Wise word about work

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All materials & writings are copyright © Jonathan Lockwood Huie, except for quotes and other specifically identified material which belong to their respective copyright holders if applicable.

You found our list of the best motivational, inspirational and positive quotes for work.

Work quotes are sayings you can use to inspire, motivate and encourage your teammates towards success. For example, “happiness lies in the joy of achievement!” or “mountains always looks high until you reach the top!” These phrases are often part of a “work quote of the day” program, and are also known as “inspirational quotes for work”, “work sayings” and “work mottos.”

These sayings are similar to motivational songs for work, can include hard work quotes, and work well to quickly boost morale and improve company culture.

This list includes:

• Quote of the day for work generator
• Motivational quotes for work
• Inspirational quotes for work
• Positive quotes for work
• Encouraging quotes for work

Let’s get to it!

Quote of the day for work generator

Press the button to generate a random work quote of the day.

List of inspirational work quotes

From career changes, to work life balance, to routine work days, here is a list of work quotes to encourage your team.

Motivational quotes for work

1. “Failure is not the opposite of success: it’s part of success.” -Arianna Huffington, businesswoman
2. “If your dreams don’t scare you, they are too small.” -Richard Branson, businessman
3. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” -Theodore Roosevelt, president
4. “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” -Henry Ford, businessman
5. “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” -Jimmy Johnson, football player
6. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” -Nelson Mandela, world leader
7. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” -George Bernard Shaw, writer
8. “What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.” -Ralph Stripey Guy Emerson, philosopher
9. “You are not your resume, you are your work.” -Seth Godin, Author
10. “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” -John F Kennedy, president
11. “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” -Lou Holtz, football player
12. “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” -Henry David Thoraeu, philosopher
13. “People who wonder if the glass is half empty or half full miss the point. The glass is refillable.” -Unknown
14. “Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it.” -Chinese proverb
15. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing; that’s why we recommend it daily.” -Zig Ziglar, author
16. “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” -Dalai Lama, spiritual leader
17. “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” -Mark Twain, writer
18. “The best revenge is massive success.” -Frank Sinatra, singer

Inspirational quotes for work

1. “Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.” -Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, entertainer
2. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle, philosopher
3. “Work hard and be kind and amazing things will happen.” -Conan O’Brien, comedian
4. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” -Tim Notke, coach
5. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” -Colin Powell, politician
6. “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, baseball player
7. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” -Thomas Edison, inventor
8. “A river cuts through a rock not because of its power but its persistence.” -Jim Watkins, businessman
9. “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” -Newt Gingrich, politician
10. “Nothing will work unless you do.” -Maya Angelou, writer
11. “Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.” -Frank Ocean, musician
12. “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” -Chinese proverb
13. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” -Steve Jobs, businessman
14. “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” -Martin Luther King, Jr, civil rights leader
15. “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” -Amelia Earhart, aviator
16. “Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress: Working hard for something we love is called passion.” -Simon Sinek, author
17. “I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you are not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald
18. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” -Socrates, philosopher
19. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” -Barack Obama, president
20. “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” -William Faulkner, writer

Positive quotes for work

1. “If you’ve created a work culture where vulnerability isn’t ok, you’ve also created a culture where innovation and creativity aren’t ok.” -Brené Brown, professor and lecturer
2. “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.” -Simon Sinek, author
3. “The only thing of real importance that leaders do is create and manage culture.” -Edgar Schein, professor and organizational expert
4. “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” -Richard Branson, businessman
5. “All good leaders are connectors. They relate well and make people feel confident about themselves and their leader.” -John Maxwell, author
6. “To handle yourself use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” -Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady
7. “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” -Franklin D Roosevelt, president
8. “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” -Harry Truman, president
9. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” -Robert Louis Stevenson, writer
10. “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether he’s twenty or eighty.” -Henry Ford, businessman
11. “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourselves.” -Chanakya, teacher
12. “If you are not growing, you are dying.” -Tony Robbins, motivational speaker
13. “The expert in anything was once a beginner.” -Helen Hayes, actress
14. “Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.” -Leonardo Da Vinci
15. “Learn a language, and you’ll avoid a war.” -Arab proverb
16. “We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.” -John Dewey, philosopher

