Trying is the turning point. It’s the moment you give something a real chance—imperfect, early, human. Across centuries, thinkers and doers have left short sparks that nudge us from hesitation into motion. Use this handpicked set to start, to continue, and to begin again with a clearer mind and steadier heart.
In This Article:
Trying Quotes on Starting & First Steps
- “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” — Lao Tzu
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain
- “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe
- “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” — Zig Ziglar
- “Well done is better than well said.” — Benjamin Franklin
- “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” — Walt Disney
- “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” — William James
- “Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.” — John F. Kennedy
- “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” — Peter Drucker
- “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” — Booker T. Washington
- “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” — George S. Patton
- “Dreams don’t work unless you do.” — John C. Maxwell
- “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “Fortune favors the bold.” — Latin Proverb
Trying Quotes on Perseverance & Grit
- “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” — Nelson Mandela
- “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill
- “Fall seven times and stand up eight.” — Japanese Proverb
- “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Confucius
- “The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost
- “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” — Walter Elliot
- “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” — Benjamin Franklin
- “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas A. Edison
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
- “Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.” — Samuel Johnson
- “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “Little by little, one travels far.” — J. R. R. Tolkien
- “Never, never, never give up.” — Winston Churchill
- “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” — Robert H. Schuller
- “Keep going. Everything you need will come to you at the perfect time.” — Unknown
Trying Quotes on Failure & Learning
- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas A. Edison
- “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” — Henry Ford
- “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett
- “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” — Albert Einstein
- “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford
- “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” — Bill Gates
- “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career… and that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan
- “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” — Vincent van Gogh
- “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” — Robert F. Kennedy
- “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” — James Joyce
- “Failure is not the opposite of success; it’s part of success.” — Unknown
- “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” — Oscar Wilde
- “The greatest teacher, failure is.” — Yoda
- “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill
- “The phoenix must burn to emerge.” — Janet Fitch
Trying Quotes on Courage & Risk
- “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” — Anaïs Nin
- “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” — T. S. Eliot
- “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” — Helen Keller
- “You can choose courage or comfort. You cannot have both.” — Brené Brown
- “Do the thing you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
- “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” — Muhammad Ali
- “Leap and the net will appear.” — John Burroughs
- “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” — Robert H. Schuller
- “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.” — Søren Kierkegaard
- “I am not afraid… I was born to do this.” — Joan of Arc
- “Fortune sides with him who dares.” — Virgil
- “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of it.” — Mark Twain
- “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” — Henry David Thoreau
- “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” — Yoda
- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky
Trying Quotes on Hope, Attitude & Momentum
- “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you.” — Walt Whitman
- “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” — Victor Hugo
- “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.” — Hal Borland
- “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” — Dolly Parton
- “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” — Emily Dickinson
- “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” — Confucius
- “What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.” — Ralph Marston
- “Rise above the storm and you will find the sunshine.” — Mario Fernández
- “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” — Desmond Tutu
- “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
- “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” — Carl Sagan
Trying Quotes on Consistency, Habits & Discipline
- “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” — Jim Rohn
- “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Will Durant (summarizing Aristotle)
- “It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” — Tony Robbins
- “Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.” — John C. Maxwell
- “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” — Thomas A. Edison
- “What gets measured gets managed.” — Peter F. Drucker
- “First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable.” — Octavia E. Butler
- “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” — James Clear
- “It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.” — Bruce Lee
- “Either you run the day or the day runs you.” — Jim Rohn
- “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- “Success is the sum of small efforts—repeated day in and day out.” — Robert Collier
- “Clarity affords focus.” — Thomas Leonard
- “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” — Marcus Aurelius
- “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Turn “Trying” into Daily Progress (Quick, Practical)
- Five-Minute Start: When you stall, do five minutes on the task (one paragraph, one email, one set). Momentum > motivation.
- The 1–3–5 List: 1 must-do, 3 should-dos, 5 quick wins. Do the must-do before noon.
- Friction Sweep: Remove one tiny blocker (open the doc, lay out clothes, put water on the desk).
- Habit Stack: After a routine trigger (coffee, lunch), add one small next step toward your goal.
- Weekly Review (15 min): 3 wins, 2 lessons, 1 bold step for next week.
- Public Micro-Commit: Tell a friend your one deliverable for today. Report back by evening.
These tiny moves make “trying” concrete and repeatable—less drama, more done.
Conclusion
Trying is how ideas become real. These powerful quotes nudge you to start imperfectly, learn quickly, and return to the work with a steadier hand. Keep a few lines nearby, pair them with simple routines, and let consistent effort carry you forward—one honest attempt at a time.