Starting a small business takes a lot of work and patience. You pour your blood, sweat, and tears into it, and the road to success isn’t easy. Sometimes, all you need to keep plugging along are a few words of encouragement to remind you of why you started this journey in the first place. In honor of Presidents Day, here are 15 presidential quotes to inspire you in your small-business ventures.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”
—John Quincy Adams
“A good leader can’t get too far ahead of his followers.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Image Source: Vincenzo Laviosa (1889 – 1935) – photographer (Italian)
Details of artist on Google Art Project
[Public Domain], via
Wikimedia Commons
“America is too great for small dreams.”
—Ronald Reagan
“Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.”
—John F. Kennedy
“I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process.”
—Benjamin Harrison
“If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”
—Barack Obama
Image Source: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza [Public Domain], via
Wikimedia Commons
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”
—Woodrow Wilson
“Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.”
—Ulysses S. Grant
Image by Brady-Handy Photograph Collection (Library of Congress) [Public Domain], via
Wikimedia Commons
“Never spend your money before you have earned it.”
—Thomas Jefferson
“Accomplishments will prove to be a journey, not a destination.”
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep.”
—Richard Nixon
Image by White House Photo Office (NARA National Archives and Records Administration) [Public domain], via
Wikimedia Commons
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
—Calvin Coolidge
Image by Notman Studio, Boston. Restoration by Adam Cuerden [Public Domain], via
Wikimedia Commons
“You cannot fail, if you resolutely determine that you will not.”
—Abraham Lincoln
“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”
—George Washington
These presidential quotes can help you along your journey, whether you’re trying to make your business dreams come true, improve your leadership abilities, or stay motivated as you press toward your goals. Keep the wise words of these presidential quotes close when you hit stumbling blocks and setbacks on your road to success.