Achievement quotes
1.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside achievement — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"I always thought there was some place I was going, that there was some success or some achievement or some box-office number that was going to fill the hole. And what I realize is that life is a hole. It's a process of continually trying to find and reinvent myself."
"Attainment is followed by neglect, possession by disgust, and the malicious remark of the Greek epigrammatist on marriage may be applied to many another course of life, that its two days of happiness are the first and the last"
"We seem to be riding on the top of the highest mast of the tallest ship; and yet at the same time we know that nothing of this sort matters; love is not proved thus, nor great achievements completed thus; so that we sport with the moment and preen our feathers in it lightly."
"While my interest in natural history has added very little to my sum of achievement, it has added immeasurably to my sum of enjoyment in life."
"The mathematics of high achievement"
"My biggest achievement is my children."
"If they want to take all the belts, they can take them, but they'll never take what I've done and my achievements."
"Forbearance in the face of fate, beauty constant under torture, are not merely passive. They are a positive achievement, an explicit triumph."
"I do not compete with anybody else; I compete only with myself. You saw my capacity a few minutes ago. Now I am competing with myself. When I do weightlifting, my body is my world. If I can improve myself, if I can go beyond my previous achievements, then that is my goal. My own previous record is always what I am competing with."
"Hope is not an idle term. Hope is the reality that can and does reveal itself to us at God's choice hour. To hope is to know the secret of achievement."
"But, in history, practical usefulness never determines the moral value of an achievement. Only the person who increases the knowledge humanity has about itself and enhances its creative consciousness permanently enriches humanity."
"It is time my colleagues got real. All British universities doing worthwhile research use animals, and, instead of hiding, they should be boasting of their achievements."
"Small daily - seemingly insignificant - improvements and innovations lead to staggering achievements over time."
"Your environment (your home, your office, the magazines you read etc.) dramatically affects your levels of achievement"
"Her many achievements will be appreciated more as time goes on."
"Well I've said it before and I'll say it again America's best days are yet to come. Our proudest moments are yet to be. Our most glorious achievements are just ahead."
"High achievements in art, music, etc., are the results of concentration."
"We have either to progress or to degenerate. Our ancestors did great things in the past, but we have to grow into a fuller life and march beyond even their great achievements."
"Skinny women don't enjoy being told they're skinny nowadays. They enjoy telling you how they got that way, as though starvation were an achievement."
"Faith in yourself, in your friends, in your colleagues and most of all, faith in your ability to impact our future is the best strategy I know."
