45 Remarkable Quotes About Succeeding at Business

A few words of wisdom for those looking for some extra inspiration.

45 Remarkable Quotes About Succeeding at Business

Need some extra motivation for the work week? Trying to start a business and feel like it’s going nowhere? Don’t worry – many of the world’s most successful businesspeople were once in that boat, too.

We researched the best business advice from history’s most influential businesspeople, from Cornelius Vanderbilt to Oprah Winfrey. Some interesting takeaways came out of our investigation. For instance, many of the people we looked at highlighted the importance of taking time to learn – lots and lots of time. They also repeatedly emphasized the value in failure, as long as one can learn from it and then move past it in terms of a bruised ego. A final takeaway was that you have to treat the people who work for you well, and they, in turn, will take care of the business. That also means people have to want to work with you.

So, here’s our best quotes from history’s most influential businesspeople, because sometimes you just need a little inspiration.

On Seduction

— Bill Gates, co-founder Microsoft, “The Road Ahead”

On Crazy Ideas

— Elon Musk, CEO Tesla and SpaceX, “Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future”

On Feeling Sorry for Yourself

— Barbara Corcoran, businessperson and investor on "Shark Tank"

On Being Nice

— Charles J. Sykes, Rules Kids Won't Learn in School and “50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School”

On Learning

— Bill Gates, “Business @ The Speed of Thought: Using a Digital Nervous System”

On Knowing When to Act

— Joseph P. Kennedy, businessperson and former ambassador to the United Kingdom, “The Founding Father: The Story of Joseph P. Kennedy"

On Asking the Right Question

— Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon, Wired

On Drive

— B.C. Forbes, founder of Forbes magazine, “Finance, Business and the Business of Life”

On Paranoia

— Andrew Grove, former CEO Intel, “Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company”

On Friendship

— John D. Rockefeller, businessperson, “Random Reminiscences of Men and Events”

On Risk

— Warren Buffett, investor and CEO Berkshire Hathaway,, “Warren Buffett Speaks”

On Knowledge

— Benjamin Franklin, inventor and Founding Father of the United States, “The Way to Wealth”

On Intellectual Capital

— Paul Tudor Jones, investor

On Observation

— Dale Carnegie, writer, “How to Make Friends and Influence People”

On Challenging Yourself

— Susan Wojcicki, CEO YouTube

On Reading

— Charles T. Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, “Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger”

On Reading, Again

— Oprah Winfrey, businessperson and entertainer, “What I Know for Sure”

On Consequences

— Oprah Winfrey, What Oprah Knows for Sure

On How to Treat People

— Arianna Huffington, founder Huffington Post, "Thrive”

On Creativity

— Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, "Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons In Life”

On Mistakes

— Indra Nooyi, former CEO PepsiCo

On Learning

— Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook, “Lean In”

On Beginnings

— Meg Whitman, former CEO Hewlett Packard, Harvard Business Review

On Customers’ Problems

— Meg Whitman, Harvard Business Review

On Change

— Irene Rosenfeld, former CEO Frito-Lay

On Competition

— Carlos Slim, CEO Telmex, “The World’s Richest Man: Carlos Slim in His Own Words”

On Leveraging a Crisis

— Carlos Slim, The New Yorker

On Goodwill

— Marshall Field, founder Marshall Field and Company

On Not Giving Up

— Thomas Edison, inventor and businessperson

On Hunger

— Tony Robbins, author and life coach

On Quality of Time

— Arianna Huffington, "Thrive”

On Brains

— Malcolm Forbes, publisher Forbes magazine

On Doing Great Work

— Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO Apple, commencement address at Stanford University

On Where Power Lies

— Sam Walton, founder of WalMart, “Sam Walton: Made in America, My Story”

On Consolidation

— Martha Stewart, businessperson

On Likeability

— Barbara Corcoran

On Brilliant Ideas

— Lori Greiner, businessperson and "Shark Tank" personality

On Priorities

— Richard Branson, "Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons In Life”

On Bosses

— Andrew Carnegie, “The Empire of Business”

On Reviewing Yourself

— Peter F. Drucker, management consultant, Harvard Business Review

On Heart

— Thomas Watson, former CEO IBM. “IBM: Colossus in Transition”

On Dealing With a Crisis

—Ursula Burns, CEO of VEON

On Caring

— Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook

On Taking Your Best Shot

— Mark Cuban, businessperson and "Shark Tank" personality

On Failure

— Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx