101 Quotes About Success

I’ve been on a success/achievement binge covering everything I know about success. And some things I had to research about success (just keeping it real). To close the series off (for now – I think) I’ve rounded up 101 quotes about what it really takes to be successful. In order to be successful you must fail, work hard, be a personal of character, be happy, be consistent and persistent, be prepared and confident, commit to continuously growing, have desire and passion, take personal responsibility for your results, be disciplined, have the right attitude and mindset, have the right team and in my opinion the most important thing take action.

Success and Failure

1. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston S. Churchill
2. “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
3. “Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe.” – Sumner Redstone
4. “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.” – Thomas J. Watson
5. “The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.” – Dale Carnegie
6. “Success is not the absence of failure; it’s the persistence through failure.” – Aisha Tyler
7. “Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats.” – Og Mandino

Related: How To Achieve Your Goals and Dreams

Success and Hard work

8. “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
9. “Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.” – Colin Powell
10. “Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen.” -Wayne Huizenga
11. “The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it’s possible to achieve the American dream.” – Tommy Hilfiger
12. “Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren’t sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better.” – John Carmack
13. “Success is not a destination, but the road that you’re on. Being successful means that you’re working hard and walking your walk every day. You can only live your dream by working hard towards it. That’s living your dream.” – Marlon Wayans
14. “There is simply no substitute for hard work when it comes to achieving success. Heather Bresch
15. “I’m always asked, ‘What’s the secret to success?’ But there are no secrets. Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.” – Dwayne Johnson
16. “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vince Lombardi
17. “There’s no escalators – there’s only staircases to success. There is no substitute for hard work.” – Lilly Singh

Success and Personal Character

18. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein
19. “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” – Bruce Lee
20. “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
21. “We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.” – Michelle Obama
22. “Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.” – Arnold H. Glasow
23. “The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.” – Zig Ziglar
24. “Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth, remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success.” – Rick Pitino
25. “Check your ego at the door. The ego can be the great success inhibitor. It can kill opportunities, and it can kill success.” – Dwayne Johnson
26. “I have an idea of who I want to be, I have a vision of my own success.” – Wiz Khalifa
27. “Honesty is the cornerstone of all success, without which confidence and ability to perform shall cease to exist.” – Mary Kay Ash

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Success and Happiness

28. “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
29. “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
30. “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” – Wayne Gretzky
31. “The measure of success is happiness and peace of mind.” – Bobby Davro
32. “Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don’t collect all these tiny successes, the big ones don’t really mean anything.”- Norman Lear
33. “Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.” – Napoleon Hill
34. “Fun opens the doors to creativity, which then leads to inspiration, which then births passion, which all together equals both happiness and success!” – Rachele Brooke Smith

Related: How to Really Reach Your Goals in Life 

Success, Consistency and Persistence

35. “Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” – Dwayne Johnson
36. “Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” -Napoleon Hill
37. “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” – Bill Bradley
38. “A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” – Elbert Hubbard
39. “The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it, and the perseverance to follow it.” – Kalpana Chawla
40. “The secret of our success is that we never, never give up.” – Wilma Mankiller
41. “No one succeeds without effort… Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance.” -Ramana Maharshi
42. “Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
43. “The longer you hang in there, the greater the chance that something will happen in your favor. No matter how hard it seems, the longer you persist, the more likely your success.” – Jack Canfield

Success and Preparation

44. “Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” – Bobby Unser
45. “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell
46. “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” – Confucius
47. “Talent alone won’t make you a success. Neither will being in the right place at the right time, unless you are ready. The most important question is: ‘Are you ready?’” – Johnny Carson

Success and Confidence

48. “Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.” – Virat Kohli
49. “You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.” – Zig Ziglar
50. “My success isn’t a result of arrogance – it’s a result of belief.” – Conor McGregor
51. “I think swagger’s a confidence. It’s a confidence of you knowing that you work hard for your success. A lot of times, you can’t develop swagger if you haven’t worked hard to succeed.” – Amar’e Stoudemire
52. “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.” – Mark Twain
53. “Successful people often exude confidence – it’s obvious that they believe in themselves and what they’re doing. It isn’t their success that makes them confident, however. The confidence was there first.” – Travis Bradberry

