ll love it up here.” – Donald Trump

85) “Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire, which transcends everything. “ – Napoleon Hill

86) “So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you’ll move mountains.” – Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

87) “We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.” – Eric Hoffer

88) “Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability. We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.” – Thomas Edison

89) “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as you mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve.” – Mary Kay Ash

90) “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon

91) “Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” – George Halas

92) “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” – Jordan Belfort

93) “Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.” – Baltasa

94) “Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon… must inevitably come to pass!” – Paul J. Meyer

95) “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

96) “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

97) “Success is being able to juggle those Glass Balls called Priorities and keeping them shiny & intact while running the Marathon of Life” – Jouyin Teoh

98) “We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

99) “Nobody ever wrote down a plan to be broke, fat, lazy, or stupid. Those things are what happen when you don’t have a plan.” – Larry Winget

100) “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” – Norman Vincent Peale

101) “You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying. To the best you can do everyday.” – Jason Mraz

102) “For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now? “ – James Allen

103) “If at first you don’t succeed; you are running about average. “ – Alderson, M.H.

104) “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” – Woody Allen

105) “Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.” – Dalai Lama XIV

106) “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee

107) “The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term, is the indispensable prerequisite for success.” – Brian Tracy

108) “The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.” – Norman Vincent Peale

109) “To achieve the impossible, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.” – Tom Robbins

110) “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

111) “The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.” – John D. Rockefeller

112) “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right.” – Henry Ford

113) “The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom.” – George S. Patton Jr.

114) “Failure is not in your vocabulary; rather, you convert all working experiences, be they positive or negative, into fuel for future success. “ – Anonymous

115) “You may only succeed if you desire succeeding; you may only fail if you do not mind failing” – Philippos

116) “The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.” – Confucius

117) “If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.” – Thomas J Watson

118) “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

119) “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” – Bill Cosby

120) “Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.” – Chris Grosser

121) “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

122) “Success is about creating benefit for all and enjoying the process. If you focus on this & adopt this definition, success is yours.” – Kelly Kim

123) ” price has to be paid for success. Almost invariably those who have reached the summits worked harder and longer, studied and planned more assiduously, practiced more self-denial, overcame more difficulties than those of us who have not risen so far.” – B. C. Forbes

124) “Concentration of effort and the habit of working with a definite chief aim are two of the essential factors in success which are always found together. One leads to the other.” – Napoleon Hill

125) “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.” – Abraham Lincoln

126) “What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.” – Buddha

127) “If you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.” – Malcolm X

128) “You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. With it, there is accomplishment. Without it there are only alibis.” – Henry Ford

129) “Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.” – Orison Swett Marden

130) “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.” – Thomas Edison

131) “There are two rules to success: 1) Never tell everything you know.” – Nick Tart

132) “Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki

133) “Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them.” – Anonymous

134) “Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.” – Dr. David M. Burns

135) “Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always some one to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising to tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has it’s victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

136) “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” – Goethe

137) “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” – Robert Collier

138) “I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” – Warren Buffet

139) “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” – Maria Robinson

140) “If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” – Gandhi

141) “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world…as in being able to remake ourselves.” – Mahatma Gandhi

142) “No one is going to hand me success. I must go out & get it myself. That’s why I’m here. To dominate. To conquer. Both the world, and myself.” – Unknown

143) “Before the reward there must be labor. You plant before you harvest. You sow in tears before you reap joy. “ – Ralph Ransom

144) “The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. “ – Arthur C. Clarke

145) “The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do.” – Dennis Waitley

146) “As soon as you realize that you don’t need anyone to make it in life. That’s your first step towards success. “ – Vusi Ndlovu

147) “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” – Lyndon Johnson

148) “Persevere…because on the road to success there is never a crowd on the extra mile!” – Charity Gibson

149) “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

150) “If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.” – Woody Allen

151) “The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.” – Vince Lombardi Jr.

152) “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way” – Martin Luther King Jr.

153) “We become what we think about most of the time, and that’s the strangest secret. “ – Earl Nightingale

154) “Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.” – Malcolm Forbes

155) “The great successful men of the world have used their imagination. They think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building – steadily building.” – Robert Collier

156) “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

157) “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it…Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” – Goethe

158) “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs

159) “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” – Leonardo da Vinci

160) “A desire presupposes the possibility of action to achieve it; action presupposes a goal which is worth achieving.” – Ayn Rand

161) “The only thing that can stop you is the doubt that you carry in your mind. “ – Chae Richardson

162) “If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn

163) “All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.” – Michael John Bobak

164) “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley

165) “Success is a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.” – Robert Strauss

166) “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

167) “The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…. One step at a time.” – Rande Wilson

168) “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

169) “Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed.” – Abraham Lincoln

170) “Victory becomes, to some degree, a state of mind. Knowing ourselves superior to the anxieties, troubles, and worries which obsess us, we are superior to them.” – Basil King

