Work, Excellence & Success quotes for UPSC & State PCS

Put your shoulder to the wheel.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Never confuse movement with action.

Profit is not a cause but a result-

We live to improve, or we live in vain

Idleness is only fatal to the mediocre.

The deed is everything, the glory nothing.

Greatness is nothing unless it be lasting.

You become writer by writing . It is a yoga .

The work of creation is never without travail.

The beginning in every task is the chief thing.

Every thing in the world is purchased by labour.

Work, work and work and we are bound to success.

It is quality rather than quantity that matters.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.

Things don't just happen, they are made to happen.

It is better to have a bad method than to have none.

Enough work to do, and strength enough to do the work.

Excellence is a continuous process and not an accident.

Avoid studies of which the result dies with the worker.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

It is better to pick the wrong priority than none at all.

A man perfects himself by work much more than by reading.

Respect, recognition, and reward flows out of performance.

Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.

One cannot hire a hand; the whole man always comes with it.

Indifference is the revenge the world takes on mediocrities.

The manly part is to do with might and main what you can do.

If we do not secure the foundation, we cannot secure the edifice.

Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labour.

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

The only way to do the best you can is to work as hard as you can.

My thinking is first and last and always for the sake of my doing.

I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.

Take the job that you would take if you were independently wealthy.

You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.

A man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing.

Laziness may look inviting, but only work gives you true satisfaction.

Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality.

Shun those studies in which the work that results dies with the worker.

The maxim Nothing avails but perfection may be spelt shorter: Paralysis.

Before entering any occupation, diligent preparation is to be undertaken.

Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

There is nothing small in God's eyes; let there be nothing small in thine.

Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.

The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.

Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want.

Total commitment is the common denominator among all successful men and women.

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the result of hard work.

For love of bustle is not industry – it is only the restlessness of a hunted mind.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

Constant practice devoted to one subject often prevails over both ability and skill.

It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?

If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

There is only one favorable moment in war; talent consists in knowing how to seize it.

The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

Any time you see someone more successful than you are, they are doing something you aren't.

How can a rational being be ennobled by anything that is not obtained by its own exertions?

Purity, patience, and perseverance are the three essentials to success and, above all, love.

I do think unpunctuality is a vile habit, and all my life I have tried to break myself of it.

Translation: The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.

The major incentive to productivity and efficiency are social and moral rather than financial.

Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances...Strong men believe in cause and effect.

My success will not depend on what A or B thinks of me. My success will be what I make of my work.

Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune: Every success depends upon focusing the heart.

The world cares very little what you or I know, but it does care a great deal about what you or I do.

You may never know what results come of your actions. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

I forbid you to be cast down or depressed. It is not enough if you do not shrink from work; ask for it.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, would be to be a god.

I have always found that the less we speak of our intentions, the more chance there is of our realizing them.

Let me have the best solution worked out. Don't argue the matter. The difficulties will argue for themselves.

Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.

Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything he really deserves.

When you were born, you cried while others laughed. Perform such deeds that when dying, you laugh while others cry.

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.

Work first and then rest. Work first, and then gaze, but do not use golden ploughshares, nor bind ledgers in enamel.

All work, even cotton spinning, is noble; work is alone noble ... A life of ease is not for any man, nor for any god.

The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.

Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep.

The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.

Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.

Hadst thou not Greek enough to understand thus much: The end of man is an Action, and not a Thought, though it were the noblest.

We must set out to do a good job irrespective of race. We must seek to do our life's work so well that nobody could do it better.

Live with your century; but do not be its creature. Work for your contemporaries; but create what they need, not what they praise.

Only that position can impart dignity in which we do not appear as servile tools but rather create independently within our circle.

I keep the subject constantly before me, and wait 'till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light.

In short, in life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard!

Perfection does not come from belief or faith. Talk does not count for anything. Parrots can do that. Perfection comes through selfless work.

Don’t take rest after your first victory, because if you fail in the second, more lips are waiting to say that your first victory was just luck.

India is a country of empty words, not action. Only repeating, 'Mera Bharat Mahaan' won't help. Learn to finish the race first in order to finish first.

Victory belongs to those who can say 'Victory is mine'. Success belongs to those who can begin saying 'I will succeed' and say 'I have succeed' in the end.

The intellect of man is forced to choose Perfection of the life, or of the work, And if it take the second must refuse A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.

I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next.

Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.

You ask me why I do not write something... I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.

Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it were after his or her heart. But the intelligent ones are those who can convert every work into one that suits their taste.

I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.

It has been my personal experience that the true flavour, the real fun, the continuous excitement of work lie in the process of doing it rather than in having it over and done with.

Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning.

My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition there.

I don't like honors. ... I've already got the prize: the prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it. Those are the real things.

It is not among extraordinary and fantastic things that excellence is to be found, of whatever kind it may be. We rise to attain it and become removed from it: it is oftenest necessary to stoop for it.

Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.

No man can succeed in a line of endeavor which he does not like. The most essential step in the marketing of personal services is that of selecting an occupation into which you can throw yourself wholeheartedly.

By labor and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after-times, as they should not willingly let it die.

