160 Inspiring Sacrifice Quotes for Success

These sacrifice quotes will change your perspective on true love, friendship, and success.

It may seem scary or upsetting to make a sacrifice, but sometimes self-sacrifice is necessary for success.

These powerful quotes about hard work and sacrifice will remind you how important it is to compromise and keep the faith.

Is sacrifice good or bad?

Whether you’re looking to improve your marriage, friendship, or some other aspect of your life, it is essential to make sacrifices for love.

When you’re chasing your dreams, sometimes hard work alone isn’t enough.

These sacrifice quotes will motivate you to make the hard choices in life that will help you succeed.

True love and success are only possible with compromise, trust, and sacrifice.

This collection of motivational quotes will guide you and help you reach your goals.

Read these powerful words of wisdom to gain a fresh perspective on making sacrifices.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Check out our inspirational quotes category page for more inspirational life quotes.

Inspiring sacrifice quotes for success

1. “Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.” – Napoleon Hill

2. “You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it.” – Lionel Messi

3. “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” – Steve Prefontaine

4. “I’m willing to walk in darkness if it keeps humans in the light.” – Victoria Schwab

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5. “True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.” – Sadhu Vaswani

6. “Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

7. “We don’t have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment.” – Dennis Weaver

8. “You can’t achieve anything in life without a small amount of sacrifice.” – Shakira

9. “Power means happiness; power means hard work and sacrifice.” – Beyonce Knowles

10. “There is no moral authority like that of sacrifice.” – Nadine Gordimer

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Sacrifice quotes that will inspire you to compromise and keep the faith

11. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pele

12. “The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

13. “Life is a song – sing it. Life is a game – play it. Life is a challenge – meet it. Life is a dream – realize it. Life is a sacrifice – offer it. Life is love – enjoy it.” – Sai Baba

14. “Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, don’t let anyone limit your dreams.” – Donovan Bailey

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15. “Sustainability can’t be like some sort of a moral sacrifice or political dilemma or a philanthropical cause. It has to be a design challenge.” – Bjarke Ingels

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16. “Sacrifice: If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.” – Unknown

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17. “Teamwork requires some sacrifice upfront; people who work as a team have to put the collective needs of the group ahead of their individual interests.” – Patrick Lencioni

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18. “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” – Edmund Burke

19. “Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers, and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.” – Thérèse of Lisieux

20. “For me, no ideological or political conviction would justify the sacrifice of a human life. For me, the value of life is absolute, with no concessions. It’s not negotiable.” – Edgar Ramirez

Sacrifice quotes that will motivate you to make the hard choices

21. “One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.” – Joan of Arc

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22. “A team will always appreciate a great individual if he’s willing to sacrifice for the group.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

23. “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” – Albert Pike

24. “The journey has definitely not been easy, but all the sacrifice has paid off very well in terms of my performance on-court.” – Rohan Bopanna

25. “The willingness of America’s veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude.” – Jeff Miller

26. “Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough, You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.” – James M. Barrie

27. “The entrepreneurial life is one of challenge, work, dedication, perseverance, exhilaration, agony, accomplishment, failure, sacrifice, control, powerlessness… but ultimately, extraordinary satisfaction.” – David S. Rose

28. “Brotherhood means laying down your life for somebody, really willing to sacrifice yourself for somebody else.” – Tim Hetherington

29. “Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people. Poor leaders sacrifice the people to save the numbers.” – Simon Sinek

30. “Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice?” – William Butler Yeats

Sacrifice quotes to guide you

31. “The idea of redemption is always good news, even if it means sacrifice or some difficult times.” – Patti Smith

32. “Don’t sacrifice who you could be for who you are.” – Unknown

33. “There is no decision that we can make that doesn’t come with some sort of balance or sacrifice.” – Simon Sinek

34. “Sweat plus sacrifice equals success.” – Charlie Finley

35. “Patriotism demands of us sustained sacrifice.” – Chiang Kai-shek

36. “Things aren’t gifted to you. Things don’t just come from an idea, from nothing. You have to work for them. You have to pursue them. You have to take time. You have to sacrifice.” – Ozuna

37. “A noble purpose inspires sacrifice, stimulates innovation and encourages perseverance.” – Gary Hamel

38. “Freedom does not come without a price. We may sometimes take for granted the many liberties we enjoy in America, but they have all been earned through the ultimate sacrifice paid by so many of the members of our armed forces.” – Charlie Dent

