The Quotes canon
Sourced and curated.
Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Benjamin Franklin2 quotes
Diligence is the mother of good luck. — Benjamin Franklin · 1736God helps them that help themselves. — Benjamin Franklin · 1736Thomas Carlyle2 quotes
There is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works; in Idleness alone is there perpetual despair. — Thomas Carlyle · 1843"Genius" (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all). — Thomas Carlyle · 1858Thomas Edison2 quotes
There is no substitute for hard work. — Thomas Edison · 1932Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration. — Thomas Edison · 1932William Shakespeare2 quotes
Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing. — William Shakespeare · 1603Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat but for promotion. — William Shakespeare · 1616Anthony Trollope1 quote
It is not the prize that can make us happy; it is not even the winning of the prize....[It is] the struggle, the long hot hour of the honest fight.... There is no human bliss equal to twelve hours of work with only six hours in which to do it. — Anthony Trollope · 1862Arnold Newman1 quote
Everybody I have ever known or read about who was really a great artist has worked until they dropped dead. — Arnold Newman · 2009Chuck Close1 quote
Inspiration is for amateurs-the rest of us just show up and get to work. — Chuck CloseEsther Eberstadt Brooke1 quote
Luck, if you will, is something you work for, and the harder you work the more luck you have. — Esther Eberstadt Brooke · 1940Franklin D. Roosevelt1 quote
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1933Fred Rogers1 quote
Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime's work, but it's worth the effort. — Fred Rogers · 2003Hannah More1 quote
Whether we consider the manual industry of the poor, or the intellectual exertions of the superior classes, we shall find that diligent occupation, if not criminally perverted from its end, is at once the instrument of virtue and the secret of happiness. Man cannot be safely trusted with a life of leisure. — Hannah More · 1813Henri Matisse1 quote
Renoir painted his whole life long, down to his very last day. He painted a little still life of fruit, in bed, the day before he died. — Henri Matisse · 1941Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1 quote
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1838Hesiod1 quote
Between us and excellence, the gods have placed the sweat of our brows. — Hesiod · 700 BCJimmy Dugan1 quote
It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great. — Jimmy Dugan · 1992Juvenal1 quote
All wish to be learned, but no one is willing to pay the price. — Juvenal · 100Mary Wollstonecraft1 quote
How can a rational being be ennobled by any thing that is not obtained by its own exertions? — Mary Wollstonecraft · 1792Miguel de Cervantes1 quote
Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never led to good intention's goal. — Miguel de Cervantes · 1615St. Jerome1 quote
No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow. — St. Jerome · 374Stubby Currence1 quote
The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. — Stubby Currence · 1935Theodore Roosevelt1 quote
I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1899