The way of the superior man may be compared to what takes place in traveling, when to go to a distance we must first traverse the space that is near, and in ascending a height, when we must begin from the lower ground.

His Biographer remarked: Of course, ‘Sir, you believe in excellence.' JRD Tata) retorted sharply, 'Not excellence. Perfection. You aim for perfection, you will attain excellence. If you aim for excellence, you will go lower.

Concentrate every minute like a Roman—like a man—on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. (Hays translation)

The better a man is, the more mistakes will he make - for the more new things he will try. I would never promote a man into a top level job who had not made mistakes, and big ones at that. Otherwise he is sure to be mediocre.

A recurrent theme of this book is that luck plays a large role in every story of success; it is almost always easy to identify a small change in the story that would have turned a remarkable achievement into a mediocre outcome.

All great events hang by a hair. The man of ability takes advantage of everything and neglects nothing that can give him a chance of success; whilst the less able man sometimes loses everything by neglecting a single one of those chances.

Not by not acting in this world does one become free from action, nor does one approach perfection by renunciation only. Not even for a moment does someone exist without acting. Even against one’s will, one acts by the nature-born qualities.

Every really able man, in whatever direction he work,—a man of large affairs, an inventor, a statesman, an orator, a poet, a painter,—if you talk sincerely with him, considers his work, however much admired, as far short of what it should be.

Learning from experience, however, can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our prior actions.

The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator something else is natural, and he bereaves himself of his own beauty, to come short of another man's.

You've got to be willing to read other people's code, and then write your own, then have other people review your code. You've got to want to be in this incredible feedback loop where you get the world-class people to tell you what you're doing wrong...

The fundamental reality for every worker, from sweeper to executive vice-president, is the eight hours or so that he spends on the job. In our society of organizations, it is the job through which the great majority has access to achievement, to fulfillment, and to community.

The Spartans meanwhile, man to man, and with their war songs in the ranks, exhorted each brave comrade to remember what he had learned before; well aware that the long training of action was of more use for saving lives than any brief verbal exhortation, though ever so well delivered.

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 the glory of the climb.

The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then be done.

No proceeding is better than that which you have concealed from the enemy until the time you have executed it. To know how to recognize an opportunity in war, and take it, benefits you more than anything else. Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many. Discipline in war counts more than fury.

The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something. The strongest, by dispensing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything. The drop, by continually falling, bores its passage through the hardest rock. The hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar, and leaves no trace behind.

Let us cultivate our garden.

Slow and steady wins the race.

A useless life is an early death.

Saying is one thing, doing another.

The beginnings of all things are small.

The future is purchased by the present.

Honest work is much better than a mansion.

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.

One must be something in order to do something.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.

When we build, let us think that we build for ever.

Whatever can be done another day can be done today.

Men do not stumble over mountains, but over molehills

One might say: Genius is talent exercised with courage.

Success always obsoletes the very behavior that achieved it.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.

To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.

For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.

Oh, but you know, you do not achieve anything without trouble, ever.

If you want to shine like a star, first you have to burn like a star.

Pennies don't fall from heaven, they have to be earned here on earth.

Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend.

Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes.

The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

It is infinitely better to have a few good men than many indifferent ones.

...the more a subject is understood, the more briefly it may be explained.

More men are killed by overwork than the importance of the world justifies.

Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.

The purpose of an organization is to enable common men to do uncommon things.

It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.

He who can listen to the music in the midst of noise can achieve great things.

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.

Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow.

Skills are called hidden treasure as they save like a mother in a foreign country.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.

To accept it without arrogance, to let it go with indifference. (Hays translation)

A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do never does all he can.

Care not for time and success. Act out thy part, whether it be to fail or to prosper.

Nothing ... will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

But I come here today, Berlin, to say complacency is not the character of great nations.

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

The powers of the mind are like the rays of the sun when they are concentrated they illumine.

Take up an idea, devote yourself to it, struggle on in patience, and the sun will rise for you.

Thou sufferest justly: for thou choosest rather to become good to-morrow than to be good to-day.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.

Move from apathy to action. Aim at becoming better than me. Luck will favour those who are prepared

If thy aim be great and thy means small, still act; for by action alone these can increase to thee.

Behold now, Bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to decay. Strive with diligence!

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

The most desirable quality in a soldier is constancy in the support of fatigue; valor is only secondary.

The meaning and design of a problem seem not to lie in its solution, but in our working at it incessantly.

Whenever anything is being accomplished, it is being done, I have learned, by a monomaniac with a mission.

If a man aspires to the highest place, it is no dishonor to him to halt at the second, or even at the third.

Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?

Talents differ; all is well and wisely put; If I cannot carry forests on my back, Neither can you crack a nut.

Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

As a day well spent makes sleep seem pleasant, so a life well employed makes death pleasant. A life well spent is long.

Don't look for big things, just do small things with great love....The smaller the thing, the greater must be our love.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking.

Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.

Lay hold of today’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow’s. While we are postponing, life speeds by.

...entrepreneurship, resulting in large-scale job creation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty in societies.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

No natural boundary seems to be set to the efforts of man; and what is not yet done is only what he has not yet attempted to do.

