100 Famous Quotes About Effort That Will Inspire Greatness In You | Relationship Hub (2024)

Effort and success quotes are inspirational words that can help us unlock our potentials and win at life.

Effort quotes can inspire you to do your best by being courageous even in the face of adversity when you are almost giving up probably because it is in your thoughts that you have applied 100 percent effort and still not seeing the expected outcome.

When things are not going as planned or when your efforts seem unappreciated, the following carefully selected inspirational words will give you the motivation and energy that will spark a continuous effort spirit in you to achieve success and happiness.

Inspirational effort quotes

1. “Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” – John F. Kennedy
2. “If a task is once begun, never leave it till it’s done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.” – Author Unknown
3. “Plough deep while sluggards sleep.” – Benjamin Franklin
4. “Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.” – John Ruskin
5. “A great work demands a great sacrifice, and who is not capable of a great sacrifice is not capable of great work.” – Muriel Strode
6. “A little more persistence a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn into a glorious success.” – Elbert Hubbard
7. “A man of words, and not of deeds, is like a garden full of weeds.” –English Proverb
8. “A pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood.” – George S. Patton
9. “About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age.” – Gloria Pitzer
10. “All I ever knew, was that effort would get me seen on tape, the effort would get me noticed to get to the league, the effort would one day take care of my mom and my kids. The effort, which is between you and you. Nobody else can give you effort. The effort is what is inside” – Ray Lewis
11. “All the so-called “secrets of success” will not work unless you do.” – Anonymous
12. “All things are difficult before they are easy.” – Thomas Fuller
13. “Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.” – Arnold Palmer
14. “An industrious dunce is often more successful in life than his learned neighbor.” – James Lendall Basford
15. “As one makes an impartial study of successful people, one is drawn to the inevitable conclusion that persistence, the concentration of effort and definiteness of purpose are the major sources of their achievements.” – Napoleon Hill
16. “Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.” – Chinese Proverb
17. “Be willing to give that extra effort that separates the winner from the one in second place.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
18. “Confidence is not something that comes out of nowhere. It is the result of months and years of practice, constant work, effort, and determination.” – Anurag Prakash Ray
19. “Continuous Effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking our potential.” – Winston Churchill
20. “Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.” – Lowell Thomas

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21. “Do the work. Everyone wants to be successful, but nobody wants to do the work.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
22. “Each man is the smith of his own fortune.” – Appius Claudius
23. “Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.” – Napoleon Hill
24. “Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.” – José Ortega y Gassett
25. “Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.” – Napoleon Hill
26. “Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
27. “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers
28. “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.” – T.S. Eliot
29. “Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” – William James
30. “God doesn’t require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.” – Mother Teresa
31. “Gold medals are made out of sweat, blood, and tears and effort in the gym every day.” – Gabby Douglas
32. “Great effort springs naturally from great attitude.” – Pat Riley
33. “Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” – Aeschylus
34. “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” – Theodore Roosevelt
35. “Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.” – Vince Lombardi
36. “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
37. “Hope is wishing for a thing to come true. Faith is believing it will come true. Work is making it come true.” –Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
38. “I am a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
39. “I am grinding while you’re sleeping.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
40. “I CAN is 100 times more important than IQ” – Anonymous

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41. “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” – Estee Lauder
42. “I’ve got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end.” – Larry Bird
43. “Ideas don’t work for people unwilling to do the work.” – Robin Sharma
44. “If a man is called a street-sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street-sweeper who did his job well.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
45. “If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two mouths and one ear.” –Mark Twain
46. “If you can’t excel with talent, triumph with effort.” – Dave Weinbaum
47. “If you put forth the effort, good things will be bestowed upon you.” – Michael Jordan
48. “In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result.” – James Allen
49. “It doesn’t matter if you lose, it matters if you don’t try.” – Unknown
50. “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” – Seneca
51. “It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.” – Theodore Roosevelt
52. “It’s the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance, sweeps away all obstacles.” – Claude M. Bristol
53. “Just try to bethe best you can be; never cease trying to be the best you can be. That’s in your power.” –John Wooden
54. “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
55. “Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” – Vince Lombardi
56. “Life can be boring unless you put some effort into it.” – John C. Maxwell
57. “Make each day count by setting specific goals to succeed, then putting forth every effort to exceed your own expectations.” – Les Brown
58. “Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men and women who kept on working.” – Anonymous
59. “Men are made stronger on realization that the helping hand they need is at the end of their own arm.” – Sidney J. Phillips
60. “Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” – William James

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61. “Much effort, much prosperity.” – Euripides
62. “Much good work is lost for the lack of a little more.” – Edward H. Harriman
63. “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” ― Earl Nightingale
64. “No bees, No honey, No work, No money.” Author Unknown
65. “Nobody ever drowned in his own sweat.” – Ann Landers
66. “One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.” – John Wanamaker
67. “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
68. “People are rewarded in public for what they’ve practiced for years in private.” – Anthony Robbins
69. “Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.” – Henry J. Kaiser
70. “Put in 5% more effort than “there’s only so much I can do” and you’ll be way ahead of the game.” – Terri Guillemets
71. “Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.” – Swami Sivananda
72. “Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.” – Mahatma Gandhi
73. “Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.” – Michael Jordan
74. “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” – Napoleon Hill
75. “Success in anything will always come down to this: Focus & Effort, and we control both of them.” – Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
76. “Success is a ladder you cannot climb with your hands in your pockets.” – Anonymous
77. “Success is dependent on effort.” – Sophocles
78. “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
79. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier

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80. “Sweat is the cologne of accomplishment.” – Heywood Hale Broun
81. “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.” – Vince Lombardi
82. “The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” – Emile Zola
83. “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” – Jimmy Johnson
84. “The difference between try and triumph is a little umph.” – Anonymous
85. “The elevator to success is not running; you must climb the stairs.” – Zig Ziglar
86. “The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort.” – Colin Powell
87. “The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.” – Henry Wadsworth 2. “For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.” – Jim Rohn
88. “The level path is easy, but it will not bring you to the mountaintop.” – Dr. Idel Dreimer,
89. “The man who succeeds is a man who has withstood the tests of time, trials, and has made every effort count.” – Hermann J. Steinherr
90. “The mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
91. “The one thing that matters is the effort.” – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
92. “The only thing that ever sat its way to success was a hen.” – Sarah Brown
93. “The only thing that has kept me around is my effort.” – Ray Lewis
94. “The real tragedy is the tragedy of the man who never in his life braces himself for his one supreme effort, who never stretches to his full capacity, never stands to his full stature.” – Arnold Bennett
95. “The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply.” – Denis Waitley
96. “The view is better when it is earned.” – Anonymous
97. “There is no substitute for work.” – Vince Lombardi
98. “They indeed are fools who are satisfied with the fruits of their past effort and do not engage themselves in self-effort now.” – Swami Venkatesananda
99. “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” – Abraham Lincoln
100. “Winning is not everything, but the effort to win is.” – Zig Ziglar

What are your best quotes about effort from our compilation? Leave it in the comment below.