Encouraging quotes for work

1. “Don’t confuse having a career with having a life.” -Hillary Clinton, politician
2. “No one on his deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.” -Paul Tsongas, politician
3. “Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” -Dolly Parton, entertainer
4. “We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.” -Michelle Obama, first lady
5. “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” -Stephen Covey, author
6. “There is no such thing as work-life balance. It is all life. The balance has to be within you.” -Sadhguru, author
7. “You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” -Charles Buxton, writer and politician
8. “You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.” -Oprah Winfrey, media mogul
9. “Life is a balance between holding on and letting go.” -Rumi, poet
10. “Be sure when you step, step with care and great tact. And remember that life is a great balancing act.” -Dr. Seuss, author
11. “If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” -Banksy, artist

Conclusion

The quotes and mottos on this list are a powerful way to bring inspirational and motivational messages to your coworkers. Whether you are sharing a work quote of the day, or just posting a random message of encouragement, these sayings will have a positive impact.

For more quotes on work, check out our articles on quotes on jobs and life, creativity quotes, team building quotes, team bonding quotes and quotes on work-life balance.

We also have a list of team building slogans, list of the best success quotes, list of fun facts of the day, and a list of books on motivation.

Plus, a list of tips on employee motivation.

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous
old work quotes, work sayings, and work proverbs, collected over the years from a variety
of sources.

We are once again at the start of a workweek.

So I thought this would be a good time to share 87 of the most inspirational work quotes.

Quotes that will motivate you, help you to focus and work smarter and also reduce the stress and pressure you may feel at work (or in school).

These quotes have helped me many times to re-ignite my own motivation on a rough or bad day and to find a calmer and less stressed focus so I could keep working consistently towards my own goals and dreams.

I hope they will help you to do the same.

Motivational Quotes for Work

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. “
Alexander Graham Bell

“Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
Jim Rohn

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

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
Paulo Coelho

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

“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.”
George Lorimer

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”
Dalai Lama

“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.”
Viggo Mortensen

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”
Henry Ford

“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.”
Denis Waitley

“Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.”
Jim Rohn

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie

“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

“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

“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

“The future depends on what you do today.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following? The extra mile.”
Gary Ryan Blair

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
Confucius

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

“Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
Saint Francis

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
Dale Carnegie

“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.”
Eva Young

“Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.”
William Patten

“Talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.”
Patrick Suskind

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

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
Napoleon Hill

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

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“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

”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 Wilson Watts

“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”
Stephen R. Covey

“Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost legendary. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Calvin Coolidge

“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.”
Albert Einstein

Hard Work Quotes (and Quotes about Working Smarter)

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
Mark Twain

“Happiness is the real sense of fulfillment that comes from hard work.”
Joseph Barbara

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

“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”
Peter Drucker

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

“In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Theodore Roosevelt

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.”
Seneca

“It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.”
Bruce Lee

“Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t.”
Gertrude B. Elion

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

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

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
Stephen Covey

“Plenty of men can do good work for a spurt and with immediate promotion in mind, but for promotion you want a man in whom good work has become a habit.”
Henry L. Doherty

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourselves.”
Chanakya

“Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.”
Roy T. Bennett

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

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
Beverly Sills

“I would visualize things coming to me. It would just make me feel better. Visualization works if you work hard. That’s the thing. You can’t just visualize and go eat a sandwich.”
Jim Carrey

“If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.”
David Allen

“A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.”
Mildred Struven

“If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing.”
Ernest Hemingway

“Think of many things; do one.”
Portuguese proverb

“Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.”
David Allen

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”
Francis Chan

“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

“Once you have commitment, you need the discipline and hard work to get you there.”
Haile Gebrselassie

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day.
We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead.
Then my father sat down beside him put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird. “
Anne Lamott

“Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well as now.”
Margaret Fuller

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
Muhammad Ali

“There is no traffic jam along the extra mile.”
Roger Staubach

“Your ability to discipline yourself to set clear goals, and then to work toward them every day, will do more to guarantee your success than any other single factor.”
Brian Tracy

“Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”
Peter Drucker

Uplifting Quotes for a Rough or Stressful Day at Work

”Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday.”
Brian Tracy

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe

“You can’t change how people treat you or what they say about you. All you can do is change how you react to it.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“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

