Eric Thomas, Ph.D., widely known as “ET, The Hip Hop Preacher”, is a celebrated author, speaker and educator whose powerful words have inspired millions worldwide.
As CEO of his consulting firm, ETA LLC., Thomas has imparted wisdom to esteemed organizations and sports teams, continually reinforcing his mantra: “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”
Despite life obstacles including homelessness and academic struggles, Thomas’s determination led him to acquire a Ph.D. in Education Administration from Michigan State University.
A committed community activist, he founded a non-profit organization, International Urban Education Consultants, to address the achievement gap in urban schools.
Thomas’s life embodies hustle, drive and success. His books, ‘The Secret to Success’ and ‘Greatness Is Upon You’, continue to motivate people with their impactful teachings.
Related: Simon Sinek Quotes and Robin Sharma Quotes.
I have curated the best quotes by Eric Thomas in this blog post.
Motivational Eric Thomas Quotes
1. “Everybody has a dream, but not everybody has a grind.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
2. “When you want to succeed as bad, as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
3. “It’s not easy, but it’s simple.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
4. “Don’t make a habit out of choosing what feels good over what’s actually good for you.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
5. “Stop being average. You’re not even good. You were born to be great.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
6. “At some point in life you have to face your fears.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
7. “Fall in love with the process, and the results will come.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
8. “To be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what you are, for what you will become.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
9. “You can’t sleep. Broke people sleep. You got to be willing to sacrifice sleep, if you sleep you may miss the opportunity to be successful.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
10. “Monday, I grind. Tuesday, I grind. Wednesday, I grind. Thursday, I grind. Friday, I grind. Saturday, I grind. Sunday, I grind. And, that’s why I’m here today.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
11. “Don’t think about what can happen in a month. Don’t think about what can happen in a year. Just focus on the 24 hours in front of you and do what you can to get closer to where you want to be.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
12. “Some of you love sleep more than you love success. If you want to be successful, you gotta be willing to give up sleep. If you go to sleep, you might miss the opportunity to be successful.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
13. “I used my pain to push me to greatness.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
14. “Success is never on discount. Greatness is never on sale. Greatness is never half off. It’s all or nothing. It’s all day, everyday. Greatness is never on discount.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
15. “If you’re not where you are. If you’re not where you want to be. If you don’t have what you want, want to have. If you’re not where you think you should be at this particular place. It has nothing to do with the system, but it has everything to do with the fact that you’re not making the sacrifice.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
16. “The only way to get out of mediocrity is to keep shooting for excellence.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
17. “Listen to me, even when you lose, it’s OK to lose, but you can never get comfortable with it. You can never be satisfied with losing. When you lose, it’s got to hurt.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
18. “I wanted to surround myself with the kind of people who could help me turn my life around; people whom I could rub up against like iron and be sharpened.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
19. “You will never ever be successful, until you turn your pain into greatness, until you allow your pain to push you from where you are to push you to where you need to be. Stop running from your pain and embrace your pain. Your pain is going to be a part of your prize, a part of your product. I challenge you to push yourself.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
20. “Just because you failed, don’t make you a failure. And just because you lost, don’t make you a loser.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
21. “It’s realizing that a great dream is not as good as a great memory. The dream can be had by anyone. The memory – must be made.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
22. “If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
23. “To get to that next level, you gotta learn to get comfortable being uncomfortable.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
24. “Both desire and imagination are stored in the mind of the individual and when stretched, both have the potential to position a person for greatness.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
25. “Be phenomenal or be forgotten!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
Popular Eric Thomas Quotes
26. “Greatness is a lot of small things done well.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
27. “Knowledge isn’t power, applied knowledge is power.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
28. “No Alarm Clock Needed. My Passion Wakes Me.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
29. “Where there is no struggle, there is absolutely no progress.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
30. “When you get to a place where you don’t go for what you can get, but you go for what you can give, you gonna see your life change tremendously.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
31. “I challenge you. Be obsessed with improvement!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
32. “Champions keep going when they don’t have anything left in their tank!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
33. “That most of you say you want to be successful, but you don’t want it bad. You just kinda want it. You don’t want it badder than you wanna party. You don’t want it as much as you want to be cool. Most of you don’t want success as much as you want to sleep!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
34. “Don’t cry to quit. Cry to keep going!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
35. “At the end of pain is SUCCESS!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
36. “Don’t quit. You’re already in pain. You’re already hurt. Get a reward from it!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
37. “The reason why you’ll never be successful is because you procrastinate.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
38. “Everyone wants to shine bright like a diamond, but no one wants to get cut…” ~ (Eric Thomas).
