220+ Powerful Perseverance Quotes to Reignite Your Inner Strength

Perseverance means continued effort despite difficulty, failure or opposition. These 220+ perseverance quotes give you words to lean on when the work gets hard.

Why do quotes about perseverance help? They are short, easy to recall, and come from people who kept going. Pick one, save it, and use it today.

Short Perseverance Quotes to Never Give Up

Short quotes are easy to remember. Use them as captions, phone wallpaper or a sticky note on your desk. Each one is under 20 words, so it also works well for voice search.

• “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” — Japanese proverb
• “He conquers who endures.” — Persius
• “Perseverance, secret of all triumphs.” — Victor Hugo
• “The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost
• “Little strokes fell great oaks.” — Benjamin Franklin
• “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett
• “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.” — Calvin Coolidge
• “Little by little, one travels far.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
• “Be not afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still.” — Chinese proverb
• “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” — John Heywood
• “Nothing will work unless you do.” — Maya Angelou
• “Still I rise.” — Maya Angelou
• “Keep moving forward.” — Walt Disney
• “Endurance is patience concentrated.” — Thomas Carlyle
• “Patience and fortitude conquer all things.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Our patience will achieve more than our force.” — Edmund Burke
• “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” — Benjamin Franklin
• “Victory belongs to the most persevering.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
• “Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” — Samuel Johnson
• “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” — Walter Elliot
• “Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.” — Josh Billings
• “We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.” — Helen Keller
• “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” — Robert Collier
• “Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.” — Jim Rohn
• “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” — Tim Notke
• “The expert in anything was once a beginner.” — Helen Hayes
• “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” — Thomas Edison
• “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
• “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” — Thomas Paine
• “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela
• “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” — Tony Robbins
• “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” — Abraham Lincoln
• “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu
• “Out of difficulties grow miracles.” — Jean de La Bruyère
• “Storms make trees take deeper roots.” — Dolly Parton
• “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” — Robert H. Schuller
• “Courage doesn’t always roar.” — Mary Anne Radmacher
• “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt
• “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” — Vincent van Gogh
• “With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.” — Thomas Fowell Buxton
• “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford
• “Perseverance is a great element of success.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” — John Quincy Adams
• “It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” — Edmund Hillary
• “To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.” — Mother Teresa
• “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving.” — Conrad Hilton
• “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” — Confucius (attributed)
• “Slow and steady wins the race.” — Aesop
• “No pressure, no diamonds.” — Thomas Carlyle
• “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.” — John Wayne
• “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan
• “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky
• “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius (attributed)
• “Dreams don’t work unless you do.” — John C. Maxwell
• “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” — English proverb
• “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” — Beverly Sills
• “The secret of success is constancy to purpose.” — Benjamin Disraeli
• “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” — Nelson Mandela
• “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” — George S. Patton
• “Persistence guarantees that results are inevitable.” — Paramahansa Yogananda
• “I never lose. I either win or learn.” — Nelson Mandela
• “Never stop pedaling to power your dreams.” — Terri Guillemets
• “One may go a long way after one is tired.” — French proverb
• “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn
• “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” — Proverb
• “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” — A.A. Milne
• “What we hope to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.” — Samuel Johnson
• “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” — Sam Levenson
• “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” — Aristotle (attributed)
• “Don’t count the days; make the days count.” — Muhammad Ali

Famous Quotes About Perseverance and Inner Strength

These words come from leaders, scientists, athletes and thinkers who lived through hard seasons. Some famous lines are misattributed, so I mark the shaky ones. Wording can vary by source.

