200 Hard Work Quotes for Helping You to Excel in Life

200 Hard Work Quotes for Helping You to Excel in Life

“A good idea is about ten percent and implementation and hard work, and luck is 90 percent.”

Guy Kawasaki

 

“A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought.” There is visible labor and there is an invisible labor.”

Victor Hugo

 

“A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.”

Albert Camus

 

“A sign of a hard worker is one who works without complaint.”

Sarah Price

 

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”

Karen Lamb

 

“Action is the foundational key to all success.”

Pablo Picasso

 

“All good work requires self-revelation.”

Sidney Lumet

 

“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”

Walt Disney

 

“Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.”

Arnold Palmer

 

“Amateurs are busy and tense.” Professionals are calm and focused.”

Maxime Lagacé

 

“Amateurs have hard work and speed.” Professionals have hard work, speed and direction.”

Maxime Lagacé

 

“And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?”

Marcus Aurelius

 

“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”

Marcus Aurelius

 

“Be like a duck, paddling and working hard in the water, but what everyone sees is a smiling, calm face.”

Manoj Arora

 

“Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them.” We all could.”

Charles J. Sykes

 

“Be prepared, work hard, and hope for a little luck.” Recognize that the harder you work and the better prepared you are, the more luck you might have.”

Ed Bradley

 

“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.”

Gustave Flaubert

 

“Be thankful for what you have. Work hard for what you don’t have.”

Unknown

 

“Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.”

Henry David Thoreau

 

“Before you start any work, ask yourself: is this the most important and most impactful task I could be doing right now.”

Maxime Lagacé

 

“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends, there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest “purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”

Thomas Edison

 

“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

Colin Kaepernick

 

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

Theodore Roosevelt

 

“Blood, sweat, and respect. The first two you give, the last one you get.”

Unknown

 

“Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.”

Orison Swett Marden

 

“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

Confucius

 

“Destiny is for losers. It’s just a stupid excuse to wait for things to happen instead of making them happen.”

Blair Waldorf

 

“Do not whine… Do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone.”

Joan Didion

 

“Doing anything big and bold in life is hard work, and learning to persist (try, fail, learn, try again, etc. is fundamental to any entrepreneur’s success.”

Peter Diamandis

 

“Don’t blame others as an excuse for your not working hard enough.”

Unknown

 

“Don’t make excuses for why you can’t get it done. Focus on all the reasons why you must make it happen.”

Unknown

 

“Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders, and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can?

Marcus Aurelius

 

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

Will Rogers

 

“Every professional was once an amateur.”

Nike

 

“Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the work. I live by that.” You grind hard so you can play hard. 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

 

“Failure’s not an option. It’s a step.”

Nike

 

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Thomas Edison

 

“Giving up is simply not an option.”

Nike

 

“Go and get your things. Dreams mean work.”

Paulo Coelho

 

“Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see further.”

Thomas Carlyle

 

“Go hard or go home.”

Nike

 

“God sells us all things at the price of labor.”

Leonardo da Vinci

 

“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”

Kevin Durant

 

“Hard work betrays none.”

Hachiman Hikigaya

 

“Hard work compounds like interest, and the earlier you do it, the more time you have for the benefits to pay off.”

Sam Altman

 

“Hard work does pay off.”

Michael Phelps

 

“Hard work is an essential element in tracking down and perfecting a strategy or in executing it.”

Charlie Munger

 

“Hard work never killed a man.”

Scottish proverb

 

“I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.”

Charles Lamb

 

“I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”

Unknown

 

“I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”

Michael Jordan

 

“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 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

 

“I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.”

Gloria Steinem

 

“I never viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening, work ethic. You know, while the other guy’s sleeping, I’m working.”

Will Smith

 

“I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”

Oscar Wilde

 

“I sweat in tears to get what I want.”

Lailah Akita

 

“I think the thing about that was I was always willing to work; I was not the fastest or biggest player but I was determined to be the best football player I could be on the football field and I think I was able to accomplish that through hard work.”

Jerry Rice

 

“I would rather risk wearing out than rusting out.”

Theodore Roosevelt

 

“I would rather die of passion than of boredom."

Émile Zola

 

“I’m a designer, and I work very hard at that. People sometimes want to put down fashion by saying it’s frivolous or superficial, but it’s not that way at all. It’s actually very hard work.”

Donatella Versace

 

“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

Thomas Jefferson

 

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

Michael Jordan

 

“If hard work was so wonderful, the rich would keep it all for themselves.”

Yiddish saying

 

“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.” Make it burn.”

Nike

 

“If no one thinks you can then you have to.”

Nike

 

“If people knew how hard I worked to achieve my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all.”