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
Truman Capote

“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”
Richard Branson

“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
Hermann Hesse

“When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.”
Peter Marshall

“It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.”
Colin Powell

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”
M. Scott Peck

“The best way out is always through.”
Robert Frost

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”
Denis Waitley

“As long as they are well-intentioned, mistakes are not a matter for shame, but for learning.”
Margaret Heffernan

“Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I’ll show you someone who has never achieved much.”
Joan Collins

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
C.S. Lewis

“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.”
Bertrand Russell

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”
Helen Keller

“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.”
Maya Angelou

“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.”
Harry Golden

“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.”
Barrack Obama

“We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.”
John Newton

Last updated: 03/10/15

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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.If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.-Steve Jobs

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We work to become, not to acquire.-Elbert Hubbard

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Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.-Confucius

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Trust not what inspires other members of society to choose a career. Trust what inspires you.-Ernie J. Zelinski

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

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Your ability to discipline yourself to set clear goals, and then to work toward them every day, will do more to guarantee your success than any other single factor.-Brian Tracy

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Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.-J.M. Barrie

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To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work.-Sister Mary Lauretta

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Think not of yourself as the architect of your career but as the sculptor. Expect to have to do a lot of hard hammering and chiseling and scraping and polishing.-B.C. Forbes

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Nothing will work unless you do.-Maya Angelou

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When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.-Theodore Roosevelt

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If there is no wind, row.-Latin proverb

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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.-Barrack Obama

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Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.-Benjamin Franklin

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Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.-Napoleon Hill

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No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.-Theodore Roosevelt

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Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.-Henry David Thoreau

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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

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To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.-Pearl S. Buck

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Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood . . . Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.-Daniel Burnham

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All happiness depends on courage and work.-Honoré de Balzac

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Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.-David McCollough

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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 Wilson Watts

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The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.-Elbert Hubbard

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Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.-Madeleine L’Engle

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Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.-Gustave Flaubert

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Getting fired is nature’s way to telling you that you had the wrong job in the first place.-Hal Lancaster

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Work without love is slavery.-Mother Teresa

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

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Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.-Charles J. Sykes

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Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night.-Marian Wright Edelman

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If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.-Bruce Lee

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You’re blessed if you have the strength to work.-Mahalia Jackson

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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

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If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.-Martin Luther King Jr.

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When he worked, he really worked. But when he played, he really PLAYED.-Dr. Seuss

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You can’t rest on your laurels. Your own body of work is yet to come.-Barrack Obama

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We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.-Thomas A. Edison

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Work is not man’s punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure.-George Sand

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Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.-Gautama Buddha

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I’d rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate.-George Burns

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No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.-Martin Luther King Jr.

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Work isn’t to make money; you work to justify life.-Marc Chagall

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Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.-Gordon B. Hinckley

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All things are difficult before they are easy.-Thomas Fuller

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Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.-Aristotle

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It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.-Henry Ford

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The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.-Harry Golden

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Earning happiness means doing good and working, not speculating and being lazy. Laziness may look inviting, but only work gives you true satisfaction.-Anne Frank

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The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.-Richard Bach

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To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.-Mary Oliver

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The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first.-Ginger Rogers

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Hard work is painful when life is devoid of purpose. But when you live for something greater than yourself and the gratification of your own ego, then hard work becomes a labor of love.-Steve Pavlina

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We have too many people who live without working, and we have altogether too many people who work without living.-Charles Reynold Brown

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You should not confuse your career with your life.-Dave Barry

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Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.-Bette Davis

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Every noble work is at first impossible.-Thomas Carlyle

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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. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.-Lao Tzu

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I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.-Ray Bradbury

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The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.-Émile Zola

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Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.-Horace

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Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind.-Henry Ford

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You do your best work if you do a job that makes you happy.-Bob Ross

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Some people dream of success… while others wake up and work hard at it.-Unknown

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The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.-Vincent Lombardi

more inspirational work quotes

«Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.»
Tom Peters

«Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.»

Henry David Thoreau

«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

«Nothing will work unless you do.»

Maya Angelou

«Get a good idea and stay with it. Do it, and work at it until it’s done right.»