171) “To make our way, we must have firm resolve, persistence, tenacity.We must gear ourselves to work hard all the way. We can never let up.” – Ralph Bunche

172) “Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.” – Dr. Joyce Brothers

173) “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote

174) “Fortune favours the brave. “ – Publius Terence

175) “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” – Swami Vivekananda

176) “God gives every bird his worm but He does not throw it into the nest” – Liam Carey

177) “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs

178) “The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.” – Mark Caine

179) “Accomplishments will prove to be a journey, not a destination.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

180) “If you think you made it, your at the wrong place, never stop” – Chris Pardo

181) “Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.” – Stephen Covey

182) “Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” – Napoleon Hill

183) “If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.” – Sir Winston Churchill

184) “Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops. The way to succeed is to double your error rate.” – Thomas J. Watson

185) “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin

186) “The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.” – Norman Vincent Peale

187) “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand

188) “Successful entrepreneurs are givers and not takers of positive energy. “ – Anonymous

189) “Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.” – William Jennings Bryan

190) “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” – Donald Trump

191) “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” – Booker T. Washington

192) “Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do. “ – John Wooden

193) “Top Achievers are improvisors, not perfectionists. If you want to create more success in your life you have to move forward not knowing all the answers. “ – Douglas Vermeeren

194) “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. “ – Theodore Roosevelt

195) “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing, it’s when you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it. “ – Margaret Thatcher

196) “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou

197) “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney Company

198) “If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.” – Thomas J. Watson

199) “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

We hope you have found these quotes on goal setting useful. Again, if you feel we have missed any, or if you believe we have misrepresented someone, please let us know in the comments section below so we can update the quote or quotes. Goal setting also has its own topic section within Unstick.Me, if you are looking for more goal setting content please take a look here .

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25 Thesis Statement Examples That Will Make Writing a Breeze

Understanding what makes a good thesis statement is one of the major keys to writing a great research paper or argumentative essay. The thesis statement is where you make a claim that will guide you through your entire paper. If you find yourself struggling to make sense of your paper or your topic, then it's likely due to a weak thesis statement.

Let's take a minute to first understand what makes a solid thesis statement, and what key components you need to write one of your own.

A thesis statement always goes at the beginning of the paper. It will typically be in the first couple of paragraphs of the paper so that it can introduce the body paragraphs, which are the supporting evidence for your thesis statement.

Your thesis statement should clearly identify an argument. You need to have a statement that is not only easy to understand, but one that is debatable. What that means is that you can't just put any statement of fact and have it be your thesis. For example, everyone knows that puppies are cute . An ineffective thesis statement would be, "Puppies are adorable and everyone knows it." This isn't really something that's a debatable topic.

Something that would be more debatable would be, "A puppy's cuteness is derived from its floppy ears, small body, and playfulness." These are three things that can be debated on. Some people might think that the cutest thing about puppies is the fact that they follow you around or that they're really soft and fuzzy.

All cuteness aside, you want to make sure that your thesis statement is not only debatable, but that it also actually thoroughly answers the research question that was posed. You always want to make sure that your evidence is supporting a claim that you made (and not the other way around). This is why it's crucial to read and research about a topic first and come to a conclusion later. If you try to get your research to fit your thesis statement, then it may not work out as neatly as you think. As you learn more, you discover more (and the outcome may not be what you originally thought).

Additionally, your thesis statement shouldn't be too big or too grand. It'll be hard to cover everything in a thesis statement like, "The federal government should act now on climate change." The topic is just too large to actually say something new and meaningful. Instead, a more effective thesis statement might be, "Local governments can combat climate change by providing citizens with larger recycling bins and offering local classes about composting and conservation." This is easier to work with because it's a smaller idea, but you can also discuss the overall topic that you might be interested in, which is climate change.

So, now that we know what makes a good, solid thesis statement, you can start to write your own. If you find that you're getting stuck or you are the type of person who needs to look at examples before you start something, then check out our list of thesis statement examples below.

Thesis statement examples

A quick note that these thesis statements have not been fully researched. These are merely examples to show you what a thesis statement might look like and how you can implement your own ideas into one that you think of independently. As such, you should not use these thesis statements for your own research paper purposes. They are meant to be used as examples only.

