47 Resume Quotes to Inspire You and Motivate Your Job Search

Resumes are essential to your job search and career development. Highlighting your relevant professional experience, skills, and accomplishments can help you demonstrate why you're the ideal candidate for a position. Reading motivational quotes is a great way to inspire you and give you more confidence when you're writing your resume. In this article, we list 47 encouraging resume quotes to help you submit an effective job application.

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Resume quotes to inspire your job search

Reading resume quotes is a practical way to motivate yourself during your job search. Preparing and submitting job applications can elicit any number of emotions, from excitement to apprehension, depending on the frequency of responses you receive from potential employers. This is a natural part of the process, so it's important to stay positive. The following inspirational resume career quotes can help you stay optimistic and give you confidence to continue your job search:

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Quotes to motivate you

Motivation is a powerful emotion that can help you write effective, convincing resumes. It can provide guidance and encourage you to focus on your career objectives, ensuring you include language and descriptions that emphasize the value you can bring to the role. Resumes are the first impression hiring managers have of you, so projecting self-confidence through your writing can help get their attention. Here are ten quotes to encourage motivation:

1. "Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle."—Abraham Lincoln

2. "Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions."—Dalai Lama XIV

3. "I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that's how you grow. When there's that moment of “Wow, I'm not really sure I can do this,” and you push through those moments, that's when you have a breakthrough."—Marissa Mayer

4. "Your passion is waiting for your courage to catch up."—Isabelle Lafleche

5. "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."—Vincent Van Gogh

6. "If you believe it'll work out, you'll see opportunities. If you don't believe it'll work out, you'll see obstacles."—Wayne Dyer

7. "Unsuccessful people make their decisions based on their current situations. Successful people make their decisions based on where they want to be."—Benjamin Hardy

8. "Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."—Maya Angelou

9. "If you're too comfortable, it's time to move on. Terrified of what's next? You're on the right track."—Susan Fales-Hill

10. "We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained."—Marie Curie

Related: What Are Psychological Factors of Motivation? (With Tips)

Quotes to promote fearlessness

Apprehension can prevent you from applying for jobs that may benefit your career. It can also increase when you don't get the response you were hoping for from a prospective employer. It's important to overcome this emotion by staying positive. Consider the following 14 quotes that promote fearlessness and help you stay optimistic as you continue your job search:

1. "Everything you want is on the other side of fear."—Jack Canfield

2. "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."—Michael Jordan

3. "Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, dig deep within yourself to conquer fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You got to keep going."—Chantal Sutherland

4. "One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do."—Henry Ford

5. "When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel."—Eloise Ristad

6. "If you don't try at anything, you can't fail. It takes backbone to lead the life you want."—Richard Yates

7. "Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is a delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing."—Denis Waitley

8. "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."—Nelson Mandela

9. "Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart."—Roy T. Bennett

10. "Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a new way to stand."—Oprah Winfrey

11. "Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement."—C.S. Lewis

12. "We need to accept that we won't always make the right decisions, that we'll screw up royally sometimes, understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it's part of success."—Arianna Huffington

13. "It's not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts."—Zig Ziglar

14. "To overcome fear, here's all you have to do: realize the fear is there, and do the action you fear anyway."—Peter McWilliams

Related: How to Learn From Failure (With Benefits and Tips)

Quotes to boost productivity

Writing and customizing resumes for each job posting requires considerable effort and attention to detail. Productivity can help you be more effective and increase your determination during your job search. Here are 13 quotes that highlight the importance of hard work:

1. "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."—Tim Notke

2. "Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do."—Pele

3. "Focus on being productive instead of busy."—Tim Ferriss

4. "Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come."—Dwayne Johnson

5. "Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort."—Paul J. Meyer

6. "Work hard for what you want because it won't come to you without a fight. You have to be strong and courageous and know that you can do anything you put your mind to. If somebody puts you down or criticizes you, just keep on believing in yourself and turn it into something positive."—Leah LaBelle

7. "Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night."—Michael Jordan

8. "Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard."—Caterina Fake

9. "To be a champion, I think you have to see the big picture. It's not about winning and losing; it's about everyday hard work and about thriving on a challenge. It's about embracing the pain that you'll experience at the end of a race and not being afraid. I think people think too hard and get afraid of a certain challenge."—Summer Sanders

10. "Opportunity does not knock. It presents itself when you beat down the door."—Kyle Chandler

11. "Work hard and don't give up hope. Be open to criticism and keep learning. Surround yourself with happy, warm and genuine people."—Tena Desae

12. "You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction."—George Lorimer

13. "Productivity is the deliberate, strategic investment of your time, talent, intelligence, energy, resources, and opportunities in a manner calculated to move you measurably closer to meaningful goals."—Dan S. Kennedy

Related: Examples of Strength in a Resume to Impress Hiring Managers

Quotes to launch your career

Resumes are the first step to starting your career as a professional. Regardless of the type of job you're aiming for, self-confidence and motivation can help you be more effective in your job search. Here are ten quotes to inspire you in your career development:

1. "The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing."—Walt Disney

2. "The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are."—J.P. Morgan

3. "Be willing to be a beginner every single morning."—Meister Eckhart

4. "Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve."—Mary Kay Ash

5. "Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings."—Ralph Blum

6. "The beginning is the most important part of the work."—Plato

7. "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."—Steve Jobs

8. "Sometimes we can only find our true direction when we let the wind of change carry us."—Mimi Novic

9. "Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect."—Alan Cohen

10. "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."—Martin Luther King Jr.