“I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
Steve Jobs
Collection
100 Success Quotes
A short introduction
Success is a word that gets dressed up too often. Trophies. Followers. A number on a screen. Most of the people who actually built something talk about it more quietly. They talk about showing up, staying with a problem, and not confusing applause with the work.
This collection gathers a hundred success quotes from founders, writers, coaches, and public figures who earned the right to comment. You will find lines about starting before you feel ready, about failure as tuition, and about the long stretch between an idea and a result.
None of this is a formula. A quote cannot run your company or finish your book. What it can do is reset your attention. On a crowded day, one clear sentence can put the next task back in front of you.
If a line fits, keep the author's name with it. Then, if you want the words on a wall or a story, generate a poster. FOURQuoteDesigns makes four designs from the same quote so you can pick the one that feels like you.
Read for the work, not the hype. The useful quotes on this page are the ones that make success sound like a practice, not a personality.
100 quotes
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Aristotle
“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”
Aristotle
“It always seems impossible until it's done.”
Nelson Mandela
“I never lose. I either win or I learn.”
Nelson Mandela
“A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.”
Nelson Mandela
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't — you're right.”
Henry Ford
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
Henry Ford
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Henry Ford
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Well done is better than well said.”
Benjamin Franklin
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Winston Churchill
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
Winston Churchill
“Action is the foundational key to all success.”
Pablo Picasso
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
Albert Einstein
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
Albert Einstein
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
Albert Einstein
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
Thomas Edison
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
Thomas Edison
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas Edison
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
Zig Ziglar
“You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
Zig Ziglar
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
Walt Disney
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Be not afraid of greatness.”
William Shakespeare
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'”
Muhammad Ali
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
Muhammad Ali
“I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.”
Muhammad Ali
“Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision.”
Muhammad Ali
“I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”
Michael Jordan
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
Michael Jordan
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.”
Michael Jordan
“Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”
Michael Jordan
“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
“Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”
Michael Jordan
“If you quit once it becomes a habit. Never quit.”
Michael Jordan
“The minute you get away from fundamentals — whether it's proper technique, work ethic or mental preparation — the bottom can fall out of your game.”
Michael Jordan
“My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.”
Michael Jordan
“Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is.”
Vince Lombardi
“The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work.”
Vince Lombardi
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
Vince Lombardi
“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
Vince Lombardi
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
Vince Lombardi
“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“You can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen and to be heard and to have an effect.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Just remember, you can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
Jim Rohn
“Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better.”
Jim Rohn
“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals.”
Jim Rohn
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
Jim Rohn
“Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
Jim Rohn
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
Jim Rohn
“The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.”
Jim Rohn
“Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.”
Winston Churchill
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
Tony Robbins
“The path to success is to take massive, determined action.”
Tony Robbins
“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”
George Bernard Shaw
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
George Bernard Shaw
“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
Warren Buffett
“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.”
Warren Buffett
“It's better to hang out with people better than you.”
Warren Buffett
“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”
Andrew Grove
“It's fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
Bill Gates
“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”
Peter Drucker
“The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.”
Reid Hoffman
“Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”
John D. Rockefeller
“I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance.”
John D. Rockefeller
“Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great.”
Orison Swett Marden
“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.”
Oprah Winfrey
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail.”
Oprah Winfrey
“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
Leonardo da Vinci
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”
Robert Collier
“Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them.”
William Arthur Ward
“Small daily improvements over time lead to stunning results.”
Robin Sharma
“Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”
Dwayne Johnson
“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”
Bruce Lee
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
Bruce Lee
“In the middle of chaos lies opportunity.”
Bruce Lee
“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”
Bruce Lee
“Success is most often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.”
Coco Chanel
“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”
Thomas Jefferson
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”
Estée Lauder
“Opportunities don't happen. You create them.”
Chris Grosser
“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.”
Albert Einstein
“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill
“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.”
Steve Jobs
“I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
Thomas Jefferson
“Don't wish it were easier. Wish you were better.”
Jim Rohn
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
Vidal Sassoon
“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”
Dale Carnegie
“People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed.”
Tony Robbins
“The difference between winning and losing is most often not quitting.”
Walt Disney
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”
Bill Gates
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FAQ
They are lines about building something over time — skill, a business, a habit, a life. The honest ones mention effort and setbacks, not just winning.