50 Trailblazer Quotes For Breaking New Ground

By Clifton Sankofa | Published June 20, 2023

Open new lanes for yourself with our trailblazer quotes.

Trailblazers have led our collective evolution since the dawn of time.

History is full of trailblazers who changed the world.

Check out our trailblazer quotes below to learn who is leading the way today.

What is a trailblazer?

Trailblazer can have many definitions.

A trailblazer can be someone who does something or goes somewhere and shows what is possible to others.

A trailblazer can also be a person who does something that has never been done before.

Check out these exciting trailblazers below:

In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the world by boat.
In 1953 Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary climbed Mount Everest.
Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the North Pole in 1911.

Who was the first person to trailblaze?

This question is interesting.

We have ancient ancestors who accomplished many firsts.

We can only imagine what it was like for the first person to eat a lobster, attempt surgery, deliver a baby, or brew beer.

Humanity has been producing trailblazers since our humble beginnings.

Who was the first person to leave their mark on the world?

How often have you walked by wet cement and noticed a name, a heart, or a footprint?

People love leaving their mark.

Just ride on public transportation, and you will see “so and so was here” graffiti on the wall or seat.

In a figurative sense, we can wonder who was the first to make a mark on the world.

Or we can ponder who was the first to leave their mark or signature on a wall.

There are caves with handprints on the walls that date back thirty thousand years ago!

Perhaps those were the first folks to trailblaze and leave their mark on the world.

Who are the trailblazers of today?

The trailblazers of our era come in all shapes, colors, sizes, and origins.

Humans continue to push the envelope while making the impossible possible.

To learn more, check out our trailblazer quotes below.

Short trailblazer quotes about breaking new ground

These quotes remind us why trailblazers are essential to progress.

1. “I break ground. I trailblaze.” — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

2. “I felt like I was trailblazing. And that’s what I did.” — Stanley Clarke

3. “They blaze a trail and leave a path for others.” — Marisa Hambleton

4. “You can’t be a trailblazer without causing some chaos.” — Andrea Speed

5. “True trailblazers are motivated not by glory, but for love.” — Angela Cervantes

6. “A trailblazer knows the tools they can use to find that trail.” — Joe Ewing

7. “When you are a trailblazer, you have many trees to cut down.” — Matshona Dhliwayo

8. “I have become a trailblazer for my destiny, the entrepreneur of my fate.” — Sandra Vischer

9. “Let me just say this: sometimes being a trailblazer is highly overrated.” — Rob Lowe

10. “I just wish there was more media that was trailblazing and independent.” — Matt Drudge

The top trailblazer quotes about leading the way

Trailblazing is not easy because, by definition, it means going outside of the defined lanes.

11. “A trailblazer is someone who’s not afraid to challenge the status quo.” — Andrea Gertz

12. “If you make great music, you can become a mold-breaker or a trailblazer.” — Anthony Evans

13. “Other artists who don’t register so keenly at the time prove to be trailblazers.” — Charles Saatchi

14. “I think a trailblazer is somebody that knows how to go on a journey, an adventurer.” — Andrew Reiser

15. “As AI trailblazer Frederick Jelinek put it beautifully, airplanes don’t flap their wings. — Erik Brynjolfsson

16. “To me, a trailblazer is someone who is mission-driven and focused on helping people.” — Ian Faison

17. “A trailblazer is someone that can overcome different challenges and isn’t afraid to do it.” — Paul Padua

18. “And then we came around, and I don’t want to say we were trailblazers, but we found our niche.” — Jared Padalecki

19. “As far as women are concerned, the U.S.S.R. is a trailblazer for equal rights and equal opportunities.” — Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

20. “Without a doubt, she was a trailblazer who not only stepped outside the box but who dared to redefine it.” — Adrienne Maloof

The best trailblazer quotes about creating inertia for change

Trailblazers are sometimes rejected initially, but eventually, they create something new.