39. “I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.” – Mia Hamm

40. “We all naturally want to become successful… we also want to take shortcuts. And it’s easy to do so, but you can never take away the effort of hard work and discipline and sacrifice.” – Apolo Ohno

Other sacrifice quotes to inspire you

41. “In the military, they give medals for people who are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may survive. In business, we give bonuses to people who sacrifice others.” – Simon Sinek

42. “You aren’t going to find anybody that’s going to be successful without making a sacrifice and without perseverance.” – Lou Holtz

43. “Life is only a long and bitter suicide, and faith alone can transform this suicide into a sacrifice.” – Franz Liszt

44. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were.” – Anthony Kennedy

45. “At the end of the day, we all want to win, so everybody has to sacrifice when you want to be a part of something special.” – Jayson Tatum

46. “I guess that’s just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up.” – Lauren Oliver

47. “Every wish, every dream, every idea comes to existence only through blood, sweat and sacrifice.” – Ivan Moody

48. “Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of.” – Bethany Hamilton

49. “I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

50. “Love is not a feeling of happiness. Love is a willingness to sacrifice.” – Michael Novak

More sacrifice quotes and sayings

51. “There is no success without sacrifice.” – Unknown

52. “Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else.” – Mitch Albom

53. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.” – David Foster Wallace

54. “Nothing great was ever accomplished without making sacrifices.” – Unknown

55. “Sacrifice is a part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to.” – Mitch Albom

56. “Life is funny. Things change, people change, but you will always be you, so stay true to yourself and never sacrifice who you are for anyone.” – Zayn Malik

57. “Sometimes the prize is not worth the costs. The means by which we achieve victory are as important as the victory itself.” – Brandon Sanderson

58. “Real magic can never be made by offering someone else’s liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back.” – Peter S. Beagle

59. “Love without sacrifice is like theft.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

60. “There is no progress or accomplishment without sacrifice.” – Idowu Koyenikan

Sacrifice quotes to keep you moving forward

61. “There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known, or everyone you have ever loved, for the sake of something greater.”  -Veronica Roth

62. “It’s not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What’s hard, she said, is figuring out what you’re willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about.” -Shauna Niequist

63. “Without pain, without sacrifice we would have nothing.”  -Chuck Palahniuk

64. “Anything that you cannot sacrifice pins you. Makes you predictable, makes you weak.”  -Mark Lawrence

65. “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”  -Martin Luther King Jr. 

66. “Тhere isnʹt much I wouldnʹt do for you. Тhe stupider, the better.”  -Richelle Mead

67. The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”  -Gaylord Nelson 

68. “They never fail who die in a great cause.”  -George Gordon Byron 

69. “Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, and so they give their lives to little or nothing. One life is all we have, and we live it as we believe in living it…and then it’s gone.” -Joan of Arc

70. “Every job will demand some sacrifice. The key is to avoid unnecessary sacrifice.” – Sheryl Sandberg

Insightful Sacrifice Quotes to ponder

71. “The legendary tumbleweed is really a nurse crop that protects the growth of prairie grasses under its shade, and then sacrifices itself and blows away.” – Antoine Predock

72. “If you put your mind to something, if you give 100 percent, if you sacrifice, and if you dedicate yourself, anything is truly possible.” – Apolo Ohno

73. “Prayers and sacrifices are of no avail.” – Aristotle

74. “As often as we do good, we offer sacrifices to God.” – Aristotle

75. “I would like to have won more golf tournaments. But I wouldn’t sacrifice my life. I’ve enjoyed it. I’d love to do it again the same way.” – Arnold Palmer

76. There are 80,000 prostitutes in London alone and what are they, if not bloody sacrifices on the altar of monogamy?” – Arthur Schopenhauer

77. “It is not a sacrifice, it’s a choice. If you choose to do something, then you shouldn’t say it’s a sacrifice, because nobody forced you to do it.” – Aung San Suu Kyi

78. “People ask me about what sacrifices I’ve made. I always answer: I’ve made no sacrifices, I’ve made choices.” – Aung San Suu Kyi

79. “Democracy, like liberty, justice and other social and political rights, is not “given”, it is earned through courage, resolution and sacrifice.” – Aung San Suu Kyi

80. “The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.” – Ayn Rand

Sacrifice Quotes to Motivate You to do the Right Thing

81. “If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.” ― Charles Bukowski

82. “Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.” ― J.M. Barrie

83. “She taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love… That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don’t have enough of their own.” ― Veronica Roth

