Take a moment to consider the perks that accompany hard work. Beyond a successful outcome, hard work provides advantages like intellectual stimulation and a strong sense of purpose. There are numerous benefits to putting in your best effort and pursuing things in life with dedication and diligence; yet, at times, it can feel challenging to keep pushing forward. If you need some motivation, these hard work quotes can help you feel inspired as you dig into a big project, tackle everyday tasks or make steps toward your larger goals.
Think about that flow state you can get into when you’re engaged in deep work or that feeling of setting, and then achieving, a goal. That’s what leads to success—and as you might imagine, at this publication, we’re big believers in leading successful lives. These sayings about hard work are helpful for personal motivation, as well as something managers, leaders and business owners can leverage to inspire their teams. After all, getting your mind and body engaged in a passionate pursuit can be one of the most defining experiences life has to offer.
Ready to get inspired? Dive into this list of inspirational hard work quotes from famous people, including musicians, writers, entrepreneurs and more greats.
Inspirational “Hard Work Beats Talent” Quotes
As children, it’s commonplace to try things and not succeed at first. Think about the path to walking, for instance: first a baby crawls, then pulls themselves up, then stands and, finally, starts cruising. As adults, we often forget how hard it is to be a newbie. We expect to be good at things from the get-go. But, of course, so much of being successful involves putting in the time to practice, fail, fail better and perfect a skill. These motivational hard work quotes exemplify that while talent is important for success, so too is grit and perseverance.
- “Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them.” —Joseph Joubert
- “The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” —Émile Zola
- “Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.” —Voltaire
- “Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.” —Anatole France
- “I learned about discipline getting clean; I went from a life of excess and lawlessness to realizing the upside of discipline, work, work ethic, and all that.” —Trent Reznor
- “Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.” —Pablo Picasso
- “The game’s not done until it’s over. You’re focused in until the last out is made. That’s my never-ever-quit attitude.” —Jeff Bannister
- “I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given.” —Muhammed Ali
- “The heights by great men reached and kept / Were not attained by sudden flight, / But they, while their companions slept, / Were toiling upward in the night.” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” —Michael Jordan
- “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” —Steve Jobs
Related: 4 Lessons Ultra-Athletes Can Teach Us About Grit
Work for It: Quotes About the Power of Hard Work & Success
Hard work is key. Of course, marrying hard work with talent (and a good support system) is how the harmony required to be successful develops. With these “work for it” quotes, we can see how hard work pays off—with insights from personalities ranging from tennis great Venus Williams to entrepreneur and icon Martha Stewart.
- “The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.” —John Ruskin
- “I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.” —John D. Rockefeller
- “A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity.” —Thomas Jefferson
- “Demanding is good. We all need a work ethic. I work 24/7. I don’t expect everyone to do that, but some of them should.” —Martha Stewart
- “I have to work hard if I want it to be successful.” —Venus Williams
- “Believe. Dream. Try. Succeed. Age, no bar!” —Colonel Harland Sanders
- “[T]o climb steep hills / Requires slow pace at first.” —William Shakespeare
- “Whenever you’re younger, you feel like it’s a job, and you have to be pushed. But now it’s like, This is what I want to do, so that’s why I’m here.” —Simone Biles
- “One of the best feelings in the world is being proud of what you’ve learned after you’ve worked hard at it.” —Fred Rogers
- “Whatever your goal for this year is, you can get there—as long as you’re willing to be honest with yourself about the preparation and work involved.” —Oprah
- “Money is indirect, direct is your ability or whatever you do on your own. If that works, the indirect things also work.” —Bruce Lee
- “Success always demands a greater effort.” —Winston Churchill
Related: What Gen Z Can Teach Us About Work-Life Balance
Sayings About Hard Work from SUCCESS® to Help You Get Ahead
Here at SUCCESS®, we’re privileged to have people share their personal viewpoints on what it takes to be successful—from our writers to thought leaders, keynote speakers and authors like Gary Vaynerchuk and David Ahearn. Here’s a look at some hard work quotes by famous musicians. Let their words of wisdom on success and getting ahead inspire you.
