These proverbs about success from some of the greatest minds in history will bring enthusiasm to your life and work. Let’s dive right in!
Top 30 Proverbs About Success
1. “I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come indirectly through accident, except the phonograph. No, when I have fully decided that a result is worth getting, I go about it, and make trial after trial, until it comes.” — Thomas Edison
2. “Success in highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which comes only to the man who has found the work he likes best.” — Napoleon Hill
3. “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” — Bruce Lee
4. “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that other throw at him.” — David Brinkley
5. “The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well.” — John D. Rockefeller Jr.
6. “A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” — Bob Dylan
7. “There is only one success — to be able to spend your life in your own way.” — Christopher Morley
8. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.” — Vince Lombardi
9. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill
10. “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” — Tony Robbins
11. “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” — Steve Jobs
12. “The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation.” — Mark Twain
13. “Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they’re really not. They’re companions.” — Laurence Shames
14. “Those who have succeeded at anything and don’t mention luck are kidding themselves.” — Larry King
15. “It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failure.” — Samuel Smiles
16. “The road to success is lined with many tempting parking spaces.” — Traditional Proverb
17. “The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.” — Napoleon Hill
18. “The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.” — Charles de Montesquieu
19. “To know how to wait is the great secret of success.” — Joseph Marie De Maistre
20. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” — Henry David Thoreau
21. “The greatest happiness of life was to stand at the difficult border between success and failure.” — Eiji Yoshikawa
22. “The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success.” — Henry Ward Beecher
23. “All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.” — Michael John Bobak
24. “The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” — Colin R. Davis
25. “Successful entrepreneurs are givers and not takers of positive energy.” — Unknown
26. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
27. “The superior man makes the difficulty to be overcome his first interest; success comes only later.” — Confucius
28. “The mind is hopeful; success is in God’s hands.” — Plautus
29. “The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.” — Richard Brinsley Sheridan
30. “Take the time to understand what’s behind your success. It’s the best way to ensure it will continue.” — Stuart R. Levine
Proverbs About Success And Hard Work
1. “I never dreamed about success, I worked for it.” — Estee Lauder
2. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” — Pele
3. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” — Colin Powell
4. “Fall seven times and stand up eight.” — Japanese Proverb
5. “Some people dream of success… while others wake up and work hard at it.” — Unknown
6. “Successful people are not gifted; they just work hard, then succeed on purpose.” — G.K. Neilson
7. “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” — Thomas Jefferson
8. “There is no secret to success except hard work and getting something indefinable which we call “the breaks.” — Countee Cullen
9. “With hard work and effort, you can achieve anything.” — Antoine Griezmann
10. “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” — Vince Lombardi
11. “Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.” — Gordon B. Hinckley
12. “There is no point at which you can say, “Well, I’m successful now. I might as well take a nap.” — Carrie Fisher
13. “Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference.” — Lou Holtz
14. “Sweat plus sacrifice equals success.” — Charles O. Finley
15. “The man who has the largest capacity for work and thought is the man who is bound to succeed.” — Henry Ford
16. “Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.”— Ben Carson
17. “Luck is great, but most of life is hard work.” — Iain Duncan Smith
18. “Work and you’ll get what you need; work harder and you’ll get what you want.” — Prabakaran Thirumalai
19. “I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.” — Margaret Thatcher
20. “Without labor, nothing prospers.” — Sophocles
21. “Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No Excuses.” — Kobe Bryant
22. “What you don’t sweat out when you’re young will turn into tears when you’re old.” — Japanese Proverb
23. “If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.” — Jim Rohn
24. “From success to failure is one step; from failure to success is a long road.” — Yiddish Proverbs
25. “Success and rest don’t sleep together.” — Russian Proverb
26. “If you are willing to work hard and ask lots of questions, you can learn business pretty fast.” — Steve Jobs
27. “Overnight success happens only in fairy tales, trashy novels, and bad movies.” — Ernie J. Zelinski
28. “A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” — Colin Powell
29. “Some people dream of success while others wake up and work.” — Unknown
30. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” — Henry David Thoreau
Proverbs On Success
1. “Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life; it’s about what you inspire others to do.” — Unknown
2. “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” — Jim Rohn
3. “I failed my way to success.” — Thomas Edison
4. “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