84. “There are memories that time does not erase… Forever does not make loss forgettable, only bearable.” ― Cassandra Clare

85. “As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

86. “Sometimes talking to you is like talking to myself: pretty damned annoying.” ― Richelle Mead

87. “The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now.” ― Rick Warren

88. “Find a purpose to serve, not a lifestyle to live.” ― Criss Jami

89. “Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed.” ― Ayn Rand

90. “God knows we’re all drawn toward what’s beautiful and broken; I have been, but some people cannot be fixed. Or if they can be, it’s only by love and sacrifice so great it destroys the giver.” ― Cassandra Clare

Sacrifice Quotes To Inspire You To Make More Sacrifices

91. “If we succeed without sacrifice, it’s because someone sacrificed for us.” — Denis Waitley

92. The desire to sacrifice an entire lifetime to the noblest of ideals serves no purpose if one works alone.” — Che Guevara

93. Be resolute, fear no sacrifice, and surmount every difficulty to win victory.” — Mao Zedong

94. “I made real sacrifices and took big risks. But living, it seems to me, is largely about risk.” — Jan Karon

95. “He who can at all times sacrifice pleasure to duty approaches sublimity.” — Johann Kaspar Lavater

96 “My belief is firm in the law of compensation. The true rewards are ever in proportion to the labor and sacrifices made..” — Nikola Tesla

97. “You have to really believe not only in yourself; you have to believe that the world is actually worth your sacrifices.” — Zaha Hadid

98. “Those who sacrifice essential liberty for temporary safety are not deserving of either liberty or safety.” — Benjamin Franklin

99. “When we make little sacrifices we like to have them appreciated, at least.” — Louisa May Alcott

100. “To achieve some depth in your field requires a lot of sacrifices.” — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Sacrifice Quotes About Love To Inspire You

101. “It is impossible to love deeply without sacrifice.” — Elisabeth Elliot

102. “Great lovers have made great sacrifices.” —  Louis Auchincloss

103. “Love doesn’t please itself by seeking revenge. Love sacrifices itself for the good of others.” — Kerrelyn Sparks

104. “When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.” — Ernest Hemingway

105. “For it is one thing to declare one’s love for someone and quite another to accept that loving that person requires sacrificing one’s dreams.” — Nicholas Sparks

106. “You can sacrifice and not love. But you cannot love and not sacrifice.” — Kris Vallotton

107. “True love requires sacrifice.” — Francis Chan

108. “Without sacrifice, true love is incomprehensible.” ― Toba Beta

109. “There is nothing that love cannot achieve, and there is nothing that love cannot sacrifice.” — Meher Baba

110. “Love sacrifices all things to bless the thing it loves.” — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Sacrifice Quotes To Achieve Our Wishes

111. If you really love one another, you will not be able to avoid making sacrifices.” ― Mother Teresa

112. “Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice.” ― Thomas Merton

113. “As soon as sacrifice becomes a duty and necessity to mankind. I see no limit to the horizon which opens before him.” ― Ernest Renan

114. “A woman will always sacrifice herself if you give her the opportunity. It is her favourite form of self indulgence.” ― W. Somerset Maugham

115. “He who never sacrificed a present to a future good or a personal to a general one can speak of happiness only as the blind do of colors.” ― Olympia Brown

116. “In everyday things the law of sacrifice takes the form of positive duty.” ― James Anthony Froude

117. Love between man and woman cannot be built without sacrifices and self-denial.” ― Pope John Paul II

118. “In order to live free and happily you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.” ― Richard Bach

119. “Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another – too often ending in the loss of both.” ― Tryon Edwards

120. “The greatest sacrifice is the sacrifice of time.” ― Antiphon

Sacrifice Quotes to Find Meaning Behind Sacrifice

121. “The greatest sacrifice is self-sacrifice.” ― Lao Tzu

122. “In every sacrifice lies hidden a promise.” ― Paul Coelho

123. “When you sacrifice for others, you truly give something of yourself.” ― Oprah Winfrey

124. “The measure of a man’s greatness is the measure of his willingness to sacrifice.” ― John C. Maxwell

125. “A life of sacrifice is a life of greater potential.” ― Rick Warren

126. “True sacrifice is not what we give up, but what we become by giving it up.” ― Rumi

127. “The sacrifice which causes sorrow to the doer of the sacrifice is no sacrifice.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

128. “Sacrifice is giving up something good for something better.” ― John C. Maxwell

