120 Growth Mindset Quotes to Motivate You to Success

What is a growth mindset?

A growth mindset is the opposite of a fixed mindset where the belief is that talent or intelligence is just something you’re born with.

The growth mindset is all about learning throughout life and improving your mindset, habits and yourself so that you can achieve your goals and dreams and build a life of even greater success.

It’s about growing as a person and understanding that you can change and that you, your thoughts and emotions and your life situation and all the important things in it are not set in stone.

I hope this collection of the best growth mindset quotes can inspire and help you to create and strengthen such an empowering and confidence-building mindset in your own life.

And if you want more inspiration for strengthening your own growth mindset have a look at this post with quotes on overcoming procrastination and this one that’s all about dealing with adversity.

Growth Mindset Quotes to Help You Towards Success

56 Growth Mindset Quotes

“A man’s mind, stretched by new ideas, may never return to its original dimensions.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

“Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them?
Why look for friends or partners who will just shore up your self-esteem instead of ones who will also challenge you to grow? And why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will stretch you?
The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”
Carol Dweck

“You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety.”
Abraham Maslow

“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn …and change.”
Carl Rogers

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
Epictetus

“Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.”
Zig Ziglar

“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
Ben Franklin

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
Malcolm X

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Albert Einstein

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
Mark Twain

“What we learn with pleasure we never forget.”
Alfred Mercier

“People learn something every day, and a lot of times it’s that what they learned the day before was wrong.”
Bill Vaughan

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”
Clay P. Bedford

“Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.”
Roger Lewin

“The problem human beings face is not that we aim too high and fail, but that we aim too low and succeed.”
Michelangelo

“Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”
Richard Branson

Wise Growth Mindset Quotes

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think — rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.”
Bill Beattie

“Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.”
Plato

“There is always a step small enough from where we are to get us to where we want to be. If we take that small step, there’s always another we can take, and eventually a goal thought to be too far to reach becomes achievable.”
Ellen Langer

“Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.”
William Haley

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
Henry Ford

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.”
Albert Ellis

“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”
Chinese proverb

“Follow effective actions with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”
Peter Drucker

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Aristotle

“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.”
John C. Maxwell

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.”
Thomas Edison

“A well-educated mind will always have more questions than answers.”
Helen Keller

“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.”
Tom Bodett

“Take up one idea, make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live in that idea. Swami Vivekananda

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
Walt Disney

“Action is the foundational key to all success.”
Pablo Picasso

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree long time ago.”
Warren Buffett

“Never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.”
Mae Jemison

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
Arthur Ashe

Deep Growth Mindset Quotes

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted.”
David Bly

“Nine tenths of education is encouragement.”
Anatole France

“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”
Lloyd Alexander

“Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.”
David M. Burns

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
Albert Einstein

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!”
Audrey Hepburn

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”
Samuel Beckett

“To teach is to learn twice.”
Joseph Joubert

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
Harriet Tubman

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
Zig Ziglar

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.“
Jim Rohn

“In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Theodore Roosevelt

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
Mark Twain

Growth Mindset Quotes for a Healthy Mindset

“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
Jim Rohn

“It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time – for we are bound by that – but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time.”
T.S. Eliot

“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.”
Charles F. Kettering

“The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see.”
Alexandra K. Trenfor

“Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”
Samuel Johnson

“To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.”
Joseph Chilton Pearce

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
James Baldwin

“I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”
Michael Jordan

“A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.”
Vernon Howard

“Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don’t let these feelings stop them.”
T. Harv Eker

“Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.”
John W. Gardner

“After every difficulty, ask yourself two questions: “What did I do right?” and “What would I do differently?”
Brian Tracy

“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.”
Captain Jack Sparrow

“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success.”
J.K. Rowling

“The greatest mistake a person can make is to be afraid of making one.”’
Elbert Hubbard

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
Albert Einstein

“Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost legendary. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Calvin Coolidge

“To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”
Aristotle

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”
Jim Rohn

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”
Oprah Winfrey

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
Winston Churchill

“The only thing you sometimes have control over is perspective. You don’t have control over your situation. But you have a choice about how you view it.”
Chris Pine

