65 Growth Mindset Quotes To Inspire Success (Updated 2024)

Growth Mindset Quotes

What is a growth mindset? The answer to this question can be found in Carol Dweck’s book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.” According to Dweck, a growth mindset is the belief that your intelligence and abilities can grow with effort. This is different from a fixed mindset which assumes that you are either born smart or not. To have a growth mindset, one must believe their potential isn’t limited by what they already know – it’s limitless!

As part of her research, Carol Dweck showed that people either have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. The mindset that we hold of ourselves is powerful and has the potential to impact every part of our lives:

 

“Much of what you think of as your personality actually grows out of this ‘mindset’. Much of what may be preventing you from fulfilling your potential grows out of it.”

 

Some of the key differences between someone with a fixed mindset vs growth mindset is how they handle:

• The challenges & obstacles they face,
• Continued learning and effort,
• Feedback & criticism and
• The success of others

*This post was originally written in early 2018 and has since been updated, therefore there are a few more than 65 quotes now listed.*

 

To provide a boost of inspiration and motivation, here are 65 inspirational growth mindset quotes that inspire and encourage:

Quotes On Handling Challenges & Obstacles

​​Life isn’t seamless. There are always going to be challenges, obstacles and failures that come up during our lives. However, those with a growth mindset actively decide to use persistence, determination and perseverance to keep going through it. While there may be a short term loss of enthusiasm (or what feels like a huge crushing failure) they know that stopping now would be their greatest mistake. The following quotes highlight this mentality:

 

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

Thomas A. Edison

 

“The best way to treat obstacles is to use them as stepping-stones. Laugh at them, tread on them, and let them lead you to something better.”

Enid Blyton

 

 

“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” Bernice Johnson Reagon

 

“Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.” ​Ralph H. Blum

 

“Failure is so important. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success.” J.K. Rowling

 

“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” ​Charles A. Beard

 

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” Robert F. Kennedy

 

“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.” Roger Crawford

 

 

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

 

“Success is determined not by whether or not you face obstacles, but by your reaction to them. And if you look at these obstacles as a containing fence, they become your excuse for failure. If you look at them as a hurdle, each one strengthens you for the next.”

​Ben Carson

 

“Often it isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you out, it’s the little pebble in your shoe.”

​Muhammad Ali

 

 

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”

Winston Churchill

 

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Thomas Edison

 

“How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.”

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

 

“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.”

​Napoleon Hill

 

“All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me…. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”

​Walt Disney

 

 

“You learn more from failure than from success. Don’t let it stop you. Failure builds character.”

 Unknown

 

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”

Vince Lombardi

 

“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”

Maya Angelou

 

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.

​Og Mandino

 

Quotes About Continued Learning & Effort

​​Those with a fixed mindset will often view continued effort and lifelong learning as fruitless or a waste of time, whereas people with a growth mindset will view learning as the path to mastery and that it’s important to keep learning for the rest of your life.

 

“There are better starters than me but I’m a strong finisher.”

​Usain Bolt

 

 

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

Nelson Mandela

 

“If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?”

T.S. Eliot

 

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”

Babe Ruth

 

“Grit is that ‘extra something’ that separates the most successful people from the rest. It’s the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.”

Travis Bradberry

 

“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” 

​Thomas Jefferson

 

“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.”

​Thomas A. Edison

 

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”

Beverly Sills

 

“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.”

​Michelangelo

 

 

“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”

Kevin Durant

 

“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s a day you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it.”

​Margaret Thatcher

 

 

“We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action.”

Dr. Henry Link

 

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”

Henry ford

 

“The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others.”

Hasidic Proverb

 

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

“What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110% all the time.”

​Don Zimmer

 

“Reading is to the mind, as exercise is to the body.”

​Brian Tracy

 

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

Albert Einstein

 

 

“People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Rob Siltanen

 

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

​ C.S. Lewis

 

Quotes About Handling Feedback & Criticism

​A growth mindset also helps you understand how to handle feedback and criticism. It’s important that we work on being open minded when receiving constructive criticism or in other words, “feedback.” In order for us to grow as a person, it is crucial for us to not get defensive but instead have the willingness to listen and learn from what was said and to consider what can be done to improve.

Research has shown that when we embrace our shortcomings and failures, it makes us more motivated to grow from them by facing our mistakes head-on instead of running away from them.

 

“I like criticism. It makes you strong.”

​LeBron James

 

“You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.”

​John Wooden

 

“A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.”

Vernon Howard

 

 

“The trouble with most of us is that we’d rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”

Norman Vincent Peale

 

“It’s often the case that successful people invite criticism.”

​Michael Gove

 

“Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.”

Susan Gale

 

 

“To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”

​ Elbert Hubbard

 

“We need very strong ears to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure frank criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship, for to undertake to wound or offend a man for his own good is to have a healthy love for him.”

​Michel de Montaigne

 

“A creative life cannot be sustained by approval any more than it can be destroyed by criticism.” 

​Will Self

 

“Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.”

​Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”

Elon Musk

 

“Once people take ownership over the decision to receive feedback, they’re less defensive about it.”

​Adam Grant

 

“Negative feedback is better that none. I would rather have a man hate me than overlook me. As long as he hates me I make a difference.”

​Hugh Prather

 

“If excellence is one of your values, not only do you self-critic and evaluate your performance consistently, you BEG others for honest feedback.”

Assegid Habtewold

 

 

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”

​ Bill Gates

 

Quotes About The Success of Others

A growth mindset allows us to be happy for the success of others. For we aren’t threatened by the success of others or jealous that we have not yet achieved this. Those with a growth mindset are able to find lessons and inspiration in the good fortune of others and they apply this to their big goals and dreams.

 

“We don’t have to waste our time learning how to make pastry when we can use grandma’s recipes.”

Orson De Witt

 

“Develop an ‘attitude of gratitude’. Say thank you to everyone you meet for everything they do for you.

​Brian Tracy

 

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”

Ayn Rand

 

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.”

William Arthur Ward

 

“Find someone who has a life that you want and figure out how they got it. Read books, pick your role models wisely. Find out what they did and do it.”

Lana Del Rey

 

“Don’t allow your pride to stop you from positioning yourself in a circle where you are the least successful one. There is no denial that you could learn some valuable things from people who are more successful than you,that could take you to a much higher level in life.”

​Edmond Mbiaka

 

“I think the best role models for women are people who are fruitfully and confidently themselves, who bring light into the world.”

Meryl Streep

 

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

​Confucius

 

“Experience is a master teacher, even when it’s not our own.”

Gina Greenlee

 

“We all learn a lot from successful people, people who care and make us feel good, yet we learn much more from failures and those who hate us, (we learn how to avoid the mistakes they made.)”

Auliq Ice

 

“You could be the next person to succeed if you choose to learn from successful people instead of being envious of them. Moreover, aren’t they successful because they learned and continue to learn from others?”

Edmond Mbiaka

 

Growth Mindset v Fixed Mindset Explained​

If you’re looking for some good mindset quotes, then check out the following posts:

• Growth Mindset Quotes for Kids – from Dr Seuss!
• 38 Inspiring Quotes on Growth
• Why You Need A ‘Growth Mindset’ To Achieve Your Goals (and 5 ways to Get One!)
• Inspirational Quotes About Change In Life
• 46 Inspirational Quotes About Fear (So You Can Overcome It)
• 36 Bucket List Quotes: To Inspire (& Re-inspire) You
• Failure Quotes That Really Pack A Punch