Whenever you log onto Facebook or Twitter or turn to a new chapter in your latest book, you see quotes. Inspiring, humorous, or insipid, they seem to be everywhere these days.

Why does everyone like quotes so much? I think in part because we’re all so busy, and so we try to express our thoughts, beliefs and aspirations succinctly. After all, we’re all trying to cram our marketing, news and personal lives into bite-size pieces – preferably 140 characters or less.

Don’t get me wrong, I really do love quotes. My only complaint is that with all the topics out there, you don’t see many about entrepreneurs. That’s why I went in search of the best quotes I could find by and about entrepreneurs. (Drum roll, please…)

In no particular order, here they are:

• “When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure.”
  Mary Kay Ash
  

• “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”
  Nolan Bushnell
  

• “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 
  

• “The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. We’re born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. It is developed, nurtured, and given space to flourish or is squelched, thwarted, without air or stimulation, and dies.”
  Michael Gerber 
  

• “Don’t ever let anyone tell you that something is too competitive. Once you subtract the people who don’t work very hard, or the people who aren’t as good as you, your competition shrinks dramatically.”
  Maggie Mason 
  

• “I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others… I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.”
  Thomas Edison
  

• “The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning; to create a product or service to make the world a better place.”
  Guy Kawasaki

• “Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.”
  Niccollo Machiavelli 

• “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
  Steve Jobs

• “The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.”
  Debbi Fields
  

• “Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you’re generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make.”
  Donald Trump
  

• “I’ve failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”
  Michael Jordan   
  

• “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.”
  Ted Turner
  

• “Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ‘crackpot’ than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.”
  Thomas J. Watson
  

• “High expectations are the key to everything.”
  Sam Walton
  

• “If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”
  Thomas Edison
  

• “Entrepreneurs average 3.8 failures before final success. What sets the successful ones apart is their amazing persistence.”
  Lisa M. Amos
  

• “The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the amount of money that you earn. It is the kind of person that you have to become to become a millionaire in the first place.
  Jim Rohn
  

• “Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.”
  Dale Carnegie
  

• “Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.”
  Malcolm Forbes
  

• “One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.”
  Henry Ford
  

• “Watch, listen and learn. You can’t know it all yourself. Anyone who thinks they do is destined or mediocrity.”
  Donald Trump

Do you have any great entrepreneurial quotes that I missed? Be sure to post your comments below!