35 Uplifting Quotes To Celebrate a Happy Labor Day 2024

Heading to a BBQ, beach, ballpark or backyard for Labor Day Weekend 2024? Good for you! Labor Day, celebrated in the U.S. on the first Monday in September, is not only a rousing ritual to high-five the remaining days of summer, but also gives us a gracious pause to pat ourselves on the back for the work that we do all year long. And there are some excellent Labor Day quotes from influential activists and inspiring individuals to help us all celebrate.

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When Is Labor Day 2024?

Labor Day 2024 is celebrated on Monday, September 2, 2024, and you can bet that families around the nation will find some joys of the sprinkler in the backyard, a long walk with their dog or the rousing smells of the grill. You can get into the spirit too with yummy watermelon recipes, ice cream fun and even margaritas. Plus, check out these fun activities to do with the kids.

In that spirit, here are inspirational sayings meant to cheer us onward and to find a meaningful purpose in life. From my home to yours, Happy Labor Day! Here are the best Happy Labor Day quotes.

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35 Happy Labor Day Quotes

1. "Nothing will work unless you do." — Maya Angelou

2. "The supreme accomplishment is to blur the lines between work and play." — Arnold J. Toynbee

3. "Forrest Gump said, 'Life is like a box of chocolates.' Your career is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. But everything is going to teach you something along the way and make you the person you are today. That's the exciting part. It's an adventure in itself." — Nick Carter

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4. "Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work — and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't." — Lucille Ball

5. "Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it." — Madeleine L'Engle

6. "Find something that you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." — Julia Child

7. "If you really believe in what you're doing, work hard, take nothing personally, and if something blocks your route, find another. Never give up." — Laurie Notaro

Related: 16 Powerful Luisa Moreno Quotes from the Labor Organizer and Civil Rights Activist

8. "Let the beauty of what you love be what you do." — Rumi

9. "I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true — hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it." — Ray Bradbury

10. "It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction." — Pablo Picasso

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11. "Happiness does not come from doing easy work, but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best." — Theodore Isaac Rubin

12. "The only place success comes before work is the dictionary." — Vince Lombardi

13. "Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." — Theodore Roosevelt

14. "All things are difficult before they are easy." — Thomas Fuller

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15. "The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work." — Richard Bach

16. "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it." — Steve Jobs

17. "I learned the value of hard work by working hard." — Margaret Mead

Related: 45 Cesar Chavez Quotes on Life, Education and Community

18. "To find what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness." — John Dewey

19. "I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work." — Thomas Edison

20. "The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first." — Ginger Rogers

21. "Without ambition, one starts nothing. Without work, one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

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22. "Dreams are lovely but they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It's hard work that makes things happen. It's hard work that creates change." — Shonda Rhimes

23. "We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile." — Earl Nightingale

24. "To find joy in work is to find the fountain of youth." — Pearl S. Buck

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25. "Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, don't let anyone limit your dreams." —Donovan Bailey

26. "Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig." — Malcolm Gladwell

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

28. "It’s not about money or connections – it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone." — Mark Cuban

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29. "I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near." — Margaret Thatcher

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30. "I’ve got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end." — Larry Bird

31. "The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day." — Wayne Gretzky

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32. "Success doesn't come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently." — Marie Forleo

33. "I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson

34. "To succeed, work hard, never give up and above all, cherish a magnificent obsession." — Walt Disney

35. "Hard work compounds like interest, and the earlier you do it, the more time you have for the benefits to pay off." — Sam Altman

With reporting by Kelsey Pelzer

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