• Vaccinations Because many children are unable to vaccinate due to illness, we must require that all healthy and able children be vaccinated in order to have herd immunity.
• Educational Resources for Low-Income Students Schools should provide educational resources for low-income students during the summers so that they don't forget what they've learned throughout the school year.
• School Uniforms School uniforms may be an upfront cost for families, but they eradicate the visual differences in income between students and provide a more egalitarian atmosphere at school.
• Populism The rise in populism on the 2016 political stage was in reaction to increasing globalization, the decline of manufacturing jobs, and the Syrian refugee crisis.
• Public Libraries Libraries are essential resources for communities and should be funded more heavily by local municipalities.
• Cyber Bullying With more and more teens using smartphones and social media, cyber bullying is on the rise. Cyber bullying puts a lot of stress on many teens, and can cause depression, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. Parents should limit the usage of smart phones, monitor their children's online activity, and report any cyber bullying to school officials in order to combat this problem.
• Medical Marijuana for Veterans Studies have shown that the use of medicinal marijuana has been helpful to veterans who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Medicinal marijuana prescriptions should be legal in all states and provided to these veterans. Additional medical or therapy services should also be researched and implemented in order to help them re-integrate back into civilian life.
• Work-Life Balance Corporations should provide more work from home opportunities and six-hour workdays so that office workers have a better work-life balance and are more likely to be productive when they are in the office.
• Teaching Youths about Consensual Sex Although sex education that includes a discussion of consensual sex would likely lead to less sexual assault, parents need to teach their children the meaning of consent from a young age with age appropriate lessons.
• Whether or Not to Attend University A degree from a university provides invaluable lessons on life and a future career, but not every high school student should be encouraged to attend a university directly after graduation. Some students may benefit from a trade school or a "gap year" where they can think more intensely about what it is they want to do for a career and how they can accomplish this.
• Studying Abroad Studying abroad is one of the most culturally valuable experiences you can have in college. It is the only way to get completely immersed in another language and learn how other cultures and countries are different from your own.
• Women's Body Image Magazines have done a lot in the last five years to include a more diverse group of models, but there is still a long way to go to promote a healthy woman's body image collectively as a culture.
• Cigarette Tax Heavily taxing and increasing the price of cigarettes is essentially a tax on the poorest Americans, and it doesn't deter them from purchasing. Instead, the state and federal governments should target those economically disenfranchised with early education about the dangers of smoking.
• Veganism A vegan diet, while a healthy and ethical way to consume food, indicates a position of privilege. It also limits you to other cultural food experiences if you travel around the world.
• University Athletes Should be Compensated University athletes should be compensated for their service to the university, as it is difficult for these students to procure and hold a job with busy academic and athletic schedules. Many student athletes on scholarship also come from low-income neighborhoods and it is a struggle to make ends meet when they are participating in athletics.
• Women in the Workforce Sheryl Sandberg makes a lot of interesting points in her best-selling book, Lean In , but she only addressed the very privileged working woman and failed to speak to those in lower-skilled, lower-wage jobs.
• Assisted Suicide Assisted suicide should be legal and doctors should have the ability to make sure their patients have the end-of-life care that they want to receive.
• Celebrity and Political Activism Although Taylor Swift's lyrics are indicative of a feminist perspective, she should be more politically active and vocal to use her position of power for the betterment of society.
• The Civil War The insistence from many Southerners that the South seceded from the Union for states' rights versus the fact that they seceded for the purposes of continuing slavery is a harmful myth that still affects race relations today.
• Blue Collar Workers Coal miners and other blue-collar workers whose jobs are slowly disappearing from the workforce should be re-trained in jobs in the technology sector or in renewable energy. A program to re-train these workers would not only improve local economies where jobs have been displaced, but would also lead to lower unemployment nationally.
• Diversity in the Workforce Having a diverse group of people in an office setting leads to richer ideas, more cooperation, and more empathy between people with different skin colors or backgrounds.
• Re-Imagining the Nuclear Family The nuclear family was traditionally defined as one mother, one father, and 2.5 children. This outdated depiction of family life doesn't quite fit with modern society. The definition of normal family life shouldn't be limited to two-parent households.
• Digital Literacy Skills With more information readily available than ever before, it's crucial that students are prepared to examine the material they're reading and determine whether or not it's a good source or if it has misleading information. Teaching students digital literacy and helping them to understand the difference between opinion or propaganda from legitimate, real information is integral.
• Beauty Pageants Beauty pageants are presented with the angle that they empower women. However, putting women in a swimsuit on a stage while simultaneously judging them on how well they answer an impossible question in a short period of time is cruel and purely for the amusement of men. Therefore, we should stop televising beauty pageants.
• Supporting More Women to Run for a Political Position In order to get more women into political positions, more women must run for office. There must be a grassroots effort to educate women on how to run for office, who among them should run, and support for a future candidate for getting started on a political career.

Still stuck? Need some help with your thesis statement?

If you are still uncertain about how to write a thesis statement or what a good thesis statement is, be sure to consult with your teacher or professor to make sure you're on the right track. It's always a good idea to check in and make sure that your thesis statement is making a solid argument and that it can be supported by your research.

After you're done writing, it's important to have someone take a second look at your paper so that you can ensure there are no mistakes or errors. It's difficult to spot your own mistakes, which is why it's always recommended to have someone help you with the revision process, whether that's a teacher, the writing center at school, or a professional editor such as one from ServiceScape .

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25 of the Best Motivational Quotes from Scientists

We’ve been posting motivational science quotes every Monday for a couple of years now. Why do we do it, you ask? Because we love digging into the wisdom of scientists past and present, reminding ourselves why the work we do is so important. And we love being able to pass on these little nuggets of optimism and motivation as we find them.

