30+ Inspirational Quotes for Career & Life Success

"A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."
- Walter Gagehot

"Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
- Unknown

"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go."
- William Feather

"There is no future in any job. The future lies in the man who holds the job."
- George Crane

"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

"Make no small plans for they have not the power to stir men’s blood."
- Niccolo Machiavelli

"When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win."
- Ed Macauley

"This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us; to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves; to act in such a way that some part of us lives on."
- Oswald Spengler

"We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse."
- Rudyard Kipling

"The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want."
- Ben Stein

"This one step, choosing a goal and sticking to it, changes everything."
- Scott Reed

"Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle."
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor

"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."
- Michelangelo

“Every human is an artist. The dream
of your life is to make beautiful art.”
- don Miguel Ruiz

“That the birds of worry and care fly over your head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.”
- Chinese proverb

I remember James Clavell’s Tai-Pan back in the 80’s. The Tai-pan (CEO) of the giant trading house was quizzed about how he could juggle so many priorities, crises and intrigues all at the same time and still remain so calm.

He said that the only way you could do it was to place each of these worries in a separate little box in your brain and close the door on that box when you weren’t dealing with it. Otherwise, you get overwhelmed. Neat trick. One that deserves our attention.

"If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instinct, and there abide,
the huge world will come round to him."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."
- Chinese Proverb

"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting."
- Katherine Hepburn

"What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens."
- Thaddeus Golas

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."
- Francis Bacon

"The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done."
- Arnold Palmer

"If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can't accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through."
- Rosalyn Carter

"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself.
It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance,
or the help of others; it is in yourself alone."
- Orison Swett Marden

...I absolutely agree, with the following modification - we create our own luck. What is luck? Labor Under Correct Knowledge.

“Your big opportunity may be right where you are.”
- Napoleon Hill

“If people knew how hard I worked to achieve mastery,
it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all.”
- Michelangelo

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.
It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
- Jeremy Kitson

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing.
The worst thing you can do is nothing.”
- Theodore Roosevelt

As someone who runs their own business, I can really relate to this first idea...

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
- Robert Heinlein, writer

"Thinking is easy, acting difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action, the most difficult thing in the world."
- Goethe

"The tougher the times, the more clarity you gain about the difference between what really matters and what you only pretend to care about."
- Po Bronson in Fast Company

"Addressing the question, What should I do with my life? isn't just a productivity issue: It's a moral imperative."
- Po Bronson in Fast Company

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
- Thomas Jefferson

"It's always fun to do the impossible."
- Walt Disney