5. “Success has many parents, but failure is an orphan.” — American Proverb
6. “The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows.” — Aristotle Onassis
7. “A fool says what he knows and a wise man knows what he says.” — Yiddish Proverb
8. “Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.” — Earl Wilson
9. “Do not stand in a place of danger trusting in miracles.” — African Proverb
10. “Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early.” — Anthony Trollope
11. “If you like to have things easy, you’ll have difficulties; if you like problems, you will succeed.” — Laotian Proverb
12. “When you don’t ask questions while growing up, you become old while still ignorant.” — African Proverb
13. “Success occurs when your dreams get bigger than your excuses.” — Unknown
14. “A wise man remembers his friends at all times; a fool, only when he has need of them.” — Turkish Proverb
15. “Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.” — James Allen
16. “Nothing succeeds success.” — Ursula K. Le Guin
17. “We never know, believe me, when we have succeeded best.” — Miguel de Unamuno
18. “A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything.” — African Proverb
19. “Whoever depends on his wife’s earnings will not succeed.” — Hebrew Proverb
20. “We’ll succeed unless we quit.” — George Walker Bush
21. “Success often costs more than it is worth.” — Edward Wigglesworth
22. “Success didn’t spoil me, I’ve always been insufferable.” — Fran Lebowitz
23. “Nothing succeeds so well as success.” — Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord
24. “There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it.” — Christopher Morley
25. “Assurance is two-thirds of success.” — Gaelic Proverb
26. “Success is following the pattern of life one enjoys most.” — Al Capp
27. “The success of a man is through the soles of his feet, that of a woman is from her legs.” — African Proverb
28. “Success is never assured, but having some challenges is almost always assured. Preparation to deal with those situations can reduce the hurdles and increase the prospects for success.” — Mark Kaplan
29. “He who attempts too much seldom succeeds.” — Dutch Proverb
30. “If we can once believe that success is possible, success becomes possible.” — Frank Chapman Sharp
31. “Success is less about hours of input and more the quality of output.” — Jon Packer
32. “Yielding is sometimes the best way of succeeding.” — Italian Proverb
33. “We do not wish success yet we obtain it. Always we find what we are not looking for. These words are too true not to become a proverb some day.” — Honore de Balzac
34. “Success had ruined many a man.” — Benjamin Franklin
35. “If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style.” — Quentin Crisp
36. “The motive of success is not enough.” — Alfred North Whitehead
37. “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” — Coco Chanel
38. “Men learn little from success, but much from failure.” — Arabian Proverbs
39. “Success never needs an excuse.” — Edward Bulwer Lytton
Inspirational Proverbs About Great Success
1. “Great success is a great temptation.” — Theodore Parker
2. “The secret to success is to know something nobody else knows.” — Aristotle Onassis
3. “The greatest success is confidence or perfect understanding between sincere people.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” — Booker T. Washington
5. “All great success is preceded by failure.” — Brian Tracy
6. “The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.” — Unknown
7. “The real test is not whether you avoid this 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
8. “I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking.” — Joan Rivers
9. “Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.” — Tony Hsieh
10. “Success is the child of Audacity.” — Benjamin Disraeli
11. “Success is not something you achieve, conquer, climb, or complete. Success is a process; it’s a way of life.” — Anthony Robbins
12. “The unscrupulous succeed every time.” — Japanese Proverbs
13. “The ultimate of being successful is the luxury of giving yourself the time to do what you want to do.” — Leontyne Price
14. “Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.” — Zig Ziglar
15. “The secret of success is constancy of purpose.” — English Proverb
16. “The man who has done his level best, and who is conscious that he has done his best, is a success, even though the world may write him down as a failure.” — B.C. Forbes
17. “Men are born to succeed, not to fail.” — Henry David Thoreau
18. “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” — Woody Allen
19. “As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.” — Benjamin Disraeli
20. “I’ve never sought success in order to get fame and money; it’s the talent and the passion that count in success.” — Ingrid Bergman
21. “The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.” — Irving Berlin
22. “Success is a hidden jewel, and is found but by a few.” — Edward Counsel
23. “A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them.” — Henry Kravis
24. “What is success? It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.” — Gene Fowler
25. “Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction.” — Al Bernstein
26. “Some people succeed because they are destined to, but most people succeed because they are determined to.” — Unknown
27. “In all things success depends on previous preparation, and without such previous preparation there is sure to be a failure.” — Confucius
28. “The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well; and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
29. “Success is buried on the other side of frustration.” — Anthony Robbins
30. “Success is 99 percent failure.” — Soichiro Honda
31. “Fear of failure is never a scourge to start a business. Finding ways to rise from failure is the main focus.”
