Never Give Up! 50 Powerful Quotes About Grit

In Angela Duckworth’s book Grit, she describes highly accomplished people as having a special blend of passion and perseverance toward long term goals. It is these two traits that make up the characteristic of ‘grit’. The quotes about grit provided here will help you stay persistent and passionate, even when things get hard!

People with grit tend be resilient and hardworking. These two traits make it possible to stick with goals until the end. In addition, people with grit tend to finish what they started regardless of any setbacks along the way. Their passions and resilience allow them to conquer challenges without losing direction.

Grit is a highly valuable trait for students in schools, professionals in the workplace, and anyone who has set and is working toward a difficult goal.

Let’s get into these 50 quotes about grit to get you started on your path to greatness!

Quotes About Grit by Angela Duckworth

Psychologist and researcher Angela Duckworth coined the term grit and shares a definition for this highly valuable trait in her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. In this book she explains what grit is and why it is important.

She explains that people with grit:

have determination and direction
are unusually resilient and hardworking
have a special combination of passion and perseverance

In particular, Grit does an excellent job explaining that people with talent do not always have grit. Many of the quotes shared here highlight this idea. Just because someone is naturally gifted doesn’t mean that they will persevere through hardships.

We also know that motivation is important for achieving goals. But grit explains why just being motivated often isn’t enough for people to reach their goals.

The following quotes about grit from Angela Duckworth will help you understand grit and see opportunities to develop grit in your life.

#1. “Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” – Angela Duckworth

#2. “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in, day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working really hard to make that future a reality.“ – Angela Duckworth

#3. “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.” – Angela Duckworth

#4. “At various points, in big ways and small, we get knocked down. If we stay down, grit loses. If we get up, grit prevails.” – Angela Duckworth

#5. “Grit, in a word, is stamina. But it’s not just stamina in your effort. It’s also stamina in your direction, stamina in your interests. If you are working on different things but all of them very hard, you’re not really going to get anywhere. You’ll never become an expert.” – Angela Duckworth

#6. “The focus on talent distracts us from something that is at least as important, and that is effort. As much as talent counts, effort counts twice.” – Angela Duckworth

#7. “To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and rise eight.” – Angela Duckworth

#8. “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.” – Angela Duckworth

#9. “There’s no other species on the planet more adaptable than ours. We change. We rise to the occasion.” – Angela Duckworth

#10. “One form of perseverance is the daily discipline of trying to do things better than we did yesterday.” – Angela Duckworth

If you are interested in more quotes from Angela Duckworth, consider checking out Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. This book is loaded with quotes about grit like the ones shared above.

Grit, Growth Mindset, Effort, and Not Giving Up

One of the most essential characteristics of people with grit is that they do not give up. People with grit have a growth mindset and see obstacles as a way of improving. They believe that with effort, anything is possible.

Carol Dweck coined the term ‘growth mindset’, and explains the role a growth mindset has in overcoming obstacles. As such, you will see several quotes on grit from her below. If you haven’t read Carol Dweck’s Mindset yet, check out our 5 key takeaways to learn more about how a growth mindset can be used to develop grit.

Use these quotes on grit and growth mindset to achieve ambitious career goals, help children reach their potential at school, and live your best life with your loved ones.

#11. “Effort is one of those things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it.” – Carol Dweck

#12. “Picture your brain forming new connections as you meet the challenge and learn. Keep on going.” – Carol Dweck

#13. “Love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort and keep on learning.” – Carol Dweck

#14. “We like to think of our champions and idols as superheroes who were born different from us. We don’t like to think of them as relatively ordinary people who made themselves extraordinary.” – Carol Dweck

#15. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein

#16. “I like things to happen. And if they don’t happen, I like to make them happen.” – Winston Churchill

#17. “Grit is picking yourself up and moving forward even when you think you can’t take one more step.” – Christy Mossburg

#18. “If you don’t give up, you still have a chance. Giving up is the greatest failure.” – Jack Ma

#19. “Dreams don’t work unless you do.” – John C. Maxwell

#20. “Grit is knowing who you are and where you are headed, moving determinedly forward with eyes fixed on the mark, rather than the obstacles that lie in wait.” – Christine Bisch