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Success and Personal Growth

54. “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin
55. “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” – William Pollard
56. “The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life – mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical.” – Julius Erving
57. “Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses.” – Marilyn vos Savant
58. “We know from research that growth is actually contagious, so if you want to reach your goals, you’ve got to get around people that are going in the same direction you want to be going, and you will catch the success.” – Henry Cloud
59. “Sometimes we may ask God for success, and He gives us physical and mental stamina. We might plead for prosperity, and we receive enlarged perspective and increased patience, or we petition for growth and are blessed with the gift of grace. He may bestow upon us conviction and confidence as we strive to achieve worthy goals.” – David A. Bednar

Success, Passion, and Desire

60. “Success comes to those who dedicate everything to their passion in life. To be successful, it is also very important to be humble and never let fame or money travel to your head.” – A. R. Rahman
61. “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
62. “The starting point of all achievement is desire.” – Napoleon Hill
63. “Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.” – David Frost
64. “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” – Pablo Picasso
65. “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.” – Robert Kiyosaki
66. “A passionate belief in your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren’t proud of what you’re doing, why should anybody else be?” – Richard Branson
67. “Passion is what gives meaning to our lives. It’s what allows us to achieve success beyond our wildest imagination. Try to find a career path that you have a passion for.” – Henry Samueli
68. “When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” – John Ruskin
69. “I’d rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate.” – George Burns
70. “Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.” – Denis Waitley
71. “The most important thing is being passionate about what you’re doing and always give it your all. That is the key to success.” – Charlie White
72. “I’ve always believed that success for anyone is all about drive, dedication, and desire, but for me, it’s also been about confidence and faith.” – Stephen Curry

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Success and Personal Responsibility

73. “At the end of the day, you are solely responsible for your success and your failure. And the sooner you realize that, you accept that, and integrate that into your work ethic, you will start being successful. As long as you blame others for the reason you aren’t where you want to be, you will always be a failure.” – Erin Cummings
74. “’No one can make you successful; the will to success comes from within.’ I’ve made this my motto. I’ve internalized it to the point of understanding that the success of my actions and/or endeavors doesn’t depend on anyone else, and that includes a possible failure.” – Fabrizio Moreira
75. “We were all born with a certain degree of power. The key to success is discovering this innate power and using it daily to deal with whatever challenges come our way.” – Les Brown
76. “I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.” – Florence Nightingale
77. “Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” – Helen Keller
78. “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” – John Wooden

Related: Tools and Resources to Help You Achieve Your Goals

Success and Discipline

79. “The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.” – John C. Maxwell
80. “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.” – Jim Rohn
81. “Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” -Arthur Ashe
82. “Our daily decisions and habits have a huge impact upon both our levels of happiness and success.” – Shawn Achor
83. “As long as you have discipline, you can be a success. Discipline is what makes you do everything you need to do.” – Anthony Joshua

Success, Attitude, and Mindset

84. “For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.” – Walter Scott
85. “Before you can become a millionaire, you must learn to think like one. You must learn how to motivate yourself to counter fear with courage. Making critical decisions about your career, business, investments and other resources conjures up fear, fear that is part of the process of becoming a financial success.” – Thomas J. Stanley
86. “Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.” – David Joseph Schwartz
87. “The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.” – Brian Tracy
88. “Success is really about your mindset.” – F. Gary Gray
89. “When you have a ‘solution thinking mindset’ – and choose to focus 80% of your thoughts/words on solutions – you will not only be heading more speedily to long-term success, but you will immediately feel better in the moment.” – Karen Salmanso

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Success and Teamwork

90. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford
91. “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” -Babe Ruth
92. “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” -Helen Keller
93. “No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.” – Alfred North Whitehead

Success and Action

94. “Action is the foundational key to all success.”- Pablo Picasso
95. “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” – Swami Vivekananda
96. “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” – John D. Rockefeller
97. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
98. “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
99. “Success comes from taking the initiative and following up… persisting… eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?” – Tony Robbins
100. “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau
101. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton

And just for giggles

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.” – W. C. Fields