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Knowhow: 330 quotes about business success to inspire you

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Quotes about business success that are perfect for speeches, team activities or just plain inspiration to keep us going in tough times.

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300 quotes about business success

“To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.” —Thomas Watson Sr., chairman and CEO of International Business Machines

“I may be over the top on this, but I just don’t want to like my competitors. I want my people to believe that whenever he and our other competitors succeed, we will be less able to do all the things we want to do.” —Phil Knight, chairman emeritus of Nike

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” —Napoleon Hill, author of “Think and Grow Rich”

“Some people dream of business success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” — Wayne Huizenga, prolific American business person, owner of Blockbuster Video and the Miami Dolphins

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently… A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.” —Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Co.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple

“You can’t ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” —Bill Gates, founder and CEO of Microsoft

“My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long university education that I never had—every day I’m learning something new.” —Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal—a commitment to excellence—that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” —Mario Andretti, American race car driver

“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, executive, head coach, and NFL player

“As ever, the accountant in me saw the risk, the entrepreneur saw the possibility. So I split the difference and kept moving forward.” —Phil Knight, chairman emeritus of Nike

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” —Tony Robbins, businessman, author, and philanthropist.

“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” — Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.” — Socrates, father of Western philosophy

“If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to meet it!” – Jonathan Winters

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs

“Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.” – Peter Drucker

“Have the end in mind and every day make sure your working towards it” – Ryan Allis

“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader

“Paying attention to simple little things that most men neglect makes a few men rich.” – Henry Ford

“Formal education will make you a living; self education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” – Henry Ford

“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.” – Unknown

“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou

“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

“Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners.” –Robert T. Kiyosaki

“Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” – Zig Ziglar

“Creative without strategy is called art. Creative with strategy is called advertising.” – Jeff  I. Richards

“Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.” – Baltasa

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” – Albert Einstein

“Poor people have big TV. Rich people have big library.” – Jim Rohn

“Don’t be evil” –Larry Page

“Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them.” –Seth Godin

 “Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions.” – Tony Robbin

“Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.” – Baltasa

“Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki

“Always deliver more than expected.” — Larry Page, co-founder of Google

“Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give — with a few exceptions — generalize whatever they did. Don’t over-analyze everything. I myself have been guilty of over-thinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work.” — Ben Silbermann, founder of Pinterest

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States
“Every time we launch a feature, people yell at us.” — Angelo Sotira, co-founder of deviantART

“Be undeniably good. No marketing effort or social media buzzword can be a substitute for that.” — Anthony Volodkin, founder of Hype Machine

“What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone, know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed.” — Dave Thomas, Founder of Wendy’s

“If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.” — Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon

“If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” — Zig Ziglar, author, salesman, and motivational speaker

“If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” — Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” — Thomas Edison, co-founder of General Electric

“The stars will never align, and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.” — Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week

“Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect.” — Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter

“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, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.

“Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you.” — Mark Cuban, AXS TV Chairman and entrepreneur

  1. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft “If you just work on stuff that you like and you’re passionate about, you don’t have to have a master plan with how things will play out.” — Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook

“If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.” — Omar Hamoui, co-founder of AdMob

“Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell.” — Lisa Stone, co-founder and CEO of BlogHer

“When you find an idea that you just can’t stop thinking about, that’s probably a good one to pursue.” — Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture

“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” — Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance

“Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” — Golda Meir, fourth Prime Minister of Israel

“There’s nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.” — Jason Fried, 37signals founder and co-author of Rework

“The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.” — Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder

“Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.” — Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

“The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to every evening think what can be done better tomorrow.” — Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA

“Nothing works better than just improving your product.” — Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow

“Get five or six of your smartest friends in a room and ask them to rate your idea.” — Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga

“Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.” — Tim O’Reilly, founder, and CEO of O’Reilly Media

“Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.” — Chris Dixon, an investor at Andreessen Horowitz

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs, co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc.

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” — Helen Keller, American author, political activist and lecturer

“Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” — Paul Rand, Graphic Designer

“Always think outside the box and embrace opportunities that appear, wherever they might be.” — Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman & CEO of ArcelorMittal

“Don’t worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.” — Jeffrey Zeldman, entrepreneur and web designer

“The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%.” — Rob Kalin, founder of Etsy

“If you’re interested in the living heart of what you do, focus on building things rather than talking about them.” — Ryan Freitas, co-founder of About.me

“Best startups generally come from somebody needing to scratch an itch.” — Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch

“Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” — Wayne Huizenga, prolific American business person, owner of Blockbuster Video and the Miami Dolphins.

