Top 200 Work Ethic Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “There’s no reward without work, no victory without effort, no battle won without risk.”

— Nora Roberts

102. “Luck is the dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.”

— Ray Kroc

103. “If you improve 1% a day, then in 100 days, guess what? You’re 100% better.”

— Ken Carter

104. “Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.”

— John Ruskin

105. “Doing your best is more important than being the best.”

— Shannon Miller

106. “Procrastination is attitude’s natural assassin. There’s nothing so fatiguing as an uncompleted task.”

— William James

107. “We must never be too busy to take time to sharpen the saw.”

— Stephen R. Covey

108. “Step by step, walk the thousand-mile road.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

109. “While you're out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hard. Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning. Just remember that.”

— Arnold Schwarzenegger

110. “Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.”

— Anne Frank

111. “Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.”

— Thomas A. Edison

112. “Little strokes fell great oaks.”

— Benjamin Franklin

113. “Work first, and then rest.”

— John Ruskin

114. “Genius is seldom recognized for what it is: a great capacity for hard work.”

— Henry Ford

115. “Everybody has a dream, but not everybody has a grind.”

— Eric Thomas

116. “Success is a decision, not a gift.”

— Steve Backley

117. “I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence.”

— Ayrton Senna

118. “If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.”

— C. S. Lewis

119. “Work hard. Think big. Listen well.”

— Ben Feldman

120. “Talent is a wonderful thing, but it won't carry a quitter. ”

— Stephen King

121. “My definition of success? The more you’re actively and practically engaged, the more successful you will be.”

— Richard Branson

122. “Diligence is the mother of good luck.”

— Benjamin Franklin

123. “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”

— Thomas Jefferson

124. “If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.”

— T. Harv Eker

125. “This is ten percent luck, Twenty percent skill, Fifteen percent power of will, Five percent pleasure, Fifty percent pain, and a hundred percent reason to remember the name.”

— Mike Shinoda

126. “The professional does not wait for inspiration; he acts in anticipation of it.”

— Steven Pressfield

127. “On a mission your worst enemy is idle time.”

— Nipsey Hussle

128. “The dream is free. The hustle is sold separately.”

— Tyrese Gibson

129. “You can’t sleep. Broke people sleep. You got to be willing to sacrifice sleep, if you sleep you may miss the opportunity to be successful.”

— Eric Thomas

130. “Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.”

— Stephen Hawking

131. “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

— Thomas Carlyle

132. “Until our mission becomes our obsession, we’ll be chained to the realm of average.”

— Robin S. Sharma

133. “It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

134. “If you’re absent during my struggle, don’t expect to be present during my success.”

— Will Smith

135. “Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.”

— Michael Jordan

136. “If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been due more to patient attention, than to any other talent.”

— Isaac Newton

137. “I’d rather be tired than broke!”

— Mark Cuban

138. “I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.”

— Elon Musk

139. “The path of least resistance will never make you proud.”

— Tony Robbins

140. “There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses – only results.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

141. “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.”

— Ronald Reagan

142. “Plan your work and work your plan.”

— Napoleon Hill

143. “Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.”

— Elon Musk

144. “Nobody ever mastered any skill except through intensive, persistent and intelligent practice.”

— Norman Vincent Peale

145. “Move fast, take risks. It’s okay to try big things. You’re better off trying something and having it not work, than not having done anything at all.”

— Mark Zuckerberg

146. “The price of success: hard work, patience, and a few sacrifices.”

— Edward Bok

147. “It is always cheaper to do the job right the first time.”

— Phil Crosby

148. “Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.”

— Henry Ford

149. “Stop whining, start hustling.”

— Gary Vaynerchuk

150. “It’s early in the morning and your competition is still sleeping.”

— Greg Plitt