125 Hard Work Quotes To Help You Keep Your Eyes On The Prize

We often refer to people’s achievements as overnight successes, but very often it’s hardly the case. Most of those who made it big in what appeared to be a short time have sacrificed a lot, going through sleepless nights and are completely engaged working for long periods of time under the radar. 

Take a look at your favorite athletes. Behind their success there are many years of practice, strict diets and an incredible drive. Another example are the artists we admire so much — they put everything they’ve got into their passion in order to get themselves to the top. And think of Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, who never took a day off in his 20s. In the end, it is often only the things that take enormous efforts that look like overnight successes. The only great achievement that happens overnight is winning the lottery, and only you can put in the hard work it takes to succeed. 

Here are 125 hard work quotes that will help you keep your eyes on the prize:

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

MARY E. PEARSON

Destiny is just a stupid excuse to wait for things to happen, instead of making them happen.

BLAIR WALDORFF

The difference between greed and ambition is that a greedy person desires things he isn't prepared to work for.

HABIB AKANDE

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

PETER DRUCKER

A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work. 

COLIN POWELL

I can never be safe. I always try and go against the grain. As soon as I accomplish one thing, I just set a higher goal. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am. 

BEYONCE

It’s not about money or connection — it’s the willingness to outwork and out-learn everyone. 

MARK CUBAN (more Mark Cuban quotes)

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose. 

MARGARET THATCHER

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is hard work. 

STEPHEN KING

If you are willing to work hard and ask lots of questions, you can learn business pretty fast.

 STEVE JOBS (more Steve Jobs quotes)

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

A lot of hard work is hidden behind nice things. 

RALPH LAUREN

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

ELON MUSK

We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.

ARIANA HUFFINGTON

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

DAVID OGILVY

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

VIDAL SASSOON

Without labor, nothing prospers.

SOPHOCLES

Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers.

PAT RILEY

The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.

J.C. PENNEY

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.

OPRAH WINFREY

The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL

The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.

BRUCE LEE

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.

CONRAD HILTON

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

Your friends will believe in your potential, your enemies will make you live up to it.

TIM FARGO

Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.  

KOBE BRYANT

Hard work success quotes

We often look at the richest men or women that have lived throughout history and think that life must’ve been so easy for them. Of course, some of them have inherited massive fortunes upon which they have built empires. Others have just spent their fortune recklessly.

However, most of the successful inventors or businessmen that we know today, have worked very hard to achieve their goals. Some gave up hours of sleep, some have even given up on the idea of having a personal life. Whatever path they chose, their success happened in time, through hard work and sacrifice.

Here are some of the best hard work success quotes that prove the fact that great achievements don’t happen overnight:

Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.

WINSTON CHURCHILL (MORE WINSTON CHURCHILL QUOTES)

Success is just a war of attrition. Sure, there’s an element of talent you should probably possess. But if you just stick around long enough, eventually something is going to happen.

DAX SHEPPARD

There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.

RAY GOFORTH

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.

JIM ROHN (MORE JIM ROHN QUOTES)

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure. It is: try to please everybody.

HERBERT BAYARD SWOPE

I strongly believe if you work hard, whatever you want, it will come to you. I know that’s easier said than done but keep trying.

BEYONCE (MORE BEYONCE QUOTES)

My teacher said to me, ‘If you’re going to fail, fail gloriously.’ I’ve never forgotten it. You learn a lot from your mistakes. You have to take risks and make mistakes. It’s terrifying, but it’s the only way you will learn and improve.

CATE BLANCHETT

When I thought I couldn’t go on, I forced myself to keep going. My success is based on persistence, not luck.

ESTEE LAUDER (MORE ESTEE LAUDER QUOTES)

You can want success all you want, but to get it, you can’t falter. You can’t slip, you can’t sleep. One eye open, for real, and forever.

JAY-Z (MORE JAY-Z QUOTES)

The reality of this way of life is that you have got to keep at it even when you don't feel like it[...] Otherwise you won't make it. It's no life for dabblers. You've got to dig it wholeheartedly, for if you don't, you just simply won't be happy nor successful at what you do. 

MELISSA COLEMAN

Achievement happens when we pursue and attain what we want. Success comes when we are in clear pursuit of why we want it.

SIMON SINEK

Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.

ZIG ZIGLAR

To succeed in this competition means finding yourself in a place where you call the shots and get the gains. This is not an easy feat, unless you are born into it. if you are not, you will need to out-smart your equals. You need to be more ambitious than they are. You need to work harder. You need to look better and smarter. You need to justify why it should be you and not them. It’s a competition. 

EMI IYALLA

Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.

ORISON SWETT MARDEN

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.

VINCE LOMBARDI (MORE VINCE LOMBARDI QUOTES)

To be successful, one has to be one of three bees - the queen bee, the hardest working bee, or the bee that does not fit in. 

SUZY KASSEM

A celebrity is torn between two worlds; the world of fame where he works very hard to belong, and the care-free world of the masses which he cherishes but works hard again not to be noticed in it. 

VINCENT OKAY NWACHUKWU

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. 

STUBBY CURRENCE

If you love your work, you’ll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you – like a fever. 

SAM WALTON

Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.

BEN CARSON

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, stick-to-itiveness, and common sense. 

