Looking for achievement quotes to encourage you to accomplish your goals and become great at whatever you choose to do?
Do you really need those words of wisdom that can inspire and guide you on your journey towards success?
Well, you have come to the right place.
But, what is achievement?
Before we start with achievement quotes, let’s try to understand the definition of “achievement”.
Dictionary.com defines it as,
“Something accomplished, especially by superior ability, special effort, great courage, etc.”
In other words, you need to work hard and put in your best efforts using your best ability if you want to realize your dreams.
Here’s a list of 85 achievement quotes to inspire you to keep moving forward and chase your dreams.
#1. “Live the Life of Your Dreams
When you start living the life of your dreams, there will always be obstacles, doubters, mistakes, and setbacks along the way. But with hard work, perseverance and self-belief there is no limit to what you can achieve.”
― Roy T. Bennett
#2. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
― Paulo Coelho
#3. “Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.”
― Albert Einstein
#4. “Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.”
― Paulo Coelho
#5. “Achievement has no color”
― Abraham Lincoln
#6. “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
#7. “To accomplish great things we must not only act but also dream; not only plan but also believe.”
― Anatole France
#8. “We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.”
― B. F. Skinner
#9. “Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s a day you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it.”
― Margaret Thatcher
#10. “Don’t mistake activity with achievement.”
― John Wooden
#11. “You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
― Roy T. Bennett
#12. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
― Robert F. Kennedy
#13. “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.”
–- John Wooden
#14. “If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
–- Jim Rohn
#15. “If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.”
—Thomas J. Watson
#16. “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
— Henry David Thoreau
#17. “Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I’ll show you someone who has never achieved much.”
― Joan Collins
#18. “Where victims see adversity, extreme achievers see opportunity.”
— Robin Sharma
#19. “When your desires are strong enough, you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.”
― Napoleon Hill
#20. “Competition is a by-product of productive work, not its goal. A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
— Ayn Rand
#21. “When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.”
― Lolly Daskal
#22. “Every achievement is servitude. It compels us to higher achievement.”
— Albert Camus
#23. “Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”
— Napoleon Hill
#24. “We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.”
— Cesar Chavez
#25. “Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.”
— Theodore Isaac Rubin
#26. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”
— Helen Keller
#27. “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
— Benjamin Franklin
#28. “The starting point of all achievement is desire.”
— Napoleon Hill
#29. “Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.”
— Steve Prefontaine
#30. “Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It’s a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.”
— Thomas Carlyle
#31. “Every great achievement is but a small peak in the mountain range of contributions.”
— Dale T. Mortensen
#32. “The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one’s opportunities and make the most of one’s resources.”
— Luc de Clapiers
#33. “Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.”
— Robert H. Schuller
#34. “What is the recipe for successful achievement? To my mind there are just four essential ingredients: Choose a career you love, give it the best there is in you, seize your opportunities, and be a member of the team.”
— Benjamin Franklin Fairless
#35. “Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows.”
— Ben Stein
#36. “Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.”
— C. S. Lewis
#37. “There is no shortcut to achievement. Life requires thorough preparation – veneer isn’t worth anything.”
— George Washington Carver
#38. “With your entire focus on your goal, you will reach levels of achievement that you never thought possible.”
— Catherine Pulsifer
#39. “Achieving big goals requires you to become a bigger person. You must develop new habits, abilities, skills, and attitudes. You must stretch yourself, and in so doing, you will be forever stretched.”
— Vic Johnson
#40. “I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it.”
— Michael Jordan
#41. “But with sound self-confidence, you can succeed. A sense of inferiority and inadequacy interferes with the attainment of your hopes, but self-confidence leads to self-realization and successful achievement.”
— Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
#42. “I profoundly believe that there is always more than one right way to achieve great results.”
— Robyn Pearce
#43. “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”
— Vince Lombardi
#44. “High achievers and top performers certainly aren’t average, but they definitely aren’t superhuman – even if you currently see them that way.”
— David Fairweather
#45. “If you believe that achievement ends with retirement, you will slowly fade away. First of all, keeping the mind active is one way to prolong your life and to enjoy life to its fullest for as long as possible.”
— Byron Pulsifer
#46. “The real success of our personal lives and careers can best be measured by the relationships we have with the people most dear to us – our family, friends, and co-workers. If we fail in this aspect of our lives, no matter how vast our worldly possessions or how high on the corporate ladder we climb, we will have achieved very little.”
— Mary Kay Ash
#47. “Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.”
— Napoleon Hill
#48. “Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
#49. “You can’t hit a target unless you are aiming for it, and you can’t achieve a goal without having it.”
— Shawn Doyle
#50. “Always ask, “Why?” The more reasons you have to pursue a goal, the better you’ll likely do in terms of achieving it.”
— Michael S. Dobson
#51. “With the right balance of vacation and work, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that the human spirit cannot achieve.”
— Sage Wilcox
#52. “So no matter what comes your way today, tomorrow, next week, or next year for that matter understand that you have in you what it takes to overcome it… ”
— Josh Hinds
#53. “Nothing of significance was ever achieved by an individual acting alone. Look below the surface and you will find that all seemingly solo acts are really team efforts.”
— John C. Maxwell
#54. “The easiest way to set goals is to answer the following questions: What is it I want to achieve? When do I want to achieve it? Where am I today and what action do I need to take to achieve my goal?”
— Catherine Pulsifer
#55. “People have a tremendous capacity for outstanding achievement. There are also many extraordinary capacities that allow them to become high achievers.”
— Steve Brunkhorst
#56. “Powerful thought: Great achievement often happens when our backs are up against the wall. Pressure can actually enhance your performance.”
— Robin Sharma
#57. “The most splendid achievement of all is the constant striving to surpass yourself and to be worthy of your own approval.”
— Denis Waitley
#58. “Check your definition of “security”. Is it really what you want or is it the very thing that’s holding you back from achieving your ambitions?”
— Tony Clark
#59. “No one achieves greatness by becoming a generalist. You don’t hone a skill by diluting your attention to its development. The only way to get to the next level is the focus.”
— John C. Maxwell
#60. “Achieving a goal is a very proactive step in someone’s life, and if you don’t have the proper attitude and determination, it may not work out as well as you had hoped for.”
— Sharlene Snow
#61. “A slice of satisfaction, fulfillment, and happiness can be found in the achievement . . . but the real source of consistent, lasting happiness lies in the process.”
— Jeff Haden
#62. “When you learn from others how they achieved their goals quickly, it can speed up your own results enormously.”
— Mike Pettigrew
#63. “Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.”
— Henry Ford
#64. “Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement.”
— Willa Cather
#65. “Wherever you get to is better than where you started. To stay on the road is a massive achievement.”
— Anthony Joshua
#66. “Passion is the driver of achievement in all fields. Some people love doing things they don’t feel they’re good at. That may be because they underestimate their talents or haven’t yet put the work in to develop them.”
— Ken Robinson
#67. “Stop just cheering for others who are living their visions. Commit yourself to your own success and follow the steps required to achieve it.”
— Steve Maraboli
#68. “Men make an opportunity. Every great industrial achievement has been the result of individual effort – the practical development of a dream in the mind of an individual.”
— Charles M. Schwab
#69. “Remember how far you’ve come, and you won’t have to rely on a destiny for your future. It will come on your own.”
— Shannon A. Thompson
#70. “The more specific and measurable your goal, the more quickly you will be able to identify, locate, create, and implement the use of the necessary resources for its achievement.”
— Charles J. Givens
#71. “Let today be the day that you become committed in being, in doing, in getting, achieving, in experiencing. Let today be the day that you are committed to being the change you wish to see and living the life you wish to live.”
— Steve Maraboli
#72. “To be successful, one has to be one of three bees – the queen bee, the hardest working bee, or the bee that does not fit in.”
— Suzy Kassem
#73. “To shift your life in the desired direction, you must powerfully shift your subconscious.”
— Kevin Michel
#74. “In an ideal world, nobody’s work would be just about the money. People could pursue excellence in what they do, take pride in achievement, and derive meaning from knowing that their work improved the lives of others.”
— Barry Schwartz
#75. “The important thing is to find your true source of inspiration and to remain focused in the achievement of your goals.”
— Sara Wellington
#76. “Failure is constructive feedback that tells you to try a different approach to accomplish what you want.”
–- Idowu Koyenikan
#77. “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
#78. “High achievers spot rich opportunities swiftly, make big decisions quickly, and move into action immediately. Follow these principles and you can make your dreams come true.”
–- Robert H. Schuller
#79. “If you call failures experiments, you can put them in your resume and claim them as achievements.”
–- Mason Cooley
#80. “What the mind can conceive and believe, and the heart desire, you can achieve.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
#81. “Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.”
— William Arthur Ward
#82. “Use missteps as stepping stones to deeper understanding and greater achievement.”
— Susan Taylor
#83. “Sometimes carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.”
— Albert Camus
#84. “When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.”
— Zig Ziglar
#85. “What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind.”
— Albert Einstein
Conclusion
To achieve something bigger, you need to work hard and hustle over time.
Just set your goals right and believe in your dreams.
Let these achievement quotes help you develop the attitude, mindset, and vision of a successful person.
And you go on achieving more and more success.
What are your favorite achievement quotes? Do share in the comments below.