39. “When all your energy gone! When you have nothing left! That’s when it’s show time!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
40. “Innovation is rewarded. Execution is worshipped.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
41. “If you are not where you want to be DO NOT QUIT, instead reinvent yourself and change your habits.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
42. “An eagle uses the negative energy of a storm to fly even higher.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
43. “You want to be a millionaire. But your value system says you believe in sleep more than grinding!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
44. “Every single day has to be excellent. You gotta give it all you got!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
45. “The difference between average and good. Good and Great! Great and Phenomenal! It’s their mindset!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
Top Eric Thomas Quotes
46. “You master Monday! You start winning the day! You start winning the week! Then the month! Then the year!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
47. “If you are willing to put in that sweat! Blood! And tears! I’m telling you! You can have, be and do what you want!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
48. “If you are ready to take your game to the next level, you gotta change that mindset.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
49. “Stop whining. You’re not a victim. You’re a victor.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
50. “Recycle your pain, allow your pain to reach you to greatness…” ~ (Eric Thomas).
51. “I’m discovering that the people that wake up early are really the trendsetters. They are up giving the commands on what the whole world needs to do so the worker wakes up at 8am but the dreamer, the innovator, the creator, the engineer is up at 3 or 4 in the morning making it happen.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
52. “So change your mindset. Change how you see pain. I want you to welcome it!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
53. “I realized the secret to success is finishing! And not just finishing, but finishing strong!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
54. “I challenge you to be the best you can be! I challenge you to behave in ways you’ve never behaved.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
55. “I’m like the LION, I’m not the GAZELLE.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
56. “This is your moment! Seize the opportunity to be great!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
57. “I dare you to take a little pain. I dare you!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
58. “Success does not require you to look out the window, It only requires that you look in the mirror.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
Famous Eric Thomas Quotes
59. “Stop looking for permission to pursue your dreams! They are YOUR dreams and you don’t need a co-signer to chase them!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
60. “I’ve gotta breathe it, I’ve gotta eat it, I’ve gotta sleep it and until you get there you will never be successful in life. But once you get there I guarantee you, the world is yours. So work hard, and you can have whatever it is that you want.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
61. “You can change environments, but until you change yourself, nothing else will ever change.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
62. “To be successful is never convenient. The things you have to go through, it’s never convenient.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
63. “If you’re not where you want to be, it’s because you’re not who you need to be right now.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
64. “Don’t expect front row seats if you’re giving nosebleed effort.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
65. “To be successful, you only need one person to believe!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
66. “If you can out last that discomfort! I guarantee you baby; on the other side of it is success.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
67. “Things change for the better when we take responsibility for our own thoughts, decisions and actions.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
68. “If you find something greater than yourself, to move you! Then you will make every single dream become a reality!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
69. “Your relationships will either make you or break you and there is no such thing as a neutral relationship. People either inspire you to greatness or pull you down in the gutter, it’s that simple. No one fails alone, and no one succeeds alone.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
70. “My values about learning changed. I realized that information changes situations.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
71. “You are upgrading your technology, and you’ve not upgraded yourself!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
72. “There’s somebody else just like you trying to do it! But you gotta do it faster than they do it!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
73. “The difference between those who succeed and fail: not taking advantage of opportunities.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
74. “What you envision in your mind, how you see yourself, and how you envision the world around you is of great importance because those things become your focus.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
75. “I can’t go back and change the hands of time but what I can do is create a new legacy.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
Short Eric Thomas Quotes
76. “So don’t be average. Don’t be good. Don’t be great. Be phenomenal. Or be forgotten.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
77. “Before I die, I want to help as many people as I can make their dreams become a reality.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
78. “I am a living witness, that if you are brave enough to dream it, it CAN happen.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
79. “The problem with most people! Is that you’re not obsessed with improvement.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
80. “You gotta become. Not do things in excellence. You gotta become excellent.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
81. “I’ve got a reason for living. When I wake up, there are individuals who are counting on me to be my best and live my maximum life.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
