150 Hard Work Quotes to Push You Far

Need a little extra effort to meet your goals? These hard work quotes are the place to start.

Ask nearly any successful person and they’ll say hard work helped them achieve their dreams and goals. Working hard is often the difference between success and failure, but is also a rewarding pursuit in itself.

So we’ve put together the best hard work quotes and sayings from athletes, presidents, and everyone in between to get you motivated and inspire a stronger work ethic in you today.

Quotes about Hard Work

With hard work and effort, you can achieve anything.

Antoine Griezmann

Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.

Gordon B. Hinckley

Work harder than you think you did yesterday.

Alex Elle

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

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

Charlie Munger

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

Iain Duncan Smith

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

Prabakaran Thirumalai

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

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

Sam Altman

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

Mark Cuban

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

Thomas Jefferson

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

Peter F. Drucker

A lot of hard work is hidden behind nice things.

Ralph Lauren

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

Kobe Bryant

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

David Ogilvy

I never took a day off in my 20s. Not one.

Bill Gates

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

Proverbs 6:6, ESV

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

Patrick Suskind

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

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

No one understands and appreciates the American Dream of hard work leading to material rewards better than a non-American.

Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential

Happiness is the real sense of fulfillment that comes from hard work.

Joseph Barbara

If your dream is a big dream, and if you want your life to work on the high level you say you do, there’s no way around doing the work it takes to get you there.

Joyce Chapman

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

Stephen King

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

Sarah Price

Quotes on Hard Work and Achievement

Ask any highly successful person, and they will always tell you that hard work was a major contributing factor in their achievements.

Although hard work does not guarantee success, it’s tough to find someone who has reached their goals without first putting in the necessary effort.

If you wish to do something that the average person won’t do, you need to work harder than the average person is willing to work.

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

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

Walt Disney

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

G.K. Neilson

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

Steve Pavlina

Don’t work for recognition but do work worthy of recognition.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

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

Newt Gingrich

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

Japanese Proverb

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

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.

Jim Rohn

Visualization works if you work hard. That’s the thing. You can’t just visualize and go eat a sandwich.

Jim Carrey

Without hard work and discipline it is difficult to be a top professional.

Jahangir Khan

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

Malcolm Gladwell

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Proverbs 13:4, ESV

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

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

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

Frank Lloyd Wright

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

Booker T. Washington

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.

Barak Obama

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

Michelangelo

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

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

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

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

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

Frederick Douglass

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

Gen. Colin Powell

The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.

Thomas Edison

Work Ethic Quotes

Working hard is not just something you do, it’s something you embody on the inside and out.

No matter what your field is, a strong work ethic is the key to doing well. These work ethic quotes highlight the value of working hard even when it seems tiresome.

Developing a good work ethic is key. Apply yourself at whatever you do, whether you’re a janitor or taking your first summer job, because that work ethic will be reflected in everything you do in life.

Tyler Perry

Leadership is more than just being able to cross the t’s and dot the i’s. It’s about character and integrity and work ethic.

Steven Largent

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

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

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

Habeeb Akande

The best way to learn is by doing. The only way to build a strong work ethic is getting your hands dirty.

Alex Spannos

A good work ethic is not so much a concern for hard work but rather one for responsibility. There have been a great many men and women who have, in fact, used work or hustle or selfish ambition as an escape from real responsibility, an escape from purpose. In matters such as these, the hard work is just as dysfunctional as the sloth.

Criss Jami

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

Every beautiful mind has great dreams, but rarely is anyone ever ready to work hard for their dreams.

Terry Mark

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

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

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.

You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind.

Irish Proverb

It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.

Confucius

There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.

Calvin Coolidge

The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day

Wayne Gretzky

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

Mark Cuban

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

Manoj Arora

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

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

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

Proverbs 12:24, ESV

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

If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.

Olin Miller

Motivation to Work Harder

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

Roger Bannister

Go and get your things. Dreams mean work.

Paolo Coelho

If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard; you’ll be hard to beat.

Hershel Walker

Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus.

Helen Hanson

Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.

Lowell Thomas

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

Elbert Hubbard

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

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

Dale Carnegie

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

Beverly Sills

Make a pact with yourself today to not be defined by your past. Sometimes the greatest thing to come out of all your hard work isn’t what you get for it, but what you become for it. Shake things up today! Be You…Be Free…Share.

Steve Maraboli

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

There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.

Michael Phelps

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

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

Stephen King

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

Henry Sy

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

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

William Arthur Ward

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

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

Ben Carson

It always seems impossible until it’s done.

Nelson Mandela

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

Mary E. Pearson

Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.

Madeleine L’Engle

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

Blair Waldorf

Believe in yourself, work hard, work smart and passionately present your best self to the world.

Hill Harper

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

Abraham Lincoln

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Colossians 3:23, ESV

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

Conor McGregor

Clever Hard Work Sayings

I would rather risk wearing out than rusting out.

Teddy Roosevelt

Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice.

Henry Ford

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

Steve Jobs

There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.

Zig Ziglar

When you do more than you’re paid for, eventually you’ll be paid for more than you do.

Zig Ziglar

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

Malcolm Forbes

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

Vidal Sassoon

Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.

Simon Sinek

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

David Bly

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

Robert Louis Stevenson

A pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood.

Gen. George Patton

Work smarter, not harder.

Allen F. Morgenstern

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

Robert Half

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

Thomas Edison

Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus. Muses are too unreliable to keep on the payroll.

Helen Hanson

The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.

Harry Golden

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.

Abraham Lincoln

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.

Jimmy Johnson

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.

Henry Ford

We hope you’ve enjoyed this collection of hard work quotes and feel ready to put in your best effort at whatever you do.

A strong work ethic is always a good quality, but don’t forget to include some balance too. When you feel like you’re losing perspective, check out our 7 Work/Life Balance Tips you can easily implement today.