65 Labor Day Quotes to Honor All Your Hard Work
Updated: Jul. 22, 2024
Let's honor all your hard work—and the work of those around you—with these powerful Labor Day quotes
Labor Day is when we honor and celebrate hardworking Americans with a day of rest. Maybe you’re spending it at the beach for one last summer hurrah. Maybe you’re giggling about Labor Day memes with your pals over a drink. Or maybe you’re just spending the day catching up on sleep. Regardless of how you celebrate, give yourself a pat on the back with inspiring Labor Day quotes.
We rounded up some of the best Labor Day quotes to commemorate your success and the success of those around you. They’re motivational and relatable. Hopefully, they’ll inspire you to work hard and chase your dreams, all while taking those needed moments to rest, recharge and home in on personal goals. Overall, they’ll remind you what hard work means and why raising a glass to all you do is important. Happy Labor Day!
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Best Labor Day quotes
1. “I cannot imagine anything nobler or more national than that for, say, one hour in the day we should all do the labor the poor must do, and thus identify ourselves with them and through them, with all mankind.” —Mahatma Gandhi
2. “Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” —Chris Grosser
3. “If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.” —Olin Miller
4. “Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the average man, which will give his political freedom reality.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt
5. “Work has indeed been my best beauty treatment. I believe in hard work. It keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and the spirit.” —Helena Rubinstein
6. “Hard work makes easy reading or, at least, easier reading.” —M.H. Abrams
7. “There is no obstacle in the path of young people who are poor or members of minority groups that hard work and preparation cannot cure.” —Barbara Jordan
8. “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” —Newt Gingrich
9. “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” —Booker T. Washington
10. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.” —Colin Powell
11. “In the end, the most important thing is to be true to yourself and those you love and work hard. I mean, work like there’s no tomorrow. Train. Strive. I mean, really train and cultivate your talent to the highest degree.” —Michael Jackson
12. “Be the best at what you do. Get to know more about your field than anybody alive. Use the tools of your trade, if it’s books or a floor to dance on or a body of water to swim in. Whatever it is, it’s yours.” —Michael Jackson
13. “As is the case in all branches of art, success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and cannot be achieved except by dint of hard work.” —Anna Pavlova
14. “You see, if you take pains and learn in order to get a reward, the work will seem hard; but when you work … if you love your work, you will find your reward in that.” —Leo Tolstoy
15. “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” —Vince Lombardi
16. “Action is the foundational key to all success.” —Pablo Picasso
17. “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” —Alexander Graham Bell
18. “Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.” —Abraham Lincoln
19. “The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” —Molière
20. “The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” —Bill Copeland
21. “Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” —Amelia Earhart
22. “He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.” —Horace
23. “Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life.” —Naeem Callaway
24. “The distance between dreams and reality is called action.” —Ben Francia
If these Labor Day quotes inspire you, we’re sure these uplifting quotes about life will too!
Inspiring Labor Day quotes
25. “We have to make the choice—every single day—to exemplify the truth, the respect and the grace that we wish for this world.” —Oprah Winfrey
26. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.” —Nelson Mandela
27. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” —Viktor Frankl
28. “Passion is the log that keeps the fire of purpose blazing.” —Oprah Winfrey
29. “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.” —Bob Marley
30. “When you’re open to receiving them, the possibilities just keep on coming.” —Oprah Winfrey
31. “Do not judge me by my successes; judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” —Nelson Mandela
32. “Problems are not stop signs. They are guidelines.” —Robert H. Schuller
33. “The phoenix must burn to emerge.” —Janet Fitch
34. “You can either waltz boldly onto the stage of life and live the way you know your spirit is nudging you to, or you can sit quietly by the wall, receding into the shadows of fear and self-doubt.” —Oprah Winfrey
35. “A bright future beckons. The onus is on us, through hard work, honesty and integrity, to reach for the stars.” —Nelson Mandela
36. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” —
37. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.” —Robert H. Schuller
38. “When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what the storm is all about.” —Haruki Murakami
39. “The future of life as we know it is being determined by everything we’re doing—and not doing. Now.” —Oprah Winfrey
40. “A river cuts through rock, not because of its power but because of its persistence.” —Jim Watkins
41. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” —Charles Darwin
42. “Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.” —Horace
43. “The key to success is to start before you are ready.” —Marie Forleo
44. “Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.” —Alan Cohen
45. “Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one’s better abilities or ideas but the courage that one has to be on his ideas, to take a calculated risk and to act.” —André Malraux
46. “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” —Mother Teresa
These Labor Day quotes are a reminder to spend your time wisely. And these quotes about time will also remind you to make the most of it.
