Add Random Inspirational Quotes to Your Linux Terminal with motivate & fortune

This article provides a step‑by‑step tutorial for installing and using the motivate and fortune command‑line utilities, which display random motivational or witty quotes in a Linux terminal.

Prerequisites

Ensure that git and python3 are installed. Most modern Linux distributions include them by default; otherwise install them with the appropriate package manager. $ sudo apt-get install git python3 For other distributions use the corresponding installer.

Install motivate

Clone the repository, enter the source directory, and run the provided install script.

$ git clone https://github.com/mubaris/motivate.git
$ cd motivate/motivate
$ sudo ./install.sh
$ source ~/.bashrc   <!-- for bash users -->

If you use zsh, replace ~/.bashrc with ~/.zshrc in the last command.

Using motivate

After installation, execute motivate (or the shortcut moti) to display a random inspirational quote.

$ motivate
$ moti
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."
        -- Zig Ziglar

Updating motivate

Periodically pull the latest version and run the update script to keep the tool current.

$ git clone https://github.com/mubaris/motivate.git
$ cd motivate
$ ./UPDATE

Install fortune

Install the fortune package using your distribution's package manager.

# RPM‑based systems
$ sudo yum install fortune
# DEB‑based systems
$ sudo apt-get install fortune

Using fortune

Run fortune to display a random witty saying.

$ fortune

Automatic display on terminal start

Add the commands to your shell’s startup file ( ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc) so that a quote appears each time a new terminal session begins.

# For motivate
motivate
# For fortune
fortune

Source the file to apply the changes: $ source ~/.bashrc # or source ~/.zshrc Now every new terminal window will greet you with a random motivational or witty quote.