Top 150 Best Career Quotes & Sayings 2023

Career Motivation Quotes

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” –Steve Jobs

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”–Mark Twain

“When you’re different, sometimes you don’t see the millions of people who accept you for what you are. All you notice is the person who doesn’t.” –Jodi Picoult

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” –Chinese proverb

“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I’ve never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” — Charles F. Kettering

“Whenever you see a successful person, you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.” –Vaibhav Shah

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” –Vince Lombardi

“The real test is not whether you avoid failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” –Barack Obama

“Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent of how I react to it.” –Charles Swindoll

“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.” –Oprah Winfrey

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” –Jimmy Dean

“The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than growing with them.” –Bernard M. Baruch

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” –Stephen Covey

“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” –Thomas Jefferson

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” –Henry Ford

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” –Alice Walker

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” –Peter Drucker

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” –Robert Collier

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that’s where you will find success.” –Thomas Watson

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.” –Amelia Earhart

“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” –John Maxwell

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” –Vidal Sassoon

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” –Robert Louis Stevenson

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” –Ayn Rand

“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” –Farrah Gray

“Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending.” –Carl Bard

“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” –Dalai Lama

“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”–Vincent van Gogh

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” –Albert Einstein

“The successful warrior is the average man

with laser-like focus.” –Bruce Lee

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” –Leonardo da Vinci

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” –Booker T. Washington

“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” –Jamie Paolinetti

“The worst days of those who enjoy what they do are better than the best days of those who don’t.”—E. James Rohn

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”—Confucius

“It’s not what you achieve, it’s what you overcome. That’s what defines your career.”—Carlton Fisk

“Work to become, not to acquire.”—Elbert Hubbard

“Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.”—Katherine Whitehorn

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”—Michael Jordan

“Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure. It just means you haven’t succeeded yet.”—Robert H. Schuller

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”—Abraham Lincoln

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”—Thomas A. Edison

“I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it.”—Lou Holts

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Eleanor Roosevelt

The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.

Steve Jobs

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

George Eliot

Everything I’ve ever let go of has claw marks on it.

David Foster Wallace

A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory.

Arthur Golden

There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

Nelson Mandela

Whatever you decide to do, make sure it makes you happy.

Paulo Coelho

I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.

Anna Freud

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

William James

There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

Elbert Hubbard

If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.

Sheryl Sandberg

Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.

Gloria Steinem

A mind that is stretched by new experiences can never go back to its old dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

Abraham Lincoln

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Mark Twain

He who never makes an effort, never risks a failure.

Anonymous

If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.

Seth Godin

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.

Inspirational Career Quotes

“It’s not what you achieve, it’s what you overcome. That’s what defines your career.” (Carlton Fisk)

“Work to become, not to acquire.” (Elbert Hubbard)

“Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.” (Katherine Whitehorn)

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” (Michael Jordan)

“Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.” (Robert H. Schuller)

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” (Abraham Lincoln)

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” (Thomas A. Edison)

“I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it.” (Lou Holtz)

“I want to look back on my career and be proud of the work, and be proud that I tried everything.” (Jon Stewart)

“Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you imagine it.” (George Lucas)

“If you can DREAM it, you can DO it.” (Walt Disney)

“Desire! That’s the one secret of every man’s career. Not education. Not being born with hidden talents. Desire.” (Johnny Carson)

“I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do.” (Helen Keller)

“A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory.” (Arthur Golden)

“It’s not the days in your life, but the life in your days that counts.” (Brian White)

“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” (General George Patton)

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” (Albert Einstein)

“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.” (Mark Twain)

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” (Confucius)

Career Quotes – Funny

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats. ~ Howard Aiken

The first thing a new employee should do on the job is learn to recognize his boss’ voice on the phone. ~ Martin Buxbaum

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. ~ David Brinkley

First rule of leadership: everything is your fault. ~ A Bug’s Life

Don’t stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed. ~ George Burns

A leader must have the courage to act against an expert’s advice. ~ James Callaghan

A leader must have the courage to act against an expert’s advice. ~ James Callaghan

Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. ~ Winston Churchill

Early to bed and early to rise probably indicates unskilled labor. ~ John Ciardi

Get the right people on the bus and in the right seat. ~ Jim Collins

You do not lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership ~ Dwight Eisenhower

A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it. ~ William Feather

By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day. ~ Robert Frost

I don’t want yes-men around me. I want everyone to tell the truth, even if it costs them their jobs. ~ Samuel Goldwyn

Few great men would have got past personnel. ~ Paul Goodman

Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes. ~ Lewis Grizzard

Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too. ~ Robert Half

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it. ~ Bob Hope

Always drink upstream from the herd. ~ Will Rogers

It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead – and find no one there. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

There’s no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can’t do any business from there. ~ Colonel Sanders

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. ~ Vidal Sassoon

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. ~ Vidal Sassoon

Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and it annoys the pig. ~ George Bernard Shaw

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it. ~ George Bernard Shaw

The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do. ~ Roy L. Smith

The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate you away from those who are still undecided. ~ Casey Stengel

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t. ~ Margaret Thatcher

The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat. ~ Lilly Tomlin

Success means only doing what you do well, letting someone else do the rest. ~ Goldstein S. Truism

Career Quotes For Students

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”

– Vincent Van Gogh

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”

– Mark Twain

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

– Winston Churchill

“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drowned your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

– Steve Jobs

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

– Alexander Graham Bell

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

– H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

– Thomas A. Edison

“If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”

– Nora Roberts

“Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.”

– Christian D. Larson

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

– C.S. Lewis

Career Quotes About Goals

“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.” —Andrew Carnegie

“All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.” —Orison Swett Marden

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” —Pablo Picasso

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” —Earl Nightingale

“You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.” —Steve Garvey

“By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands—your own.” —Mark Victor Hansen

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” —Bill Copeland

“One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.” —Michael Korda

“All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do. ” —Norman Vincent Peale

“Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.” —Jim Rohn

“A goal properly set is halfway reached.” —Zig Ziglar