- “If you want to make it, you have to hustle. You need the drive to work hard and the willingness to go all in and put it on the line.” —Gary Vaynerchuk, “First Work Smart, Then Work Hard. (And Hustle 24/7/365.)”
- “As a blogger and a writer, I have personally learned that success takes time, hard work, and just plain stick-to-it-ness.” —Debra DiPietro, “Success Takes Time and Hard Work—Follow These 5 Steps to Stick With It to the End”
- “When it comes to success, a great many people say ‘Why me?’ when the most successful people in life say ‘Why not me?’” —David Ahearn, “Stop Fantasizing and Start Saying ‘Yes, and’ to Your Dreams”
- “It really became a theme in my career of working in underappreciated and underserved spaces. If there’s a core audience there, even if it’s an audience that was there previously, you can always find a way to reignite that audience, to engage that audience, to find them again.” —Jonathon Shank
- “It’s [America] still a great land of opportunity—where, if you work hard and you have personal responsibility and you create value for other people, you can literally still come from abject poverty to create a great quality of life for your family.” —Mark Matson
Related: 10 Ways to Stay Motivated From People Who Refuse to Quit
Quotes to Celebrate Success and Hard Work
At first, what it means to be successful may seem self-evident. But the reality is complicated: Success to some may be synonymous with wealth or, perhaps, with power. For others, it may be more defined by making the world a better place or by being content.
Working hard at things you love can also be a form of success for many. Take a look at these quotes about success and hard work that walk through the many complex possibilities. Keep them in mind when considering the nature of success, and let them inspire and motivate you to keep working hard at what matters most to you.
- “Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it.” —Viktor Frankl
- “Success is counted sweetest / By those who ne’er succeed.” —Emily Dickinson, “Success is Counted Sweetest”
- “I enjoyed the work that went into making yourself the best you can be but I hated what the scoreboard doesn’t say. It just tells you if you won or lost.” — Andre Agassi
- “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try.” —Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
- “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” —Albert Einstein
- “If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal—that is your success.” —Henry David Thoreau, Walden
- “Success means I get to do it again tomorrow.” —Steve Albini
Related: 10 Tips to Achieve Anything You Want in Life
Powerful Quotes on Hard Work and Dedication
Dedication is a key quality—along with hard work—to be successful. Again and again, these hard work quotes reveal that continuing to dedicate time and energy to projects (even when they don’t come easily) is key to performing well.
- “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” —Theodore Roosevelt
- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” —Thomas Edison
- “I see that my steadfast desire was alone responsible for whatever progress or mastery I have made.” —Henry Miller
- “I’m always trying to do better music. I don’t know if I’ve written my best song yet. That’s the big question. It doesn’t stop you trying.” —Paul McCartney
- “Success comes from the ability to handle failure and mistakes.” —Derek Fisher
- “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” — Thomas Edison
- “You can have a job, or you can have a career, or you can have a calling. And if you can somehow figure out how to have a calling, you have hit the jackpot, because that’s the big deal.” —Jeff Bezos
Related: 10 Questions to Help You Cultivate Authentic Grit
Famous Musicians on Success to Inspire Anyone
If anyone knows what it’s like to succeed, it’s these world-famous musicians—many of whom are known by a single name. And yet, of course, to perform at this height means hours of practice and time spent performing in empty venues. Here’s a look at musicians’ perspectives on success:
- “I’ve learned that true success isn’t about leaning on a name; it’s about crafting something genuine, something that can hold its own. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about being revolutionary.” —Beyoncé
- “When people have to work to get somewhere, you know they really want to be there.” —Madonna
- “The best revenge is massive success.” —Frank Sinatra
- “You know, people have a funny idea that success, [that] luxury is the end of the road. That’s not the end at all.” —Joni Mitchell
- “For as long as I can work, I will.” —Cher
Fuel Your Hard Work & Success With These Inspiring Words
From playwrights to pop singers, there’s a wide range of opinions on success and the things that undergird it—namely, hard work, perseverance, dedication and grit. From short hard work quotes to longer sayings to celebrate success and dedication, you can take inspiration from this collection of motivational phrases. Refer to them on days when you need a boost, you’re searching for some wisdom from the past or you want to recognize the power and value of hard work in yourselves or others.
Photo courtesy of Maria Markevich/Shutterstock
