127 Perseverance Quotes To Inspire

In today's fast-paced world, staying determined can be a real challenge. Whether you're striving to reach professional milestones, hoping to overcome personal obstacles, or simply looking to stay motivated in the face of everyday trials, perseverance is the key. To help ignite that steadfast spirit within you, we’ve curated a collection of the top 127 perseverance quotes. These powerful words from influential figures across different eras and fields can provide the inspiration you need to keep moving forward, no matter what stands in your way.

1. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” - Babe Ruth

2. “Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.” - John Quincy Adams

3. “If you are going through hell, keep going.” - Winston S. Churchill

4. “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.” - Vince Lombardi

5. “What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” - Samuel Johnson

6. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” - Dale Carnegie

7. “In communities, at work, but particularly in families, people are put together in something like a three-legged race. God means us to cross the finish line together, and all the other people tied together with us play some part in our progress. They are oftentimes to rouse our stubborn sins to the surface, where we can deal with them and overcome them. Bundled together in families, a giant seven or nine or fifteen legged pack, we seem to make very poor progress indeed and fall to the ground in bickering heaps with some regularity. But God has put us together - has appointed each person in your bundle specifically for you, and you for them. And so, 'little children, let us love one another' with might and main, and keep hopping together toward the finish line.” - Frederica Mathewes-Green

8. “I am not concerned that you have fallen -- I am concerned that you arise.” - Abraham Lincoln

9. “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

10. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” - Margaret Thatcher

11. “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” - H.G. Wells

12. “A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.” - Charles de Gaulle

13. “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” - Thomas A. Edison

14. “I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.” - Nelson Mandela

15. “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.” - Nelson Mandela

16. “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.” - Mahatma Gandhi

17. “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

18. “Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” - Winston S. Churchill

19. “You go on. You set one foot in front of the other, and if a thin voice cries out, somewhere behind you, you pretend not to hear, and keep going.” - Geraldine Brooks

20. “Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.” - Samuel Johnson

21. “It always seems impossible until it's done.” - Nelson Mandela

22. “To reach a port we must set sail –Sail, not tie at anchorSail, not drift.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

23. “A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” - Francis Bacon

24. “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but by perseverance.” - H. Jackson Brown

25. “That's one of the remarkable things about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse.” - Bill Watterson

26. “Life, Stormy says, is not about how fast you run or even with what degree of grace. It's about perseverance, about staying on your feet and slogging forward no matter what.” - Dean Koontz

27. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” - Maya Angelou

28. “Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

29. “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” - Newt Gingrich

30. “When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.” - Isak Dinesen

31. “Giving up is the only sure way to fail.” - Gena Showalter

32. “I may not be where I want to be, but if I stop now, I'll NEVER get where I'm going!” - Laura Lynch

33. “The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you’re going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins.” - I.F. Stone

34. “But if you ask me what I remember (about 1945), I will say it was the year Franklin D. Roosevelt died and I got one of his flowers. I will tell you that yellow rose give me the courage to do the right thing even if it was hard. I will say it was the time in my life when I learned all of us is fragile as a mimosa blossom. But the miracle of all is, When push comes to shove, we can be just as tough as Hickory. It mostly hurts at first. After a while it starts to feel better.” - Joyce Moyer Hostetter

35. “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” - Julie Andrews Edwards

36. “It is as great a crime to leave a woman alone in her agony and deny her relief from her suffering as it is to insist upon dulling the consciousness of a natural mother who desires above all things to be aware of the final reward of her efforts, whose ambition is to be present, in full possession of her senses, when the infant she already adores greets her with its first loud cry and the soft touch of its restless body upon her limbs.” - Grantly Dick-Read

37. “Guidance, like all God's acts of blessing under the covenant of grace, is a sovereign act. Not merely does God will to guide us in the sense of showing us his way, that we may tread it; he wills also to guide us in the more fundamental sense of ensuring that, whatever happens, whatever mistakes we may make, we shall come safely home. Slippings and strayings there will be, no doubt, but the everlasting arms are beneath us; we shall be caught, rescued, restored. This is God's promise; this is how good he is.” - J.I. Packer

