You’ve heard about the importance of grit.
And I hope you also know grit and resilience is something you can build and grow within yourself.
Ultimately, your grit will have more to do with your success than your IQ and other inherited gifts put together.
It’ll also get you farther than “who you know.”
But it can’t hurt to collect some inspiring quotes about grit.
And to that end, we’ve collected the following grit quotes to inspire you.
What Is Grit?
Do you know someone who always digs in, never gives up and has an impressive knack for picking themself up after falls and failures — no matter how hard or frequent?
This is what “grit” looks like, and developing it will positively impact your life. Grit is courage, resolve, and strength of character.
Neuroscientist and psychologist Angela Duckworth is one of the world’s leading grit experts (as it relates to success).
After researching the topic for decades, Duckworth discovered that statistically speaking, the main factors that signal whether someone will reach their goals and produce quality work are passion and persistence — aka, stick-to-itiveness.
According to her findings, it matters more than:
- IQ
- SAT/MCAT/GRE scores (and other standardized testing results)
- Background
- Your “genes”
Why Do We Need Grit?
People spend a lot of time comparing, contrasting, and touting meaningless things like IQ; we also fall hard for the precocious offerings of “child prodigies.” Yet grit remains a highly underappreciated quality. Why should more people consider developing their determination?
- Higher Probability of Success: Sure, having a leg up in the “nature” department is helpful, but it doesn’t guarantee success. The research is undeniable: people who work hard and don’t give up after failures are likelier to reach their goals than those who don’t. So instead of worrying about how “smart” other people say you are, focus on how hard you work.
- Improved Mental Health: Success has a positive impact on mental health. So it follows that more grit, which fosters more wins, results in an improved mindset and enhanced cognitive function.
- Better Self-Esteem: There’s honor in effort, and people who put their nose to the grindstone usually feel great about their perseverance, which leads to better self-esteem.
To be clear, we’re not advocating for burnout. Working to the point of mental strife and exhaustion is not a virtue. You deserve a good work-life balance. But learning to prioritize “healthy hard work” will take you far.
71 Grit Quotes To Stoke Your Inner Strength
1. “Grit is not just simple elbow-grease term for rugged persistence. It is an often invisible display of endurance that lets you stay in an uncomfortable place, work hard to improve upon a given interest, and do it again and again.” — Sarah Lewis
3. “There is no failure. Only feedback.” — Robert Allen
4. “It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever – the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.” — Vince Lombardi
5. “Remember how far you’ve come, not just how far you have to go. You are not where you want to be, but neither are you where you used to be.” — Rick Warren
6. “In plain words, you’ve got to make up your mind to study whatever you undertake, and concentrate your mind on it, and really work at it. This isn’t wisdom. Any damned fool in the world knows it’s true, whether it’s a question of raising horses or writing plays. You simply have to face the prospect of starting at the bottom and spending years learning how to do it.” ― Eugene O’Neill
7. “Every great story happened when someone decided not to give up.” — Spryte Loriano
8. “No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” — Voltaire
9. “Grit is the persistence in following your own destiny.” — Paul Bradley Smith
10. “Grit is the grain of character. It may generally be described as heroism materialized, spirit and will thrust into heart, brain, and backbone, so as to form part of the physical substance of the man.” — Edwin Percy Whipple
11. “Above everything else I’ve done, I’ve always said I’ve had more guts than I’ve got talent.” ― Dolly Parton
12. “We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.” ― Carol Dweck
13. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” — Steve Jobs
14. “But it is a blessed provision of nature that at times like these, as soon as a man’s mercury has got down to a certain point there comes a revulsion, and he rallies. Hope springs up, and cheerfulness along with it, and then he is in good shape to do something for himself, if anything can be done.” ― Mark Twain
15. “The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph.” — George Washington
16. “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in, day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” — Angela Duckworth
17. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” — George Bernard Shaw
18. “The future bears down upon each one of us with all the hazards of the unknown. The only way out is through.” ― Plutarch
19. “I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
― Robert Frost
20. “A grit mind strengthens all of your strengths.” — Pearl Zhu
21. “It’s just as important to know when to drop something and shift direction as it is to know when to stick with something. When we quit the things that aren’t working for us, we free up our willpower and perseverance for the things that really do matter.” ― Rich Karlgaard
23. “Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal or any goal.” — Vince Lombardi
24. “Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” — James A. Michener
25. “Effort is one of those things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it.” — Carol Dweck
26. “Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” — Conrad Hilton
27. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed no hope at all.” — Dale Carnegie
28. “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” — Winston Churchill
29. “Anyone can be tough for a season. It takes a special kind of human to rise to life’s challenges for a lifetime.” ― Chris Matakas
30. “There isn’t a person anywhere who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can.” ― Henry Ford
31. “Grit is picking yourself up and moving forward even when you think you can’t take one more step.” — Christy Mossburg
32. “True grit is making a decision and standing by it, doing what must be done. No moral man can have peace of mind if he leaves undone what he knows he should have done.” — John Wayne
33. “The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” — Harry Golden
34. “When our commitment is wavering, the best way to stay on track is to consider the progress we’ve already made. As we recognize what we’ve invested and attained, it seems like a waste to give up, and our confidence and commitment surge.” ― Adam M. Grant
35. “Successful people aren’t born successful. Behind it all there is hard work, persistence and a lot of grit.” ― Arshad Wahedna
36. “The focus on talent distracts us from something that is at least as important, and that is effort. As much as talent counts, effort counts twice.” ― Angela Duckworth
37. “Life may try to knock you down but be persistent with your passions – cultivate grit, resilience, tenacity and endurance success will come.” ― Amit Ray
38. “Grit is having the courage to do the right thing, regardless of the popularity or consequences.” — Joan Hall
39. “Grit is that extra something that separates the most successful people from the rest. It’s the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.” — Travis Bradberry
40. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” — Albert Einstein
41. “To succeed at anything worthwhile in life requires persistence, no matter how gifted, fortunate, or passionate you are. When I interviewed late bloomers for this book, nearly every one said that once you find your passion and your “pot,” you need to hang in there – you need to persist.” ― Rich Karlgaard
42. “Never hope for it more than you work for it.” — Sonya Teclai
43. “Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.” — Winston Churchill
44. “Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going.” — Carol Dweck
46. “To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and rise eight.” ― Angela Duckworth
47. “Grit is knowing who you are and where you are headed, moving determinedly forward with eyes fixed on the mark, rather than the obstacles that lie in wait.” — Christine Bisch
48. “Grit is that ‘extra something’ that separates the most successful people from the rest.” – Angela Duckworth
49. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
51. “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
52. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou
53. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius
54. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb
55. “It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.” – Abigail Adams
56. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” – Mary Anne Radmacher
57. “Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.” – Roy T. Bennett
58. “The best way out is always through.” – Robert Frost
59. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
60. “Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.” – Rikki Rogers
61. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” – Maya Angelou
62. “The only way out is through.” – Helen Keller
63. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford
64. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
66. “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
67. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.” – J.K. Rowling
68. “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
69. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher
70. “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
71. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
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Make the Quotes Count
Now that you have these 71 quotes about grit, which ones stood out for you?
Which ones do you want to remember for those times when you might be tempted to give up and choose an easier road?
Here are a few helpful ways to remember your favorites:
- Have a mug or t-shirt created with a favorite quote.
- Turn a favorite quote into some inspiring wall art.
- Write a quote-of-the-month on a whiteboard or dry-erase calendar
Whatever has led you to this point, you want to make your life count. Grit is essential to that. And I’m willing to bet some of the challenges you’ve faced so far have made you stronger.
How will you build on that?