50+ Success Quotes From Top Leaders, Entrepreneurs, and Entertainers

1. "Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success."

— Dale Carnegie, Business Author

2. "It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."

— Herman Melville, Novelist

3. "The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same."

— Colin R. Davis, Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra

4. "Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."

— Henry David Thoreau, Essayist, poet, and philosopher

5. "Opportunities don't happen. You create them."

— Chris Grosser, Entrepreneur

6. "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."

— John D. Rockefeller, Business magnate and philanthropist

7. "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."

— Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father

8. "There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed."

— Ray Goforth, Executive Director for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace

9. "Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don't wish it were easier; wish you were better."

— Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker

10. "Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense."

— Winston Churchill, Former UK Prime Minister

11. "Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion."

— Tony Hsieh, Founder of Zappos

12. "I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite."

— G. K. Chesterton, English writer

13. “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, Motivational speaker

14. “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”

— Richard Branson, Business magnate

15. “Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time.”

— Arnold H. Glasgow, businessman

16. "Trying to grow up is hurting. You make mistakes. You try to learn from them, and when you don't, it hurts even more."

— Aretha Franklin, Singer

17. “Action is the foundational key to all success.”

— Pablo Picasso, Painter

18. “The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny."

— Albert Ellis, Psychologist and psychotherapist

19. “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, Editor & journalist

20. “You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction.”

— George Lorimer, Journalist, author and publisher

21. “If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.”

— Olin Miller, former South Carolina state senator

22. “The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do."

— Roy L. Smith, Methodist leader

23. "Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat."

— Malcolm S. Forbes, Businessman and creator of Forbes Magazine

24. “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, Inspirational author

25. “I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.”

— Florence Nightingale, Founder of modern nursing

26. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

— Stephen King, Author

27. “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 R Wooden, Basketball coach

28. "Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

 — Calvin Coolidge,  30th president of the United States

29. “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, Television host

30. “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” 

— Estée Lauder, Multinational cosmetics manufacturer

31. “Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.” 

― W. P. Kinsella, Novelist

32. "The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same." 

— Colin R. Davis, English conductor

33. "Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

— Winston S. Churchill

34. “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one!”

— Dolly Parton, Singer and songwriter

35. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” 

— Thomas Edison, Inventor and businessman

36. “When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go.”

— Carol Burnett, Actress

 37. “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!'”

— Audrey Hepburn, Actress

38. “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”

 — Michael Altshuler, Speaker,

39. “Life has got all those twists and turns. You’ve got to hold on tight and off you go.”

— Nicole Kidman, Actress

40. “Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

— John R. Wooden, Basketball coach 

41. “Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.”

— Walt Whitman, Poet

42. “Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.”

 — Bobby Unser, Racer

43. "Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”  

— Gen. George Patton, U.S. General

44. “Embrace the glorious mess that you are.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert  journalist and author

45. “If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it.”

— Muhammad Ali, Professional boxer

46. “The only journey is the one within.”

— Rainer Maria Rilke, Poet

47. “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.”

– Helen Keller, Author and activist

48. "Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value."

— Albert Einstein, Scientist

49. "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."-

— Winston Churchill, Former UK Prime Minister

50. “A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they don’t get what they want.”

— Madonna, Singer

51. “Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.”

— Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Former Supreme Court justice

52. “You have to be where you are to get where you need to go.”

— Amy Poehler, Actress

53. “I believe that if you’ll just stand up and go, life will open up for you. Something just motivates you to keep moving.”

— Tina Turner, Singer

54. “Don’t try to lessen yourself for the world; let the world catch up to you.”

— Beyoncé, Singer and songwriter

55. “Wake up determined, go to bed satisfied.”

— Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Actor

56. “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."

– Warren Buffet, Investor & entrepreneur