Top 200 Work Ethic Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Diligent follow-up and follow-through will set you apart from the crowd and communicate excellence.”

— John C. Maxwell

52. “No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

53. “Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”

— Thomas A. Edison

54. “Work is doing it. Discipline is doing it every day. Diligence is doing it well every day.”

— Dave Ramsey

55. “Commit to becoming breathtakingly great in all you do. And that’s what you’ll become.”

— Robin S. Sharma

56. “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.”

— James C. Collins

57. “It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.”

— Benjamin Franklin

58. “I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it is an illusion to me. Failure always made me try harder next time.”

— Michael Jordan

59. “Money doesn’t know about clocks, schedules, or holidays, and you shouldn’t either. Money loves people who have a great work ethic.”

— Grant Cardone

60. “Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.”

— Steve Martin

61. “Discipline is consistency of action.”

— James C. Collins

62. “Dreams don’t work unless you do.”

— John C. Maxwell

63. “The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.”

— Nolan Bushnell

64. “The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want. It’s such a simple idea. It’s the golden rule. You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end.”

— Charlie Munger

65. “I never want money that I didn’t earn.”

— Casey Neistat

66. “Procrastination is a lazy man’s apology.”

— Chinua Achebe

67. “I am too busy for insecurities; it’s just a distraction. If I have any, I have ignored them for so long they have gone away.”

— Casey Neistat

68. “Everything is easy when you are busy. But nothing is easy when you are lazy.”

— Swami Vivekananda

69. “There's no talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsession. Talent does not exist, we are all equal as human beings. You could be anyone if you put in the time. You will reach the top, and that is that. I am not talented, I am obsessed.”

— Conor McGregor

70. “We will be relentless in our pursuit for perfection. We won’t ever be perfect – but in the process we will achieve greatness.”

— Vince Lombardi

71. “Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.”

— Dale Carnegie

72. “Finding is reserved for those that search.”

— Jim Rohn

73. “Keep working even when no one is watching.”

— Alex Morgan

74. “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

— Gary Player

75. “We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

— Thomas A. Edison

76. “Life doesn’t reward the naturally clever or strong but those who can learn to fight and work hard and never quit.”

— Bear Grylls

77. “I’m chasing perfection.”

— Kobe Bryant

78. “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.”

— Michelangelo

79. “Hard work and diligence are essential to success, but they require an internal motivation. That internal motivation is Vision.”

— Myles Munroe

80. “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.”

— Jerry West

81. “From the bodybuilding days on, I learned that everything is reps and mileage. The more miles you ski, the better a skier you become; the more reps you do, the better your body. I'm a big believer in hard work, grinding it out, and not stopping until it's done, so the challenge appealed to me.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

82. “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”

— Chuck Close

83. “Don’t expect front row seats if you’re giving nosebleed effort.”

— Eric Thomas

84. “Most people only work enough so that it feels like work, whereas successful people work at a pace that gets such satisfying results that work is a reward. Truly successful people don’t even call it work; for them, it’s a passion. Why? Because they do enough to win!”

— Grant Cardone

85. “The reason it’s important to push hardest when you want to quit the most is because it helps you callous your mind. It’s the same reason why you have to do your best work when you are the least motivated.”

— David Goggins

86. “Hire character. Train skill.”

— Peter Schutz

87. “A vision and strategy aren’t enough. The long-term key to success is execution. Each day. Every day.”

— Richard M. Kovacevich

88. “The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

89. “Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.”

— Swami Vivekananda

90. “Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing. That’s the Law of Consistency. It doesn’t matter how talented you are. It doesn’t matter how many opportunities you receive. If you want to grow, consistency is key.”

— John C. Maxwell

91. “If you trust in yourself... and believe in your dreams... and follow your star... you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy.”

— Terry Pratchett

92. “With self-discipline most anything is possible.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

93. “It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.”

— Whitney M. Young

94. “One today is worth two tomorrows. Lost time is never found again. Time is money. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff that life is made of. You may delay, but time will not.”

— Benjamin Franklin

95. “You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

96. “If you rest, you rust.”

— Helen Hayes

97. “Communication works for those who work at it.”

— John Powell

98. “Make it work, make it right, make it fast.”

— Kent Beck

99. “Success means doing something sincerely and wholeheartedly.”

— Bruce Lee

100. “The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”

— Ray Kroc