So the idea of being able to explain something in a succinct form is such a cool thing, and it requires you to know a field so well.

Idleness and Pride Tax with a heavier Hand than Kings and Parliaments; If we can get rid of the former we may easily bear the Latter.

For 'im that doth not work must surely die; But that's no reason man should labour all 'Is life on one same shift—life's none so long.

But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions. (Hays translation)

I still need more healthy rest in order to work at my best. My health is the main capital I have and I want to administer it intelligently.

Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.

You are only entitled to the action, never to its fruits. Do not let the fruits of action be your motive, but do not attach yourself to nonaction.

Impatience is a great obstacle to success; he who treats everything with brusqueness gathers nothing, or only immature fruit which will never ripen.

To be a manager requires more than a title, a big office, and other outward symbols of rank. It requires competence and performance of a high order.

How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.

If thou shouldst say, 'It is enough, I have reached perfection,' all is lost. For it is the function of perfection to make one know one's imperfection.

I am not concerned that I have no place; I am concerned how I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that I am not known; I seek to be worthy to be known.

Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are formed and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into form.

Inability to cooperate with others. More people lose their positions and their big opportunities in life, because of this fault, than for all other reasons combined.

I never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.

A fixed mindset, creates a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore useful negative feedback and leads such people to plateau early and not achieve their full potential.

Sober perseverance is more effective than enthusiastic emotions, which are all too capable of being transferred, with little difficulty, to something different each day.

I’m very conscious of the fact that you can’t do it alone. It’s teamwork. When you do it alone you run the risk that when you are no longer there nobody else will do it.

Procrastination is one of the most common causes of failure.... Procrastination stands within the shadow of every human being, waiting his opportunity to spoil one's chances of success.

I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could. (8 November 1944)

Can you really explain to a fish what it's like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.

When we come to nonattachment, then we can understand the marvelous mystery of the universe: how it is intense activity and at the same time intense peace, how it is work every moment and rest every moment.

That is why I say to any beginner: Learn your theories as well as you can, but put them aside when you touch the miracle of the living soul. Not theories, but your own creative individuality alone must decide.

Success in investing doesn't correlate with I.Q. once you're above the level of 125. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.

In war, theory is all right so far as general principles are concerned; but in reducing general principles to practice there will always be danger. Theory and practice are the axis about which the sphere of accomplishment revolves.

Success in science and scientific work come not through the provision of unlimited or big resources, but in the wise and careful selection of problems and objectives. Above all, what is required is hard sustained work and dedication.

The division of labor, which has brought such perfection in mechanical industries, is altogether fatal when applied to productions of the mind. All work of the mind is superior in proportion as the mind that produces it is universal.

Temporary defeat should mean only one thing, the certain knowledge that there is something wrong with your plan. Millions of men go through life in misery and poverty, because they lack a sound plan through which to accumulate a fortune.

It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, the development gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourself in a previously unattainable place.

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.

And besides; the problem of land, at its worst, is a bye one; distribute the earth as you will, the principal question remains inexorable, —Who is to dig it? Which of us, in brief word, is to do the hard and dirty work for the rest, and for what pay?

To design something really well you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to thoroughly understand something — chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.

A profession is a body of men who voluntarily measure their work by a higher standard than their clients demand. To be professionally acceptable, a policy must be sound as well as salable. Wildlife administration, in this respect, is not yet a profession.

The less passion there is, the better we work. The calmer we are, the better for us and the more the amount of work we can do. When we let loose our feelings, we waste so much energy, shatter our nerves, disturb our minds, and accomplish very little work.

This is a long tough road we have to travel. The men that can do things are going to be sought out just as surely as the sun rises in the morning. Fake reputations, habits of glib and clever speech, and glittering surface performance are going to be discovered.

Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, agreeable, healthy, and profitable. It may, for a while, be irksome to do this, but that will wear off; and the practice will produce a rich harvest forever thereafter; whether in public or private walks of life.

Do what nature now requires. Set thyself in motion, if it is in thy power, and do not look about thee to see if any one will observe it; nor yet expect Plato's Republic: but be content if the smallest thing goes on well, and consider such an event to be no small matter.

One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important, and that to take a holiday would bring all kinds of disaster. If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.

Smith had no illusion that this would be easy to do, nor did he suffer from the delusion that such an exercise would, in any sense, be perfect. But he did have the conviction that the exercise could still be very useful, and the best should not be made into an enemy of the good.

The point is, there are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments and are moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams.

Our minds must have relaxation: rested, they will rise up better and keener. Just as we must not force fertile fields (for uninterrupted production will quickly exhaust them), so continual labor will break the power of our minds. They will recover their strength, however, after they have had a little freedom and relaxation.

I have always considered the price of perfection prohibitive and allowed mistakes as a part of the learning process. I prefer a dash of daring and persistence to perfection. I have always supported learning on the part of my team members by paying vigilant attention to each of their attempts, be they successful or unsuccessful.

We present a dramatically different approach to time management. This is a principle-centered approach. It transcends the traditional prescriptions of faster, harder, smarter, and more. Rather than offering you another clock, this approach provides you with a compass — because more important than how fast you're going, is where you're headed.