Career Quotes | Beyond Motive

top of page

Career Quotes

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

Steve Jobs, American Businessman

Career, Passion, Work, Excellence

17

"I am recording my first CD in Spanish and preparing myself for the next stage of my career."

Alicia Machado, Venezuelan Celebrity

6

"Each book, intuitively sensed and, in the case of fiction, intuitively worked out, stands on what has gone before, and grows out of it. I feel that at any stage of my literary career it could have been said that the last book contained all the others."

V. S. Naipaul, Trinidadian Novelist

Career, Fiction, Literary

6

"This rock thing got in the way of my teaching career."

Al Jourgensen, Cuban Musician

Career, Teaching

5

"I had a career for 25 years in Australia before I ever came to the United States."

Helen Reddy, Australian Actress

Career, states, United, Years

5

"Many days I don't write any code at all, and some days I spend all day writing code."

Larry Wall, Canadian Author

Career, Day, Writing

4

"You know, when you first come up, and you get called up to the big leagues, all you want to do is just, you just want to have a career, a nice career. You want to make a living at it."

Rafael Palmeiro, Cuban Athlete

Career, First, Living, Want

4

"First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent."

Stanislaw Lec, Polish Poet

1

"He decided to plunge on with pardons over the department's objections, or where he knew that there would be objections if he had let career prosecutors know what he was doing."

Barbara Olson, American Journalist

1

"I have been driven demented in my career."

Lord Mountbatten, British Soldier

1

"I had casually rented an apartment that cost $75 a month because I expected my writing to pay my way."

A. E. van Vogt, Canadian Author

Career, Writing

1

"And then when I went to stay in '68, I can honestly say that I was not focused on my career and on what it took to be a major league pitcher and to be a starting pitcher."

Nolan Ryan, American Athlete

1

"But, I don't want to assume that our tradition of excellence is a guarantee of future excellence."

Dave Heineman, American Politician

Career, Excellence, Future, Tradition, Want

1

"Cricketers have a very short shelf life. On an average, you make money through cricket for five years, but you need to survive for sixty years."

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Indian Athlete

Career, Cricket, Longevity, Money

"The blues is something separate from what I do. They connect at certain spots, but blues is different. I wouldn't put it in with what my career has been. That would be a whole separate wing."

Bob Mould, American Musician

"We've been performing with symphonies all of our career and it sounds so wonderful when they play 'My Girl' with the large string section, I want to turn around and look."

Otis Williams, American Musician

Career, Play, Want

"I was always very grateful I was never hot. In the entire length of my career, I haven't been the most adored."

Harrison Ford, American Actor

"I left with nothing and needing to begin a new career."

John Surtees, English Athlete

Career, Nothing

"I bought my first camera in Seattle, Washington. Only paid about seven dollars and fifty cents for it."

Gordon Parks, American Photographer

Career, First, Washington

"Joblessness gives you the resource through which you can create a new you."

Sunday Adelaja, Nigerian Author

Career, Joblessness, Reinvention, Growth, Creativity

"I have competed before empty stadiums a lot in my career."

Bill Toomey, American Athlete

"Sometimes you get caught up in what's going on around you. The reality is that you are just a regular person. At some point, the career will be over, the bright lights turn off. That can come back to haunt you if you're not just a regular guy."

Brett Favre, American Athlete

Career, Reality, Will

"I think I went through everything anyone who had a long career needed. I needed quiet. I needed to raise my children."

Ron Darling, American Baseball Player

Career, Children, Quiet

"A career is a series of ups and downs, of comebacks."

Steve Guttenberg, American Actor

"I have been exposed to a great amount of temptation throughout the course of my career."

DeForest Kelley, American Actor

Career, Temptation

"Your relationship with an agent has got to be mutually beneficial. If you can't help their careers, then they're not going to be interested."

David Steinberg, Canadian Comedian

Career, Careers, Help

"I'm 31 years old and I want to be part of a championship team before my career is over."

Mats Sundin, Canadian Athlete

Career, Old, Want, Years

"The career doesn't get any easier. A career stays tough."

Dabney Coleman, American Actor

"My 6 years with Murdoch were pivotal for my entire research career."

Paul Nurse, British Scientist

Career, Research, Years

"Getting stopped for drunk driving in those days might mean that your entire career was over then. Not today."

Mark Goddard, American Actor

Career, Driving, Today

"I sometimes think I've needed a bit of an arm around me in my career - which I've not always got from certain managers and coaches who didn't understand me."

Robbie Fowler, English Athlete

Career, Coaches, Managers

"My career is pretty much over. I'm out in the Valley eating soft-boiled eggs."

Tim Conway, American Actor

Career, Eating, Pretty

"The biggest break in my career was getting into the Beatles in 1962. The second biggest break since then is getting out of them."

George Harrison, British Musician

"It was a presidential election year, and as a member of a consortium of Ivy League radio stations, we participated in 'network' coverage of election night."

Andrea Mitchell, American Journalist

Career, Ivy, Night

"I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this."

Elia Kazan, American Director

Career, Film, Giving, Hate

"Oh, my career. What career? I'm over 40."

Melanie Griffith, American Actress

"This was more than just a cow - this was an entire career I was looking at."

Gary Larson, American Cartoonist

"To this day, I don't know what shapes a Hollywood career."

Dorothy McGuire, American Actress

Career, Day, Hollywood

"The first essential in a boy's career is to find out what he's fitted for, what he's most capable of doing and doing with a relish."

Charles M. Schwab, American Businessman

"When I hit 11 so did the careers of Dylan and the Stones. A year later it was the Who and the Kinks."

Bob Geldof, Irish Actor

Career, Careers

"It certainly made a film writing career for me."

Buck Henry, American Actor

Career, Film, Writing

"I think it's critical that you feel you're working for a person who is committed to advancing your career."

Andrea Jung, American Businessman

"I don't believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career."

Charlie Chaplin, English Actor

"My career should adapt to me. Fame is like a VIP pass wherever you want to go."

Leonardo DiCaprio, American Actor

Career, Fame, Want

"My whole career - I have been really lucky."

Caprice bourret, American Model

"I would like to look back on my career and be proud of what I've done."

Nicholas Lea, Canadian Actor

"I lost three times in my career. Losing to Holmes I could deal with, because I lost to a true champion."

Gerry Cooney, American Athlete

"Every job will demand some sacrifice. The key is to avoid unnecessary sacrifice."

Sheryl Sandberg, American Author

Career, Work-Life Balance, Sacrifice, Priorities

"When you have won everything in your career, what's left? Why go on?"

Hermann Maier, Austrian Athlete

"If they tell the police, the police will find out she was driving, and her career will be put into hell."

Nicholas Mosley, British Novelist

Career, Driving, Hell, Police

bottom of page