58 Inspirational Progress Quotes to Build Momentum (2024)

How do you define progress? As long as you progress and improve each day, no matter how small the growth is, that's already progress. But with all the distractions, challenges, and personal situations, it can be tough to keep going. For a little help along the way, we have prepared the collection of progress quotes below as a source of inspiration and encouragement for every step you take.

Quick links to our selection of progress quotes:

Best Progress Quotes

With each passing year since we were young, we've progressed—from our first steps to our first promotion. Of course, even nature, technology, and society are evolving with time, and growth goes hand in hand with progress, but it could mean different things for everybody. 

Zig Ziglar's Wheel of Life summarizes the core areas of our lives into seven spokes: Mental, Spiritual, Physical, Family, Financial, Personal, and Career. We can assume that a successful CEO is advancing in his career and financial area while a pastor with kids, his spiritual and family life.

The end goal is to balance all of the spokes, but human beings are limited and imperfect. So, we should strive to progress instead across the most important dimensions. May this first selection of our favorite progress quotes remind you to strive for personal growth.

Related: Like these? Check out our focus quotes and effort quotes you can add to your repertoire of motivational quotes.

"Personal growth is about progress, not perfection."
- Hal Elrod

"Whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."
- Martin Luther King

"Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress."
- Alfred A. Montapert

"The moment a man ceases to progress, to grow higher, wider and deeper, then his life becomes stagnant."
- Orison S. Marden

"Always concentrate on how far you have come, rather than how far you have left to go. The difference in how easy it seems will amaze you."
- Heidi Johnson

Progress Quotes About Starting Out

Overcoming the inertia of just getting started can be daunting and discouraging. However, making progress by simply starting is possible and incredibly rewarding. 

To begin, we can develop what Charles Duhigg calls keystone habits that align with our goals and have a cascading effect on our progress. For example, if your goal is to become healthier, a keystone habit could be exercising three times a week. This action could lead to other positive changes, such as healthier eating or better sleep.

Habits, especially positive ones, can take time to form, but they're worth it. So, it's best to break down the daunting into tiny, achievable steps that allow us to direct our focus and effort wisely.

After reading the progress quotes below, start your growth journey with habits and accountability. And for more reading, you might also like our selection of consistency quotes that further explore the theme.

"The secret of making progress is to get started."
- Mark Twain

"Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What's important is the action. You don't have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow."
- Carrie Fisher

"All progress takes place outside the comfort zone."
- Michael John Bobak

"I'll go anywhere as long as it's forward."
- Barack Obama

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
- George Bernard Shaw

"Progress and innovation happen when you set unrealistic goals."
- Simon Sinek

"Like the turtle, you need to stick your neck out to make progress."
- Anna Olson

"It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off! You cannot make progress without making decisions."
- Jim Rohn

"If you want to experience significant progress toward your goal, you need to be intentional about the work you're doing every day."
- Unknown

"Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it."
- Andy Rooney

First steps are always the hardest but until they are taken the notion of progress remains only a notion and not an achievement.

~ Aberjhani

A person who makes few mistakes makes little progress.

~ Bryant McGill

Motivational Progress Quotes To Keep And Gain Momentum

Small progress is still progress and is the solution for keeping the momentum. When achieving any goal, getting discouraged is easy when you don't see the progress you want. But the truth is that even the tiniest steps can lead to powerful outcomes over time.

Small gains, like the compounding interest on our savings, can also add up. Author James Clear's simple illustration shows how our 1% daily improvement leads to a 37.78% better version of us after a year. 

But, of course, it can also go a wrong turn -- a decline of 1% results in a 0.03% decrease or no growth. So, stay consistent and build momentum, whether reading one chapter or exercising for 5 minutes each day. Then, after a year, look behind and admire your progress.

Save the quotes below to remind you to keep notching things up and making progress.

"Slow, steady progress is better than daily excuses."
- Robin Sharma

"True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice."
- Saint Francis de Sales

"Some quit due to slow progress. Never grasping the fact that slow progress is progress."
- Jeff Olson

"A little progress every day adds up to big results."
- Satya

"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."
- Barack Obama

"I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy."
- Marie Curie

"Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still."
- Chinese Proverb

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."
- Frederick Douglass

"Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow."
- Plato

"Little progress is better than no progress at all. Success comes in taking many small steps. If you stumble in a small step, it rarely matters. Don't gift wrap the garbage. Let little failures go."
- John C. Maxwell

Quotes About Progress To Inspire You When You Need A Pick Me Up

Failure is an unavoidable part of life, and embracing it is essential to our journey to success. It's not an endpoint; it's merely a pit stop. 

