35+ Quotes About Hard Work to Keep You Motivated and Moving Forward | Audible.com
35+ Quotes About Hard Work to Keep You Motivated and Moving Forward
Hard work is an integral part of human nature and drives us to be better. Check out our list of uplifting quotes about hard work to push you to the next level.
The things most worth doing require the most from us—it takes hard work to accomplish important tasks, achieve major goals, and realize your dreams. Commitment, sweat, exhaustion, frustration, and a willingness to fail are all necessary parts of taking on challenges.
When you’re in the middle of a difficult project, there will be times when you’re tempted to simply give up, roll over, and go back to sleep—or do something easier instead. In such moments, look to these quotes about hard work from successful authors to help motivate you to keep going.
1. “Ideas are worth nothing unless backed by application. The smallest of implementations is always worth more than the grandest of intentions.” - Robin Sharma,
2. “Dreams mean work.” - Paulo Coelho,
3. “It's easier to bleed than sweat.” - Flannery O’Connor,
4. “Talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.” - Patrick Süskind,
5. “A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.” - Emily Brontë,
6. “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, Little Women
7. “Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.” - Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
9. “Did you ever consider how ridiculous it would be to try to cram on a farm—to forget to plant in the spring, play all summer and then cram in the fall to bring in the harvest? The farm is a natural system. The price must be paid and the process followed. You always reap what you sow; there is no shortcut.” - Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
10. “It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.” - John Irving, The Hotel New Hampshire
Quotes About Hard Work and Success
It’s tempting to seek out shortcuts—or try to coast on looks, charm, and luck. These quotes from successful people are proof that achieving your goals and dreams takes determination and hard work.
15. "No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment." - Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
17. “If you try and lose then it isn't your fault. But if you don't try and we lose, then it's all your fault.” - Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
18. "They tell you: Follow your dreams. Listen to your spirit. Change the world. Make your mark. Find your inner voice and make it sing. Embrace failure. Dream. Dream and dream big. As a matter of fact, dream and don’t stop dreaming until your dream comes true. I think that’s crap. I think a lot of people dream. And while they are busy dreaming, the really happy people, the really successful people, the really interesting, powerful, engaged people? Are busy doing." - Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person
19. “It’s okay to be discouraged. It’s not okay to quit. To know you want to quit but to plant your feet and keep inching closer until you take the impenetrable fortress you’ve decided to lay siege to in your own life—that’s persistence.” - Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way
Quotes About the Value of Hard Work
It’s not just about the promise of success. Even (and especially) when the results aren’t guaranteed, hard work is its own reward: It makes us more honest and accountable, helps us understand ourselves and our lives, and improves the world around us. These quotes are powerful testaments to the value of hard work for hard work’s sake.
20. “I don't like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself. Your own reality—for yourself not for others—what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.” - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
21. “If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made—that you made—and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” - William H. McRaven, Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…and Maybe the World
23. “The homeliest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.” - Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
24. “Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time.” - Curtis Sittenfeld, The Man of My Dreams
25. “The monkeys solved the puzzle simply because they found it gratifying to solve puzzles. They enjoyed it. The joy of the task was its own reward.” - Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
26. "All profit that is out of proportion to the labor expended is dishonest.” - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
27. “Whatever you make, base it upon that which is most important to you. Only then will it have depth and meaning, and only then will it resonate with others.” - Christopher Paolini, Eldest
It’s easiest to work hard when you’re just starting out. It’s when you must continue working hard, after spending hours, days, or even years on a project, that your energy will threaten to give out. These quotes are about those moments—and about finding the motivation needed to persist.
32. “Being relentless means demanding more of yourself than anyone else could ever demand of you, knowing that every time you stop, you can still do more. You must do more.” - Tim S. Grover, Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable
35. “Do. The. Work. Every day, you have to do something you don’t want to do. Every day. Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable, push past the apathy and laziness and fear.” - Tim S. Grover, Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable
36. “Until you become completely obsessed with your mission, no one will take you seriously. Until the world understands that you're not going away—that you are 100 percent committed and have complete and utter conviction and will persist in pursuing your project—you will not get the attention you need and the support you want.” - Grant Cardone, The 10x Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
37. “You should first follow the plow if you want to dance the harvest jig.” - Ken Follett, World Without End
38. “When we're determined to reach an objective, it's the gap between where we are and where we aspire to be that lights a fire under us.” - Adam Grant, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
