Feeling like giving up? These 70 encouraging quotes on perseverance will remind you to keep going through failure, setbacks, and difficult seasons of life.

There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes not from doing too much, but from holding on for too long. 

Maybe you’ve been pushing through a difficult season at work, grieving a loss, struggling financially, or simply fighting the quiet battle of trying again after yet another setback. 

But here’s the thing; perseverance isn’t about being fearless or invincible. It’s about choosing to take one more step even when you’re not sure where the road leads. 

The people who have shaped history, built meaningful lives, and overcome extraordinary odds? Most of them had their own version of “this is too hard”. What set them apart wasn’t the absence of doubt — it was their refusal to let doubt have the final word.

That’s why quotes on perseverance matter. Not because a few lines of text can fix a hard situation, but because they remind us that someone else has been right where we are, and they made it through. Sometimes that’s all the fuel we need to get to tomorrow.

Let’s dive in

Quotes on Perseverance for When You Want to Give Up

We’ve all been at that edge, the point where quitting seems like the only sane option. These quotes on perseverance are for those exact moments.

1.”It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela

2. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” — Thomas Edison

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

4. “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, and how you can still come out of it.” — Maya Angelou

5. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison

6. “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” — Harriet Beecher Stowe

7. “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” — Abraham Lincoln

8. “When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.” — Theodore Roosevelt

9. “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

10. “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” —Muhammad Ali

Also Read: 80 Motivational Quotes About Life Struggles That Will Inspire Strength in Tough 

Quotes on Perseverance Through Failure and Setbacks

Failure stings. But it also teaches. These quotes on perseverance reframe failure not as an end but as a step — sometimes the most important one.

11. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” —Confucius

12. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” — Dale Carnegie

13. “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” —Henry Ford

14. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” — Babe Ruth

15. “Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” — James A. Michener

16. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Nelson Mandela

17. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” —J.K. Rowling

18. “Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

19.  “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” — Conrad Hilton

20. “Just because you fail once doesn’t mean you’re going to fail at everything.” — Marilyn Monroe

Also Read: 100+ Inspiring Quotes on Strength to Get You Through Tough Times

Quotes on Perseverance and Resilience

Resilience and perseverance are two sides of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other. These quotes speak to the quiet strength that lives inside all of us.

21. “Resilience is very different from being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But you keep going.” — Yasmin Mogahed

22. “I can be changed by what happens to me but I refuse to be reduced by it.” — Maya Angelou

23. “The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.” — Japanese Proverb

24. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” — Robert H. Schuller

25. “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” —C.S. Lewis

26. “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves.” —Marie Curie

27. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

28. “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger

29. “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” — Robert Jordan

30. “When we learn how to become resilient, we learn how to embrace the beautifully broad spectrum of the human experience.” — Jaeda DeWalt

Quotes on Perseverance and Hard Work

There’s no shortcut to anything worth having. These quotes on perseverance and hard work are for the people who show up every day and do the quiet, unglamorous work that eventually makes all the difference.

31. “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” — Benjamin Franklin

32. “Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” — Samuel Johnson

33. “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” — John Quincy Adams

34.”Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.” — Winston Churchill

35. “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” — Bill Bradley

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

37. “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.” — Louis Pasteur

38. “With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.” —Thomas Foxwell Buxton

39. “In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world, all rests on perseverance.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

40. “Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.” — Benjamin Disraeli

Short Quotes on Perseverance to Keep You Going

Sometimes the most powerful reminders are the shortest. When you don’t have time to read a paragraph, one sentence can be enough to shift your whole mindset.

41. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill

42. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” — Japanese Proverb

43. “The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost

44. “Never, never, never give up.” —Winston Churchill

45. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt

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

47. “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” — Babe Ruth

48. “Press on. Nothing can take the place of persistence.” — Calvin Coolidge

49. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey

50. “Go ahead. Fall down. The world looks different from the ground.” — Oprah Winfrey

Also Read: 60 Short Encouraging Quotes to Help You Stay Positive Through Challenges

Quotes on Perseverance From Historical Figures

These words come from people who faced circumstances far more daunting than most of us will ever encounter. They had every reason to stop, and they didn’t.

51. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” — Harriet Tubman

52. “I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death.” — Harriet Tubman

53. “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

54. “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” — Nelson Mandela

55. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

56. “Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.” — Oprah Winfrey

57. “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” — Christopher Reeve

58. “Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.” — Orison Swett Marden

59. “It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.” — Winston Churchill

60. “Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Quotes on Perseverance for Dark and Difficult Days

Some days aren’t just hard, they’re heavy. These quotes on perseverance are for the dark days when you’re not looking for motivation as much as you’re looking for permission to still believe things can get better.

61. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow.'” — Mary Anne Radmacher

62. “One day you will tell the story of how you overcame what you went through, and it will be someone else’s survival guide.” — Brené Brown

63. “We must accept infinite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

64. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” — Khalil Gibran

65. “Sometimes, carrying on — just carrying on — is a superhuman achievement.” — Albert Camus

66. “The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out — they’re there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” — Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

67. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford

68. “Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.” — Seneca

69. “Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms, you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.” — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

70. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Final Thoughts on Quotes on Perseverance 

There’s a reason quotes on perseverance have been collected, shared, and passed down for centuries. Because the human experience, at its most honest is a story of:

• Falling and getting back up. 
• Of attempting and failing. 
• Of hoping and being disappointed
• and choosing to hope again anyway.

None of the people quoted in this list had lives that were free of pain, doubt, or difficulty. Harriet Tubman faced the impossible. Maya Angelou overcame unspeakable trauma. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison. Winston Churchill was told he would never amount to anything. 

What made them remarkable wasn’t what happened to them — it was what they chose to do with it.

You may not feel like a person of extraordinary resilience right now. That’s okay. Perseverance rarely feels heroic in the moment. It usually just feels like dragging yourself forward one more day, one more hour, one more breath. But that’s enough. It really is.