• “If you are going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill (widely attributed; no firm source found)
• “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty.” — Winston Churchill (1941 Harrow speech)
• “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” — Winston Churchill
• “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.” — Marie Curie
• “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” — Marie Curie
• “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” — Albert Einstein
• “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas Edison (attributed)
• “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” — Thomas Edison (attributed)
• “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Oliver Goldsmith (often credited to Confucius)
• “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” — Maya Angelou
• “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.” — Maya Angelou
• “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” — Theodore Roosevelt
• “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
• “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” — Stephen R. Covey
• “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” — Vince Lombardi
• “I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.” — Florence Nightingale
• “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” — Michael Jordan
• “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
• “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
• “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” — Rosa Parks
• “Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve.” — Leonardo da Vinci (attributed)
• “A winner is just a loser who tried one more time.” — George M. Moore Jr.
• “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” — Julie Andrews
• “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” — William Arthur Ward
• “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.” — Henry Ford (attributed)
• “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford (attributed)
• “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe
• “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” — Billie Jean King
• “Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” — Muhammad Ali
• “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” — Muhammad Ali
• “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” — Gary Player
• “It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” — Rocky Balboa, Rocky Balboa (2006)
• “Perseverance, dear my lord, keeps honour bright.” — William Shakespeare
• “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” — William Ernest Henley
• “We choose to go to the Moon… not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” — John F. Kennedy
• “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney (attributed)
• “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” — Walt Disney
• “Nothing is impossible; the word itself says ‘I’m possible!'” — Audrey Hepburn
• “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” — Napoleon Hill
• “There is no education like adversity.” — Benjamin Disraeli
• “What does not kill me makes me stronger.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
• “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
• “You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius (attributed)
• “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” — Marcus Aurelius
• “No man is free who is not master of himself.” — Epictetus
• “Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.” — Seneca
• “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” — Seneca
• “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” — Seneca
• “Fortune favors the bold.” — Virgil
• “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” — William James
• “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” — William James
• “Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.” — William James
• “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” — Maria Robinson
• “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” — Mark Twain
• “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.” — Jim Rohn
• “Patience is also a form of action.” — Auguste Rodin
• “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” — Frederick Douglass
• “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened.” — Helen Keller
• “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” — Booker T. Washington
• “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” — Amelia Earhart
• “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.” — Louis Pasteur
• “Everything negative—pressure, challenges—is all an opportunity for me to rise.” — Kobe Bryant
• “A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.” — Serena Williams
• “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit.” — Wilma Rudolph
• “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” — Abraham Lincoln (attributed)
• “The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.” — Henry Ward Beecher
• “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” — George Eliot (attributed)
• “In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm; in the real world all rests on perseverance.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Will Durant
• “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” — Bruce Lee (attributed)
• “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.” — Ernest Hemingway
• “Courage is grace under pressure.” — Ernest Hemingway
• “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey
• “Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” — Oprah Winfrey
• “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” — Mahatma Gandhi (attributed)
• “Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.” — Ernest Shackleton
• “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.” — J.K. Rowling
• “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” — J.K. Rowling
• “However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” — Stephen Hawking

Who said the most famous quote about perseverance? Most people point to Churchill’s “never give in” speech. Does grit really matter? A well-known 2007 study by Angela Duckworth and colleagues found that grit (perseverance plus passion for long-term goals) predicted outcomes like West Point cadet retention and spelling bee results.

Perseverance is not just about staying strong during difficult times; it also means embracing vulnerability and finding the courage to face life’s challenges with honesty and confidence. For more inspiration, explore these Brené Brown quotes on vulnerability and courage to discover how embracing your imperfections can help you build resilience and inner strength.

Perseverance Quotes for Hard Times, Failure, and Quitting

Hard times test resilience. The American Psychological Association describes it as adapting well to adversity, trauma or stress. These quotes are grouped by what you face.

When you fail

• “There is no failure except in no longer trying.” — Elbert Hubbard
• “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” — Robert F. Kennedy
• “Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.” — George Eliot
• “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” — Truman Capote
• “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” — Theodore Roosevelt
• “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” — James Joyce
• “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” — William Edward Hickson
• “Do not be embarrassed by your failures. Learn from them and start again.” — Richard Branson
• “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” — Thomas Edison
• “The phoenix must burn to emerge.” — Janet Fitch
• “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” — C.S. Lewis
• “Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure.” — Sumner Redstone
• “Don’t be ashamed to fail. Be too proud to cease trying.” — Minna Thomas Antrim
• “If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again.” — Flavia Weedn
• “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.” — Beverly Sills

