You’ve likely heard that hard work is one of the keys to success. When times are tough, it’s easy to question that line of thinking. Frustration will mount when your hard work goes unrecognized or ignored. Hard work doesn’t always pay off immediately, but it pays dividends in the future.
Find inspiration from some of the most influential people in history with these hard work quotes from geniuses like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, mindset gurus like Bruce Lee and Confucius, and business titans like Henry Ford and Oprah Winfrey. If you need a little work motivation, let their words of wisdom written below lift you up.
100 Quotes on Hard Work
“Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.” —Kobe Bryant
“Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.” —Booker T. Washington
“Work and you’ll get what you need; work harder and you’ll get what you want.” —Prabakaran Thirumalai
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” —Albert Einstein
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” —Tim Notke
“I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.” —Margaret Thatcher
“I think that my biggest attribute to any success that I have had is hard work. There really is no substitute for working hard.” —Maria Bartiromo
“Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.” —Malcolm Forbes
“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” —Colin Powell
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” —Stephen King
“To succeed, work hard, never give up and above all, cherish a magnificent obsession.” —Walt Disney
“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” —Frank Lloyd Wright
“When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work isn’t an option. It’s a necessity.” —Steve Pavlina
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” —Thomas Jefferson
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” —Estée Lauder
“Sometimes there’s not a better way. Sometimes there’s only the hard way.” —Mary E. Pearson
“Sticking to good habits can be hard work, and mistakes are part of the process. Don’t declare failure simply because you messed up or because you’re having trouble reaching your goals. Instead, use your mistakes as opportunities to grow stronger and become better.” —Amy Morin
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” —Thomas Edison
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” —Abraham Lincoln
“Sometimes, you have to give up. Sometimes, knowing when to give up, when to try something else, is genius. Giving up doesn’t mean stopping. Don’t ever stop.” —Phil Knight
“If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard; you’ll be hard to beat.” —Hershel Walker
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” —Pelé
“Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus. Muses are too unreliable to keep on the payroll.” —Helen Hanson
“I never took a day off in my 20s. Not one.” —Bill Gates
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” —Tommy Lasorda
“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” —Thomas Paine
“Don’t work for recognition but do work worthy of recognition.” —H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” —Dwayne Johnson
“A sign of a hard worker is one who works without complaint.” —Sarah Price
“Entrepreneurship is a great leveler. The wonderful thing is that money is not the sole currency when it comes to starting a business; drive, determination, passion and hard work are all free and more valuable than a pot of cash.” —Richard Branson
“It’s not about money or connections—it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone.” —Mark Cuban
“Without hard work and discipline it is difficult to be a top professional.” —Jahangir Khan
“At the end of the day, you put all the work in, and eventually it’ll pay off. It could be in a year, it could be in 30 years. Eventually, your hard work will pay off.” —Kevin Hart
“There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.” —Calvin Coolidge
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” —Colin Powell
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life—and that is why I succeed.” —Michael Jordan
“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.” —Sam Ewing
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” —Jacob Riis
“The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.” —Alexander Graham Bell
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” —Babe Ruth
“Every beautiful mind has great dreams, but rarely is anyone ever ready to work hard for their dreams.” —Terry Mark
“The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive, and passion, it’s possible to achieve the American dream.” —Tommy Hilfiger
“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.” —Simon Sinek
“This is the real secret of life—to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” —Alan Watts
“You must earn what you get, and your rewards will always be a true indicator of the service you give.” —John Soforic
“Obstacles can’t stop you. Problems can’t stop you. Most of all, other people can’t stop you. Only you can stop you.” —Jeffrey Gitomer
“Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.” —Henry Ford
“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” —Vince Lombardi
“I can say the willingness to get dirty has always defined us as a nation, and it’s a hallmark of hard work and a hallmark of fun, and dirt is not the enemy.” —Mike Rowe
“Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference.” —Lou Holtz
“Go and get your things. Dreams mean work.” —Paolo Coelho
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.” —Henry Ford
“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” —Newt Gingrich
“The average person puts only 25 percent of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50 percent of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100 percent.” —Andrew Carnegie
“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” —Dr. Mae Jemison
“If you’re in a job that you hate, don’t be scared of seeking out something that might be riskier. Anything can turn into something with passion and hard work.” —Whitney Wolfe
“What you don’t sweat out when you’re young will turn into tears when you’re old.” —Japanese Proverb
“I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come indirectly through accident, except the phonograph. No, when I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go about it, and make trial after trial until it comes.” —Thomas Edison
“If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” —Elon Musk
“There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.” —Michael Phelps
“The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!” —Marvin Phillips
“Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig.” —Malcolm Gladwell
“If you can’t excel with talent, triumph with effort.” —Dave Weinbaum
“I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is hard work—and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.” —Lucille Ball
“It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.” —Confucius
“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all.” —Michelangelo
“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” —Oprah Winfrey
“Great companies are built in the office, with hard work put in by a team.” —Emily Chang
“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” —Zig Ziglar
“Men die of boredom, psychological conflict and disease. They do not die of hard work.” —David Ogilvy
“Believe in yourself, work hard, work smart and passionately present your best self to the world.” —Hill Harper
“There is simply no substitute for hard work when it comes to achieving success.” —Heather Bresch
“Luck is great, but most of life is hard work.” —Iain Duncan Smith
“Dreams can come true, but there is a secret. They’re realized through the magic of persistence, determination, commitment, passion, practice, focus and hard work. They happen a step at a time, manifested over years, not weeks.” —Elbert Hubbard
“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.” —David Bly
“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.” —Buddha
“The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day.” —Wayne Gretzky
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” —Bruce Lee
“Stay positive and happy. Work hard and don’t give up hope. Be open to criticism and keep learning. Surround yourself with happy, warm, and genuine people.” —Tena Desae
“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” —Jimmy Johnson
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” —Stephen King
“Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.” —Virat Kohli
“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
“To achieve what 1 percent of the world’s population has, you must be willing to do what only 1 percent dares to do.” —Manoj Arora
“I don’t like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself. Your own reality—for yourself not for others—what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.” —Joseph Conrad
“Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.” —Robert Half
“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” —Steve Jobs
“Work harder than you think you did yesterday.” —Alex Elle
“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
“No one understands and appreciates the American Dream of hard work leading to material rewards better than a non-American.” —Anthony Bourdain
“My success was due to good luck, hard work, and support and advice from friends and mentors. But most importantly, it depended on me to keep trying after I had failed.” —Mark Warner
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” —Beverly Sills
“Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.” —Ben Carson
“I’m against retiring. The thing that keeps a man alive is having something to do” —Colonel Sanders
“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.” —Calvin Coolidge
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” —Thomas Edison
“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt
“I’ve got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” —Larry Bird
Keep Doing Your Best Through Useful Habits
When reflecting on these hard work and success quotes, it’s natural to come across real barriers on your journey—barriers you can’t push through with sheer bursts of hard work. As important as it is to work hard, developing habits will become a compounding force in your life in the long run. A simple daily routine can make all the difference in reaching your goals. To learn more, check out, “How to Be Successful: 6 Ways to Achieve Your Goals.”
And if you need more motivation to work with a team, look at these teamwork quotes.