Presidential Labor Day quotes
47. “Folks, on this Labor Day, let me tell you what we’re celebrating. We’re celebrating jobs—good-paying jobs, jobs you can raise a family on, union jobs.” —Joe Biden
48. “America cannot have a strong, growing economy without a strong, growing middle class and the chance for everybody, no matter how humble their beginnings, to join that middle class—a middle class built on the idea that if you work hard, if you live up to your responsibilities, then you can get ahead, that you can enjoy some basic guarantees in life.” —Barack Obama
49. “The history of the United States is in vital respects the history of labor. Free men and women, working for a better life for themselves and their children, settled a continent, built a society, and created and diffused an abundance hitherto unknown to history.” —John F. Kennedy”
50. “Each life matters. Everybody counts. Everybody has got purpose. Everybody is important in life.” —George W. Bush
51. “Every man among us is more fit to meet the duties and responsibilities of citizenship because of the perils over which, in the past, the nation has triumphed; because of the blood and sweat and tears, the labor and the anguish, through which, in the days that have gone, our forefathers moved on to triumph.” —Theodore Roosevelt
52. “We must continually strive to create more opportunity for work for those who are willing to take the responsibility to make better lives for themselves and their families.” —Bill Clinton
53. “Let us give thanks to those who came before us and who strived to improve working conditions and create fair labor laws. They risked their livelihoods and often their very lives to ensure that children could go to school instead of to work in mines and factories, that laborers could work without risking injury and that Americans who toiled throughout the week would be rewarded with a decent living and could spend more time raising their families.” —Bill Clinton
54. “Wall Street didn’t build America. The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.” —Joe Biden
55. “I want America to have the best infrastructure in the world. We used to have the best infrastructure in the world. We can have it again.” —Barack Obama
56. “As we celebrate Labor Day, we can find strength and renewed inspiration in the dream—the idea that we can be good workers as well as good parents and that, through our individual efforts, we can build better lives for our children.” —Bill Clinton
57. “It’s a better country when you’ve got people who are willing to help people help themselves. It’s a better country. It’s a better country when people can own their own homes.” —George W. Bush
58. A job is about a lot more than a paycheck. For real. It’s about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be OK,’ and mean it when you say it.” —Joe Biden
59. “This country’s success depends on the efforts of its citizens to open the door to a better future.” —Bill Clinton
60. “A good job that pays a good wage. Health care that will be there when you get sick. A secure retirement even if you’re not rich. An education that will give your children a better life than we had. These are simple ideas. These are American ideas. These are union ideas. That’s what we’re fighting for.” —Barack Obama
61. “Where is it written—where is it written that America will not lead the world in manufacturing? I don’t see it written anywhere because we are leading the world.” —Joe Biden
62. “We salute working people because they have built our land with skill, energy and resourcefulness, transforming raw materials into a shining edifice of freedom and prosperity.” —Ronald Regan
63. “We must continue our efforts to create further job growth and new opportunities, enabling more of our citizens to realize the American Dream.” —Bill Clinton
64. ” I believe Americans who are willing to work hard should be able to get a job no matter where they live—in the heartland, small towns, big cities—raise their kids on a good paycheck and keep their roots where they grew up.” —Joe Biden
65. “Our labors ensure that the blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will benefit generations to come.” —Bill Clinton
If you’re loving these presidential Labor Day quotes, we have even more presidential quotes that will make you proud to be an American.
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At Reader’s Digest, we’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers’ personal experiences where appropriate. For this Labor Day quotes piece, we fact-checked the quotes using primary sources to ensure the accuracy of both the quote and the attributed source. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Originally Published: June 17, 2022
