Getting up for a hard day's work is easy, but making that day productive can be difficult. To help inspire you, we've gathered 51 quotes from influential people throughout history.

2. Rise early.
Work late.
Strike oil.
J. Paul Getty
American Industrialist

3. 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

4. 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

5. What comes first?
The clock or the
compass? Anonymous
One of the best

6. The productivity
of work is not the
responsibility of
the worker but of
the manager.
Peter F. Drucker
Management Consultant & Author

7. Man’s greatest
capital asset is
the unexpired
years of his
productive life.
Paul W. Litchfield
Ex Chairman, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

8. Obstacles are
those frightful
things you see
when you take
your eyes off
the goal.
Henry Ford
Founder of Ford Motor Co.

9. Productivity is being able to do things
that you were never able to do before.
Franz Kafka
German Writer

10. We have a strategic plan.
It’s called doing things.
Herb Kelleher
Chairman Emeritus, Southwest Airlines

11. I must govern
the clock,
not be
governed by it.
Golda Meir
4th Prime Minister of Israel

12. You miss 100%
of the shots
you don’t take.
Wayne Gretzky
Ice Hockey Player

13. If there is no wind, row.
Latin Proverb
They knew stuff

14. Take care of
your minutes,
and the hours
will take care of
themselves.
Lord Chesterfield
British Statesman

15. Time is the scarcest resource of the
manager; if it is not managed, nothing
else can be managed.
Peter F. Drucker
Management Consultant & Author

16. If you spend
too much time
thinking about
a thing, you'll
never get it
done.
Bruce Lee
Martial Artist & Filmmaker

17. Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration,
the rest of us just get up and go to work.
Stephen King
Science Fiction & Fantasy Author

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. The secret of your future is hidden in
your daily routine.
Mike Murdock
American Televangelist

22. The simple act of paying positive attention
to people has a great deal to do with
productivity.
Tom Peters
Management Author

23. The person
who says it
cannot be done
should not
interrupt the
person who is
doing it.
Chinese Proverb
They knew stuff

24. It has been my observation that most
people get ahead during the time that
others waste.
Henry Ford
Founder of Ford Motor Co.

25. The only place success comes before
work is in the dictionary.
Vince Lombardi
American Football Coach

26. The first hour of
the morning is
the rudder of the
day.
Henry Ward Beecher
American Clergyman & Social Reformer

27. You can never cross the ocean until you
have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Cristopher Columbus
European Explorer, Navigator & Colonizer

28. The greatest oak
was once a little nut
that held its ground.
Anonymous
One of the best

29. People checking their
BlackBerry over dinner
is not the measure of
productivity.
Tim Ferris
Author of The 4-Hour Workweek

30. Put your future
in good hands
– your own.
Mark Victor Hansen
Co-Author of Chicken Soup for the Soul

31. Stephen Covey
American Author & Keynote Speaker
The key is in not spending time,
but in investing it.

32. Thunder is good,
thunder is impressive;
but it is lightning that
does the work.
Mark Twain
American Author & Humorist

33. 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

34. Maya Angelou
American Author & Poet
You can’t
use up
creativity.
The more
you use,
the more
you have.

35. Coffee is the way I
fool myself into
believing I'm going
to have a
productive day.
Anonymous
One of the best

36. It’s kind of
fun to do the
impossible.
Walt Disney
American Animator & Film Producer

37. The reward of a thing well done,
is to have done it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
American Essayist, Lecturer & Poet

38. When a man
knows he is to be
hanged in a
fortnight, it
concentrates his
mind wonderfully.
Samuel Johnson
English Writer, Moralist & Literary Critic

39. An ant on the move does more than a
dozing ox.
Lao Tzu
Chinese Philosopher

40. Time stays long enough
for those who use it.
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian Renaissance Polymath

41. A year from now you will wish
you had started today.
Karen Lamb
Author

42. Make measurable progress in
reasonable time.
Jim Rohn
American Author & Entrepreneur

43. Opportunity is missed by most people
because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work.
Thomas Edison
American Inventor & Businessman

44. By the work one
knows the workman.
Jean de La Fontaine
French Fabulist & Poet

45. There are no traffic jams along the
extra mile.
Roger Staubach
Former NFL Quarterback

46. Confidence is the
result of hours and
days and weeks and
years of constant
work and dedication.
Roger Staubach
Former NFL Quarterback

47. 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

48. W. Clement Stone
American Businessman & Philanthropist
Definiteness of purpose
is the starting point of
all achievement.

49. Pablo Picasso
Spanish Painter & Sculptor
Inspiration exists, but it
must find you working.

50. Never leave till tomorrow
that which you can do today.
Benjamin Franklin
Founding Father of the United States

51. 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

52. Simplicity boils down to two steps:
Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.
Leo Babauta
Creator of Zen Habits