When you feel like quitting

• “Never give up on a dream just because of the length of time it will take to accomplish it.” — Earl Nightingale
• “Sometimes you feel like giving up, but then you look at other people who have given up, and the results aren’t that good.” — Robert Brault
• “It’s always too early to quit.” — Norman Vincent Peale
• “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” — Jim Valvano
• “The darkest hour has only sixty minutes.” — Morris Mandel
• “This too shall pass.” — Persian adage
• “It is always darkest just before the day dawneth.” — Thomas Fuller
• “All great achievements require time.” — Maya Angelou
• “Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.” — Roy T. Bennett
• “Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it.” — Charles F. Kettering
• “The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” — Harry Golden
• “Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.” — Washington Irving
• “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” — Jane Goodall
• “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” — Desmond Tutu
• “Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.” — Tom Krause

At work and school

• “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
• “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” — Aristotle (attributed)
• “Learning never exhausts the mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci (attributed)
• “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” — Stephen Leacock
• “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” — Ann Landers
• “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” — Vidal Sassoon
• “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.” — Catherine of Siena
• “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing.” — Pelé
• “I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but the one thing I might regret is not ever trying.” — Jeff Bezos
• “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” — Jimmy Johnson
• “Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” — Dale Carnegie
• “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” — Zig Ziglar (attributed)
• “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” — Albert Einstein

In fitness and sport

• “The body achieves what the mind believes.” — Napoleon Hill (attributed)
• “The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” — John Bingham
• “Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” — Dean Karnazes
• “The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
• “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” — Mike Tyson
• “I don’t count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting.” — Muhammad Ali
• “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them.” — Muhammad Ali
• “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” — Babe Ruth (attributed)
• “The hard days are what make you stronger.” — Aly Raisman
• “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” — Vince Lombardi
• “Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency.” — Dwayne Johnson
• “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” — Michael Jordan

After loss and in recovery

• “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” — Helen Keller
• “Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step.” — Mariska Hargitay
• “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” — Kahlil Gibran (attributed)
• “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus
• “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” — Emily Dickinson
• “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” — Rumi (attributed)
• “Recovery is something that you have to work on every single day.” — Demi Lovato
• “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” — Viktor Frankl
• “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude.” — Viktor Frankl
• “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” — Haruki Murakami
• “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” — Robert Jordan
• “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — A.A. Milne
• “When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” — Charles A. Beard
• “You go on. You set one foot in front of the other.” — Geraldine Brooks
• “Grief is the price we pay for love.” — Queen Elizabeth II

How do you use a quote in real life? Pick one line. Write it down. Then take one small step today.

FAQs

What are the most powerful perseverance quotes of all time?

Many people rank “Fall seven times, stand up eight,” Churchill’s “Never give in,” and Mandela’s “It always seems impossible until it’s done” at the top. Each is short and tied to real struggle. Marie Curie’s “We must have perseverance” is another favorite.

What is a short quote about perseverance and never giving up?

“Fall seven times, stand up eight” is a short, well-loved never give up quote from a Japanese proverb. Other quick options are “He conquers who endures” (Persius) and “Still I rise” (Maya Angelou). All are under ten words.

What are good quotes for when you feel like quitting?

Try “It’s always too early to quit” (Norman Vincent Peale) or “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up” (Jim Valvano). “The darkest hour has only sixty minutes” also helps. Read one aloud, then do one small task.

Who said the most famous quote about perseverance?

Winston Churchill’s 1941 Harrow speech is the best-known source. He said “never give in” several times. The popular “never, never, never give up” is a paraphrase. “It does not matter how slowly you go” is widely credited to Confucius but is hard to verify.

What are the best perseverance quotes for hard times and failure?

Helen Keller’s “the overcoming of it,” Viktor Frankl’s line on choosing your attitude, and Albert Camus’s “invincible summer” fit hard times well. For failure, try Elbert Hubbard’s “There is no failure except in no longer trying.”

Conclusion

These 220+ perseverance quotes cover short sayings, famous voices and tough moments. Real grit comes from small steps taken over time, not one big push. Choose one quote that fits your day and keep it where you can see it. Then take one small action toward your goal.

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