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

#22. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

#23. “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” – Newt Gingrich

#24. “Remember how far you’ve come, not just how far you have to go. You are not where you want to be, but neither are you where you used to be.” – Rick Warren

#25. “Never hope for it more than you work for it.” – Sonya Teclai

#26. “Grit is refusing to give up. It’s persistence. It’s making your own luck.” – Peter Diamandis

#27. “To succeed at anything worthwhile in life requires persistence, no matter how gifted, fortunate, or passionate you are.” – Rich Karlgaard

#28. “The difference in winning and losing is most often not quitting.” – Walt Disney

#29. “Grit is having the courage to push through, no matter what the obstacles are, because it’s worth it.” – Chris Morris

#30. “When our commitment is wavering, the best way to stay on track is to consider the progress we’ve already made. As we recognize what we’ve invested and attained, it seems like a waste to give up, and our confidence and commitment surge.” – Adam M. Grant

#31. “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius

#32. “Grit is the persistence in following your own destiny.” – Paul Bradley Smith

#33. “There is no failure. Only feedback.” – Robert Allen

#34. “Grit is guts, resilience, industriousness, and tenacity. Grit is the ability to focus, stay determined, stay optimistic in the face of a challenge, and simply work harder than the next guy or gal.” – Linda Kaplan Thaler

#35. “True grit is making a decision and standing by it, doing what must be done. No moral man can have peace of mind if he leaves undone what he knows he should have done.” – John Wayne

Using these quotes on grit and a growth mindset will help you stick with challenges and see the value in the struggles you encounter. The reality is, your life will be full of challenges and opportunities to choose a growth mindset over a fixed mindset. These quotes about grit will motivate you to choose to see the growth through the struggle.

If you are looking for additional motivation check out these awesome quotes for growth mindset.

Passion and Grit

We know from Angela Duckworth’s definition of grit that grit isn’t just about not giving up. People with grit are also passionate about what they do. They are driven and determined to reach their goals.

Knowing how to find your life passion and finding a way to make it a focal point of what you do is one way to make grit a central component to your life. These quotes about grit and passion will help you recognize the passions in your life that will help you develop grit.

#36. “What ripens passion is the conviction that your work matters.” – Angela Duckworth

#37 “Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.” – Winston Churchill

#38. “Over time, grit is what separates fruitful lives from aimlessness.” – John Ortberg

#39. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” – Steve Jobs

#40. “Grit is not just a simple elbow-grease term for rugged persistence. It is an often invisible display of endurance that lets you stay in an uncomfortable place, work hard to improve upon a given interest and do it again and again.” – Sarah Lewis

Quotes on Grit and Success

In Angela Duckworth’s Grit, she outlines that people who are highly successful tend to be people with grit. These are the people with passions so strong that they have stuck through any obstacle in their way.

The following quotes on grit will help you use your passions to persevere and achieve success, however you choose to define it!

#41.“Success doesn’t just happen. It is a product of hard work, grit and ingenuity.” – Ogwo David Emenike

#42.“Successful people aren’t born successful. Behind it all there is hard work, persistence and a lot of grit.” – Arshad Wahedna

#43.“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal or any goal.” – Vince Lombardi

#44.“Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” – John Wooden

#45.“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.” – Winston Churchill

#46. “Life may try to knock you down but be persistent with your passions – cultivate grit, resilience, tenacity and endurance success will come.” – Amit Ray

#47. “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

#48. Grit is that extra something that separates the most successful people from the rest. It’s the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.” – Travis Bradberry

#49. “What we eventually might accomplish may depend more on our passion and perseverance than our innate talent.” – Angela Duckworth

#50. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

Using Grit Quotes

People with grit understand the relationship between passion and perseverance and tend to be successful in their pursuits. This is because highly successful people understand the power of grit and how it can be used to carry them through any hardship they encounter.

Whether you are a student, a professional, or anyone striving to achieve a challenging goal, revisiting these quotes on grit will help you remind yourself that applying your passions with determination is what will set you aside from those who give up.

Don’t forget to share this post with your friends and family on social media! If you know someone who you think would benefit from developing grit, this post could be the motivation they need to persevere!