Business and work quotes

„Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.“

—  Leo Tolstoy Russian writer 1828 - 1910

„No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.“

—  Maya Angelou American author and poet 1928 - 2014

„You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.“

—  Eleanor Roosevelt American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States 1884 - 1962

Source: You Learn by Living (1960), p. 29–30
Context: You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." … You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

„Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.“

—  Peter F. Drucker American business consultant 1909 - 2005

„You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.“

—  Victor Hugo, book Things Seen

Often attributed to Churchill, this thought was originally expressed by the French author Victor Hugo in Villemain (1845), as follows: You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do not bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.
Villemain is a brief segment taken from Hugo’s Choses Vues (Things Seen), a running journal Hugo kept of events he witnessed. The original French versions of these journals were published after Hugo's death.
Misattributed

„Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.“

—  Tom Hiddleston English actor, producer and musical performer 1981

„Preparation for tomorrow is hard work today.“

—  Bruce Lee Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker 1940 - 1973

„Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.“

—  Michael Jordan American retired professional basketball player and businessman 1963

Source: Jordan, Michael. I Can't Accept Not Trying : Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994. p. 129
Context: I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying [no hard work].
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. (p. 20, 24)

„Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.“

—  Stephen Hawking British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author 1942 - 2018

„Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.“

—  Walt Whitman American poet, essayist and journalist 1819 - 1892

This has become attributed to both Walt Whitman and Helen Keller, but has not been found in either of their published works, and variations of the quote are listed as a proverb commonly used in both the US and Canada in A Dictionary of American Proverbs (1992), edited by Wolfgang Mieder, Kelsie B. Harder and Stewart A. Kingsbury.
Misattributed

„Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.“

—  Michael Jordan American retired professional basketball player and businessman 1963

Variant: Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen.

„The power of imagination makes us infinite.“

—  John Muir Scottish-born American naturalist and author 1838 - 1914

1 September 1875, page 226
John of the Mountains, 1938
Context: How infinitely superior to our physical senses are those of the mind! The spiritual eye sees not only rivers of water but of air. It sees the crystals of the rock in rapid sympathetic motion, giving enthusiastic obedience to the sun's rays, then sinking back to rest in the night. The whole world is in motion to the center. So also sounds. We hear only woodpeckers and squirrels and the rush of turbulent streams. But imagination gives us the sweet music of tiniest insect wings, enables us to hear, all round the world, the vibration of every needle, the waving of every bole and branch, the sound of stars in circulation like particles in the blood. The Sierra canyons are full of avalanche debris — we hear them boom again, for we read past sounds from present conditions. Again we hear the earthquake rock-falls. Imagination is usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal. Yet is true imagination healthful and real, no more likely to mislead than the coarser senses. Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite.

„A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.“

—  Henry Adams journalist, historian, academic, novelist 1838 - 1918

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

„One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.“

—  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar American basketball player 1947

„The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.“

—  H. Jackson Brown, Jr. American writer 1940

Source: P.S. I Love You

„A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide.“

—  Mickey Mantle Professional baseball player 1931 - 1995

„If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.“

—  Henry Ford American industrialist 1863 - 1947

„If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.“

—  Henry Ford American industrialist 1863 - 1947

„Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.“

—  Jean Paul Sartre French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary cri… 1905 - 1980