Making progress towards your goals and dreams is sometimes a slow trip.
It can contain pitfalls, mistakes and odd detours that you hadn’t really planned for.
But to keep on going towards what you want and need in your life no matter if that’s your dream job, starting your own business or becoming your own best friend is a very worthwhile journey.
In this post I’d like to help you as you move step by – sometimes small or tiny – step towards your own dreams and goals by sharing the best and most motivating progress quotes.
I hope you’ll find something here that renews your energy but also something you can use practically to make your own journey better or a bit easier.
And if you want even more inspiration then check out this post with short, four word quotes and this one with kindness quotes.
Inspirational Progress Quotes
“Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
Plato
“Some quit due to slow progress. Never grasping the fact that slow progress is progress.”
Jeff Olson
“Allow yourself to be proud of yourself and all the progress you’ve made. Especially the progress that no one else can see.”
Unknown
“Actively recognizing progress towards your goal will ultimately end up inspiring you and have you pushing even harder.”
Denzel J. Wellington
“First steps are always the hardest but until they are taken the notion of progress remains only a notion and not an achievement.”
Aberjhani
“Progress not perfection… you can’t be perfect in everything… but you can gain progress on a daily basis.”
Court McGee
“Life is a progress, and not a station.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Don’t compare your progress to that of others. We need our own time to travel our own distance.”
Unknown
“You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously .”
Sophia Bush
“Problems are the price of progress. Don’t bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me.”
Charles Kettering
“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”’
Frank Zappa
“Even as you make progress, you need the discipline to keep from backtracking and sabotaging the success as it’s happening.”
Nipsey Hussle
“The answer to every adversity lies in courageously moving forward with faith.”
Edmond Mbiaka
“The swiftest way to triple your success is to double your investment in personal development.”
Robin Sharma
“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
Motivating Progress Quotes
“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
“You are a work in progress; which means you get there a little at a time, not all at once.”
Unknown
“Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.”
Alfred A. Montapert
“When you set out to accomplish something, recognize that slow, steady progress over time can lead to big success.”
Erica Hudson
“Always be a work in progress.”
Emily Lillian
“Progress always involves risks . You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.”
Frederick B. Wilcox
“True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice.”
Saint Francis de Sales
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Buckminster Fuller
“I’ve found that a self-loving approach to progress works best for me. So I continually remind myself that I am a work in progress and that I will aim for progress, not perfection.”
Unknown
“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
“If you want to experience significant progress toward your goal, you need to be intentional about the work you’re doing every day. ”
Unknown
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. “
Alexander Graham Bell
“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.”
Steve Maraboli
“If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”
Barack Obama
“Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.”
Wayne Dyer
“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.”
Alfred North Whitehead
Progress Quotes to Help You Move Forward
“Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energy moving forward together towards an answer.”
Denis Waitley
“Pursuing perfection, rather than progress, can set you up for a life of disappointment and inevitable failure. Strive for progress, not perfection.”
Unknown
“The only time you should ever look back is to see how far you’ve come.”
Bangtan Boys.
“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. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”
Winston Churchill
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
Martin Luther King Jr
“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self discipline, and effort.”
Jesse Owens
“Progress depends on such words as: step by small step and kindness towards yourself when you fall or stumble.”
Unknown
“Don’t look back. You’ll miss what’s in front of you. I don’t look back. I’m like a shark – I only look forward.”
Rita Rudner
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Steve Jobs
“Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“The only thing a person can ever really do is keep moving forward. Take that big leap forward without hesitation, without once looking back. Simply forget the past and forge toward the future.”
Alyson Noel
Smart and Wise Progress Quotes
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
Benjamin Franklin
“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”
C. S. Lewis
“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
“People and relationships never stop being a work in progress.”
Nora Roberts
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
Gandhi
“Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”
Harry S Truman
“Courage means to keep making forward progress while you still feel afraid.”
Joyce Meyer
“Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing towards what will be .”
Khalil Gibran
“Wisdom is looking back at your life and realizing that every single event, person, place and idea was part of the perfected experience you needed to build your dream. Not one was a mistake.”
John Federick Demartini
“Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Albert Einstein
“Never run back to what broke you. Once you make the decision to move on, don’t look back. Your destiny will never be found in the rear view mirror.”
Mandy Hale
“Progress changes consciousness, and when people’s consciousness changes, then their awareness of what is possible changes as well a virtuous circle.”
Bill Clinton
“Progress consists only in the greater clarification of answers to the basic questions of life.”
Leo Tolstoy
“My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant to be your own person, be independent.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“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
“Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”
Peter Drucker
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
George Bernard Shaw
“In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“It may sometimes be slow progress but if you’re someone who continually makes progress then you will have continual growth as a person.”
Unknown
“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”
Charles Kettering
”Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday.”
Brian Tracy
Short Progress Quotes
“The power to question is the basis of all human progress.”
Indira Gandhi
“A work in progress. And the possibilities are endless.”
Elizabeth Eulsberg
“Life is a work in progress.”
Jeff Rich
“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.”
Aldous Huxley
“Make measurable progress in reasonable time.”
Jim Rohn
“Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“A person who makes few mistakes makes little progress.”
Bryant McGill
“A little progress every day adds up to big results.”
Satya
“Success is steady progress toward one’s personal goals.”
Jim Rohn
“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
Napoleon Hill
Quick and Punchy Progress Quotes
“If we fail to adapt, we fail to move forward.”
John Wooden
“Personal growth is about progress, not perfection.”
Hal Elrod
“Even a rock moves on.”
Anthony Liccione
“There are only two options: Make progress or make excuses.”
Unknown
“Focus on progress not perfection.”
Bill Phillips
“I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.”
Abraham Lincoln
“If you’re not moving forward, you’re falling back.”
Sam Waterson
“Progress grows out of motion.”
Richard E. Byrd
“I’m a work in progress. I’m trying to be better.”
Nate Parker
“Your past does not equal your future.”
Anthony Robbins
“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
Karen Lamb
If you liked these progress quotes then share them with a friend on social media or via email.
Want even more motivation for making progress with your goals? Check out this post with inspiring quotes about the little things and small steps forward in life and this one with keeping pushing quotes.