Furthermore, it is an opportunity to grow, and it's a mistake if we allow our ego to hinder us from taking the learning opportunity. A 2019 study from the University of Chicago shows how participants learn from others' failures, yet personal failures undermine their learning. As the research title says, not learning from failures is the greatest failure of all¹.

Not only ego but fear, doubt, and envy can also restrict us. Check out our progress quotes below whenever you sense these negative emotions.

"Failure is success in progress."
- Albert Einstein

"Courage means to keep making forward progress while you still feel afraid."
- Joyce Meyer

"One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again."
- Abraham Maslow

"Just because you aren't making progress as fast as you think you should does not mean you aren't making progress. Keep going."
- Unknown

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."
- Benjamin Franklin

"Don't compare your progress to that of others. We need our own time to travel our own distance."
- Unknown

"Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be."
- George A. Sheehan

"The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress."
- Charles Kettering

"Allow yourself to be proud of yourself and all the progress you've made. Especially the progress that no one else can see."
- Unknown

Quotes About Progress And Its Reality

Progressing toward our goals can be challenging, especially when society says it's impossible. Suppose everyone believes in external voices, such as the Wright Brothers. Had they and other problem solvers given up, we may never have had the chance to experience flying over continents in hours like we do today. 

So, if you have an impossible dream, own it! In a company setting, executives set a big hairy, audacious goal, abbreviated to BHAG (bee-hag), a term from the book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. BHAG is a riveting long-term goal that inspires and energizes employees. In the same way, we can set our own BHAG that can motivate our progress.

Dream big, believe in your potential, and keep improving. You are on your way! Check out our progress quotes below for additional encouragement.

"There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect."
- Ronald Reagan

"Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"When any real progress is made, we unlearned and learn anew what we thought we knew before."
- Henry David Thoreau

"Progress and growth are impossible if you always do things the way you've always done things."
- Wayne Dyer

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goals requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
- Martin Luther King

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."
- Albert Einstein

"Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing towards what will be."
- Khalil Gibran

"You need to place the right people in your life, and you need to make sure that the way in which you live your life and the environment in which you do is in and of itself is one that is conducive to your progress, and if it's not, you need to do everything within your power to change it."
- Rachel Rebecca Wisdom

Noteworthy Progress Quotes From Famous People

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
- Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is undeniably one of the greatest athletes of all time. Yet, despite his natural talent, he never stopped pushing himself to improve daily. From overcoming injury to never giving up on a play, the NBA's five-time MVP inspired countless young athletes and ordinary people. 

Likewise, Mahatma Gandhi's peaceful protests and civil disobedience inspired worldwide fighting for human rights. Even if he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, the Father of the Indian Nation left a legacy that future generations will still discuss.

These two figures demonstrate the importance of striving for progress for ourselves and society through hard work and determination. Check out more progress quotes from other famous people.

"Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress."
- Mahatma Gandhi

"Actively recognizing progress towards your goal will ultimately end up inspiring you and have you pushing even harder."
- Denzel J. Wellington

"Comfort is the enemy of progress."
- P. T. Barnum

"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."
- Winston Churchill

"Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be... If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man."
- C.S. Lewis

"The only time you should ever look back is to see how far you've come."
- BTS

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
- Frank Zappa

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

~ Gandhi

No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn't trying.

~ Tony Robbins

The swiftest way to triple your success is to double your investment in personal development.

~ Robin Sharma

Other Quotes About Progress In Society

Throughout the centuries, we humans have made incredible advances in technology and development. From the early days of farming and manual labor to the invention of the steam engine to the modern age of mobile devices, the world has changed drastically for better and worse. We have always had a curiosity and desire for progress. It's an innate characteristic we should foster and utilize for our personal goals. 

Despite accelerated growth's consequences, let's strive for progress toward a better world. Read on for the rest of our progress quotes about different perspectives of our societal development.

"Progress is the attraction that moves humanity."
- Marcus Garvey

"Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken without developing new evils requiring new remedies."
- William Howard Taft

"Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- Ayn Rand

"Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards."
- Aldous Huxley

"We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can."
- John L. O'Sullivan

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

~ Buckminster Fuller

There is no progress or accomplishment without sacrifice.

~Idowu Koyenikan

No man can stand still; the moment progress is not made, retrogression begins. If the blade is not kept sharp and bright, the law of rust will assert its claim.”

~ Orison Swett Marden

The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.

~ Nikola Tesla