71 Angela Duckworth Quotes on Grit and Motivation

Angela Duckworth is a well-known psychologist known for her work as the chief scientist and co-founder of Character Lab a nonprofit aiming to improve children’s lives through scientific insights.

She holds the position of Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania contributing significantly to behavior change and people analytics.

Duckworth’s research has attracted attention from prominent organizations such as the NBA, NFL, World Bank and Fortune 500 companies.

Angela Duckworth Quotes

Her background includes founding a summer school for underserved children teaching in various U.S. cities and earning degrees from Harvard Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania.

Duckworth’s insights have reached a global audience through her popular TED talk and bestselling book “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” and she continues to engage the public through her podcast “No Stupid Questions.”

Here is an inspiring collection of quotes by Angela Duckworth.


Motivational Angela Duckworth Quotes

1. “Do not let temporary setbacks become permanent excuses.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

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2. “Talent counts, effort counts twice.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

3. “Nobody wants to show you the hours and hours of becoming. They’d rather show the highlight of what they’ve become.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

4. “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.” ~ (Angela Lee Duckworth).

5. “Passion for your work is a little bit of discovery, followed by a lot of development, and then a lifetime of deepening.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

6. “Stop reading so much and go think.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

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7. “Consistency of effort over the long run is everything.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

8. “At its core, the idea of purpose is the idea that what we do matters to people other than ourselves.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

9. “Have a fierce resolve in everything you do.” “Demonstrate determination, resiliency, and tenacity.” “Do not let temporary setbacks become permanent excuses.” And, finally, “Use mistakes and problems as opportunities to get better – not reasons to quit.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

10. “Three bricklayers are asked: “What are you doing?” The first says, “I am laying bricks.” The second says, “I am building a church.” And the third says, “I am building the house of God.” The first bricklayer has a job. The second has a career. The third has a calling.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

11. “Failure is not a permanent condition.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

12. “Without effort, your talent is nothing more than unmet potential. Without effort, your skill is nothing more than what you could have done but didn’t.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

13. “I learned a lesson I’d never forget. The lesson was that, when you have setbacks and failures, you can’t overreact to them.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

14. “People assume you have to have some special talent to do mathematics,” Sylvia has said. “They think you’re either born with it, or you’re not. But Rhonda and I keep saying, ‘You actually develop the ability to do mathematics. Don’t give up!” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

15. “What ripens passion is the conviction that your work matters. For most people, interest without purpose is nearly impossible to sustain for a lifetime.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

Popular Angela Duckworth Quotes

16. “Without effort, your skill is nothing more than what you could have done but didn’t. With.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

17. “A calling is not some fully formed thing that you find,” she tells advice seekers. “It’s much more dynamic. Whatever you do – whether you’re a janitor or the CEO – you can continually look at what you do and ask how it connects to other people, how it connects to the bigger picture, how it can be an expression of your deepest values.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

18. “To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and rise eight.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

19. “Interest is one source of passion. Purpose – the intention to contribute to the well-being of others – is another. The mature passions of gritty people depend on both.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

20. “Thing Rule: You can quit. But you can’t quit until the season is over, the tuition payment is up, or some other “natural” stopping point has arrived. You must, at least for the interval to which you’ve committed yourself, finish whatever you begin.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

21. “It soon became clear that doing one thing better and better might be more satisfying than staying an amateur at many different things.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

22. “Optimistic young adults stay healthier throughout middle age and, ultimately, live longer than pessimists.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

23. “Grit depends on a different kind of hope. It rests on the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. “I have a feeling tomorrow will be better” is different from “I resolve to make tomorrow better.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

24. “As soon as possible, experts hungrily seek feedback on how they did. Necessarily, much of that feedback is negative. This means that experts are more interested in what they did wrong – so they can fix it – than what they did right. The active processing of this feedback is as essential as its immediacy.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

25. “You can’t simply will yourself to like things, either. As Jeff Bezos has observed, ‘One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

26. “It was a really winding road that took me to all kinds of places. And it was difficult, and discouraging, and demoralizing, and scary, and all the rest. But eventually, I got here. I got exactly where I wanted to be.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

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27. “The most important were challenges that exceeded current skills.” ~ (Angela Lee Duckworth).