129. The greatest sacrifices are those made without anyone knowing, because the reward is in the act itself.” ― Elie Wiesel

130. “Sacrifice is the cost of progress.” ― John Wooden

Sacrifice Quotes That Define True Dedication

131. If you will make the sacrifices now that most people aren’t willing to make, later on you will be able to live as those folks will never be able to live.” ― Dave Ramsey

132. Only through service and sacrifice can you become great.” ― Jon Gordon

133. “Lasting goal achievement requires lots of time, hard work, sacrifice & dedication to a process that is maintained over years.” ― Marshall Goldsmith

134. “Let man fear woman when she loves: then she makes any sacrifice, and everything else seems without value to her.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

135. “Out of the depths of sorrow and sacrifice will be born again the glory of mankind.” ― Winston Churchill

136. Let us pray for all good and faithful priests who dedicate themselves to their people with generosity and unknown sacrifices.” ― Pope Francis

137. “Sacrifice is a form of bargaining.” ― Holbrook Jackson

138. “To attain eternal happiness one must suffer. He who has reached the state of self-sacrifice has true joy. Temporal joy will vanish.” ― Abdu’l-Bahá

139. “Nothing is really lost by a life of sacrifice; everything is lost by failure to obey God’s call.” ― Henry Parry Liddon

140. “The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness.” ― Adolf Hitler

Sacrifice Quotes That Celebrate Selflessness

141. Every war, every revolution, demands the sacrifice of a generation, of a collectivity, by those who undertake it.” ― Simone de Beauvoir

142. “My philosophy is, don’t take no for an answer and be willing to sacrifice your entire project for freedom.” ― Tim Robbins

143. “Sacrifice, that’s what we do for the people we love.” ― Gayle Forman

144. You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices.” ― Louis Zamperini

145. “The struggle is so great that the triumph over fascism alone is worth the sacrifice of our lives.” ― Federica Montseny

146. “The word that best sums up this team is sacrifice.” ― Hugh Douglas

147. “Quiet moves often make a stronger impression than a wild combination with heavy sacrifices.” ― Mikhail Tal

148. “A real sacrifice involves a radical change in the character of a game which cannot be effected without foresight, fantasy, and the willingness to risk.” ― Leonid Shamkovich

149. “In this life we get only those things for which we hunt, for which we strive, and for which we are willing to sacrifice.” ― George Matthew Adams

150. “Faith ventures and hazards . . . counting the costs and delighting in the sacrifice.” ― John Henry Newman

151. “Compassion is a quality which impels one to perform sacrifices.” ― Radhanath Swami

152. “But the most wretched thing, is it not-is to drag out, as I do, a useless existence. If our pains were only of some use to someone, we should find consolation in the thought of the sacrifice.” ― Gustave Flaubert

153. “You’d be forgiven for thinking that climate change means we’ll have to sacrifice our creature comforts. But it doesn’t have to be that way.” ― Mark Lynas

154. “In my fantasies, I was always caught up in heroic struggles, and I saw myself saving lives, sacrificing myself for others. I had far loftier ambitions than mere romance.” ― Irene Gut Opdyke

155. “It so often happens that, after sacrificing a pawn, a player aims not to obtain the initiative for it, but to regain sacrificed material.” ― Efim Geller

156. “You get rich because you do things most people will not do. Success requires sacrifice. You must be willing to make those sacrifices.” ― Robert Kiyosaki

157. We all can be masters at our craft, but you have to make sacrifices that come along with making that decision.” ― Kobe Bryant

158. “Everybody wants to be good, but not many are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes to be great.” ― Paul Arden

159. “You don’t have love without sacrifice; you can’t have sacrifice without love.” ― Karen Kingsbury

160. “Right now, I am a football player and I will sacrifice whatever is necessary to be the best.” ― J. J. Watt

What are your favorite sacrifice quotes for success and true love?

Without making sacrifices in life, we can never reach our full potential.

These self-sacrifice quotes highlight how important it is to be charitable and willing to compromise.

By making sacrifices, we are able to find balance and harmony in our lives.

Read this collection of sacrifice quotes if you ever need the motivation to take a risk or give up something special.

Everyone is asked to make sacrifices at some point in their life.

These powerful quotes will inspire you whether you make sacrifices for friends and family at home or make sacrifices for the entire country in the army.

What are your favorite sacrifice quotes and sayings that motivate you to reach your goals?

Let us know in the comment section below.