When we interview scientists for our blog , as well as asking them for their favorite science jokes , as we also ask what their favorite science quotes are.

We’ve had so many brilliant ones shared with us, so we wanted to collect our top 25 into one great big inspirational blog for you. Bookmark this page for whenever you feel like life in the lab is getting you down.

1. “Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.” – Robert A. Heinlein.

“Although from a sci-fi book, I think it captures the spirit of the scientific frontier,” says Martyn Webb , who’s studying for his PhD at the University of East Anglia.

2. “The reward of the young scientist is the emotional thrill of being the first person in the history of the world to see something or to understand something. Nothing can compare with that experience.” – Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

We’re sure every passionate early career researcher will agree! Thank you Dr Deborah Kronenberg-Versteeg from the University of Cambridge for sharing this beautiful quote from the British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist (who proposed in her 1925 doctoral thesis that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium).

3. “What you learn from a life in science is the vastness of our ignorance.” – David Eagleman

Next time you feel pressure to know everything, remember this quote that Dr Laura Boddington shared with us. Knowing everything is impossible, don’t let imposter syndrome take hold!

4. "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." – Issac Newton

Kate Manley , part of the Prostate Cancer Genetics Team at the University of East Anglia, reminds us of the importance of acknowledging all the scientists whose discoveries have made our current work possible.

5. “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” – Albert Einstein

Thanks to James Cleland , PhD Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, for making this our favourite retort to: “Are you going to clean that up?”

6. "Our virtues and our failures are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.” – Nikola Tesla

It’s important to remember that failure is not only an inevitable part of life, it’s an inevitable part of success. Thank you Lab Heroes Runner-Up Elisabeth Paul , soon-to-be PhD Student at Linköping University, for sharing this.

7. “Impossible only means that you haven’t found the solution yet.” – Anonymous

Thank you to Lab Heroes Runner-Up Ettore Ambrosini , a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Padova, for this mantra for those days when nothing feels possible. There is always a way!

8. “In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs.” – Sir William Osler

Just because you aren’t the first person to do it, doesn’t mean it’s not hugely important. Thank you to Lab Heroes Winner Dr Enitome Bafor from the University of Benin for the reminder that there’s always a new way to see, understand, and communicate things.

9. “Every brilliant experiment, like every great work of art, starts with an act of imagination.” – Jonah Lehrer

It’s no wonder that so many scientists are also brilliant artists. Life science truly is is one of the most creative, beautiful industries to work in. Thank you Nina Lichtenberg from UCLA for this one.

10. “The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

Chris Hoyle from the University of Manchester sharing one of our personal favourite science quotes here. I mean, we’re biased of course, but… can you really argue with that?

11. “Science is not only a disciple of reason but also one of romance and passion.” – Stephen Hawking

The late, great Stephen Hawking reminding us why we all fell in love with science. Thank you Elizabeth Thomas from the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre for this one.

12. “Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.” – Rosalind Franklin

“[This is] my favorite quote that I have held onto since graduate school,” says Madison Fletcher , a postdoc at the University of California, Irvine. We can see why, and we love this too.

13. “All outstanding work, in art as well as in science, results from immense zeal applied to a great idea.” – Santiago Ramón y Cajal

We love this quote, shared with us by Dr Samantha Murray . It reminds us that our passion for what we do is as important as our ability.

14. “If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you off... no matter what they say.” – Barbara McClintock

Maria Diehl shared this wonderful quote from Barbara McClintock, cytogeneticist and winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with us. A brilliant reminder to always trust our gut instinct, and follow our curiosity.

15. “Above all, don't fear difficult moments. The best comes from them.” – Rita Levi-Montalcini

Another brilliant quote shared by Maria Diehl. Rita Levi-Montalcini won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor. So we’re definitely inclined to take her advice.

16. “Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.” – Albert Szent-Györgyi

Professor Elek Molnar from our Scientific Advisory Board reminding us that, as life scientists, our ability to research is something truly special.

17. “If you want to have good ideas, you must have many ideas.” – Linus Pauling

“It sums up my scientific method,” says Stuart Maudsley from the University of Antwerp.

18. “We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.” – Stephen Hawking

If you’re ever struggling with motivation, it helps to remember how remarkable you are just for being human! Thank you James Quinn from the University of Manchester the reminder.

19. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie

This quote, shared by postdoc Christina Murray from UCL, feels especially pertinent right now.

20. “Science means constantly walking a tightrope between blind faith and curiosity; between expertise and creativity; between bias and openness; between experience and epiphany; between ambition and passion; and between arrogance and conviction – in short, between and old today and a new tomorrow.” — Henrich Rohrer

Thank you Adriana Humanes from Newcastle University for the reminder of how important and unique our work as scientists is.