“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” — Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur and co-founder of Alltop

“An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a want to create.” — David Karp, founder, and CEO of Tumblr

“Get a mentor in the applicable field if you’re at all unsure of what you’re looking for.” — Kyle Bragger, founder of Forrst, and co-founder of Exposure

“Every day that we spent not improving our products was a wasted day.” — Joel Spolsky, co-founder of Stack Overflow

“Anything that is measured and watched, improves.” — Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy

“Stay self-funded as long as possible.” — Garrett Camp, founder of Expa, Uber, and StumbleUpon

“Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.” — Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” — Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter

“Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined and connected to one another. And, when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” — Daniel Pink, author

“Fortunes are built during the down market and collected in the upmarket.” — Jason Calacanis, founder of LAUNCH Ticker

“It’s more effective to do something valuable than to hope a logo or name will say it for you.” — Jason Cohen, founder of Smartbear Software

“No more romanticizing about how cool it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a struggle to save your company’s life – and your own skin – every day of the week.” — Spencer Fry, co-founder of CarbonMade

“You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.” — Peter Shankman, founder of HARO

“Don’t worry about funding if you don’t need it. Today it’s cheaper to start a business than ever.” — Noah Everett, founder of Twitpic

“Data beats emotions.” — Sean Rad, founder of Tinder

“I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about.” — Jake Nickell, founder and CEO of Threadless

“See things in the present, even if they are in the future.” — Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle

“You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.” — Larry Page, co-founder of Google

“Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.” — Michael Dell, chairman, and CEO of Dell

“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right.” — Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

“All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.” — Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” — Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft

“In the end, a vision without the ability to execute it is probably a hallucination.” — Steve Case, co-founder of AOL

“Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” — Oprah Winfrey, media proprietor

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” — Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder

“Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.” — Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

“Embrace what you don’t know, especially in the beginning, because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will absolutely be doing things different from everybody else.” — Sara Blakely, founder of SPANX

“Diligence is the mother of good luck.” — Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father of the United States

“A person who is quietly confident makes the best leader.” — Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures

“Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical.” — Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks

“Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.”– Charles R. Swindoll, author, educator, and radio preacher

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” — Walt Disney, founder of the Disney Brother Studio and Disneyland

“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” — Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

“When I’m old and dying, I plan to look back on my life and say ‘wow, that was an adventure,’ not ‘wow, I sure felt safe.’” — Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder of Github

“Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” – Les Brown, American motivational speaker, author, and former politician

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” ― Oprah Winfrey, media proprietor

“You Are Never Too Old To Set Another Goal Or To Dream A New Dream.” – C.S. Lewis, British writer

“Live each day as if your life had just begun.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, German writer

“Lean forward into your life. Begin each day as if it were on purpose.” ―Mary Anne Radmacher, author

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ―Maya Angelou, American poet, singer, and civil rights activist

“Do not let the memories of your past limit the potential of your future. There are no limits to what you can achieve on your journey through life, except in your mind.” ― Roy T. Bennett, author

“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” ― Oprah Winfrey, media proprietor

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”― George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” — Charles Darwin, English naturalist, geologist and biologist

“Education costs money. But then so does ignorance.” – Sir Claus Moser, British statistician

“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.”– Michael Jordan, American former professional basketball player

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” — Henry David Thoreau, essayist, poet, and philosopher

“People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” — Tony Robbins, life and business strategist, and author

“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” — Colin R. Davis, English conductor for the London Symphony Orchestra

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.” — Thomas J. Watson, 2nd President of IBM, political figure, and philanthropist

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War II

“Today’s Accomplishments Were Yesterday’s Impossibilities.” – Robert H. Schuller, American motivational speaker

“Success is the sum of small efforts – repeated day in and day out.” — Robert Collier, author

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” — Jim Rohn, one of America’s foremost business philosophers

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” — Colin Powell, US statesman and retired four-star General in the United States Army

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” — David Brinkley, newscaster for NBC and ABC

“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” – William Feather, American publisher and author

“I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one.” — Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder

“I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” – G. K. Chesterton, English writer, poet, and philosopher

Never give up. Keep chasing your dreams. Life will be hard at times, and the strength lies in not giving up. Take a look at the best inspirational quotes about not giving up.

