Careers quotes
4.7K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside careers — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"If you look at the careers of great entrepreneurs and you look at the moment they took their plunge, the plunge is rarely a great financial or material risk, it’s a social risk. At the moment they started their new businesses, everyone around them said ‘you’re an idiot’."
"It's different for every writer. It's not a career for anyone who needs security. It's a career for gamblers. It's a career of ups and downs."
"For me, Lionel Messi is quite clearly the best player ever. It’s a pleasure to put myself against him and when I finish my career it’s something I can look back on and know I’ve tested myself against the very best."
"My parents never looked at my acting as a career. They saw it as a way to help provide for the household."
"It is not easy to stand up against your constituents or your friends or colleagues or your community and take a tough stand for something you believe is right. Because you always want to keep working and live to fight another battle and it might cost you your career."
"Wayne's done way more for my career than Jay-Z. Wayne is the reason I'm here."
"I did not think of writing as a career and I don't think that I did this ever really, but I think of writing as something that I could do, I should do alongside whatever else I was doing. It simply grew on me."
"I never really thought about acting as a child. It wasn't like, "This is the career that I want to pursue." So when I first started acting, I was more concerned with just being on a set and all of the woes of that, and I didn't really know it or understand it as a craft yet."
"How you earn your money and build your career is how you earn your destiny and build your legacy"
"Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. It's very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career. ... Apple's been very fortunate in that it's introduced a few of these."
"The outgoing and spontaneous person that the world knew while I was boxing was a persona that I created to sell tickets and promote my career. In my private life, I am quiet and reflective by nature."
"I no longer look at my life and times in the motion picture industry as my career. I just look at it now as something I like and want to do."
"I'm a songwriter first...In my career I have never felt that my being a woman was an obstacle or an advantage. I guess I've been oblivious...Sensitive, humbug. Everybody thinks I'm sensitive...There is a downside to having one of the biggest-selling albums ever."
"There's a point in everyone's career where they're not going to be playing as well as they should be. You just have to keep you confidence and not hang your head and realize that you're going to figure it out and that you're going to get better and that you're going to learn. Learn from all your mistakes."
"I have three girls, and I say the same thing to them. I'm not involved in their careers because I've learned that it's important for them to stand on their own two feet. They'll feel better and prouder of themselves if they do."
"And old Dave, he'd go up to his room, y'understand, put on his green velvet slippers - I'll never forget - and pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, he made his living. And when I saw that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want."
"Anyone who believes a growth rate in excess of 15% per annum over the long term is attainable should pursue a career in sales, but avoid one in mathematics."
"Losing my virginity was a career move."
"Early in my career, people wanted to hear music about protest, about trying to change things."
"A black boxer's career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination."
