120 Success Quotes From Famous Leaders

Success quotes from inspiring leaders can provide immense wisdom and guidance to help anyone achieve their goals. This article features 120 thought-provoking quotes from some of the most renowned figures in business, entertainment, sports and politics throughout history.

The quotes are organized into different categories based on common themes of leadership, motivation, perseverance and more. Readers will find nuggets of encouragement from icons like Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey on topics like overcoming obstacles, seizing opportunities, and making a positive impact. Whether you’re just starting out in your career or trying to take your work to the next level, these poignant words of advice will light your path to success.

This carefully curated collection of quotes aims to leave no stone unturned in empowering readers across all walks of life. From sports underdogs to thriving entrepreneurs, each leader featured here faced countless challenges on their journey. Their first-hand wisdom offers invaluable lessons for navigating both personal and professional victories. The article provides quick hits of inspiration for anyone seeking to achieve big dreams and make their mark on the world.

1. Words of wisdom from influential figures

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay
“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
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.” – Debbi Fields
“If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents- start charging for it.” – Kim Garst
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” – Dale Carnegie
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
“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
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
“All great dreams begin with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” – Harriet Tubman
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristole
“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” – Jamie Paolinetti

2. Inspiring quotes from notable leaders in history

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
“It always seems impossible until it is done.” – Nelson Mandela
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln
“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” – Ronald Reagan
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not.” – John Wooden
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” – Albert Einstein
“Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.” – Bruce Lee
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” – Rosalynn Carter
” 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.” – William Jennings Bryan
“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.” – Bruce Lee
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein
“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” – Joseph Campbell
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” – Rosalynn Carter
“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” – Amelia Earhart

3. Life lessons from iconic entrepreneurs and visionaries

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach
“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” – Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc.
“Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States
“If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” – John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company
“I failed my way to success.” – Thomas Edison, American industrialist and inventor
“One man with courage is a majority.” – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. president
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” – J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series
“Showing a man that he is wrong is wrong.” – Horace Mann, educator and reformer
“Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” – Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad series
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” -Seneca, Roman philosopher
“Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” – Japanese proverb
“Suffering alone teaches us nothing.” – Erich Fromm, psychoanalyst, philosopher and social psychologist
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain, American author and humorist
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney, American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth, American baseball player
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese proverb
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc.

4. Motivational advice from renowned change-makers

“You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.” – Jim Carrey
“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
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain
“The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.” – Raymond Lee
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle Onassis
“Yesterday you said tomorrow. Just do it.” – Nike slogan
“Leadership is about inspiration, not about popularity.” – Aung San Suu Kyi
“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” – George Bernard Shaw
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” – Elon Musk
“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.” – Thomas Jefferson
“The Pessimist Sees Difficulty In Every Opportunity. The Optimist Sees Opportunity In Every Difficulty.” – Winston Churchill
“We cannot change the past, but we can change the present and our future.” – Jared Diamond
“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” – Sheryl Sandberg
“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
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas A. Edison
“Difficulties are just things to overcome.” – Amelia Earhart
“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” – Helen Keller
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin
“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” – Thomas Jefferson

5. Guidance from pioneers who transformed their industries

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” – J.K. Rowling (author of the Harry Potter series)
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” – Booker T. Washington (education pioneer)
“Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” – Mary Kay Ash (founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics)
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky (legendary hockey player)
“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth (legendary baseball player)
“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill (British prime minister)
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb
“I failed my way to success.” – Thomas Edison (prolific American inventor)
“Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn (entrepreneur and motivational speaker)
“Little strokes fell great oaks” – Benjamin Franklin (American author, politician, scientist, inventor)
“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 (inventor of the telephone)
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe (pioneering American tennis player)
“The time is always right to do what is right.” – Martin Luther King Jr. (American civil rights leader)
“The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra (legendary American singer)
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” – Henry David Thoreau (American philosopher, poet and transcendentalist)
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle (American comedian and actor)
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” – Tony Robbins (author and motivational speaker)
“Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day-in and day-out.” – Robert Collier (author and publisher)
“Good things come to those who hustle.” – Anais Nin (author)

6. Perspectives on achievement from esteemed game-changers

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
“The secret of success is constancy to purpose.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.” – Florence Nightingale
“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“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
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” – Bruce Lee
“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” – George S. Patton
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“The man who has no imagination has no wings.” – Muhammad Ali
“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“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
“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.” – Orson Welles
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
“There is no success without hard work.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it.” – Irving Berlin

Conclusion

Successful people have faced challenges and learnt important life lessons that have helped them achieve their goals and progress. The success quotes shared from leaders across different fields highlight valuable insights regarding leadership, perseverance, hard work and integrity. These wise words offer encouragement and motivation to overcome obstacles and pursue aspirations. Reflecting on the messages from these influential figures can inspire us to develop qualities like determination, imagination, compassion that are key to accomplishing dreams and fulfilling our true potential. I encourage readers to internalise the learning from these quotes for future guidance in your own journeys.

120 Success Quotes From Famous Leaders