Walt Disney

«If you don’t like who you work with, go work with somebody else.»

Wally Amos

«I learned the value of hard work by working hard.»

Margaret Mead

«There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.»

Henry Ford

«The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.»

Richard Bach

«Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed — there’s so little competition.»

Elbert Hubbard

«Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.»

Louisa May Alcott

«If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities.»

Dale Carnegie

«If you love what you do, then it is no longer work. The money you earn is secondary when you love your work.»

Catherine Pulsifer

«The productivity of a work group seems to depend on how the group members see their own goals in relation to the goals of the organization.»

Kenneth Blanchard

«Four things for success: work and pray, think and believe.»

Norman Vincent Peale

«Winners have the ability to step back from the canvas of their lives like an artist gaining perspective. They make their lives a work of art — an individual masterpiece.»

Denis Waitley

«The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.»

Oprah Winfrey

«My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose — somehow we win out.»

Ronald Reagan

«Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes!»

Milton Berle

«You must judge a man by the work of his hands.»

African Proverb

«I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.»

Michael Jordan

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

Mark Twain

«Formula for success: Rise early, work hard, strike oil.»

John Paul Getty

«For it isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.»

Eleanor Roosevelt

«It’s not the work which kills people, it’s the worry. It’s not the revolution that destroys machinery it’s the friction»

Henry Ward Beecher

«Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.»

Confucius Proverb

«Many hands make light work.»

Irish Proverb

«The beginning is the most important part of the work.»

Plato

«All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.»

Calvin Coolidge

«What work I have done I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn’t have done it. Who was it who said, «Blessed is the man who has found his work»? Whoever it was he had the right idea in his mind. Mark you, he says his work—not somebody else’s work. The work that is really a man’s own work is play and not work at all. Cursed is the man who has found some other man’s work and cannot lose it. When we talk about the great workers of the world we really mean the great players of the world. The fellows who groan and sweat under the weary load of toil that they bear never can hope to do anything great. How can they when their souls are in a ferment of revolt against the employment of their hands and brains? The product of slavery, intellectual or physical, can never be great.»
Mark Twain

«When you can give yourself to work that brings together a need,
your talent, and your passion, power will be unlocked.»
Stephen R. Covey, The 8th Habit

«I believe you can accomplish anything if you have a strong work ethic and drive.»
Besim Halef

There’s a certain ingredient to success that most high achievers give a lot of credit to for their successes.  Traces of this ingredient can be found in just about every success story.

Pick up any book on success, and this key success ingredient usually jumps out at you in the first few chapters.  Watch any documentary or read any autobiography of high achievers who have accomplished what you aspire to do, and you’ll always hear them hint at what they owe their success to.

The Success Ingredient Available To Us All…

Often, we’re even blatantly told what separates the sucessful from the unsuccessful.  Yet, we still fail to embrace this crucial success ingredient.  Perhaps, it’s because it’s too simple.  Or, perhaps it’s because it is rarely pleasant, and never easy.  And well, most people like things to be pleasant and they love when things are easy.

But success can’t be found in either of those things.  No, but it can be found in their opposites.

So, what’s the secret ingredient?

Put simply, it’s HARD WORK!

That’s right, hard work is one of the key ingredients to achievement that anyone can stake a claim in.  Working hard and having a strong work ethic is available to everyone.

Achievement is a Choice

What this means is that anyone can decide to achieve more.  It means that succeeding at a higher level is always a choice.  It means just about anyone can make up their minds to win at this thing called life by simply choosing to embrace the pain, the discomfort, and the effort that goes into that creation process known as labor.  Yes,  hard work, labor, and toil is where all success stems.

But, don’t just take our word for it.

