Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, and sacrifice

Attributed to Pelé 1940–2022 · Brazilian footballer · three-time World Cup winner
Attributed In copyright

Widely and consistently credited to Pelé, and he endorsed it himself — his verified account posted the opening line in July 2014. But no book, speech, or interview documents the exact wording, and the popular claim that it comes from his 1977 autobiography is unverified.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Unconfirmed quote & credit

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, and sacrifice” Attributed to Pelé

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Pelé — Brazilian footballer · three-time World Cup winner. Theme: "Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, and sacrifice". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, and sacrifice". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the line actually comes from

Credited to
Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento)
Earliest documented
Quote aggregators c. 2013–2014; posted by Pelé’s verified X account 22 Jul 2014
Claimed source
“Pelé: My Life and the Beautiful Game” (1977) — unverified
Status
Attributed — no primary source pins the exact wording

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.

The circulated line is longer than the popular truncation; the version ending at “sacrifice” is a shortened form. No source page or edition is ever cited for either.

Pelé on Wikiquote

What the record shows

  • The full line — “…and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do” — is carried on Goodreads ↗ with no book or source, under a notice that quotes there are community-added and “not verified.”
  • Wikiquote ↗ lists the line in its general quotes section with no citation — it is not placed in a sourced section, and not flagged as misattributed either.
  • PassItOn ↗ and other inspiration sites reproduce it attributed to Pelé but cite no book, speech, or interview.
  • Pelé’s own verified X account posted the opening wording on 22 July 2014 (status 491679674742104065, whose timestamp decodes to that date) — strong evidence he embraced the line, though it does not establish where or when he first said it.
In copyright

This is a modern statement — its earliest documented appearances are c. 2013–2014, including Pelé’s own 2014 X post — so it is well after the 1931 U.S. public-domain cutoff and rests with Pelé’s estate. Because no specific published work is confirmed, treat the copyright as attaching to Pelé’s modern authorship rather than to any one edition; there is no basis to call it public-domain.

Fact-check

The sourcing problem

The attribution to Pelé is credible — he himself posted the line — but the “source” you will see attached to it is not.

“Pelé: My Life and the Beautiful Game” (1977) unverified

Many reposts assert the line comes from Pelé’s 1977 autobiography, but no page or edition is ever cited, and the wording does not surface in the record until quote aggregators picked it up around 2013–2014. Treat the book citation as unconfirmed rather than established.

Goodreads / BrainyQuote / inspiration sites

The line is reproduced on Goodreads ↗ and similar aggregators with the author name but no book, date, or context — Goodreads even warns its quotes are community-added and “not verified.”

What is solid: the line is genuinely a Pelé line — his Wikiquote ↗ page carries it and his verified account posted it in 2014. What is not solid is any claim about which book, speech, or year it ‘originally’ came from.

Context

Why this one sticks to Pelé

Pelé is one of the internet’s great quote magnets: a globally beloved figure whose name lends instant authority to any tidy sentence about effort and success. Unlike most magnet attributions, though, this line has a real anchor — Pelé publicly shared it himself — which is why it lands as “attributed” rather than “fabricated.”

The catch is that a genuine attribution and a documented source are two different things. Here the first is present and the second is missing: no page of a book, no dated interview, no speech. The honest answer is that Pelé embraced the line, but where and when he first said it remains undocumented.

Genuinely his to say — but nobody can tell you which page it came from.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Success Work Resilience

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Pelé — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Carries the line in the general quotes section with no citation; useful to see it is neither sourced nor flagged misattributed.
Quote on Goodreadsgoodreads.com

The full circulated wording, attributed to Pelé, under Goodreads’ “not verified” notice.
PassItOn quote pagepassiton.com

Typical sourceless inspiration-site posting attributing the line to Pelé.
Pelé's 2014 post (X)x.com

Pelé’s verified account carrying the opening wording; status ID decodes to 22 July 2014.
BrainyQuote — Pelébrainyquote.com

Widely-cited aggregator entry that popularized the line, again with no primary source.

The author

About Pelé

Pelé

1940–2022 · Brazilian footballer · three-time World Cup winner

Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento, 1940–2022) is regarded as one of the greatest footballers in history, winning the World Cup with Brazil in 1958, 1962, and 1970. After his playing career he became a global ambassador for the sport and a fixture of motivational culture — which is part of why aspirational one-liners gravitate to his name. He was active on social media in his later years and did publicly share this very line.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Attribution to Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento). Earliest documented in online quote collections c. 2013–2014; posted by Pelé’s verified X (Twitter) account, 22 July 2014. No primary published work confirmed.

MLA (9th ed.)

Pelé. Attributed quotation; earliest documented in online quote collections c. 2013–2014 and posted by Pelé's verified X (Twitter) account, 22 July 2014. X, 22 July 2014.

APA (7th ed.)

Pelé [@Pele]. (2014, July 22). [Attributed quotation] [Post]. X. (No primary published work confirmed)

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, and sacrifice’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/success-is-no-accident-it-is-hard-work-perseverance

Copied