51 down to earth productivity quotes

Rise early. Work late. Strike oil.

J. Paul Getty

American Industrialist

The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

Benjamin Mays

American Educator, Scholar, Activist

If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?

Jeffrey J. Mayer

Author of Time Management for Dummies

What comes first? The clock or the compass?

Anonymous

One of the best

The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.

Peter F. Drucker

Management Consultant & Author

Man’s greatest capital asset is the unexpired years of his productive life.

Paul W. Litchfield

Ex Chairman, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

Henry Ford

Founder of Ford Motor Co.

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

Franz Kafka

German Writer

We have a strategic plan. It’s called doing things.

Herb Kelleher

Chairman Emeritus, Southwest Airlines

I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.

Golda Meir

4th Prime Minister of Israel

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Wayne Gretzky

Ice Hockey Player

If there is no wind, row.

Latin Proverb

They knew stuff

Take care of your minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.

Lord Chesterfield

British Statesman

Time is the scarcest resource of the manager; if it is not managed, nothing else can be managed.

Peter F. Drucker

Management Consultant & Author

If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.

Bruce Lee

Martial Artist & Filmmaker

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

Stephen King

Science Fiction & Fantasy Author

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, “Certainly I can!” Then get busy and find out how to do it.

Theodore Roosevelt

26th President of the United States

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

C. S. Lewis

Irish Poet, Novelist & Literary Critic

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

Winston Churchill

Two Time Prime Minister of the UK

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.

Mike Murdock

American Televangelist

The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.

Tom Peters

Management Author

The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.

Chinese Proverb

They knew stuff

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

Henry Ford

Founder of Ford Motor Co.

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Vince Lombardi

American Football Coach

The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.

Henry Ward Beecher

American Clergyman & Social Reformer

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Cristopher Columbus

European Explorer, Navigator & Colonizer

The greatest oak was once a little nut that held its ground.

Anonymous

One of the best

People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.

Tim Ferris

Author of The 4-Hour Workweek

Put your future in good hands – your own.

Mark Victor Hansen

Co-Author of Chicken Soup for the Soul

Stephen Covey

American Author & Keynote Speaker

The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.

Mark Twain

American Author & Humorist

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.

Paul J. Meyer

Motivational Speaker

Maya Angelou

American Author & Poet

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Coffee is the way I fool myself into believing I'm going to have a productive day.

Anonymous

One of the best

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.

Walt Disney

American Animator & Film Producer

The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American Essayist, Lecturer & Poet

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Samuel Johnson

English Writer, Moralist & Literary Critic

An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.

Lao Tzu

Chinese Philosopher

Time stays long enough for those who use it.

Leonardo da Vinci

Italian Renaissance Polymath

A year from now you will wish you had started today.

Karen Lamb

Author

Make measurable progress in reasonable time.

Jim Rohn

American Author & Entrepreneur

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas Edison

American Inventor & Businessman

By the work one knows the workman.

Jean de La Fontaine

French Fabulist & Poet

There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.

Roger Staubach

Former NFL Quarterback

Confidence is the result of hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication.

Roger Staubach

Former NFL Quarterback

If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it.

Anthony J. D’Angelo

American Author & Educator

W. Clement Stone

American Businessman & Philanthropist

Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.

Pablo Picasso

Spanish Painter & Sculptor

Inspiration exists, but it must find you working.

Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.

Benjamin Franklin

Founding Father of the United States

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance, and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

American Clergyman, Activist & Civil Leader

Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.

Leo Babauta

Creator of Zen Habits