Read these work ethic quotes from the people who have done what it takes to succeed in life.  Let them move you to new levels of intensity and action towards doing your best work.  The result can only be a stronger work ethic.  Behold:

100+ POWERFUL QUOTES ABOUT WORK ETHIC

1. “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”  – Peter Drucker

2. “Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn

3. “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.” – Michelangelo

4. “Success isn’t owned. It’s leased, and rent is due every day.” – J. J. Watt

5. “I never dreamed of success. I worked for it.” – Estee Lauder

6. “If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.” – Hershel Walker

7. “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

8. “There is no easy way. There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline.” – Jocko Willink

9.  “All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.” – Calvin Coolidge

10.  “All wealth is the product of labor.”  –  John Locke

11. “Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.”  –  Malcolm Forbes

12. “Success is dependent upon the glands – sweat glands.” – Zig Ziglar

13. “The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it.” – John Ruskin

14. “I would rather risk wearing out than rusting out.” – Theodore Roosevelt

15. “Where I excel is sickening, ridiculous, work ethic.” – Will Smith

16. “There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” – Derek Jeter

17. “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson

18. “Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them.” – Joseph Joubert

19. “Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind.” – Henry Ford

20. “If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.” – Ben Hogan

21. “I would visualize things coming to me. It would just make me feel better. Visualization works if you work hard. That’s the thing. You can’t just visualize and go eat a sandwich.”
— Jim Carrey

22. “Hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but improves its chances.” – B.J. Gupta

23.  “We forget that every good that is worth possessing must be paid for in strokes of daily effort. We postpone and postpone, until those smiling possibilities are dead.” – William James

24.  “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” – Thomas A. Edison

25.  “You always want to outwork your potential.” – Kobe Bryant

26.  “Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.” – Robert Half

27.  “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

28. “The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day”  –  Wayne Gretzky

29.  “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

30.   “There is no substitute for hard work.” – Thomas Edison

31. “Employment is nature’s physician, and is essential to human happiness.” – Galen

32. “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

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

34. “I believe that opportunity looks a lot like hard work.” – Ashton Kutcher

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

36. “If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires.” – Malcolm Gladwell

37. “I’m always kind of doing something — there’s never really any downtime.” – Henry Rollins

38. “I can say the willingness to get dirty has always defined us as an nation, and it’s a hallmark of hard work and a hallmark of fun, and dirt is not the enemy.” – Mike Rowe

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

40.  “Without labor nothing prospers.”  –  Sophocles

41.  “Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.”  –  Voltaire

42. “The best things in life make you sweaty.” – Edgar Allan Poe

43. “It’s only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy, and resolute courage , that we move on to better things.”  – Theodore Roosevelt

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

45. “Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” – Bruce Lee

46. “Hard work opens doors and shows the world that you are serious about being one of those rare – and special – human beings who use the fullness of their talents to do their very best.” – Robin Sharma

47. “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

48. “The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” – Steven Pressfield

49. “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

50. “It’s not about money or connections.  It’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone when it comes to your business.”  –  Mark Cuban

HALFWAY THERE

Work ethic is the principle that hard work is intrinsically virtuous or worthy of reward. As such, those who have a strong work ethic are those lovely people who not only embrace hard work, but have a good attitude towards working hard, and putting in the extra effort in just about everything they do.

So, considering you’ve made it halfway through our collection of quotes on the value of hard work and having a strong work ethic, we hope you’ll agree, that hard work works. If you’re not convinced, well, this last batch of work ethic quotes are next level, so please keep reading. And if you are convinced, well, we already know you’ll go the extra mile to finish what you started.

Related: Work Hard and You Will Succeed

51. “Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it.” – Napoleon Hill

52. “You can’t have a million-dollar dream with a minimum-wage work ethic.” – Stephen C. Hogan

53. “Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.” –  Robert Half

54. “Genius is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” –  Thomas A. Edison

55. “Ideas don’t work for people unwilling to do the work.”  –  Robin Sharma

56. “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

57. “Working hard becomes a habit, a serious kind of fun. You get self-satisfaction from pushing your self to the limit, knowing that all the effort is going to pay off.” ― Mary Lou Retton

58. “I learned the value of hard work by working hard.” – Margaret Mead

59. “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” ― Ann Landers

60. “Work your ass off.  There is no magic pill.”  –  Arnold Schwarzenegger

61. “Do it from the heart or not at all.” – Jeanette Winterson

62. “You are working so hard not to fail. You have to start working hard to succeed.” – Steve Harvey

63. “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

64. “All roads that lead to success have to pass through hard work boulevard at some point.” – Eric Thomas

65. “Dream big, stay positive, work hard, and enjoy the journey.” – Urijah Faber

66. “You get what you work for, not what you wish for.” – Anonymous

67. “A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” – Colin Powell

68. “Success doesn’t come to you, you have to work for it.” – Anonymous

Related: Mike Rowe Quotes

69. “If a man is called a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and Earth will pause to say, Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

70. “Hard work works!” – Denzel Washington

71. “If you’ve got the confidence and the work ethic, you can make any dream come true.” – Bret Har

72. “No matter how hard you work, someone else is working harder.” – Elon Musk

73. “The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…one step at a time.” – Joe Girard

74. “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

75. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t Quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a Champion.’” – Muhahmad Ali

76. “Genes can’t make you successful if you’re not doing the work.  Yes, it’s possible that the ripped trainer at the gym has better genes, but if you haven’t put in the same reps, it’s impossible to say if you have been dealt a better or worse genetic hand.  Until you work as hard as those you admire, don’t explain away their success as luck.” – James Clear

77. “Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” – Conan O’brien

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

79. “Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.” – Ben Carson

80. “Everybody wants the hack, be the person who does the work.” – Codie Sanchez

81. “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” – Chuck Close

82. “Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing.” – William Arthur Ward

83. “Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” – Napoleon Hill

84. “Don’t work for recognition but do work worthy of recognition.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

85. “The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Work is the key to success, and hard work can help you accomplish anything.” – Vince Lombardi

86. “Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.” – Virat Kohil

87. “Work ethic is important because, unlike intelligence, athleticism, charisma, or any other natural attribute, it’s a choice.” – Mike Rowe

88. “When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.” – George Bernard Shaw

89. “I have a work ethic. If I say I am going to do something, I do it.” – Viggo Mortensen

90. “I was willing to put in the work.” – Ray Lewis

91. “How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.” – Yvon Chouinard

92. “With hard work and effort, you can achieve anything.” – Antoine Griezmann

93. “Work harder than you think you did yesterday.” – Alex Elle

94. “Luck doesn’t exist, only hard work works.” – Serge Nubret

95. “Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds” – Gordon B. Hinckley

96. “I am grinding while your sleeping.”  –  Gary Vaynerchuk

97.  “Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.” – Kobe Bryant

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

99.  “Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.” – Mohandas Gandhi

100. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – Tim Notke

101. “Do or do not, there is not try.” – Yoda

102. “Sometimes there’s not a better way. Sometimes there’s only the hard way.” – Mary E. Pearson

103. “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

104. “Developing a good work ethic is a key to success. 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

105. “My work ethic is the single most important factor in all of my accomplishments.” – David Goggins

106. “A lot of hard work is hidden behind nice things.” – Ralph Lauren

107. “I never feared about my skills because I put in the work. Work ethic eliminates fear. So if you put forth the work, what are you fearing? You know what you’re capable of doing and what you’re not.” – Michael Jordan

108. “Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today.” – Tim Fargo

109. “To be a legend is easy, to become that legend takes hard work and dedication.” – Tyson Fury

110. “Hard work and determination equals success. Nothing comes easy. Put your mind to something.” – Kevin Hart

111. “Work hard, have fun, make history.” – Jeff Bezos

112. “Talent is never enough. With few exceptions the best players are the hardest workers.” – Magic Johnson

113. “There’s no way around hard work. Embrace it.” – Roger Federer

114. “Hard work beats all the tonics and vitamins in the world.” – Colonel Sanders

115. “Talent without working hard, is nothing.” – Cristiano Ronaldo

116. “I am just an average man, but by God I work harder than the average man.” – Winston Churchill

117. “Hustle until your haters ask if you’re hiring.” – Anonymous

118. “Success doesn’t happen because you ‘re lucky — it happens because you worked for it!” – Robert Herjavec

119.“You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it.” – Lionel Messi

120. “Hard work betrays none.” – Anonymous

121. “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” – Kevin Durant

122. “Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.” – Horace

123. “Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.” – Dwayne Johnson

BONUS HARD WORK QUOTE

Bonus: Here’s one last bonus quote to ensure your work ethic is primed to be put to good use. If you’re a hard working nose to the grind kind of person, we know you’ll love this one. Enjoy:

“Work Hard In Silence, Let Success Be Your Noise.”

– Frank Ocean –

Work Ethic Quotes Won’t Work, Unless You DO

And that’s that friends!  The 100 best work ethic quotes you’ll find…anywhere.