21. “It’s not just professional. If you’re a trailblazer, you’re living it.” — Krista Santucci

22. “You can always tell who a true trailblazer is by the friends and family that surround them.” — Angela Cervantes

23. “A trailblazer is a pioneer, somebody who’s willing to take risks and go in a path that isn’t already there.” — Marisa Hambleton

24. “A trailblazer is someone who doesn’t necessarily have the same opportunity, the same leg up as another person.” — Ashley Allen

25. “An entrepreneur is a leader of excellence, trailblazer, and pioneer who constantly brings change to their generation.” — Onyi Anyado

26. “You had bands like D.O.A., or Black Flag, and a whole network opened up to trailblazer a counter-culture movement.” — Ian MacKaye

27. “I am proud to represent the capital of Kerala, a state that in so many ways is a trailblazer for India’s progress.” — Shashi Tharoor

28. “James Nicholas told me everything went well and that I could probably play four years in the NFL. The surgery was trailblazing to a certain extent.” — Joe Namath

29. “When we look at trailblazers throughout history, they have been people who wanted to push the envelope and make a better world for everybody else.” — Ian Faison

30. “A trailblazer is always leading, setting the example, whether that’s through culture or the way they treat their customers, their clients, and their teammates.” — Shane Hayes

Famous trailblazer quotes about making it to the top

Trailblazers make their own lane to the top of their field.

31. “Robin Roberts: what a trailblazer she has been in sports TV! One of the best in TV.” — Megan Alexander

32. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

33. “The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific and religious freedom have always been nonconformists.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

34. “I would say that a trailblazer is somebody who has an idea, a big idea, and really knows how to go after it.” — Joe Ewing

35. “A trailblazer is somebody who has to pave that path for themselves; somebody who blazes that trail, and doesn’t look back.” — Ashley Allen

36. “Undoubtedly, Patsy Cline was a trailblazer, and in that respect, all women who are singular in a man’s field have a special power.” — Carly Simon

37. “The safest plan, obviously, is to follow the trailblazers. So he produces an imitation of one of the current successes. Usually, it is a mediocre imitation.” — Irving Thalberg

38. “Don’t follow in my footsteps. Be original, and create your own path. Be a trailblazer! Do you! Be better than me. Do you! Be happy and have joy in your life.” — Tracy Morgan

39. “That books, a commodity little changed since Caxton’s day, should have turned out to be the trailblazers of retailing on the internet is one of the stranger cultural ironies of our time.” — Bryan Appleyard

40. “The trailblazers are my role models in this industry: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, James Earl Jones, and Billy Dee Williams. I keep their pictures in my trailer and try to measure to their standards every time I act.” — Brian J. White

Trailblazing quotes and sayings to live by

These trailblazer quotes are full of wisdom.

41. “Trailblazing is an art form.” — Lucy H. Pearce, Burning Woman

42. “Find and follow your own trail.” ― Sabrina Moyle, Escargot for It!

43. “Oh, how this world needs Filipino trailblazers! Yes, we can be that.” ― Tim Liwanag, First Filipino World Records

44. “Let us blaze trails so that the path we walk takes in wider and wider sweeps of human experience.” — Lucy H. Pearce, Burning Woman

45. “Trust that you will find your way, and don’t hold yourself responsible for the trails or trials of others.” ― Sabrina Moyle, Escargot for It!

46. “We know when to sit and rest, to shelter from storms, when to gather water, and what on the trail will sustain us and what will do us harm.” — Lucy H. Pearce, Burning Woman

47. “We forget our place in the larger story arc; the way that our actions, our choices, our achievements can and will blaze trails for that who come after us.” — Lucy H. Pearce, Burning Woman

48. “Trailblazing is what we do when we find ourselves in the wilderness, with no path to guide us but our own intuitive understanding of nature and our destination.” — Lucy H. Pearce, Burning Woman

49. “Professionally, personally, you’re helping others, trying to solve new things, and always looking behind you and making sure that you’re helping them to blaze their trail.” — Krista Santucci

50. “Now I’ve devoted my life to making sure that I can be a trailblazer for any other African American kids or any other gay kids or any other kids that just feel weird or uncomfortable and have their own issues and don’t know how to express themselves.” — Todrick Hall