28. “With everything perfect,” Nietzsche wrote, “we do not ask how it came to be.” Instead, “we rejoice in the present fact as though it came out of the ground by magic.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

29. “Over time, we learn life lessons we don’t forget, and we adapt in response to the growing demands of our circumstances. Eventually, new ways of thinking and acting become habitual. There comes a day when we can hardly remember our immature former selves. We’ve adapted, those adaptations have become durable, and, finally, our identity – the sort of person we see ourselves to be – has evolved. We’ve matured.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

30. “In the most general sense, talent is the sum of a person’s abilities – his or her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgment, attitude, character, and drive. It also includes his or her ability to learn and grow.” That.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

31. “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

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32. “No whining. No complaining. No excuses.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

33. “When it comes to how we fare in the marathon of life, effort counts tremendously.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

34. “Since novelty is what your brain craves, you’ll be tempted to move on to something new, and that could be what makes the most sense. However, if you want to stay engaged for more than a few years in any endeavor, you’ll need to find a way to enjoy the nuances that only a true aficionado can appreciate. “The old in the new is what claims the attention,” said William James. “The old with a slightly new turn.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

Top Angela Duckworth Quotes

35. “A fixed mindset about ability leads to pessimistic explanations of adversity, and that, in turn, leads to both giving up on challenges and avoiding them in the first place. In contrast, a growth mindset leads to optimistic ways of explaining adversity, and that, in turn, leads to perseverance and seeking out new challenges that will ultimately make you even stronger.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

36. “Indeed, the calculated costs and benefits of passion and perseverance don’t always add up, at least in the short run. It’s often more “sensible” to give up and move on. It can be years or more before grit’s dividends pay off.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

37. “When you keep searching for ways to change your situation for the better, you stand a chance of finding them. When you stop searching, assuming they can’t be found, you guarantee they won.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

38. “Yes, but the main thing is that greatness is doable. Greatness is many, many individual feats, and each of them is doable.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

39. “Passion begins with intrinsically enjoying what you do.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

40. “It isn’t suffering that leads to hopelessness. It’s suffering you think you can’t control.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

41. “There have been so many times in my career when I wanted to pack it in, when I wanted to give up and do something easier,” Rhonda told me. “But there was always someone who, in one way or another, told me to keep going. I think everyone needs somebody like that. Don’t you?” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

42. “Grit depends on a different kind of hope. It rests on the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. I have a feeling tomorrow will be better is different from I resolve to make tomorrow better. The hope that gritty people have has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with getting up again.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

43. “The award goes to her because she has discovered that what we eventually accomplish may depend more on our passion and perseverance than on our innate talent.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

Famous Angela Duckworth Quotes

44. “It doesn’t really matter who it is, and it doesn’t even matter whether that purpose is related to what the child will end up doing. “What matters, ” Bill explained, “is that someone demonstrates that it’s possible to accomplish something on behalf of others.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

45. “The bottom line on culture and grit is: If you want to be grittier, find a gritty culture and join it. If you’re a leader, and you want the people in your organization to be grittier, create a gritty culture.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

46. “A girl who is told repeatedly that she’s no genius ends up winning an award for being one. The.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

47. “Staying on the treadmill is one thing, and I do think it’s related to staying true to our commitments even when we’re not comfortable. But getting back on the treadmill the next day, eager to try again, is in my view even more reflective of grit.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

48. “The separation of talent and skill,” Will Smith points out, “is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams, who want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

49. “When I am around people,” Kat wrote, “my heart and soul radiate with the awareness that I am in the presence of greatness. Maybe greatness unfound, or greatness underdeveloped, but the potential or existence of greatness nevertheless. You never know who will go on to do good or even great things or become the next great influencer in the world – so treat everyone like they are that person.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

