Success quotes can be a great source of inspiration. Sometimes it’s easy to lose hope and start thinking you’ll never achieve your goals. When that happens, it’s important to remember these best quotes about success from successful people who have kept going when giving up would have been much easier. This list includes quotes that are inspirational, short, positive or about work.
Short Motivational Success Quotes
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” ― Robert Collier
“Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” ― Coco Chanel
“For our own success to be real, it must contribute to the success of others.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.” ― Albert Einstein
“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” ― Napoleon Hill
“Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve.” ― Wilfred Peterson
“Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.” ― Oscar Wilde
“The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.” ― Ayn Rand
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.” ― Mark Twain
“Don’t care about success or failure. Keep doing what you love. Success will follow.” ― Udai Yadla
“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” ― Dale Carnegie
“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.” ― Arnold H. Glasow
“Success is not about never falling, but about rising every time you fall.” ― Michelle Cohen Corasanti
“Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.” ― A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
“Action is the foundational key to all success.” ― Pablo Picasso
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” ― Henry Ford
“The best revenge is massive success.” ― Frank Sinatra
“The road to success is always under construction.” ― Lily Tomlin
“For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.” ― Harry F. Banks
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” ― Estee Lauder
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” ― Bruce Lee
“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.” ― Dalai Lama
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” ― Alexander Graham Bell
“Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.” ― Malcolm S. Forbes
“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” ― Richard Branson
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” ― Maya Angelou
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.” ― Florence Nightingale
“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.” ― Arnold H. Glasgow
“The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.” ― Bruce Feirstein
“What is success? It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace.” ― Paulo Coelho
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” ― Benjamin Disraeli
“If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” ― Steve Jobs
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” ― Henry David Thoreau
If you like these, you might also want to check out our other lists of Funny Inspirational Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Today and Inspirational Life Quotes.
Positive Quotes About Success
“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” ― Mister Rogers
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.” ― John Wooden
“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” ― Henry Ford
“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” – Arthur Ashe
“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
“Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ‘someday I’ll’ philosophy.” ― Denis Waitley
“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.” ― Albert Einstein
“Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim.” ― John D. Rockefeller
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” ― Edward Everett Hale
“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” ― Bruce Lee
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” ― Booker T. Washington
“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.” ― John Wooden
“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 successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do.” ― Roy L. Smith
“Everyday presents a new opportunity to grow and press forward to your success. Stay the course believing that where you are right now doesn’t matter, as long as you are moving in the right direction.” ― Germany Kent
“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
“Success isn’t measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace.” ― Mike Ditka
“The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.” ― Mark Caine
“There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.” ― Christopher Morley
“Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.” ― Oliver Goldsmith
“Obedience is the mother of success and is wedded to safety.” ― Aeschylus
“Belief in oneself is one of the most important bricks in building any successful venture.” ― Lydia M. Child
“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” ― Conrad Hilton
“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” ― George Bernard Shaw
“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.” ― George Sheehan
“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
“Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.” ― Orison Swett Marden
“Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.” ― David M. Burns
“Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.” ― Zig Ziglar
“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, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.” ― Swami Vivekananda
Success Quotes for Work
“The harder I work, the luckier I get.” ― Samuel Goldwyn
“The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.” ― Richard Bach
“When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.” ― Henry J. Kaiser
“The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.” ― Jonas Salk
“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” ― John Ruskin
“The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.” ― Elbert Hubbard
“Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.” ― Stephen Hawking
“Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ― Winston Churchill
“To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.” ― Pearl S. Buck
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” ― Gustave Flaubert
“I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.” ― Neil Armstrong
“I’ve learned from experience that if you work harder at it, and apply more energy and time to it, and more consistency, you get a better result. It comes from the work.” ― Louis C. K.