32. “On the ladder to success there is always somebody on the rung above you and who uses your head to steady himself.” — Icelandic Proverb
33. “Success makes life easier. It doesn’t make living easier.” — Bruce Springsteen
34. “To freely bloom — that is my definition of success.” — Gerry Spence
35. “The successful man is one who had the chance and took it.” — Robert Babson
36. “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.” — Mark Twain
37. “Success is more permanent when you achieve it without destroying your principles.” — Walter Cronkite
38. “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” — William Feather
39. “You can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” — Napoleon Hill
40. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” — Maya Angelou
41. “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill
42. “What succeeds we keep, and it becomes the habit of mankind.” — Theodore Parker
43. “The success of today may be the disaster of tomorrow and of other days to be. The failure of today may be an everlasting success.” — John Daniel Barry
44. “Success demands singleness of purpose.” — Vince Lombardi
45. “Success in business, as in life, is often largely just a matter of luck.” — Felix Rohatyn
46. “Success means the opportunity to experience and to realize to the maximum the forces that are within us.” — David Sarnoff
47. “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” — George Smith Patton
48. “It is wise to keep in mind that no success or failure is necessarily final.” — Unknown
49. “Success makes success, as money makes money.” — Sebastien-Roch-Nicolas de Chamfort
See also: 280 Positive Money Affirmations For An Abundance Mindset
Motivational Proverbs About Success
1. “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
2. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison
3. “You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.” — Oprah Winfrey
4. “God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires us to try.” — Mother Teresa
5. “If you wish to succeed, consult three old people.” — Chinese Proverb
6. “Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember – the only taste of success some people get is to take a bite out of you.” — Zig Ziglar
7. “In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.” — Nikos Kazantzakis
8. “Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” — Chris Grosser
9. “Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.” — David Frost
10. “A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.” — Bruce Lee
11. “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” — James Cameron
12. “Successfully to accomplish any task it is necessary not only that you should give it the best there is in you, but that you should obtain for it the best there is in those under your guidance.” — George Washington Goethals
13. “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” — Oprah Winfrey
14. “How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?” — Logan Smith
15. “The people who succeed the most are the people who have failed the most because they are people who have tried the most.” — Unknown
16. “The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” — Chinese Proverb
17. “Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it.” — Elbert Hubbard
18. “You’re bound to succeed if you have ignorance and confidence.” — Ken Alstad
19. “If at first you do succeed — try to hide your astonishment.” — Unknown
20. “Consider what God can do, and you will never despair of success.” — Thomas Wilson
21. “Self-assurance is two-thirds of success.” — Gaelic Proverb
Quotes About Success In The Future
1. “If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.” — Jim Rohn
2. “If you can dream it, you can do it.” — Walt Disney
3. “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?’” — Marcus Aurelius
4. “Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” — Robert Kiyosaki
5. “If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” — Jim Rohn
6. “Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” — Charles F. Kettering
7. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” — Walt Disney
8. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” — English Proverbs
9. “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure. It is: Try to please everybody.” — Herbert Bayard Swope
10. “Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” — Winston Churchill
11. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” — Albert Schweitzer
12. “Do one thing every day that scares you.” — Unknown
13. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” — John D. Rockefeller
14. “Work hard in silence. Let your success be your noise.” — Unknown
15. “If at first you don’t succeed, do it like your mother told you.” — Unknown
16. “Your success and happiness lie in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” — Helen Adams Keller
17. “What will matter is not your success but your significance…” — Michael Josephson
18. “If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.” — Joseph Addison
19. “Unless you have courage, a courage that keeps you going, always going, no matter what happens, there is no certainty of success. It is really an endurance race.” — Henry Ford
20. “The secret of success is this: There is no secret of success.” — Elbert Hubbard
21. “Work is our business; its success is God’ s.” — German Proverb
22. “Success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.” — Michelle Obama
23. “It’s very important that people aspire to be successful. The only way you can do it is if you look at somebody who is.” — Donald Trump
24. “He who cannot boast cannot succeed.” — Chinese Proverb
Proverbs About Success For Students
1. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” — Herman Cain
2. “Success requires enough optimism to provide hope and enough pessimism to prevent complacency.” — David G. Myers
3. “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” — Oprah Winfrey
4. “Success produces confidence, confidence relaxes industry, and negligence ruins that reputation which accuracy had raised.” — Samuel Johnson
5. “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” — T.S Eliot
6. “Your success and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.” — Albert Camus
7. “Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won’t taste good.” — Joe Paterno
8. “Some men go through a forest and see no firewood.” — English Proverb
9. “The key to success isn’t much good until one discovers the right lock to put it in.” — Chinese Proverb
10. “You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play.” — Warren Beatty
11. “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” — Bill Gates
12. “Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it…. Success is shy — it won’t come out while you’re watching.” — Tennessee Williams
13. “He will succeed; for he believes all he says.” — Marquis de Mirabeau
14. “The starting point of all achievement is desire.” — Napoleon Hill
15. “Whenever you see a man who is successful in society, try to discover what makes him pleasing, and if possible adopt his system.” — Benjamin Disraeli
16. “In success be moderate.” — Benjamin Franklin
17. “Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.” — Sophocles
18. “If at first you don’t succeed, you’re running about average.” — M.H. Alderson
19. “You can only be successful if you let your mind go beyond the boundaries that other people have set for themselves.” — Brian Herbert
20. “In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time.” — Anthony J. D’Angelo
21. “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.” — Abraham Lincoln
22. “The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” — Tony Robbins
23. “Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.” — Albert Einstein
24. “There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that, once unleashed, can make any vision, dream, or desire a reality.” — Anthony Robbins
25. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” — Conrad Hilton
26. “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” — Bill Cosby
27. “If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.” — Unknown
Final Words
Proverbs about success in this article are some of the best words of wisdom in the world and will help you become successful.
If you are in a situation where you need a little burst of inspiration, then these proverbs on success will definitely be helpful.
Until next time!