Michelangelo

 

“If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.”

Michael Jordan

 

“If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.”

Gaius Musonius Rufus

 

“If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.”

Ben Hogan

 

“If you have faith when you pray, you will be given whatever you ask for.”

Matthew 21:22, The Bible

 

“If you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like or who you love.”

Barack Obama

 

“If you’re changing the world, you’re working on important things, you’re excited to get up in the morning.”

Larry Page

 

“In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. At work, do what you enjoy.  In family life, be completely present.”

Lao Tzu

 

“In order to master a field, you must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it. Your interest must transcend the field itself and border on the religious.”

Robert Greene

 

“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”

Leo Tolstoy

 

“Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus.”

Helen Hanson

 

“Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.”

Madeleine L’ Engle

 

“It does not matter where you are standing right now.”

Sanchita Pandey

 

“It doesn’t matter how great your shoes are if you don’t accomplish anything in them.”

Martina Boone

 

“It hurts now but one day it will be your warm-up.”

Unknown

 

“It seems like the world is crumbling out there, but it is actually a really great time in your life to get a little crazy, follow your curiosity and be ambitious about it.”

Larry Page

 

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”

Babe Ruth

 

“It’s hard work making movies. It’s like being a doctor: you work long hours, very hard hours, and it’s emotionally tense work. If you don’t really love it, then it ain’t worth it.”

George Lucas

 

 

“It’s not about money or connections – it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone.”

Mark Cuban

 

“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”

Vince Lombardi

 

“It’s only a crazy dream until you do it.”

Serena Williams

 

“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goals: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.”

Louis Pasteur

 

“Let us work without reasoning, it is the only way to make life endurable.”

Voltaire

 

“Life without endeavor is like entering a jewel mine and coming out with empty hands.”

Japanese proverb

 

“Light tomorrow with today.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 

“Look in the mirror – that’s your competition.”

Unknown

 

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.”

Seneca

 

“Luck is great, but most of life is hard work.”

Iain Duncan Smith

 

“Make each day your masterpiece.”

John Wooden

 

“Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease. They do not die of hard work.”

David Ogilvy

 

“My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it.”

Abraham Lincoln

 

“My life will be the best illustration of all my work.”

Hans Christian Andersen

 

“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

 

“Never expose the sweat and labor behind your poise.

Robert Greene

 

“Never let your work drive you. Master it and keep it incomplete control.”

Booker T. Washington

 

“Never slow down for the world, one day it will catch up with you.”

Nike

 

“No matter how hard you work, someone else is working harder.”

Elon Musk

“No one ever drowned in sweat.”

U. S. Marine Corps

 

“No struggle, no progress, no success.”

Maxime Lagacé

 

“Nothing can beat hard work.”

Conor McGregor

 

“Nothing in life that’s worth anything is easy.”

Barack Obama

 

“Nothing really works unless you would rather be doing something else.”

J. M. Barrie

 

“One must work and dare if one really wants to live.”

Vincent van Gogh

 

“Only in recent history has “working hard” signaled pride rather then shame.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

 

“Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

Thomas Edison

 

“He does nothing with haste and drudgery, but as if he loved it. He makes the most of his labor and takes infinite satisfaction in every part of it.”

Henry David Thoreau

 

“The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure.”

Henry David Thoreau

 

“He is not looking forward to the sale of his crops or any pecuniary profit, but he is paid by the constant satisfaction which his labor yields him.”

Henry David Thoreau

 

“There will be a wide margin for relaxation to his day. He is only earnest to secure the kernels of time, and does not exaggerate the value of the husk.”

Henry David Thoreau

“Why should the hen set all day? She can lay but one egg, and besides she will not have picked up materials for a new one. Those who work much do not work hard.”

Henry David Thoreau

 

“People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.”

Frederick Douglass

 

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”

Newt Gingrich

 

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”

Peter F. Drucker

 

“Shovel today’s challenges for your tomorrow’s freedom.”

Aniekee Ezekiel

 

“So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.”

Caterina Fake

 

“So you were born to feel nice? Instead of doing things and experiencing them?”

Marcus Aurelius

 

“Sometimes there’s not a better way. Sometimes there’s only the hard way.”

Mary E. Pearson

 

“Sore today, strong tomorrow.”

Unknown

 

“Start unknown. Finish unforgettable.”

Nike

 

“Start with a cry, end with a smile.”

Michael Bassey Johnson

 

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.”

David Bly

 

“Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing, and dream while others are wishing.”

William A. Ward

 

“Success at anything will always come down to this: Focus and effort and we control both.”

Dwayne Johnson

 

“Success is dependent upon the glands – sweat glands.”