If quotes move you like they move us, chances are high you are feeling some fire stirring within you right about now.  If this is the case for you, then great!  But, don’t just sit there.  Use the energy and motivation these work ethic related quotes just ignited within you to achieve something great.  And never forget….

So, let’s put this new fired-up work ethic to the test, and get to work!

Till next time,

STRIVE

PS – If you liked these handful of hard work quotes to inspire your work ethic, then you’ll really enjoy inspiring quotes on effort or these badass hustle and grind quotes .

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Having a good work ethic will help you get you started, but this little tool will help you go the distance.

Quotes tagged as «work»
Showing 1-30 of 6,685

Even Uncle Freud claimed that we live forto love and work. Indeed, a person devotes a huge amount of time to working (and also a lot of effort goes to find love). However, the meaning of labor is not only to earn money and provide for itself. To understand the place that work occupies in our life is easy: it is worth paying attention to the words of greats about the role of work.

Work and self-esteem

The philosopher Seneca has a saying about work: «Great people feed labor.» In work, a person seeks not only to satisfy his earthly needs. Through hard work, a person has the opportunity to increase his self-esteem, become more of a higher opinion of himself.

Some psychologists are not without reason to believe, thenhard work is the only way to do it. Self-esteem rights can be based on what he thinks about himself; what others think of him; and also a person can compare himself with some ideal or dream and, depending on it, build a certain set of ideas about himself. However, if at the end of the day everything that was planned in the morning is done, there is a pleasant feeling of contentment with oneself. After all, time was not wasted. I. Herder belongs to the following statement about the work: «Labor is a healing balm, it is a virtue source».

Work creates personality

It is known that only a person with a positiveself-relationship can be good for the world. And those who do not appreciate themselves, will try to devalue and surrounding people, their achievements. Virtue is the ability to do good, and it, as you know, begins with good in relation to yourself. And here it turns out that the best thing you can do for yourself is to work. Cicero said: «Work makes us insensitive to sorrows.» He who works, understands that the events of the surrounding world, even the most negative, can not significantly hurt his «ego», influence self-esteem. This statement about the work of the ancient Roman speaker allows to understand: a person becomes stable, accustoming himself to constant and painstaking work. All troubles become unimportant to him.

Talent is not a guarantee of success yet

Often we hear from people that,if they had talent, they could live a completely different life. However, these complaints testify not only to laziness and unwillingness to turn away their gaze from other people’s achievements and pay attention to their own talents, but also about the unwillingness to work. Here is a statement about the work that clarifies this situation: «Ability, valor — everything is nothing until we apply labor.» This is how Saadi spoke. As long as a person does not make an effort to achieve his own goals, find his talent and realize it, any of his skills will remain rudimentary.

Unfortunately, many bury their talents inbeginning the way, dooming yourself to boring and uninteresting work. They believe that to succeed in the field where they have a certain talent is too risky and unusual. It’s much easier to go the beaten path and wait for success to fall by itself. «After all, I have the talent of an artist! I’ve been drawing since 5 years! «- a man can think. However, in reality, such a position is erroneous. If you do not make an effort, talent will be «buried» without bringing in either inner satisfaction or financial reward.

Wise and short statements about work

Short statements allow you to catch the veryessence of what the author wanted to say. For example, F. Schiller said: «If it’s the case, let it end soon.» Every person who would like to achieve success must develop the habit of thinking about his own affairs as urgent. In no case can we not postpone the planned in the long box. In the same way, one should also treat your work day: many psychologists recommend that every day they work as if it were the last one before they leave. So you can significantly increase productivity. Let’s consider some short and wise statements about the work of great people:

• Each case has its own time (Seneca).
• Work to enjoy (Jean-Jacques Rousseau).
• Labor, which is pleasant to us, heals the grief (Shakespeare).

Funny statements about work

Work is always controversial, if a person embarks on it with a good mood. We bring to your attention a few cool statements about the work:

• «I want a job, like Father Frost — a day through 364!».
• «The work has three plus points — Friday, salary and leave.»
• «What do I need snow, what’s it to me, that it’s pouring rain … when I’m at work all the time.»

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