Sometimes life is just hard as you’ve been feeling unmotivated all morning (or the entire day).
At other times it can be tough to muster the energy to keep working hard and you may land in procrastination and negative thinking for weeks.
I think it happens to pretty much all of us, from time to time. But one thing that has helped me over and over again is the advice from people who have gone before us.
So in today’s post I’d like to share 120 of the most motivational and inspirational hard work quotes.
I hope these timeless words of wisdom will help you too to find a boost of new energy and motivation when you really need it. To reduce your stress and renew your optimism.
And remind you that consistent hard work really does pay off in the long run.
Hard Work Quotes for Motivation and Positive Energy
“A lot of hard work is hidden behind nice things.”
– Ralph Lauren
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
– Beverly Sills
“You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.”
– Alan Alda
“The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!”
– Marvin Phillips
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
– Arthur Ashe
“Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work.”
– Scott Blanchard
“The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible.”
– Charles Kingsleigh
“Work hard in silence, let success be your noise.”
– Frank Ocean
“It’s not about money or connections – it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone.”
– Mark Cuban
“You must tell yourself, ‘No matter how hard it is, or how hard it gets, I’m going to make it.’”
– Les Brown
“If you really want something, and really work hard, and take advantage of opportunities, and never give up, you will find a way.”
– Jane Goodall
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“Without labor, nothing prospers.”
– Sophocles
“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.”
– Jack Dixon
“Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.”
– George Halas
“I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
Hard Work Pays Off Quotes
“The fruit of your own hard work is the sweetest.”
– Deepika Padukone
“Hard work always pays off, whatever you do.”
– Dustin Lynch
“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.”
– Steve Jobs
“Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.”
– Malcolm Forbes
“The only thing standing between you and outrageous success is continuous progress.”
– Dan Waldschmidt
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”
– Dwayne Johnson
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
– Vidal Sassoon
“Hard work pays off if you’re patient enough to see it through.”
– Michael Chandler
“I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.”
– Margaret Thatcher
“I strongly believe if you work hard, whatever you want, it will come to you.”
– Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”
– Peter Drucker
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
– Seneca
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”
– Henry David Thoreau
“The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work.”
– Vince Lombardi
“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”
– Michelangelo
“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.”
– David Bly
“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.”
– Jim Rohn
“The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.”
– Steve Jobs
“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
– Conrad Hilton
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”
– Robert Collier
“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.”
– Frank Lloyd Wright
“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.”
– Abraham Maslow
“All roads that lead to success have to pass through hard work boulevard at some point.”
– Eric Thomas
Hard Work Quotes From Top Athletes
“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
“Victory isn’t defined by wins and losses. It’s defined by effort.”
– Ashlyn Harris
“Talent is never enough. With few exceptions the best players are the hardest workers.”
– Magic Johnson
“Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.”
– Kobe Bryant
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 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
“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication.”
– Gail Devers
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
– Tim Notke
“There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.”
– Michael Phelps
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”
– Babe Ruth
“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”
– Billie Jean King
“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses — behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”
– Muhammad Ali
“Worrying gets you nowhere. If you turn up worrying about how you’re going to perform, you’ve already lost. Train hard, turn up, run your best and the rest will take care of itself.”
– Usain Bolt
“If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.”
– Michael Jordan
“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
“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”
– Vince Lombardi
“Talent is given by God but you should respect it by doing good work.”
– Johnny Lever
“What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110 percent all the time.”
– Don Zimmer
“The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.”
– Ernie Banks
“You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right there.”
– Venus Williams
“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
“Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss.”
– Doug Williams
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”
– Pelé
Funny Hard Work Quotes to Help Reduce Your Stress
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
– Winnie the Pooh
“Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?”
– Edgar Bergen
“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.”
– Lily Tomlin
“If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito.”
– Betty Reese
“There is no elevator to success — you have to take the stairs.”
– Unknown
“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
– Gary Player
“The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs… one step at a time.”
– Joe Girard
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
– Zig Ziglar
“The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.”
– Robert Frost
“The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.”
– Oscar Wilde
“If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.”
– Steven Wright
“I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.”
– Charles Lamb
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
– Will Rogers
“The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it.”
– Franklin P. Jones
“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
– Bill Gates
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“Success is like a wild animal. Everybody is hunting for it.”
– Unknown
“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”
– Howard Aiken
“I’m not afraid of hard work. I’ve done so much of it I know what it looks like.”
– Bob Hope
Hard Work Quotes From Successful Women
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“The most effective way to do it is to do it.”
– Amelia Earhart
“The difference between successful people and others is how long they spend time feeling sorry for themselves.”
– Barbara Corcoran
“Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow’s reality.”
– Malala Yousafzai
“I’ve learned that anything in life worth having comes from patience and hard work.”
– Michelle Obama
“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”
– Oprah Winfrey
“Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability comes true for us.”
– Susan L. Taylor
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“If you’re in a job that you hate, don’t be scared of seeking out something that might be riskier. Anything can turn into something with passion and hard work.”
– Whitney Wolfe Herd
“Don’t run before you can crawl. It’s a very hard business, full of many, many extremely creative, talented people who work hard and still fail.”
– Anna Wintour
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.”
– Florence Nightingale
“We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.”
– Maya Angelou
“There is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
– Amanda Gorman
“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.”
– Dr. Mae Jemison
“You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.”
– Marian Wright Edelman
“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”
– Farrah Gray
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
– Maya Angelou
“Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity.”
– Mae Jemison
Short Hard Work Quotes for Success in Life
“Stay humble, work hard, be kind.”
– Conan O’Brien
“Make each day your masterpiece.”
– John Wooden
“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.”
– Aristotle
“Focus on being productive instead of busy.”
– Tim Ferriss
“Without labor, nothing prospers.”
– Sophocles
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
– Steve Jobs
“Dreams don’t work unless you do.”
– John C. Maxwell
“Work hard in silence, let success make the noise.”
– Frank Ocean
“Nothing worthwhile comes easily.”
– Unknown
“Success is not a matter of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”
– Reggie Leach
“No shortcuts to the top.”
– Ed Viesturs
“Dream big, work hard, stay focused.”
– Unknown
“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”
– Abraham Lincoln
“Work hard, stay humble.”
– Unknown
“The big talent is persistence.”
– Octavia E. Butler
“Work smarter, not harder.”
– Allen F. Morgenstern
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
– Henry Ford
“Excellence is not a skill. It’s an attitude.”
– Ralph Marston
“Perseverance is power.”
– Unknown
“Keep moving forward.”
– Walt Disney
“Yesterday’s dreams are today’s realities.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“Work hard, dream big.”
– Bruce Lee
Want more inspiration and motivation for work (and less stress)? Then have a look at these motivational quotes for work, the positive workplace quotes in this post and this one that’s filled with teamwork quotes. Plus, this post with hilarious work quotes if you need a few laughs and some stress relief.