38. “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.” - TEDDY ROOSEVELT

39. “Perseverance is the act of true role models and heroes.” - Liza Wiemer

40. “What's the bravest thing you ever did?He spat in the road a bloody phlegm. Getting up this morning, he said.” - Cormac McCarthy

41. “Let me tell your something. I'm from Chicago. I don't break.” - Barack Obama

42. “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” - Andy Warhol

43. “Affliction is a good man's shining time.” - Edward Young

44. “I had made up my mind to find that for which I was searching even if it required the remainder of my life. After innumerable failures I finally uncovered the principle for which I was searching, and I was astounded at its simplicity. I was still more astounded to discover the principle I had revealed not only beneficial in the construction of a mechanical hearing aid but it served as well as means of sending the sound of the voice over a wire. Another discovery which came out of my investigation was the fact that when a man gives his order to produce a definite result and stands by that order it seems to have the effect of giving him what might be termed a second sight which enables him to see right through ordinary problems. What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.” - Alexander Graham Bell

45. “Hardships make or break people.” - Margaret Mitchell

46. “I wish to weepbut sorrow isstupid.I wish to believebut belief is agraveyard.” - Charles Bukowski

47. “The doing of something productive regardless of the outcome is an act of faith. The doing of a small something when a large something is too much for us is perhaps especially an act of faith. Faith means going forward by whatever means we can.” - Julia Cameron

48. “We’re all going to keep fighting, Harry. You know that?” - J.K. Rowling

49. “Il n'est pas besoin d'espérer pour entreprendre ni de réussir pour persévérer.” - Marcel Pagnol

50. “You mustn't get so upset about what you feel, Spud. No one's a hundred per cent consistent all the time. We might like to be. We can plan our lives along certain lines. But you know, there's no future in screwing down all the pressure valves and smashing in the gauge. You can do it for a bit and then something goes. Sometimes it gets that the only thing is just to say, 'That's what I'd like to feel twenty-four hours a day; but, the hell with it, this is how I feel now.” - Mary Renault

51. “Never lose your passion 2 dream.” - Pablo

52. “Boy, the solid things you can hold in your hands are never all you've got. They're the least of what belong to you. The qualities inside you, those are what you've really got to defend yourself with.” - Traci L. Slatton

53. “It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It's what we do consistently.” - Anthony Robbins

54. “It's not how we fall. It's how we get back up again.” - Patrick Ness

55. “The death of a dream can in fact serve as the vehicle that endows it with new form, with reinvigorated substance, a fresh flow of ideas, and splendidly revitalized color. In short, the power of a certain kind of dream is such that death need not indicate finality at all but rather signify a metaphysical and metaphorical leap forward.” - Author-Poet Aberjhani

56. “The thing with giving up is you never know. You never know whether you could have done the job. And I'm sick of not knowing about my life.” - Sophie Kinsella

57. “So since I'm still here livin',I guess I will live on.I could've died for love--But for livin' I was born.” - Langston Hughes

58. “Start with the difficult and when it gets easy, everything else is easier.” - Frank Delaney

59. “Every pain is a lesson.” - Frank Delaney

60. “What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?—I wish I knew... Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can...” - Tennessee Williams

61. “Acuerdate de lo que te digo, mi niño. No tengas miedo. Todo lo que te ha pasado te ayudará. Vas a salir adelante.” - Sandra Rodriguez Barron

62. “We're on a hunt, Cooper. When you're on a hunt, you do whatever it takes.” - Tamora Pierce

63. “You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!” - PePe Le Pew

64. “Weel, ma´am' said Stephen, making the best of it, with a smile; 'when I ha´finished off, I mun quit this part, and try another. Fortnet or misfortnet, a man can but try; there´s now to be done wi´out tryin -cept laying down and dying.” - Charles Dickens

65. “My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results... but it is the effort that's heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight.” - George R.R. Martin