“If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” ― James Cameron
“The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.” ― John D. Rockefeller Jr.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ― Thomas A. Edison
Success and Failure Quotes
“Every failure is a step to success.” ― William Whewell
“Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.” ― Earl Wilson
“Success is not forever and failure isn’t fatal.” ― Don Shula
“Success is not a good teacher, failure makes you humble.” ― Shah Rukh Khan
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” ― Truman Capote
“Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed.” ― Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.” ― Morihei Ueshiba
“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.” ― Andy Grove
“The one phrase you can use is that success has a thousand fathers, and failure is an orphan.” ― Alan Price
“I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.” ― George Burns
“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure which is: Try to please everybody.” ― Herbert B. Swope
“A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” ― Elbert Hubbard
“The man who has done his level best… is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.” ― B. C. Forbes
“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” ― Confucius
“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.” ― C. S. Lewis
“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” ― Dale Carnegie
“Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.” ― William James
Quotes About Being Successful
“I don’t dwell on success. Maybe that’s one reason I’m successful.” ― Calvin Klein
“Everybody loves success, but they hate successful people.” ― John McEnroe
“Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success.” ― Eckhart Tolle
“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
“Whenever you see a successful person, you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.” ― Vaibhav Shah
“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” ― Mark Victor Hansen
“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
“Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.” ― Richard Branson
“A person has to remember that the road to success is always under construction. You have to get that through your head. That it is not easy becoming successful.” ― Steve Harvey
“Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear.” ― Dan Millman
“To win is not important. To be successful is not even important. How to plan and prepare is crucial. When you plan very well and prepare very well, then success can come on the way. Then winning can come on your way.” ― Eliud Kipchoge
“Luck is great, but most of life is hard work.” ― Iain Duncan Smith
“A lot of hard work is hidden behind nice things.” ― Ralph Lauren
“With hard work and effort, you can achieve anything.” ― Antoine Griezmann
“Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No Excuses.” ― Kobe Bryant
“Happiness is the real sense of fulfillment that comes from hard work.” ― Joseph Barbara
“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” ― George S. Patton
“Men die of boredom, psychological conflict and disease. They do not die of hard work.” ― David Ogilvy
“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” ― Peter F. Drucker
“When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work isn’t an option. It’s a necessity.” ― Steve Pavlina
“Hard work is an essential element in tracking down and perfecting a strategy or in executing it.” ― Charlie Munger
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” ― Stephen King
“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.” David Bly
“Talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.” ― Patrick Suskind
“Without hard work and discipline it is difficult to be a top professional.” ― Jahangir Khan
“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” ― Newt Gingrich
“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.” ― Sam Ewing
“Positive energy knows no boundaries.” ― Lu Wei
“Surround yourself with positive people.” — Rod Rohrich
“Turn every life situation into a positive one.” ― Rhonda Byrne
“Be positive with every idea surrounding your dreams.” ― Israelmore Ayivor
“One has to be positive. When you’re positive, good things happen.” ― Deep Roy
“When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy.” ― Paolo Coelho
“Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success.” ― Shiv Khera
“An attitude of positive expectation is the mark of the superior personality.” ― Brian Tracy
“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.” ― Dalai Lama
“It makes a big difference in your life when you stay positive.” ― Ellen DeGeneres
“Say something positive, and you’ll see something positive.” — Jim Thompson
“You go in with a positive attitude and stay there.” ― Shelley Long
“If you are positive, you’ll see opportunities instead of obstacles.” ― Widad Akrawi
“In order to carry a positive action, we must develop here a positive vision.” ― Dalai Lama
“A positive attitude awakens inner strength, energy, motivation, and initiative.” ― Remez Sasson
“Just for the record darling, not all positive change feels positive in the beginning.” ― S. C. Lourie
“People have to remain positive and believe in those dreams. It’s really important.” ― Kirsty Coventry
“The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.” ― Winston Churchill
“Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.” ― W. P. Kinsella
“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.” ― Dennis Waitley
“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” ― Omar Khayyam
“It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.” ― Lucille Ball
“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” ― Abraham Lincoln
“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.” ― Albert Einstein
“The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.” ― Audrey Hepburn
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” ― Herman Cain
“Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.” ― William Feather
“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” ― Tom Bodett
“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” ― Frederick Keonig
“For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.” ― Seneca
“No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.” ― Winston Churchill
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” ― Winston Churchill
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ― Winston Churchill
Funny Success Quotes
“If at first you don’t succeed, find out if the loser gets anything.” — William Lyon Phelps
“There is no point at which you can say, ‘Well, I’m successful now. I might as well take a nap.’” — Carrie Fisher
“I’m sick of following my dreams. I’m just going to ask them where they’re going and hook up with them later.” — Mitch Hedberg
“Success didn’t spoil me, I’ve always been insufferable.” — Fran Lebowitz
“If at first you don’t succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.” — David Brent
“If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style.” — Quentin Crisp
“Success is made up of courage, brains, and luck. Since the first two are a function of the third, it’s pretty much all luck.” — Richard Jeni
“Rockefeller once explained the secret of success. ‘Get up early, work late – and strike oil.’” — Joey Adams
“I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” — Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Remember, it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose.” — Darrin Weinberg
“Anybody can win unless there happens to be a second entry.” — George Ade
“She’s the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success, wrong by wrong.” — Mae West
“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.” — Will Rogers
“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.” — Mark Twain
“The penalty for success is to be bored by the people who used to snub you.” — Nancy Astor
“A window of opportunity for me usually involves a rock.” — Jay London
So that’s our list! We hope we were able to help you find the quote you were looking for.
Pin it for later!
About the Author
Laynni Locke
I am Laynni Locke, a Canadian writer, reader and traveller with a passion for sharing life’s moments on social media. Keeping friends and family in the loop of our lives though photos and videos has become an essential activity for most.
And it doesn’t matter if you are travelling, celebrating a special occasion or just appreciating day-to-day life, when you take that perfect photo you are going to need the perfect caption or quote before you share it. Which is why we started Routinely Shares, providing comprehensive lists of quotes and captions to cover every occasion, adventure or loved one.
With extensive experience as a travel writer, social media specialist and grant writer, I have made it my mission to curate the best and easiest to use lists for your next post.