82. “You are the executive director and screenwriter of your life.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
83. “We all have the ability to produce greatness in our lives.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
84. “Regardless of how much is left in the tank, you gotta fight back!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
85. “Stop being a victim and waiting for somebody else to open up an opportunity for you!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
86. “Nobody’s as good as you when you do what you do. I need you to own the time that comes with that.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
87. “Every principle has a promise.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
88. “As long as you’re being a copycat, you will never be the best copycat.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
89. “It ain’t nothing you can’t have if you are willing to persevere! Willing to stick in there! Willing to fight!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
90. “When you find your Why, you find a way to make it happen.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
91. “There are 86,400 seconds in a day. Those seconds are critical.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
92. “When you’re excited about what you do, and nobody gotta give you a dime, that’s next level.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
93. “When your effort is low, you’re probably not thinking about the opportunity, you’re thinking about the obligation.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
94. “Character is like my fingerprint; it identifies me from everyone else in the world. It says who I am and where I am headed.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
95. “You can have, you can be, you can do whatever you want to do once you make the decision, so that would be my greatest piece of advice.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
96. “Yes I’m a worker, but I’m working on what I’m passionate about and what I believe in not what someone else is passionate about!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
97. “I’ve come to realize that when people are not reaching their highest potential or whatever goals they set out for themselves, they’re more inclined when they’re going through pain. When they’re going through a negative situation. They’re more inclined to hear me than when they’re doing well.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
98. “Better is a book than a well built house.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
99. “You can be! You can have! You can do whatever you want! But you’re going to have to free yourself!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
Best Eric Thomas Quotes
100. “Some of you with the way you running right now, the way you working, you will be extinct.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
101. “Remember, a negative multiplied by a negative is only positive in maths, not in the real world.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
102. “You have to take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime in the lifetime of the opportunity.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
103. “I used to use hip hop hooks as a way to attract young people and get their attention and I knew they were familiar with the lyrics. A big part about learning is really making connections so in telling young people…” ~ (Eric Thomas).
104. “Go Fast! Go Hard! Finish! And Win the Day!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
105. “Stop the blame game. Stop! Stop looking out the window and look in the mirror!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
106. “The next time you feel slightly uncomfortable with the pressure in your life, remember no pressure, no diamonds. Pressure is a part of success.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
107. “I kind of knew that there were a lot of people that didn’t go to church and normally wouldn’t listen to people, but they would come and listen to me talk.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
108. “We don’t have the power as humans to determine which day we die. We don’t get to make that decision.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
109. “All roads that lead to success have to pass through hard work boulevard at some point.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
110. “Soak in the history. Embrace the challenge. And feed off the hostility of the crowd.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
111. “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
112. “You cannot cheat success! Gotta work for it! You gotta breathe it! Sleep it! Eat it!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
113. “Make a commitment to yourself that today, success is your only options! No matter the obstacles, no matter the sacrifice! you have decided you won’t be denied, you won’t be defeated!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
114. “Every day you say ‘No’ to your dreams, you might be pushing back your dreams a whole 6 months.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
115. “Reading allows you to go into a space that nothing else can take you to.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
116. “Because when I’m a copycat I’m never good! But when I’m Eric Thomas, I’m great! I’m great at what I do!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
117. “I kind of grew up with hip hop and of course being from Detroit I’m a Motown man. Music is in our blood. When you’re from Detroit, music is in your DNA.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
118. “Get passed the low hanging fruit. Anybody can grab that! Elevate your thought process and your mind and be creative.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
119. “No one fails alone and no one succeeds alone.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
120. “It’s not about where you come from, it’s about heart.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
121. “You must keep your composure. Take charge of the huddle. Be a leader. And silence, the crowd.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
122. “If you are going to win the fight of your life, you can’t be afraid to fight.” ~ (Eric Thomas).
123. “Listen to me carefully. You can become a legend. But it starts today!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
124. “Hard and impossible are two different things!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
125. “I dare you to be great! I challenge you to be great in every single thing you do!” ~ (Eric Thomas).