“If you can’t fly then run. If you can’t run, then walk. And, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” — Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the civil rights movement

“I got lucky because I never gave up the search. Are you quitting too soon? Or, are you willing to pursue luck with a vengeance?” — Jill Konrath, speaker, author and thought leader

The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” — Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” — Thomas Edison, entrepreneur and inventor

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War II

“You have to believe in yourself when no one else does — that makes you a winner right there.” — Venus Williams, American professional tennis player

“We May Encounter Many Defeats But We Must Not Be Defeated.” – Maya Angelou, American poet, singer, and civil rights activist

“Strength shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald, American fiction writer

“Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely on my tenacity.”
– Louis Pasteur, French biologist, microbiologist and chemist

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” – Earl Nightingale, American radio speaker and author

“You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can’t, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don’t give up.” ― Chuck Yeager, former United States Air Force officer

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”– Samuel Beckett, Irish avant-garde novelist and playwright

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” — Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft

“So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.” — Caterina Fake, Flickr co-founder

“If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.”— Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of Ebay

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” — Paulo Coelho, Brazilian lyricist and novelist

“A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” — Colin Powell, US statesman and retired four-star General in the United States Army

“There is simply no substitute for hard work when it comes to achieving success.” — Heather Bresch, CEO of Mylan

“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, Brazilian retired professional footballer

“No great achiever – even those who made it seem easy – ever succeeded without hard work.” — Jonathan Sacks, British author and politician

“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” — Harry Golden, American writer

“There is no substitute for hard work.” — Thomas Edison, entrepreneur and inventor

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” — Babe Ruth, American professional baseball player

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”—John D. Rockefeller, American oil industry business magnate

“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”— Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker

“Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me.” — Arianna Huffington, president of The Huffington Post Media Group

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt, known as “First Lady of the World” for her human rights advocacy

“If you can push through that feeling of being scared, that feeling of taking a risk, really amazing things can happen.” — Marissa Mayer, president & CEO of Yahoo!

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine, author

“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” — Michael Jordan, former professional basketball player

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa, political leader, and philanthropist

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey, American educator, author, and businessman

“The Ultimate Measure Of A Man Is Not Where He Stands In Moments Of Comfort And Convenience, But Where He Stands At Times Of Challenge And Controversy.” – Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of the civil rights movement

“Being Challenged In Life Is Inevitable, Being Defeated Is Optional.” — Roger Crawford, public speaker, author, and certified tennis professional

“Life’s Challenges Are Not Supposed To Paralyze You, They’re Supposed To Help You Discover Who You Are.” — Bernice Johnson Reagon, song leader, composer, and social activist

“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back.” – Paulo Coelho, Brazilian lyricist and novelist

“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” — Ray Goforth, director of strategy and partnerships at Spredfast

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” — Herman Melville, American novelist

“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” — Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group

“It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because all that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.” — Mark Cuban, entrepreneur, owner of Landmark Theaters and Chairman of AXS TV

“I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.” — Jeff Bezos, founder, and CEO of Amazon

“The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something.” — Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur, and blogger

“Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” — Drew Houston, founder and CEO of Dropbox

“Failure Will Never Overtake Me If My Determination To Succeed Is Strong Enough.” – Og Mandino, American author

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” — George Addair, real-estate developer

“Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Jack Canfield, American author, motivational speaker, corporate trainer, and entrepreneur

“Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison, entrepreneur and inventor

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” — Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

“Failure is success if we learn from it.” – Malcolm Forbes, American entrepreneur and publisher of Forbes magazine

“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” – J.K. Rowling, British novelist

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty—six times I’ve been trusted to take the game—winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan, former professional basketball player

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar, American author

“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realise I should have been more specific.”— Lily Tomlin, American actress

“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.” — Will Rogers, American actor

“I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” – Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States

“When I hear somebody sigh, Life is hard, I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’” – Sydney Harris, American journalist

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

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

“You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.” – Sam Levenson, American humorist

“Listen, smile, agree, and then do whatever you were gonna do anyway.“ – Robert Downey Jr., American actor

“Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.” – Dale Carnegie, American writer

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers, American actor

”Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain’t how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. It’s how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.” – Rocky, Rocky Balboa

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something, not even me. Alright? You dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.” – Chris Gardner, The Pursuit of Happyness

“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” – Jordan Belfort, Wolf of the Wall Street

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” – Gandalf, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

“Great men are not born great, they grow great.” – Vito Corleone, The Godfather

“Some people can’t believe in themselves until someone else believes in them first.” – Sean Maguire, Good Will Hunting

“Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.” – Alfred, Batman Begins

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

“After a while, you learn to ignore the names people call you and just trust who you are.” – Shrek, Shrek The Third

“Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.” – Benjamin Button, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

“What we do in life echoes in eternity.” – Maximus, from Gladiator

“Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” – Alan Turing, The Imitation Game

“Every man dies, but not every man really lives.” – William Wallace, Braveheart

“Someone I once knew wrote that we walk away from our dreams afraid that we may fail or worse yet, afraid we may succeed.” – Forrester, Finding Forrester

“It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.” – Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

“There should be no boundaries to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.” – Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything

“The accident is your training. Life is a choice. You can choose to be a victim or anything else you’d like to be.” – Socrates, from Peaceful Warrior

“In this lifetime, you don’t have to prove nothing to nobody, except yourself. And after what you’ve gone through, if you haven’t done that by now, it ain’t gonna never happen.” – Fortune, Rudy

” It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” – Jimmy Dugan, A League of Their Own

“Oh yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it.” – Rafiki, The Lion King

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” – John Keating, Dead Poets Society

“You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.” – Eames, Inception

“Find a truly original idea. It is the only way I will ever distinguish myself. It is the only way I will ever matter.” – John Nash, A Beautiful Mind

“If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.” — Steve Jobs, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc.

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” —H. Jackson Brown Jr., American author

“The more I want to get something done the less I call it work.” — Richard Bach, American writer

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” — Muhammad Ali, American professional boxer

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.” — Karen Lamb, author

“Someday is not a day of the week.” — Janet Dailey, author

“What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher, and poet

“Make each day your masterpiece.” — John Wooden, American basketball player

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” — Aristotle, father of Western philosophy

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

“Play by the rules, but be ferocious.” – Phil Knight

“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson

“Every problem is a gift—without problems we would not grow.” – Anthony Robbins

“You only have to do a few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” – Warren Buffett

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin

“There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them.” – Seth Godin

“I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” – G.K. Chesterton

“I don’t know the word ‘quit.’ Either I never did, or I have abolished it.” – Susan Butcher

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Almost everything worthwhile carries with it some sort of risk, whether it’s starting a new business, whether it’s leaving home, whether it’s getting married, or whether it’s flying into space.” – Chris Hadfield

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rodgers

“The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” – Barack Obama

“Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.” – William Durant

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved.” – Helen Keller

“The first one gets the oyster, the second gets the shell.” – Andrew Carnegie

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

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

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer

“Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

“I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.” – Oprah Winfrey

“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” – Babe Ruth

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon

“The only way around is through.” – Robert Frost

“The best investment is in the tools of one’s own trade.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston S. Churchill

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” — Herman Melville

“The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” — Colin R. Davis

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” — Henry David Thoreau

“Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” — Chris Grosser

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” –John D. Rockefeller

“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” — Thomas Jefferson

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

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

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.” — Albert Einstein

“Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

— Winston Churchill

“Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.”

— Tony Hsieh

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

— Winston Churchill

“I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.”

— G. K. Chesterton

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”

— Thomas J. Watson

“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”

  • Jim Rohn “The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do.” — Anonymous “Do one thing every day that scares you.” — Anonymous

“All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.” — Michael John Bobak

“People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” — Tony Robbins

“Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” — Robert Kiyosaki

“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” — Steve Jobs

“The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” — Barack Obama

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” — Helen Keller

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” — Walt Disney

“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” — Bruce Lee

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

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

“If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.” — Jim Rohn

“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure–It is: Try to please everybody.” — Herbert Bayard Swope

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” — Albert Schweitzer

“Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life; it’s about what you inspire others to do.” — Unknown

“Fall seven times and stand up eight.” — Japanese Proverb

“Some people dream of success while others wake up and work.” — Unknown

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” — Walt Disney

“The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.” — Unknown

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that other throw at him.” — David Brinkley

“In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.” — Nikos Kazantzakis

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison

“Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember–the only taste of success some people get is to take a bite out of you.” — Zig Ziglar

“The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.” — John D. Rockefeller Jr.

“You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.” — Oprah Winfrey

“There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that, once unleashed, can make any vision, dream, or desire a reality.” — Anthony Robbins

“The secret to success is to know something nobody else knows.” — Aristotle Onassis

“I failed my way to success.” — Thomas Edison

“I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” — Estee Lauder

“I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come indirectly through accident, except the phonograph. No, when I have fully decided that a result is worth getting, I go about it, and make trial after trial, until it comes.” — Thomas Edison

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” — Vidal Sassoon

“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” — Charles F. Kettering