66. “Life is like crossing a river. If you take a huge step-aim for too bigger dreams-then the current will knock you off your feet and carry you away. The way to do it is small steps, you will take hold of life. You will get there in the end.” - Louis Sacher

67. “It's always to soon to quit!” - Norman Vincent Peale

68. “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” - Billie Jean King

69. “You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more."("The Castle")” - Michael Connelly

70. “Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true.” - John Steinbeck

71. “From Orient PointThe art of living isn't hard to muster:Enjoy the hour, not what it might portend.When someone makes you promises, don't trust herunless they're in the here and now, and just herwilling largesse free-handed to a friend.The art of living isn't hard to muster:groom the old dog, her coat gets back its luster;take brisk walks so you're hungry at the end.When someone makes you promises, don't trust herto know she can afford what they will cost herto keep until they're kept. Till then, pretendthe art of living isn't hard to muster.Cooking, eating and drinking are a clusterof pleasures. Next time, don't go round the bendwhen someone makes you promises. Don't trust herpast where you'd trust yourself, and don't adjust herwords to mean more to you than she'd intend.The art of living isn't hard to muster.You never had her, so you haven't lost herlike spare house keys. Whatever she opens,when someone makes you promises, don't. Trust yourart; go on living: that's not hard to muster.” - Marilyn Hacker

72. “A few fly bites cannot stop a spirited horse.” - Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)

73. “Life keeps throwing me curve balls and I don't even own a bat. At least my dodging skills are improving.” - Jayleigh Cape

74. “Your pain is a school unto itself–– and your joy a lovely temple.” - Aberjhani

75. “No one can travel so far that he does not make some progess each day. So let us never give up. Then we shall move forward daily in the Lord's way. And let us never despair because of our limited success. Even though it is so much less than we would like, our labour is not wasted when today is better than yesterday!” - John Calvin

76. “In the long years to come, not only will the people of this island but of the world, wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human hearts, look back to what we've done, and they will say 'do not despair, do not yield...march straightforward.” - Winston S. Churchill

77. “I don't believe in failure. I'm perseverant - I believe in failing.” - Bauvard

78. “First, I thought, almost despairing,This must crush my spirit now;Yet I bore it, and am bearing-Only do not ask me how.” - Heinrich Heine

79. “Coach said. "the quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor".” - Sherman Alexie

80. “A large oak tree is just a little nut that refused to give up.” - David McGee

81. “In order to share one's true brilliance one initially has to risk looking like a fool: genius is like a wheel that spins so fast, it at first glance appears to be sitting still.” - Criss Jami

82. “Persistence. Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane.” - Criss Jami

83. “Easily mistaken, it is not about a love for adversity, it is about knowing a strength and a faith so great that adversity, in all its adverse manifestations, hardly even exists.” - Criss Jami

84. “Peace is more of an internal settlement rather than what is visible on the external.” - Criss Jami

85. “Do not be discouraged by the resistance you will encounter from your human nature; you must go against your human inclinations. Often, in the beginning, you will think that you are wasting time, but you must go on, be determined and persevere in it until death, despite all the difficulties.” - Brother Lawrence

86. “Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end.” - Christina Rossetti

87. “Oh what a wonderful soul so bright inside you. Got power to heal the sun’s broken heart, power to restore the moon’s vision too.” - Aberjhani

88. “The human heart is like india-rubber; a little swells it, but a great deal will not burst it. If "little more than nothing will disturb it, little less than all things will suffice" to break it. As in the outer members of our frame, there is a vital power inherent in itself that strengthens it against external violence. Every blow that shakes it will serve to harden it against a future stroke; as constant labour thickens the skin of the hand, and strengthens its muscles instead of wasting them away: so that a day of arduous toil, that might excoriate a lady's palm, would make no sensible impression on that of a hardy ploughman.” - Anne Brontë

89. “Confidence is like a dragon where, for every head cut off, two more heads grow back.” - Criss Jami