21. “Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.” – Louis Pasteur

This one’s from our Head of Product Development James Flanaghan . As an international business committed to championing and connecting life scientists all over the world, we couldn’t love this sentiment more.

22. “When kids look up to great scientists the way they do musicians, actors [and sports figures], civilization will jump to the next level.” – Brian Greene

Thanks to our Head of US Operations, Paula Klockner , for this one! Maybe we WILL realise our dreams of being scientists / rock stars after all...

23. “The important thing is to never stop questioning [or learning].” – Albert Einstein

Another great quote that’s one of Paula’s favourites, and one to remember when we feel too scared to ask that burning question. We’re all still learning, no matter how far along our career path we are. That’s the beauty of science.

24. “We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used to create them.” – Albert Einstein

Yep, this is our third Einstein quote of the article. But you can’t deny the guy knew what he was talking about! This quote shared by our Head of Chemistry Dr Richard Patterson reminds us of the importance of thinking outside of the box.

25. “I am among those who think that science has great beauty.” – Marie Curie

What better sentiment to end on than this? This is one is our Director of Marketing Dr Sam Roome ’s favorite quote. Because science is sometimes hard, and messy, and complicated, and frustrating… but at its core, it’s absolutely beautiful.

What science quotes do you have pinned up in your lab?

Share them with us on Twitter at @hello_bio

__________________________________

If you enjoyed reading this article, why not check out the other resources available on our blog. As well as trying to promote diversity in science, we're passionate about supporting early career life scientists and PhD students - with affordable reagents and biochemicals, travel grants, and resources to help with both personal and professional development. We know how tough it is - so we hope you find these helpful!

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A direct quotation reproduces words verbatim from another work or from your own previously published work. It is best to paraphrase sources rather than directly quoting them because paraphrasing allows you to fit material to the context of your paper and writing style.

Use direct quotations rather than paraphrasing:

• when reproducing an exact definition (see Section 6.22 of the Publication Manual ),
• when an author has said something memorably or succinctly, or
• when you want to respond to exact wording (e.g., something someone said).

Instructors, programs, editors, and publishers may establish limits on the use of direct quotations. Consult your instructor or editor if you are concerned that you may have too much quoted material in your paper.

This page addresses how to format short quotations and block quotations. Additional information is available about how to:

• include page numbers for quotations
• cite quotations from material without page numbers
• cite quotations that include errors
• indicate changes to quotations
• present quotations from research participants

Quotations are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Sections 8.25 to 8.35 and the Concise Guide Sections 8.25 to 8.34

Related handout

• In-Text Citation Checklist (PDF, 227KB)

Short quotations (fewer than 40 words)

For quotations of fewer than 40 words, add quotation marks around the words and incorporate the quote into your own text—there is no additional formatting needed. Do not insert an ellipsis at the beginning and/or end of a quotation unless the original source includes an ellipsis.

Effective teams can be difficult to describe because “high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another” (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470).

For a direct quotation, always include a full citation ( parenthetical or narrative ) in the same sentence as the quotation, including the page number (or other location information, e.g., paragraph number).

• Place a parenthetical citation either immediately after the quotation or at the end of the sentence.
• For a narrative citation, include the author and year in the sentence and then place the page number or other location information in parentheses after the quotation.
• If the quotation precedes the narrative citation, put the page number or location information after the year and a comma.
• If the citation appears at the end of a sentence, put the end punctuation after the closing parenthesis for the citation.
• If the quotation includes citations, see Section 8.32 of the Publication Manual .
• If the quotation includes material already in quotation marks, see Section 8.33 of the Publication Manual .
• Place periods and commas within closing single or double quotation marks. Place other punctuation marks inside quotation marks only when they are part of the quoted material.

Block quotations (40 words or more)

Format quotations of 40 words or more as block quotations:

• Do not use quotation marks to enclose a block quotation.
• Start a block quotation on a new line and indent the whole block 0.5 in. from the left margin.
• Double-space the entire block quotation.
• Do not add extra space before or after it.
• If there are additional paragraphs within the quotation, indent the first line of each subsequent paragraph an additional 0.5 in. See an example in Section 8.27 of the Publication Manual .
• Either (a) cite the source in parentheses after the quotation’s final punctuation or (b) cite the author and year in the narrative before the quotation and place only the page number in parentheses after the quotation’s final punctuation.
• Do not add a period after the closing parenthesis in either case.

Block quotation with parenthetical citation:

Researchers have studied how people talk to themselves:

Inner speech is a paradoxical phenomenon. It is an experience that is central to many people’s everyday lives, and yet it presents considerable challenges to any effort to study it scientifically. Nevertheless, a wide range of methodologies and approaches have combined to shed light on the subjective experience of inner speech and its cognitive and neural underpinnings. (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015, p. 957)

Block quotation with narrative citation:

Flores et al. (2018) described how they addressed potential researcher bias when working with an intersectional community of transgender people of color:

Everyone on the research team belonged to a stigmatized group but also held privileged identities. Throughout the research process, we attended to the ways in which our privileged and oppressed identities may have influenced the research process, findings, and presentation of results. (p. 311)

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• How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago

How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago

Published on April 15, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Jack Caulfield. Revised on May 31, 2023.