My Favorite Growth Mindset Quotes on Overcoming Obstacles

“The best way to treat obstacles is to use them as stepping stones. Laugh at them, tread on them, and let them lead you to something better.”
Enid Blyton

“Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don’t tell you where a student could end up.”
Carol S. Dweck

“Real learning comes about when the competitive spirit has ceased.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti

“There’s no such thing as failure, only results.”
Tony Robbins

“It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
Albert Einstein

“If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”
Frank A. Clark

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
Thomas Edison

“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.”
Harry Golden

“Mindset change is not about picking up a few pointers here and there. It’s about seeing things in a new way. When people change to a growth mindset, they change from a judge-and-be-judged framework to a learn-and-help-learn framework. Their commitment is to growth, and growth take plenty of time, effort, and mutual support.”
Carol Dweck

“Embrace failure because it’s usually the best way to learn a lesson that will benefit you for the rest of your life and it’s also a natural part of a healthy growth mindset.”
Unknown

“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.”
Samuel Johnson

“Be so busy improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.”
Chetan Bhagat

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Thomas Edison

“With a growth mindset you can always find a small step forward, a way to start overcoming one of life’s challenges.”
Unknown

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So sail away from the safe harbour. Explore, Dream, Discover.”
Mark Twain

“Work hard now. Don’t wait. If you work hard enough, you’ll be given what you deserve.”
Shaquille O’Neal

“You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By becoming a little better each and every day, over a period of time, you will become a lot better.”
John Wooden

Smart Growth Mindset Quotes

“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.”
Thomas Watson

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
Jack Canfield

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill

“Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”
Joshua J. Marine

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
Nelson Mandela

“A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”
Muhammad Ali

“The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it’s the same problem you had last year.”
John Foster Dulles

”Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday.”
Brian Tracy

“True self-confidence is “the courage to be open—to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source.” Real self-confidence is not reflected in a title, an expensive suit, a fancy car, or a series of acquisitions. It is reflected in your mindset: your readiness to grow.”
Carol Dweck

“I am always doing what I cannot do yet. In order to learn how to do it.”
Vincent Van Gogh

“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
Niels Bohr

“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”
B.B. King

“We become what we think about most of the time, and that’s the strangest secret.”
Earl Nightingale

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Mark Twain

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
Karen Lamb

Growth Mindset Quotes for Kids and the Classroom

“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.”
Victor Hugo

“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.”
Carol S. Dweck

“Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.”
Francis Bacon

“Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
Winston Churchill

“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.”
Leonardo da Vinci

“Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.”
James Dewar

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”
Will Durant

“They cannot stop me. I will get my education, if it is in the home, school, or anyplace.”
Malala Yousafzai

“The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.”
Wallace Wattles

“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.”
Voltaire

“Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.”
Chinese proverb

“Look for the good in every situation, seek the valuable lesson in every setback, look for the solution to every problem. Think and talk continually about your goals.”
Brian Tracy

“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”
Confucius 

What is your favorite growth mindset quote in this post? Let me know in the comments. Also, if you found these growth mindset quotes helpful then be sure to share them with someone close to you via email or on social media.

Two other ways to to use these growth mindset quotes in your daily life could be to share them with your students if you are a teacher or to simply write down your 3 favorite growth mindset quotes from this post on a piece of paper and then put it where you see it every morning.

Want even more motivation? Check out this post with quotes that hit hard and this one that will help you to focus on yourself and your growth.

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About the Author

Henrik Edberg is the creator of the Positivity Blog and has written weekly articles here since 2006. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Gothenburg and has been featured on Lifehacker, HuffPost and Paulo Coelho’s blog. Click here to learn more…

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • A very helpful thing I try to remember is, “What else can I learn here?” When I’m open to learning and seeing new ideas, then they come much easier. Thanks for the beautiful post!

  • All your growth mindset quotes are great. It was a very informative and i motivational read. Thanks for your article.

  • Hello Henrik,
    Positive quotes of a growth mindset are a good thing during times like these. Thanks for your continued hard work on your blog.
    Greg

  • This is a very useful and motivating site. I have book marked for more reading and further referencing. Keep up the good work. I believe that together we can help change the way people think and thereby contribute in changing the world.