473 quotes
If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.
Joseph Kirkland
Novelist · American
The only genius that's worth anything is the genius for hard work.
Kathleen Winsor
Author · American · 1919 – 2003
Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.
Helena Rubinstein
Businessman · Polish · 1870 – 1965
I stayed away from mathematics not so much because I knew it would be hard work as because of the amount of time I knew it would take, hours spent in a field where I was not a natural.
Carl Sandburg
Poet · American · 1878 – 1967
But sometimes in the midst of worry, anxiety and hard work, it has been pretty hard to bear all these false reports going about the country - to see my friends alienated and being made to believe things that were absolutely false.
John Harvey Kellogg
Businessman · American · 1852 – 1943
The manager sits down with me; I sit down with the board. We assess the success of the year. The manager assesses whose coming through the academy system. His job is to look at what is happening in European and world football.
David Gill
Scientist · Scottish · 1843 – 1914
I am prepared to work hard enough to win. It's basically up to me.
James P. Moran
Politician · American · b. 1945
I've got the greatest job in the world. There's no other job in government where cause and effect is so tightly coupled where you can make a difference every day in so many different ways and in so many different people's lives. It's a great challenge.
Michael Bloomberg
Politician · American · b. 1942
This acting was very hard work.
Jack Levine
Artist · American · b. 1915
Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better.
John Carmack
Scientist · American · b. 1970
Our top priority is our troops, who are making the extraordinary effort to fulfill the mission they have been given. Democrats will work with this Administration to better define that mission and a realistic expectation of success in Iraq.
Jim Clyburn
Politician · American · b. 1940
I grew up and I became very successful at what I did as a young man. I became a work addict because this was the only way I could get any relief from this pain.
Keith Miller
Author · American · b. 1927
I don't know many people, if any, who have had some straight line toward success. I mean, they start here, they work hard, they've got what it takes, and they just go straight to the top over some number of years. Most people get a little failure.
Sam Donaldson
Journalist · American · b. 1934
The title always comes last. What I really work hard on is the beginning. Where do you begin? In what tone do you begin? I almost have to have a scene in my mind.
David McCullough
Historian · American · b. 1933
After two years of hard work and debate, Congress has passed a highway bill that will help fuel our economy by creating roughly 500,000 new jobs, as well as address many critical transportation needs in Ohio and the 18th Congressional District.
Bob Ney
Politician · American · b. 1954
Now, China, India have set goals. We're going to be able to review what they're doing. We're going to be able to challenge them if they don't meet those goals. We're going to pursue this anyway, because the President understands that our future lies with a clean energy economy. We've doubled renewables this year. There are millions of jobs to be had there, more energy security, so we're going to pursue this.
David Axelrod
Public Servant · American · b. 1955
Because, you know, it's never a hard work when you enjoy yourself. Look, I've been here since 57 years, and I don't have to explain why I've stayed so long. I always enjoyed it.
John Hench
Artist · American · 1908 – 2004
I've always just worked and tried to do as good a job as possible so that the people who are watching me took notice. That's what's helped me be successful today.
Maria Bartiromo
Journalist · American · b. 1967
Though every legal task demands this skill, it is especially important in the effort to frame public policy in a way that is properly responsive to human needs and predicaments. The question is always: How will the general rule work in practice?
Elliot Richardson
Lawyer · American · 1920 – 1999
All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.
Pope Paul VI
Clergyman · Italian · 1897 – 1978
But I don't just see the movie when I see the movie, I see all the great people who worked on it and all their hard work, because they could not have worked any harder.
Brad Bird
Cartoonist · American · b. 1957
We can do things the cheap way, the simple way, for the short-term and without regard for the future. Or, we can make the extra effort, do the hard work, absorb the criticism and make decisions that will cause a better future.
Mike Rounds
Don't ever, ever, believe anyone who tells you that you can just get by, by doing the easiest thing possible. Because there's always somebody behind you who really wants to do what you're doing. And they're going to work harder than you if you're not working hard.
There are many domestic issues that give us a lot of common ground to work on. Health, education and immigration are among the areas where we share mutual goals and aspirations. There are also many values that we share as a communities.
Robert Menendez
Together with international unity and resolve we can meet the challenge of this global scourge and work to bring about an international law of zero tolerance for terrorism.
Manmohan Singh
Statesman · Indian · b. 1932
One measure of your success will be the degree to which you build up others who work with you. While building up others, you will build up yourself.
James E. Casey
Businessman · American · 1888 – 1983
But what does interest me is the notion that if you do a lot of work it means there's a potential for other people to understand that a lot of things are possible with a sustained effort and that the broadening of experiences is possible and I think that's all art can be.
Richard Serra
Sculptor · American · b. 1939
Hard work is damn near as overrated as monogamy.
Huey Long
Politician · American · 1893 – 1935
If Americans want to see results instead of rhetoric, if taxpayers would like solutions instead of sound bites, and hard work instead of horse trading, I suggest you take a short look, and it won't take much longer, at the accomplishments of this Congress.
Alcee Hastings
Politician · American · b. 1936
One who works for his own profit is likely to work hard. One who works for the use of others, without profit to himself, is likely not to work any harder than he must.
B. Carroll Reece
Politician · American · 1889 – 1961
In our daily lives as programmers, we process text strings a lot. So I tried to work hard on text processing, namely the string class and regular expressions. Regular expressions are built into the language and are very tuned up for use.
Yukihiro Matsumoto
Scientist · Japanese · b. 1965
I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success.
Tennessee Williams
Dramatist · American · 1911 – 1983
Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most - that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least.
Eugene V. Debs
Politician · American · 1855 – 1926
There is a deep question whether the possible meanings that emerge from an effort to explain the experience of art may not mask the real meanings of a work of art.
Jerome Bruner
Psychologist · American · b. 1915
You can browse to your heart's content but it's hard work and not easy on the feet unless you do it through catalogs or the Internet, and I like to touch and try on the things I buy.
Judith Krantz
Novelist · American · b. 1928
Extension work is not exhortation. Nor is it exploitation of the people, or advertising of an institution, or publicity work for securing students. It is a plain, earnest, and continuous effort to meet the needs of the people on their own farms and in the localities.
Liberty Hyde Bailey
Scientist · American
It's hard to do it because you gotta look people in the eye and tell 'em they're irresponsible and lazy. And who's gonna wanna do that? Because that's what poverty is, ladies and gentlemen. In this country, you can succeed if you get educated and work hard. Period. Period.
Bill O'Reilly
Journalist · American · b. 1949
I'm not doing my work for constant success.
Rod Taylor
Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.
Gordon B. Hinckley
Clergyman · American · 1910 – 2008
Each novel is harder than its predecessor because I must work harder at not repeating myself. However, I enjoy the challenge. This is the greatest job in the world.
Jonathan Kellerman
Psychologist · American · b. 1949
The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.
Harry Golden
Writer · Ukrainian · 1902 – 1981
Newt Gingrich had to work hard - getting Republican candidates to sign the Contract with America - to nationalize the election that swept Republicans to victory in 1994. A Democratic anti-Tea Party campaign would do that for the Republicans - nationalize the election, gratis - in 2010.
Charles Krauthammer
Journalist · American · b. 1950
We simply have to become more competitive as a state if we're going to be successful in creating jobs, bringing capital investment and raising income levels here in South Carolina.
Mark Sanford
Politician · American · b. 1960
Fundamentally, whether directing in the theatre or a film, you have to be a good storyteller, regardless of the form. The thing I had to work hardest at was thinking in shots.
John Crowley
Writer · American · b. 1942
I work with structure, but I go outside the box and give it my own spin. I adore the challenge of creating truly modern clothes - where a woman's personality and sense of style are realized.
Vera Wang
Designer · American · b. 1949
The only method by which people can be supported is out of the effort of those who are earning their own way. We must not create a deterrent to hard work.
Robert A. Taft
Politician · American · b. 1889
The great recipe for success is to work, and always work.
Leon Gambetta
Politician · French · 1838 – 1882
The 1993 Social Security tax penalizes seniors who have planned for their retirement through savings, investment and hard work. That's wrong, and that's why the double tax on Social Security must end.
Rob Simmons
Politician · American · b. 1943