90. “There is a tree. At the downhill edge of a long, narrow field in the western foothills of the La Sal Mountains -- southeastern Utah. A particular tree. A juniper. Large for its species -- maybe twenty feet tall and two feet in diameter. For perhaps three hundred years this tree has stood its ground. Flourishing in good seasons, and holding on in bad times. "Beautiful" is not a word that comes to mind when one first sees it. No naturalist would photograph it as exemplary of its kind. Twisted by wind, split and charred by lightning, scarred by brushfires, chewed on by insects, and pecked by birds. Human beings have stripped long strings of bark from its trunk, stapled barbed wire to it in using it as a corner post for a fence line, and nailed signs on it on three sides: NO HUNTING; NO TRESPASSING; PLEASE CLOSE THE GATE. In commandeering this tree as a corner stake for claims of rights and property, miners and ranchers have hacked signs and symbols in its bark, and left Day-Glo orange survey tape tied to its branches. Now it serves as one side of a gate between an alfalfa field and open range. No matter what, in drought, flood heat and cold, it has continued. There is rot and death in it near the ground. But at the greening tips of its upper branches and in its berrylike seed cones, there is yet the outreach of life. I respect this old juniper tree. For its age, yes. And for its steadfastness in taking whatever is thrown at it. That it has been useful in a practical way beyond itself counts for much, as well. Most of all, I admire its capacity for self-healing beyond all accidents and assaults. There is a will in it -- toward continuing to be, come what may.” - Robert Fulghum

91. “One bulb at a time. There was no other way to do it. No shortcuts--simply loving the slow process of planting. Loving the work as it unfolded. Loving an achievement that grew slowly and bloomed for only three weeks each year.” - Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

92. “Helen Sustained many falls throughout her life. But as you can see, she steps right up and keeps on going. Falling to her is as natural as sneezing to us” - Danielle Joseph

93. “When I have tried and failed, I shall have failed.” - Sophocles

94. “Up the road, in his shack, the old man was sleeping again. He was still sleeping on his face and the boy was sitting by him watching him. The old man was dreaming about the lions.” - Ernest Hemingway

95. “Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything.” - Marilyn Monroe

96. “I will not say, as the beggars at our door used to do, ‘I’ll never ask anything of Him again;’ but, on the contrary, ‘He shall hear oftener from me than ever,’ and I will love God the better, and love prayer the better, as long as I live.” - Philip Henry

97. “Venture to a remote corner of a faraway land and, from the moment you get there, every person and every thing becomes an obstacle, designed to entrap you, to stop you proceeding on your way.” - Tahir Shah

98. “It is easier for one to take risks and to chase his dreams with a mindset that he has nothing to lose. In this lies the immense passion, the great advantage of avoiding a materialistic, pleasure-filled way of life.” - Criss Jami

99. “Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?” - Anton Chekhov

100. “When your only regret is if anyone thinks you regret anything - that is the definition of conviction.” - Criss Jami

101. “PATH TO SUCCESS: DREAM. PLAN. DO. FAIL. NEVER GIVE UP. FAIL. NEVER GIVE UP. FAIL. NEVER GIVE UP. ACHIEVE! IT'S A MESSY JOURNEY.” - Tom Giaquinto

102. “Being alive is sign of strength!” - Hiro Mashima

103. “allowing only ordinary ability and opportunity, we may explain success mainly by one word and that word is WORK! WORK!! WORK!!! WORK!!!! Not transient and fitful effort, but patient, enduring, honest, unremitting and indefatigable work into which the whole heart is put[...]There is no royal road to perfection.” - Frederick Douglass

104. “...I've learned that doing what you think is right doesn't always make you feel good. For another, I've learned that sometimes you just have to keep on going when you want to do nothing but drop. And that just doing the everyday things, like keeping a shop running or getting up every morning, will keep the work going until things can straighten out again. And doing those things right every day soon becomes more important than the more pressing issues of the time.” - Ann Rinaldi

105. “In fact, most of us see perseverance as a distinctly uncreative approach, the sort of strategy that people with mediocre ideas are forced to rely on.” - Jonah Lehrer