50. “Gettleman. Fireworks erupt in a blaze of glory but quickly fizzle, leaving just wisps of smoke and a memory of what was once spectacular. What Jeff’s journey suggests instead is passion.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

51. “I have a feeling tomorrow will be better is different from I resolve to make tomorrow better.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

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52. “The highly accomplished were paragons of perseverance.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

53. “If you want to bring forth grit in your child, first ask how much passion and perseverance you have for your own life goals. Then ask yourself how likely it is that your approach to parenting encourages your child to emulate you. If.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

54. “Staying on the treadmill is one thing, and I do think it’s related to staying true to our commitments even when we’re not comfortable. But getting back on the treadmill the next day, eager to try again, is in my view even more reflective of grit. Because when you don’t come back the next day – when you permanently turn your back on a commitment – your effort plummets to zero. As a consequence, your skills stop improving, and at the same time, you stop producing anything with whatever skills you have.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

55. “All my life, I’d seen what one person – my mother – could do to help many others. I’d witnessed the power of purpose.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

56. “In other words, we want to believe that Mark Spitz was born to swim in a way that none of us were and that none of us could. We don’t want to sit on the pool deck and watch him progress from amateur to expert. We prefer our excellence fully formed. We prefer mystery to mundanity.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

57. “It is therefore imperative that you identify your work as both personally interesting and, at the same time, integrally connected to the well-being of others.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

Short Angela Duckworth Quotes

58. “Most of us become more conscientious, confident, caring, and calm with life experience.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

59. “There are no shortcuts to excellence.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

Best Angela Duckworth Quotes

60. “But if, instead, you define genius as working toward excellence, ceaselessly, with every element of your being – then, in fact, my dad is a genius, and so am I, and so is Coates, and, if you’re willing, so are you.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

61. “A vivid – if somewhat melodramatic – first hand description of what deliberate practice can feel like comes from dancer Martha Graham: ‘Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to the paradise of that achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration. There are daily small deaths.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

62. “Optimists are more satisfied with their marriages.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

63. “In fact, he can’t remember a single case in which the development of purpose unfolded without the earlier observation of a purposeful role model. “Ideally,” he said, “the child really gets to see how difficult a life of purpose is – all the frustrations and the obstacles – but also how gratifying, ultimately, it can be.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

64. “Outward Bound – so named for the moment a ship leaves harbor for the open seas – has been that challenging outdoor situations develop “tenacity in pursuit” and “undefeatable spirit.” In fact, across dozens of studies, the program has been shown to increase independence, confidence, assertiveness, and the belief that what happens in life is largely under your control. What’s more, these benefits tend to increase, rather than diminish, in the six months following participation in the program.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

65. “In very gritty people, most mid-level and low-level goals are, in some way or another, related to that ultimate goal. In contrast, a lack of grit can come from having less coherent goal structures.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

66. “To be gritty is to resist complacency.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

67. “There’s a vast amount of research on what happens when we believe a student is especially talented. We begin to lavish extra attention on them and hold them to higher expectations. We expect them to excel, and that expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

68. “Stay positive,” Cody said. “Go past those negative beliefs in what’s possible and impossible and just give it a try.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

69. “Being a “promising beginner” is fun, but being an actual expert is infinitely more gratifying.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

70. “The focus on talent distracts us from something that is at least as important, and that is effort. As much as talent counts, effort counts twice.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).

71. “I won’t just have a job; I’ll have a calling. I’ll challenge myself every day. When I get knocked down, I’ll get back up. I may not be the smartest person in the room, but I’ll strive to be the grittiest.” ~ (Angela Duckworth).



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Chandan Negi
Chandan Negi

I’m the Founder of Internet Pillar - I love sharing quotes and motivational content to inspire and motivate people - #quotes #motivation #internetpillar