Quoting means copying a passage of someone else’s words and crediting the source. To quote a source, you must ensure:

• The quoted text is enclosed in quotation marks or formatted as a block quote
• The original author is correctly cited
• The text is identical to the original

The exact format of a quote depends on its length and on which citation style you are using. Quoting and citing correctly is essential to avoid plagiarism which is easy to detect with a good plagiarism checker .

Table of contents

How to cite a quote in apa, mla and chicago, introducing quotes, quotes within quotes, shortening or altering a quote, block quotes, when should i use quotes, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about quoting sources.

Every time you quote, you must cite the source correctly . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style you’re using. Three of the most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

Citing a quote in APA Style

To cite a direct quote in APA , you must include the author’s last name, the year, and a page number, all separated by commas . If the quote appears on a single page, use “p.”; if it spans a page range, use “pp.”

An APA in-text citation can be parenthetical or narrative. In a parenthetical citation , you place all the information in parentheses after the quote. In a narrative citation , you name the author in your sentence (followed by the year), and place the page number after the quote.

Punctuation marks such as periods and commas are placed after the citation, not within the quotation marks .

• Evolution is a gradual process that “can act only by very short and slow steps” (Darwin, 1859, p. 510) .
• Darwin (1859) explains that evolution “can act only by very short and slow steps” (p. 510) .

Complete guide to APA

Citing a quote in mla style.

An MLA in-text citation includes only the author’s last name and a page number. As in APA, it can be parenthetical or narrative, and a period (or other punctuation mark) appears after the citation.

• Evolution is a gradual process that “can act only by very short and slow steps” (Darwin 510) .
• Darwin explains that evolution “can act only by very short and slow steps” (510) .

Complete guide to MLA

Citing a quote in chicago style.

Chicago style uses Chicago footnotes to cite sources. A note, indicated by a superscript number placed directly after the quote, specifies the author, title, and page number—or sometimes fuller information .

Unlike with parenthetical citations, in this style, the period or other punctuation mark should appear within the quotation marks, followed by the footnote number.

Complete guide to Chicago style

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Make sure you integrate quotes properly into your text by introducing them in your own words, showing the reader why you’re including the quote and providing any context necessary to understand it.  Don’t  present quotations as stand-alone sentences.

There are three main strategies you can use to introduce quotes in a grammatically correct way:

• Add an introductory sentence
• Use an introductory signal phrase
• Integrate the quote into your own sentence

The following examples use APA Style citations, but these strategies can be used in all styles.

Introductory sentence

Introduce the quote with a full sentence ending in a colon . Don’t use a colon if the text before the quote isn’t a full sentence.

If you name the author in your sentence, you may use present-tense verbs , such as “states,” “argues,” “explains,” “writes,” or “reports,” to describe the content of the quote.

• In Denmark, a recent poll shows that: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• In Denmark, a recent poll shows that support for the EU has grown since the Brexit vote: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• Levring (2018) reports that support for the EU has grown since the Brexit vote: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (p. 3).

Introductory signal phrase

You can also use a signal phrase that mentions the author or source, but doesn’t form a full sentence. In this case, you follow the phrase with a comma instead of a colon.

• According to a recent poll, “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• As Levring (2018) explains, “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (p. 3).

Integrated into your own sentence

To quote a phrase that doesn’t form a full sentence, you can also integrate it as part of your sentence, without any extra punctuation .

• A recent poll suggests that EU membership “would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” in a referendum (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• Levring (2018) reports that EU membership “would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” in a referendum (p. 3).

When you quote text that itself contains another quote, this is called a nested quotation or a quote within a quote. It may occur, for example, when quoting dialogue from a novel.

To distinguish this quote from the surrounding quote, you enclose it in single (instead of double) quotation marks (even if this involves changing the punctuation from the original text). Make sure to close both sets of quotation marks at the appropriate moments.

Note that if you only quote the nested quotation itself, and not the surrounding text, you can just use double quotation marks.

• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “ “ Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, ” he told me, “ just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had ” ” (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had ” (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’” (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway begins by quoting his father’s invocation to “remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1).

Note:  When the quoted text in the source comes from another source, it’s best to just find that original source in order to quote it directly. If you can’t find the original source, you can instead cite it indirectly .

Often, incorporating a quote smoothly into your text requires you to make some changes to the original text. It’s fine to do this, as long as you clearly mark the changes you’ve made to the quote.

Shortening a quote

If some parts of a passage are redundant or irrelevant, you can shorten the quote by removing words, phrases, or sentences and replacing them with an ellipsis (…). Put a space before and after the ellipsis.

Be careful that removing the words doesn’t change the meaning. The ellipsis indicates that some text has been removed, but the shortened quote should still accurately represent the author’s point.