Zig Ziglar

 

“Success isn’t given, it is earned. On the track, on the field, in the gym. With blood, sweat, and the occasional tear.”

Nike

 

“Take up one idea, make that one idea your life. Think of it, the 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

 

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented an individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”

Stephen King

 

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”

Émile Zola

 

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you.” If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”

Barack Obama

 

“The better your feedback loop, the better your work.” Businesses have the market. Novels have the readers. Science has experimented. It’s when a feedback loop is a small group of bosses or peers that quality falls apart.”

Naval Ravikant

 

“The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.”

George Carlin

 

“The cynics may be the loudest voices – but I promise you, they will accomplish the least.”

Barack Obama

 

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.”

Tommy Lasorda

 

“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

Muhammad Ali

 

“The first one gets the oyster the second gets the shell.”

Andrew Carnegie

 

“The harder you push, the more you are pulled.”

Nike

 

“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained in sudden flight but, they while their companions slept, they were toiling upwards in the night.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

“The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

“The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.”

Louisa May Alcott

 

“The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.”

Roger Bannister

 

“The more I want to get something done the less I call it to work.”

Richard Bach

 

“The ones who say you can’t are too afraid you will.”

Nike

 

“The only one who can tell you ‘you can’t’  And you don’t have to listen.”

Nike

 

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle.”

Steve Jobs

 

“The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you’re finished.”

Benjamin Franklin

 

“The problems you work on and who you work with are as important as how hard you work.”

Shane Parrish

 

“The question isn’t who is going to let me, it’s who is going to stop me.”

Ayn Rand

 

“The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.”

Robert Frost

 

“The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to appear favored by the gods.”

Maxine Hong Kingston

 

“The wiser you get, the less you take yourself seriously, the more work looks like play.”

Maxime Lagacé

 

“The world belongs to the energetic.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”

Colin Powell

 

“There is no substitute for hard work.”

Thomas Edison

 

“There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.”

Alain de Botton

 

“There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work.” And time for love. That leaves no other time.”

Coco Chanel

 

“There’s no talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsession.”

Conor McGregor

 

“There’s no way around doing the work it takes to get you there.”

Joyce Chapman

 

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”

Abraham Lincoln

 

“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 to work, realize it is playing.”

Alan Watts

 

“Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.”

Plutarch

 

“To achieve what 1% of the world’s population has, you must be willing to do what only 1% dares to do.”

Manoj Arora

 

“To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.”

Michael Jordan

 

“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”

Mark Twain

 

“To succeed, work hard, never give up, and above all, cherish a magnificent obsession.”

Walt Disney

 

“To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

“Victory is paid for in sweat, courage, and preparation.”

Nike

 

“Wake up determined.” Go to bed satisfied.”

Dwayne Johnson

 

“What comes easy won’t last. What lasts won’t come easy.”

Unknown

 

“What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

“What you don’t sweat out when you’re young will turn into tears when you’re old.”

Japanese proverb

 

“When he worked, he really worked. But when he played, he really played.”

Dr. Seuss

 

“When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.”

Marcus Aurelius

 

“When you feel like stopping think about why you started.”

Unknown

 

“When you find the right thing to do, and people to work with, invest deeply into that, and stick with it for decades.”

Naval Ravikant

 

“When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work isn’t an option. It’s a necessity.”

Steve Pavlina

 

“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

 

“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

 

“Without hustle, talent will only carry you so far.”

Gary Vaynerchuk

 

“Without labor, nothing prospers.”

Sophocles

 

“Work and you’ll get what you need; work harder and you’ll get what you want.”

Prabakaran Thirumalai

 

“Work as hard as you can. Even though who you work with and what you work on are more important than how hard you work.”

Naval Ravikant

 

“Work hard in silence; let success make the noise.”

Frank Ocean

 

“Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.”

Conan O’Brien

 

“Work hard, stay positive, and get up early. It’s the best part of the day.”

George Allen Sr.

 

“Work hard. Dream big.”

Nike

 

“Work harder than you think you did yesterday.”

Alex Elle

 

“Work incessantly, but be not attached to it.”

Swami Vivekananda

 

“Work isn’t meant just because you spend your life doing it.”

Anthony Marra

 

“Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.”

Henri-Frederic Amiel

 

“Work without love is slavery.”

Mother Teresa

 

“You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.”

Alan Alda

 

“You don’t get it by wishing.”

Nike

 

“You just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week.”

Elon Musk

 

“You may not be there yet, but you’re closer than you were yesterday.”

Unknown

 

“You’re probably on the right track if you feel like a sidewalk worm during a rainstorm.”

Larry Page

 

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.”

Buddha