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Who really said it

Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy

Written by Tony Robbins b. 1960 · American author, coach and motivational speaker
Verified In copyright

This one is genuinely his. Wikiquote’s sourced section for Awaken the Giant Within prints the sentence and cites page 75, where it opens a longer thought that runs on: “Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.” The book was first published in 1991; the page numbering belongs to the 1992 Simon & Schuster (Fireside) edition that Wikiquote cites.

Last verified 16 Oct 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Verified quote & credit

“Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy” Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991) — quoted at p. 75 of the 1992 Simon & Schuster edition. · Verbatim: “Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.”

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Anthony Robbins and Simon & Schuster). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Tony Robbins — American author, coach & motivational speaker. Theme: "Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Source
Awaken the Giant Within
First published
1991 · Simon & Schuster, New York
Cited at
Page 75 of the 1992 Simon & Schuster (Fireside) edition
Verdict
Genuine — and usually quoted short

Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.

As printed in Wikiquote’s sourced section for the book, where the quoted sentence is followed immediately by the second.

Wikiquote: Anthony Robbins, sourced from Awaken the Giant Within

How we verified this

  • Wikiquote’s sourced section ↗ for Awaken the Giant Within prints this sentence and cites page 75. We read the page’s raw wikitext rather than a summary, so the wording and the page number are as Wikiquote states them.
  • The edition history checks out independently: the Internet Archive catalogue record ↗ gives “New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992,” 552 pages, 1st Fireside edition, and notes it was “originally published: New York : Summit Books, c1991” — which is why this page dates the work to 1991 and the pagination to 1992.
  • Limit of what we checked: the page location rests on Wikiquote’s citation. The Internet Archive copy is lending-restricted and Google Books returned a bot challenge, so we did not confirm page 75 against the book’s own text.
In copyright

Awaken the Giant Within was first published in 1991 and is firmly under United States copyright. The passage above is quoted as a short excerpt for identification and verification, not as a reproduction of the chapter.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Context

Why it mattered

Robbins is not being inspirational here so much as stating the premise the rest of the chapter runs on: a belief is a mechanism with consequences, and it works in both directions.

The half that travels sounds like a motivational poster. The sentence immediately after it is the one doing the work, and it is about meaning-making rather than willpower.

A belief is a mechanism, and it cuts both ways.

Read the full story

Awaken the Giant Within runs to about 550 pages, and the lines quoted from it are almost always single sentences taken from the opening of a paragraph. That is worth knowing before trusting any short Robbins quotation: the attribution is usually sound, and the sentence is usually only part of what he wrote.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Character Purpose Change

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotations from Awaken the Giant Within, with page numbers.
Internet Archivearchive.org

Catalogue record for the 1992 Fireside edition, noting original publication by Summit Books in 1991.
Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

The book: a 1991 self-help title published by Simon & Schuster.
Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Robbins: born 29 February 1960, author, coach and motivational speaker.
Google Booksbooks.google.com

The volume Wikiquote cites for these page numbers.

The author

About Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins

b. 29 February 1960 · American author, coach & motivational speaker

Born Anthony J. Mahavorić in North Hollywood, California, Robbins has worked as a speaker and coach since the late 1970s. He is best known for his large-scale seminars and for two early self-help books, Unlimited Power (1986) and Awaken the Giant Within (1991), which are the source of most of the sentences quoted under his name.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Robbins, Anthony. Awaken the Giant Within. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. Quoted at page 75 of the 1992 Simon & Schuster edition.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy’?” Last verified 16 Oct 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/beliefs-have-the-power-to-create-and-the-power-to-destroy/

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