THOMAS EDISON

Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get. 

RAY KROC

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. 

PELE

See, winners embrace hard work.

LOU HOLTZ

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

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

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. 

DALE CARNEGIE (more Dale Carnegie quotes)

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

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

I’m against retiring. The thing that keeps a man alive is having something to do.

COLONEL SANDERS

Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.

DWAYNE “THE ROCK” JOHNSON

For every two minutes of glamour, there are eight hours of hard work.

JESSICA SAVITCH

It takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to have spectacular results in both business and football.

ROGER STAUBACH

I work hard because I love my work.

BILL GATES

Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.

MALCOLM FORBES

Do or do not. There is no try.

YODA

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

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Work hard, have fun, make history.

JEFF BEZOS

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

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

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Be honest, work hard, have fun, be grateful, and pay it forward.

BRUCE T. HALLE

Successful people follow their passion, not money. Nonetheless, their success attracts money. 

MARTIN UZOCHUKWU UGWU

Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you.

MARK CUBAN

Successful people aren't born successful. Behind it all there is hardwork, persistence and a lot of grit. 

ARSHAD WAHEDNA

No one ‘deserves’ success; it is either earned with hard work or lost to the hands of fate. 

SANHITA BARUAH

My generation of radicals and breakers-down never found anything to take the place of the old virtues of work and courage and the old graces of courtesy and politeness. 

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

No going around it, no short cuts, no laying of hands, no amount of service, no amount of prophecy, without hard work, everything else goes to waste. 

SUNDAY ADELAJA

Successful people are not gifted; they just work hard, then succeed on purpose.

G.K. NEILSON

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

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

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

COLIN POWELL

A little more persistence a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn into a glorious success.

ELBERT HUBBARD

There is no substitute for hard work. There is no such thing as an overnight success or easy money.

HENRY SY

If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.

STEVE JOBS

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

DAVID BLY

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

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

MICHAEL JORDAN

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

WALT DISNEY

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs.

ZIG ZIGLAR

Nothing can subtract hard work from success, only add to it.

MANJUNATH HARLAPUR

Working hard overcomes a who lot of other obstacles. You can have unbelievable intelligence, you can have connections, you can have opportunities fall out of the sky. But in the end, hard work is the true, enduring characteristic of successful people.

MARSHA EVANS

The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!

MARVIN PHILLIP

Successful people are not gifted; they just work hard, then succeed on purpose.

G. K. NELSON

If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.

MALCOLM GLADWELL

Success isn't a given. It's earned. On the track, on the field, in the gym. With blood, sweat, and the occasional tear.

NIKE

Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.

VIRAT KOHLI

Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better.

JOHN CARMACK

Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.

COLIN POWELL

Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.

ROBERT COLLIER

You've got to work hard for your success and you've got to have a steady presence. That's the secret.

KID ROCK

Don’t worry about being successful but work toward being significant and the success will naturally follow.  

OPRAH WINFREY

Hard work beats talent quotes

Many of us think that talent is everything in certain fields, but in reality hard work beats talent.

Some seem to be born with amazing abilities, whatever those may be. For these people, becoming successful in their field is clearly easier. But then, there are those who work so hard that they eventually become better than those who are gifted.

There’s room for improvement, no matter how talented you are. You still have to practice and nurture your talent. You might be the best today, but never underestimate your “rival” for their lack of talent because if they work hard enough, they might take your place at any given moment.

Here are our favorite hard work beats talent quotes:

"Hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard."

TIM NOTKE

"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment."

MAHATMA GANDHI (more Mahatma Gandhi quotes)

"I learned the value of hard work by working hard."

MARGARET MEAD (more Margaret Mead quotes)

Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice. 

HENRY FORD

Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.

MICHAEL JORDAN (more Michael Jordan quotes)

I’ve learned that anything in life worth having comes from patience and hard work. 

GREG BEHRENDT

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 (more Vince Lombardi quotes)

Great companies are built in the office, with hard work put in by a team. 

EMILY CHANG

Luck? 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 something else: Hard work - and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't.

LUCILLE BALL

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%. 

ANDREW CARNEGIE

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

NEWT GINGRICH

I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it.

BRUCE JENNER

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

Dreams can come true, but there is a secret. They’re realized through the magic of persistence, determination, commitment, passion, practice, focus & hard work. They happen a step at a time, manifested over years, not weeks.

ELBERT HUBBARD

Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.

DALAI LAMA

It’s hard to beat a person who doesn’t give up.

BABE RUTH

The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible.

CHARLES KINGSLEIGH

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

SALVADOR DALI

Working hard is great, being lazy sometimes is great, but failed potential is the worst.

CAMPBELL SCOTT

You can achieve anything you put your mind and hard work to.

SARA SAMPAIO

Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.

DAVID ROCKEFELLER

Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy. 

ROBERT HALF

There is no magic to achievement. It’s really about hard work, choices, and persistence.

MICHELLE OBAMA

All roads that lead to success have to pass through hard work boulevard at some point.

ERIC THOMAS

If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.

JACK DIXON

Hard work will take you to the top. But talent will only bring you to the door.

UNKNOWN

Work hard! In the end, passion and hard work beat out natural talent.  

PETE DOCTER

Talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.  

PATRICK SUSKIND