Quotes about working hard are often tired motivational clichés:
“Just do it.” “Hustle until your haters ask if you’re hiring.” “Yesterday
Blind hustle culture makes my brain hurt.
But here, we’re looking for snippets of widsom: Witty observations. Insightful commentary. A peek into the mind of a successful individual’s routine.
What follows is a series of curated quotes about working hard from some of the world’s great thinkers, innovators, and trailblazers.
Take your time to explore (and I hope you find a tidbit that resonates).
Quotes About Working Hard
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thoreau
Hard work always pays off, whatever you do.
Dustin Lynch
A lot of hard work is hidden behind nice things.
Ralph Lauren
Hard work pays off. The harder you work, the more people will notice.
Sydney Sweeney
Preparation for tomorrow is hard work today.
Bruce Lee
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
Nothing will work unless you do.
Maya Angelou
The hard work definitely paid off and hard work always does.
Gabby Douglas
I’ve learned that anything in life worth having comes from patience and hard work.
Greg Behrendt
Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.
Henry Ford
Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.
Kobe Bryant
Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.
Conan O’Brien
Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.
Jim Rohn
Hard work pays off if you’re patient enough to see it through.
Michael Chandler
If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.
Michael Jordan
The greater the effort, the greater the glory.
Pierre Corneille
Happiness is the real sense of fulfillment that comes from hard work.
Joseph Barbara
Enjoy your sweat because hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but without it you don’t have a chance.
Alex Rodriguez
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
The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.
Steve Jobs
The harder I work the more I live.
George Bernard Shaw
If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn’t anything you can’t do if you want to.
Jim Henson
I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.
Julie Andrews
Without labor, nothing prospers.
Sophocles
Perseverance, the secret of all triumphs.
Victor Hugo
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
Beverly Sills
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
There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.
Michael Phelps
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
Colin Powell
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Seneca
The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.
Alexander Graham Bell
Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.
George Halas
The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work.
Vince Lombardi
Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.
David Bly
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
If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.
Henry Ford
Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.
Conrad Hilton
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
Arthur Ashe
Dreams are not easy. Dreams are painful. They force work and commitment. They are challenging and motivating.
Robert Kiyosaki
You must tell yourself, “No matter how hard it is, or how hard it gets, I’m going to make it.
Les Brown
Believe in yourself, work hard, work smart and passionately present your best self to the world.
Hill Harper
In any given moment we have two options. To step forward into growth or to step back into safety.
Abraham Maslow
If you really want something, and really work hard, and take advantage of opportunities, and never give up, you will find a way.
Jane Goodall
I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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
I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.
Estée Lauder
Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.
Oprah Winfrey
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.
Michelangelo
If you try and lose then it isn’t your fault. But if you don’t try and we lose, then it’s all your fault.
Orson Scott Card
Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.
Jim Rohn
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
Beverly Sills
…talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.
Patrick Süskind
The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.
Thomas A. Edison
Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.
Thomas Jefferson
The writer’s curse is that even in solitude, no matter its duration, he never grows lonely or bored.
Criss Jami
Your friends will believe in your potential, your enemies will make you live up to it.
Tim Fargo
Sometimes there’s not a better way. Sometimes there’s only the hard way.
Mary E. Pearson
It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.
George Herman Ruth
If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.
Jack Dixon
Parting Words
The most successful people I know all had to put in massive amounts of work to achieve what they have. There’s no denying that luck (or timing) plays into every success story, but the hard work element is always there, too.
What’s your go-to quote about working hard? Got any others that deserve a place on the list?
Thanks for tuning in.
P.S. You might also enjoy these related quote collections:
