Here are the best Eric Thomas quotes to motivate and inspire you are worth not only familiarizing yourself with but also learning for a more fulfilled and active life.
Eric Thomas is affectionately known as ET the Hip Hop Preacher. He also doubles as a motivational speaker, minister, and author.
Over the years, Thomas has stood out for beautiful, inspiring, and wisdom-packed quotes. His high-energy speaking engagements have proven quite popular too.
For this reason, on YouTube, his speeches continue drawing tons of enthusiasts. The speeches are quite popular with individuals who wish to know the motivations behind his success.
ET’s quotes are worth learning from because of the kind of journey he had. He overcame homelessness, poverty, and family problems to reach the top.
An author of five inspirational biographies, Thomas is now a millionaire with a net worth of roughly $5 million, which is quite impressive when you consider his background.
114 Best Eric Thomas Quotes To Motivate and Inspire You Click To TweetDisclaimer: Please note that some of the links are affiliates and will come at no extra cost for your end. However, I may earn a commission should you choose to purchase through the affiliate links provided. With these funds, it help fund this blog and every expense incurred, ensuring that I can continue to provide valuable content such as this to you free of charge. Please be assured that I only recommend products that are worthy and benefiting to you. Thank you for reading through.
Action plan on how to use your favorite quotes effectively
- Print it – Print your favorite quote onto paper and stick them up at obvious places around your house, like your bed frame, desk, dressing mirror, refrigerator or microwave.
- Desktop or mobile wallpaper – Type or work out a simple design (use Canva.com to make designing effortless) for your desktop or mobile wallpaper. Change it from time to time for empowering variations.
- Workplace / worktop – Frame your favorite quote up and place them so by your desk. Not only do you get inspired after each read, your colleagues might too.
- Pocket-size cut outs – Compile a list of your favorite quotes in wallet-size fittings. Keep them in your wallet or at the back of your pocket wherever you go. That way, you get to read through them conveniently wherever you go.
- Accelerate further – To this day, I am still constantly learning through paid educational platforms to improve my personal development and professional growth. Even though nowadays, multiple resources can be freely found online, but it’ll take a tremendous amount of effort and time to find what works. I know so and have been joining a premium, life-changing learning program called Mindvalley. It connects me to the world’s best teachers and community and I’ve been on their program since 2019. So yes, I know the programs taught inside work.
114 Best Eric Thomas Quotes To Motivate and Inspire You
- “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” – Eric Thomas

- “Pain is temporary. It may last for a minute, or an hour or a day, or even a year. But eventually, it will subside. And something else takes its place. If I quit, however, it will last forever.” – Eric Thomas

- “Sometimes it ain’t about being the most talented. Sometimes it ain’t about being the smartest. Sometimes it’s not even about working the hardest. Sometimes it’s about consistency! Consistency!” – Eric Thomas

- “The most important thing is this: To be able at any moment, to sacrifice what you are, for what you will become!” – Eric Thomas

- “I’m intoxicated on success!” – Eric Thomas

- “Everybody has a dream, but not everybody has a grind.” – Eric Thomas

- “A setback is a setup for a comeback.” – Eric Thomas

- “There is nothing wrong with dreaming big dreams, just know that all roads that lead to success have to pass through Hardwork Boulevard at some point.” – Eric Thomas

- “Winners focus on winning. Losers focus on winners.” – Eric Thomas

Best Eric Thomas quotes about success
- “Only those who risk going too far, can possibly find out how far one can go.” – Eric Thomas

- “I’m not the smartest. But you will not out work me! I wake up every morning at 3 o’clock!” – Eric Thomas

- “Most of you don’t want success as much as you want to sleep!” – Eric Thomas

- “I’ve got a dream that’s worth more than my sleep.” – Eric Thomas

- “God has a purpose for your pain, a reason for your struggles and a reward for your faithfulness. Don’t give up.” – Eric Thomas

- “Success is not for the weak and uncommitted… Sometimes it’s gonna hurt!” – Eric Thomas

- “An eagle uses the storm to reach unimaginable heights.” – Eric Thomas

- “Stop the blame game. Stop! Stop looking out the window and look in the mirror!” – Eric Thomas