Altering a quote

You can add or replace words in a quote when necessary. This might be because the original text doesn’t fit grammatically with your sentence (e.g., it’s in a different verb tense), or because extra information is needed to clarify the quote’s meaning.

Use brackets to distinguish words that you have added from words that were present in the original text.

The Latin term “ sic ” is used to indicate a (factual or grammatical) mistake in a quotation. It shows the reader that the mistake is from the quoted material, not a typo of your own.

In some cases, it can be useful to italicize part of a quotation to add emphasis, showing the reader that this is the key part to pay attention to. Use the phrase “emphasis added” to show that the italics were not part of the original text.

You usually don’t need to use brackets to indicate minor changes to punctuation or capitalization made to ensure the quote fits the style of your text.

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If you quote more than a few lines from a source, you must format it as a block quote . Instead of using quotation marks, you set the quote on a new line and indent it so that it forms a separate block of text.

Block quotes are cited just like regular quotes, except that if the quote ends with a period, the citation appears after the period.

To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, a walking-stick or any money, or anything that he usually took when he went out; leaving his second breakfast half-finished and quite unwashed-up, pushing his keys into Gandalf’s hands, and running as fast as his furry feet could carry him down the lane, past the great Mill, across The Water, and then on for a mile or more. (16)

Avoid relying too heavily on quotes in academic writing . To integrate a source , it’s often best to paraphrase , which means putting the passage in your own words. This helps you integrate information smoothly and keeps your own voice dominant.

However, there are some situations in which quoting is more appropriate.

When focusing on language

If you want to comment on how the author uses language (for example, in literary analysis ), it’s necessary to quote so that the reader can see the exact passage you are referring to.

When giving evidence

To convince the reader of your argument, interpretation or position on a topic, it’s often helpful to include quotes that support your point. Quotes from primary sources (for example, interview transcripts or historical documents) are especially credible as evidence.

When presenting an author’s position or definition

When you’re referring to secondary sources such as scholarly books and journal articles, try to put others’ ideas in your own words when possible.

But if a passage does a great job at expressing, explaining, or defining something, and it would be very difficult to paraphrase without changing the meaning or losing the weakening the idea’s impact, it’s worth quoting directly.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
• ChatGPT citations
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Using ChatGPT for your studies
• What is ChatGPT?
• Chicago style
• Paraphrasing
• Critical thinking

 Plagiarism

• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Consequences of plagiarism
• Common knowledge

A quote is an exact copy of someone else’s words, usually enclosed in quotation marks and credited to the original author or speaker.

In academic writing , there are three main situations where quoting is the best choice:

• To analyze the author’s language (e.g., in a literary analysis essay )
• To give evidence from primary sources
• To accurately present a precise definition or argument

Don’t overuse quotes; your own voice should be dominant. If you just want to provide information from a source, it’s usually better to paraphrase or summarize .

Every time you quote a source , you must include a correctly formatted in-text citation . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style .

For example, a direct quote in APA is cited like this: “This is a quote” (Streefkerk, 2020, p. 5).

Every in-text citation should also correspond to a full reference at the end of your paper.

A block quote is a long quote formatted as a separate “block” of text. Instead of using quotation marks , you place the quote on a new line, and indent the entire quote to mark it apart from your own words.

The rules for when to apply block quote formatting depend on the citation style:

• APA block quotes are 40 words or longer.
• MLA block quotes are more than 4 lines of prose or 3 lines of poetry.
• Chicago block quotes are longer than 100 words.

If you’re quoting from a text that paraphrases or summarizes other sources and cites them in parentheses , APA and Chicago both recommend retaining the citations as part of the quote. However, MLA recommends omitting citations within a quote:

• APA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic (Jones, 2015; Sill, 2019; Paulson, 2020) shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).
• MLA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).

Footnote or endnote numbers that appear within quoted text should be omitted in all styles.

If you want to cite an indirect source (one you’ve only seen quoted in another source), either locate the original source or use the phrase “as cited in” in your citation.

In scientific subjects, the information itself is more important than how it was expressed, so quoting should generally be kept to a minimum. In the arts and humanities, however, well-chosen quotes are often essential to a good paper.

In social sciences, it varies. If your research is mainly quantitative , you won’t include many quotes, but if it’s more qualitative , you may need to quote from the data you collected .

As a general guideline, quotes should take up no more than 5–10% of your paper. If in doubt, check with your instructor or supervisor how much quoting is appropriate in your field.

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If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. & Caulfield, J. (2023, May 31). How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago. Scribbr. Retrieved September 6, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/how-to-quote/

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Dissertation & Doctoral Project Formatting & Clearance: Citing In Text

• Submitting to the Library
• Formatting Manual & Forms
• APA Style 7th Ed.
• Submitting to ProQuest ETD

In-Text Citation Basics

Author/Date Citation Method

APA publications use the author/date in text citation system to briefly identify sources to readers.  Each in-text citation is listed alphabetically in the reference list.  All in-text citations referenced in the body of work musr appear in the reference list and vice versa.