106. “Motivation can't take you very far if you don't have the legs.” - Lance Armstrong

107. “Intelligence entails a strong mind, but genius entails a heart of a lion in tune with a strong mind.” - Criss Jami

108. “Christians walk as strangers in the world: They are untamed. They are free. To persevere with love, yet untamed by man, is often what leaves that open space for divine revelation when God so wills.” - Criss Jami

109. “You learn more from getting your butt kicked than getting it kissed.” - Tom Hanks

110. “Den mätta dagen, den är aldrig störstDen bästa dagen, är en dag av törstNog finns det mål och mening i vår färdMen det är vägen, som är mödan värd” - Karin Boye

111. “Darkness had fallen upon everything for him; but just because of this darkness he felt that the one guiding clue in the darkness was his work, and he clutched it and clung to it with all his strength.” - Leo Tolstoy

112. “First steps are always the hardest but until they are taken the notion of progress remains only a notion and not an achievement.” - Aberjhani

113. “I know that suffering is one place where He ministers to us the most. So to think that we've had our quota would be foolish. I am just longing for the day when all the pain stops.” - Mary Beth Chapman

114. “We can cry for years but sometimes gotta smile too.” - Aberjhani

115. “That's one of those things about love. It always assumes it can find a way to express itself.” - Bob Goff

116. “I'm just a regular guy who up until a few years ago totally underestimated what I felt I was capable of. Since then my experiences have taught me that we are all capable of the extraordinary in our lives.” - Ray Zahab

117. “What you perceive as a failure today may actually be a crucial step towards the success you seek. Never give up.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

118. “Time and again the sun sets like a bedimming curtain before my eyes, taking with it all illumination, warmth, and color.  I am overwhelmed by night and the monsters that lurk in shadows of despair.  But alas, stars twinkle from afar, shedding the tiniest rays of lighted hope.  I am reminded that the sun also rises and that morning's glory shall restore beauty to my world.  The realization of this dream is only a matter of waiting out the dreary night.  So, I shall persevere.” - Richelle E. Goodrich

119. “Some of the things that beat the shit out of you . . . can beat the bullshit out of you too.” - Henry V. O'Neil

120. “...Kita harus bertindak sesuai dengan nalar kita, dan selanjutnya biarkan Tuhan yang menentukan nilai akhirnya, Kalau kau yakin pada saat ini ingin menjadi pelayan Sang Pencipta kita dengan cara tertentu, maka keyakinan itulah satu-satunya pembimbing yang kau miliki menuju masa depan. Jangan takut untuk meyakini hal ini.” - Irving Stone

121. “It’s probably my job to tell you life isn’t fair, but I figure you already know that. So instead, I’ll tell you that hope is precious, and you’re right not to give up.” - C.J. Redwine

122. “You don't have to be strong to survive a bad situation; you simply need a plan.” - Shannon L. Alder

123. “Patience is the antidote to the restless poison of the Ego. Without it we all become ego-maniacal bulls in china shops, destroying our future happiness as we blindly rush in where angels fear to tread. In these out-of-control moments, we bulldoze through the best possible outcomes for our lives, only to return to the scene of the crime later to cry over spilt milk.” - Anthon St. Maarten

124. “In South Africa, they dig for diamonds. Tons of earth are moved to find a little pebble not as large as a little fingernail. The miners are looking for the diamonds, not the dirt. They are willing to lift all the dirt in order to find the jewels. In daily life, people forget this principle and become pessimists because there is more dirt than diamonds. When trouble comes, don’t be frightened by the negatives. Look for the positives and dig them out. They are so valuable it doesn't matter if you have to handle tons of dirt.” - Robert Ringer

125. “He would never exhort the faithful to persevere if he were not ready to give them the power to do so.” - St. Francis de Sales

126. “The distance a goldfish swims is not controlled by the bowl.” - Les Coleman

127. “You must dare, and dare again, and then dare a little bit more, and go on daring.” - Justin Cotillard