- “Avoid being your own enemy.” – Eric Thomas

Famous Eric Thomas quotes on hardwork
- “Like for real, you can start from the bottom, and by the grace of God, work your way all the way up to the top man.” – Eric Thomas

- “You can’t cheat the grind, it knows hows much you’ve invested, it won’t give you nothing you haven’t worked for.” – Eric Thomas

- “The difference between those who succeed and fail: not taking advantage of opportunities.” – Eric Thomas

- “Things change for the better when we take responsibility for our own thoughts, decisions and actions.” – Eric Thomas

- “Don’t cry to quit! You already in pain, you already hurt! Get a reward from it!” – Eric Thomas

- “Both desire and imagination are stored in the mind of the individual and when stretched, both have the potential to position a person for greatness.” – Eric Thomas

- “Apply the ABC’s of success to your life. Ask, Believe and Claim It.” – Eric Thomas

- “I’ve been trying to tell y’all, its’s not your circumstances or situation, that determines if you gonna be successful or not. I’ve been telling you it’s your mindset! It’s the way you see it. It’s the way you think it right!” – Eric Thomas

- “I started studying. I wasn’t watching the game no more. I wanted to study what was in Michael Jordan. I’m like “What’s in Michael Jordan? Michael Jordan got something in him?” – Eric Thomas

Motivational speaker Eric Thomas quotes on everything is possible
- “You know school ain’t my first love, but we gotta get in here and do it so that young people can know that for real it’s past possible, there’s absolutely nothing that we can’t accomplish.” – Eric Thomas

- “The problem is, you get more excited talking about it than you do when you actually doing it!” – Eric Thomas

- “Look in the mirror, that’s your competition.” – Eric Thomas

- “No alarm clock needed, my passion wakes me.” – Eric Thomas
- “I dare you to take a little pain. I dare you!” – Eric Thomas
- “Desire and imagination have the potential to position a person for greatness.” – Eric Thomas
- “Everybody wants to be a beast, until it’s time to do what real beasts do.” – Eric Thomas
- “If you’re going to go to your next level, your values are going to have to change.” – Eric Thomas
- “Listen to me: You’ll never be successful until I don’t have to give you a dime to do what you do.” – Eric Thomas
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Eric Thomas quotes on quitting
- “Most of you won’t be successful because when you’re studying and you get tired, you quit!” – Eric Thomas
- “I don’t care if you broke, you grew up broke… you grew up rich. You only get 24hrs!” – Eric Thomas
- “I’m exactly where I wanted to be because I realized, I gotta commit my very being to this thing.” – Eric Thomas
- “Some of you need to give up your cell phone!” – Eric Thomas
- “Because the time you spend on your cell phone, could be used for your success. The time you could be using to be successful, you’re using on the cell! And the cell phone is not bringing you nothing but a bill!” – Eric Thomas
- “It’s one thing to talk about your destiny. It’s one thing to dream about your destiny. It’s one thing to look at your destiny. But it’s another thing – it is another thing – to make the decisions. To wake up when you know you supposed to wake up!” – Eric Thomas
- “At some point in life you have to face your fears.” – Eric Thomas
- “Sleep? “I don’t sleep.” You thought that was it? It goes deeper than going without sleep because you might miss the opportunity to succeed. No, no, no! It’s about No Days Off! No weekends! No Holidays! No Birthdays!” – Eric Thomas
- “It’s realizing that a great dream is not as good as a great memory. The dream can be had by anyone. The memory – must be made.” – Eric Thomas
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Eric Thomas quotes on opportunity
- “This is what I’m saying, take advantage of opportunity, because if you do, doors are going to open up for you.” – Eric Thomas
- “When you’re great! You attract great! When you’re average! You attract average.” – Eric Thomas
- “It’s about optimal movement. Decisive movement. The most effective movement.” – Eric Thomas
- “You ain’t average! But you know what? You’re playing small because it’s easier to be average.” – Eric Thomas
- “The competitive edge is not something that… it’s not the top tier management… it’s not something that they give you.” – Eric Thomas
- “It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.” – Eric Thomas
- “Fall in love with the process and the results will come” – Eric Thomas
- “You are the executive director and screenwriter of your life.” – Eric Thomas
- “Be stronger than your excuses.” – Eric Thomas
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Eric Thomas quotes on persistence and practice
- “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanence!” – Eric Thomas
- “Listen to me, even when you lose, it’s OK to lose, but you can never get comfortable with it. You can never be satisfied with losing. When you lose, it’s got to hurt.” – Eric Thomas
- “Stop sabotaging yourself.” – Eric Thomas
- “If it takes a boring Biology class, then I’m taking Biology. If I gotta go through Calculus to make my family get to a level they’ve never been too, then Calculus watch your back! Cause your boy is coming.” – Eric Thomas
- “When you get to a place where you don’t go for what you can get, but you go for what you can give, you gonna see your life change tremendously.” – Eric Thomas
- “If you’re just reading the book she told you to read, you’re getting beat! You read what she told you to read and then you ask her what she reading, cause if you don’t get what she’s reading, she’s gonna always be the teacher, and you’re always gonna be the student!” – Eric Thomas
- “Information changes situations.” – Eric Thomas
- “We all have the ability to produce greatness in our lives.” – Eric Thomas
- “It’s not about where you come from; it’s about heart! You come to a place where, you know, being smart ain’t enough. You gotta have heart” – Eric Thomas
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Eric Thomas quotes on growing up
- “Some of you have never learned to grow up!” – Eric Thomas
- “I was homeless for two and half years. And the problem with most of you, you’ve never felt any pain before. Y’all spoiled.” – Eric Thomas
- “When you have something good… When you have something good, you don’t play with it! You don’t take chances with it! You don’t take risks with it! When you got something good, you get every single thing you can get out of it! Because guess what? When you take care of something good, that something good takes care of you.” – Eric Thomas
- “I’m here to tell you, number one, that most of you say you want to be successful, but you don’t want it bad, you just kinda want it.” – Eric Thomas
- “You got an opportunity to make a dream become a reality – and when you do, you just got to take advantage of it.” – Eric Thomas
- “I’m that guy that comes in your high school and tells you, you can make it happen! Greatness is upon you! You better act like it!” – Eric Thomas
- “My greatest asset is I was homeless. So, I can’t feel a whole lot of pain. I’ve already been alone. There’s not a whole of hurt I can feel, on a little paper, on a little test.” – Eric Thomas
- “Listen to me! No, to sleep when you should be working out. Saying no, to quitting when you still got a hundred more shots to make. Saying no, when your body says stop, but you put in fifty more push ups! You can’t just talk about it! You gotta be about it!” – Eric Thomas
- “At the end of pain is success.” – Eric Thomas
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Eric Thomas quotes on born to be great
- “Stop being average. You’re not even good. You were born to be great.” – Eric Thomas
- “If you’re not where you are. If you’re not where you want to be. If you don’t have what you want, want to have. If you’re not where you think you should be at this particular place. It has nothing to do with the system, but it has everything to do with the fact that you’re not making the sacrifice.” – Eric Thomas
- “It’s realizing that a great dream is not as good as a great memory. The dream can be had by anyone. The memory – must be made.” – Eric Thomas
- “Success is never on discount! Greatness is never on sale! Greatness is never half off! It’s all or nothing! It’s all day, every day! Greatness is never on discount!” – Eric Thomas
- “Stop whining, start grinding.” – Eric Thomas
- “What you envision in your mind, how you see yourself, and how you envision the world around you is of great importance because those things become your focus.” – Eric Thomas
- “I use pain to push me to greatness” – Eric Thomas
- “Don’t make a habit out of choosing what feels good over what’s actually good for you.” – Eric Thomas
- “The only way to get out of mediocrity is to keep shooting for excellence.” – Eric Thomas
Read more: 99 Best JRR Tolkien Quotes About Life, Love And Death
Eric Thomas quotes on focus
- “Don’t think about what can happen in a month. Don’t think about what can happen in a year. Just focus on the 24 hours in front of you and do what you can to get closer to where you want to be.” – Eric Thomas
- “If you can look up, you can get up.” – Eric Thomas
- “I wanted to surround myself with the kind of people who could help me turn my life around; people whom I could rub up against like iron and be sharpened.” – Eric Thomas
- “Your relationships will either make you or break you and there is no such thing as a neutral relationship. People either inspire you to greatness or pull you down in the gutter, it’s that simple. No one fails alone, and no one succeeds alone.” – Eric Thomas
- “Done is better than perfect if perfect ain’t done.” – Eric Thomas
- “I have learned over the years that the higher the level of emotion, the lower the level of reasoning. For example, if your emotions are at the highest level of 10, your ability to reason is at a 0. If it’s a 9 then your reasoning is a 1. I am not suggesting that emotions don’t have their place, but taking actions based purely on emotions is dangerous and could cost you everything.” – Eric Thomas
- “I do not take constructive criticism from people who have never constructed anything.” – Eric Thomas
- “Success, meaningful success, begins when we take ownership and actively take responsibility for our part in the shortcomings of our life.” – Eric Thomas
- “Information changes situations.” – Eric Thomas
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Eric Thomas quotes grind and sacrifice
- “You can’t sleep. Broke people sleep. You got to be willing to sacrifice sleep, if you sleep you may miss the opportunity to be successful.” – Eric Thomas
- “You can get through this. You are bigger than your pain, don’t give up, don’t give in.” – Eric Thomas
- “I learned that a real friendship is not about what you can get, but what you can give. Real friendship is about making sacrifices and investing in people to help them improve their lives.” – Eric Thomas
- “Can you honestly say the environment(s) you are in will yield the kind of harvest you are expecting?” – Eric Thomas
- “It’s not easy, but it’s simple.” – Eric Thomas
- “I don’t ever want you to settle for another average day in your life again.” – Eric Thomas
- “Be more intentional about the direction we allow our minds to go. Meaning, when you catch yourself thinking negatively, stop! Redirect to something positive.” – Eric Thomas
- “Bottom line, I removed myself from the victim mentality and took control of my life. I’m not just going to take responsibility for the success in my life – I’m going to take responsibility for the failures in my life. When you’re willing to accept that you’re the problem, you immediately become the solution.” – Eric Thomas
- “I’m gonna make the rest of my life, the best of my life.” – Eric Thomas
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Eric Thomas quotes pain is temporary
- “I used my pain to push me to greatness.” – Eric Thomas
- “You cannot afford to live in potential for the rest of your life; at some point, you have to unleash the potential and make your move.” – Eric Thomas
- “You will not experience all life has to offer you or begin to experience life at its fullest as long as you are satisfied with mediocrity.”
- “When you find your why, you find a way to make it happen.” – Eric Thomas
- “All men are created equal, some men work harder in pre-season.” – Eric Thomas
- “I can. I will. I must.” – Eric Thomas
- “Trust the process.” – Eric Thomas
- You saying you want to be great, but on the other hand you comfortable with average.” – Eric Thomas
- “Every principle has a promise.” – Eric Thomas
- “Some days are harder than others to get up early and grind, but I’d rather suffer a little today than struggle the rest of my life.” – Eric Thomas
- “Let them sleep while you grind. Let them party while you work. The difference will show.” – Eric Thomas
- “Are you ready to sacrifice who you are, for what you will become.” – Eric Thomas
- “I dare you to be great. I challenge you to be great in every single thing you do.” – Eric Thomas
- “Sleep is the new broke. If you only have 24 hours in a day, your success is dependent upon how you spend the 24.” – Eric Thomas
- “You wanna shine like a diamond, you gotta get cut like a diamond.” – Eric Thomas
Which of these Eric Thomas quotes inspired you the most?
You will lose nothing by learning from Eric Thomas. Instead, watch your life turn around as you implement the best Eric Thomas quotes to motivate and inspire you.
ET says that a preacher changed his life. In other words, the words that the preacher spoke over ET changed the then young man’s life.
That perfectly illustrates how much his quotes, a few of which appear above, can have a positive impact on your life.
This committed family man, who has been married for over 24 years now, understands the value of positive words in achieving one’s dreams.
This successful YouTuber and founder of a non-profit organization knows what it takes to build something from scratch. Surely, such a man has plenty of lessons to teach us.
With a client base that features budding and top athletes, including one LeBron James who is a huge fan, there’s no doubt that Eric Thomas knows what he’s saying.