The author-date method includes the author's surname and the the publication year.  Do not include suffixes such as Jr., Esq., etc.

(Jones, 2009)

The author/date method is also used with direct quotes.  Another component is added in this format:

(Jones, 2009, p.19)

When multiple pages are referenced, use pp.

(Jones, 2009, pp.19-21)

Variations of author/date within a sentence

Here are some examples of how the author/date citation method are formatted within different parts of a sentence. Please note the author, publication date, and study are entirely fictional (see APA, p.174).

Beginning of a sentence:

Jones (2009) completed a study on the effects of dark chocolate on heart disease.

Middle of a sentence:

In 2009, Jones's study on the effects of dark chocolate and heart disease revealed...

End of a sentence:

The study revealed that participants who ate dark chocolate bars every day did not develop heart disease (Jones, 2009).

Citing a specific part of source (chapter, tables, figures, or equations)

When citing a particular part of a source, it is important to indicate the page, chapter, figure, table, or equation.  Remember to always give page numbers for direct quotations (see APA, section 6.19, p. 179). 

Correct abbreviations continue to be used (see APA, sections 4.22 - 4.30).

(National Chocolate Lovers Association, 2007, p.17)

(Jones, 2009, Chapter 8)

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is great because it allows you to use your own words and your own voice.  It demonstrates that you truly understand what the author is saying. Word of caution: Avoid changing the author's meaning and/or plagiarizing the author.  Looking up certain words within the thesaurus is not paraphrasing.  It is also important to cite the author while paraphrasing.

Here is an example of paraphrasing:

Original citation:

"With rates of childhood obesity climbing over the last decade, some parents and policy-makers have thought to consider whether the availability of endless soda and junk food in school vending machines might be contributing to the problem—and if banning those foods in schools might help solve it" (Price, 2012).

Paraphrase:

Price discusses the possibility that the availability of unhealthy, sugary snacks and drinks in school vending machines has contributed to the rising epidemic of obesity in children.  In an effort to eliminate the source of the problem, some of have proposed implementing a ban (2012).

Direct Quotes: the Short and Long

Direct quotations are sometimes necessary to truly convey the author's meaning to the reader.  When directly quoting an author(s),  (a) the quote must be relevant to your argument, (b) it needs to smoothly transition between what comes first and move to what comes later, (c), it must fit logically and make grammatical sense, and (d) it should be no longer than absolutely necessary.

When reproducing an author's word directly, it is extremely important to quote and cite.  Direct quotations with citation prevents plagiarism and gives the author credit for his/her work. The parenthetical cite should always contain the author's surname, the publication year of the work, and the page citation or paragraph number (for nonpaginated material).

Direct quotations can vary in length.  Quotes fewer than 40 words should be incorporated into the text of the paragraph.  Quotes comprised of 40 or more words, need to be formatted in block quotes.  (see APA, section 6.03, pp.170 - 173; and APA Style Blog , "How to Cite Direct Quotations" or APA Style Blog , "You Can Quote Me on This").

Short, direct quotes (less than 40 words):

Author and quote separated

Bell and Shank (2007) identify that "[a]t least one survey identified library instruction as the type of collaboration mentioned most frequently by librarians" (p.67).

Article retrieved online (see APA, section 6.05, p.171-172)

Price (2012) notes "[t]he results aren't huge, but apparently these laws have a real—and positive—effect on students' health" (para.4).

Author and quote together

"Design is designed in many ways.  By one definition it is the conscious examination of objects and processes to determine how they can be made better" (Bell & Shank, 2007, p. 23).

" The books, sold in the United States, share a piece of a foreign culture, while profits are put back into the country the story came from" (Anthony, 2012, para. 2).

Long, block quotes (40 words or more):

Formatting rules:

• Indent the block quote five spaces or half an inch. • Do not use quotation marks. • Double space the quote unless your school has a rule about single spacing block quotes. • Do not include any additional lines or spaces before or after the block quote. • Notice that in block quotes, the period goes before the parentheses, not after.

Michelli (2007) uses the coffee chain, Starbucks, as example on how to become extraordinary.  He discusses in detail various principles he discovered during his research on the renowned company.  One of the principles focuses on "making it your own."  He writes,

Like most companies, Starbucks has wrestled with ways to invite its partners to fully engage their passions and talents everyday in every interaction at wor.  Simultaneously, the leadership has to ensure that individual partners' differences are blending into a generally uniform experience for customers.  Finding a balance between these two important, yet somtimes divergent, leadership responsibilities can be awkward.  Yet through its principle of Make It Your Own, Starbucks has succeeded in creating a unique model that encourages partners at all levels to pour their creative energy and dedication into everything they do. (p. 20)

This principle does not only apply to businesses; it can be part of anyone's personal beliefs.

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