210 Inspirational Quotes For Work To Keep You Motivated

by | May 17, 2024 | quotes

Everybody needs a little extra push every now and then. This is particularly valid for those in managerial roles.

You have a ton of tasks to complete, such as bookkeeping and inventory management as well as hiring and scheduling staff. It’s not always easy to stay motivated when you have so many things to worry about.

We’ve put together this list of the top motivational sayings for the workplace for that reason. These sayings can help you stay motivated and you the extra strength you need to get through the difficult times. 

Inspirational Quotes For Work

We’ve selected some of the greatest motivational sayings for the workplace and categorized them according to a number of factors, including failure, change, persistence, and ambitions. Every manager may learn a great deal from each of these subjects.

Inspirational Quotes For Work About Perseverance

 “If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.” —Steve Jobs

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” —Ella Fitzgerald

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” —Ayn Rand

“Never allow a person to tell you no, who doesn’t have the power to say yes.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” —Henry Ford

“My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.” —Michael Jordan

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.” —Mahatma Gandhi

“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

“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.” —Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pelé)

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” —Wayne Gretzky

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” —Albert Einstein

“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” —Confucius

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” —Newt Gingrich

“Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” —Julie Andrews

“Through perseverance, many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.” —Benjamin Disraeli

“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” —William Feather

tuesday inspirational quotes for work

“We will either find a way or make one.” —Hannibal

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” —Nelson Mandela

“The best way out is always through.” —Robert Frost

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” —Robert Collier

“With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.” —Thomas Fowell Buxton

“Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.” —Napoleon Hill

“A river cuts through a rock not because of its power, but its persistence.” —Jim Watkins

“We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.” —Helen Keller

Inspirational Quotes For Work About Goals

“I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.” —Venus Williams

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.“ —Confucius

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” —Dalai Lama

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” —Vince Lombardi

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” —Abraham Lincoln

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” —Thomas Edison

“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.” —Michelle Obama

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” —C.S. Lewis

“All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.” —Orison Swett Marden

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” —Earl Nightingale

“You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.” —Steve Garvey

“By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands—your own.” —Mark Victor Hansen

“All successful people have a goal. No one can get anywhere unless he knows where he wants to go and what he wants to be or do. ” —Norman Vincent Peale

“Goals. There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them.” —Jim Rohn

“A goal properly set is halfway reached.” —Zig Ziglar

tuesday inspirational quotes for work

“Goals should never be easy. They should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time.” —Michael Phelps

“It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.” —Benjamin E. Mays

“The thing about goals is that living without them is a lot more fun, in the short run. It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact… those people have goals.” —Seth Godin

“The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” –-Michelangelo

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” –-Henry Ford

“A goal should scare you a little and excite you a lot.” –-Joe Vitale

“The student has goals. The master has systems to reach her goals.” —Maxime Legace

“One day or day one. You decide.” —Paulo Coelho

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” —Henry David Thoreau

Inspirational Quotes For Work About Change

“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” —Lyndon Johnson

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” —Charles Darwin

“If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing.” —Ernest Hemingway

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.“ —Pablo Picasso

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” —Anne Frank

56) “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” —Helen Keller

“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” —Babe Ruth

“Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” —Mahatma Gandhi

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” —John F. Kennedy

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” —Maya Angelou

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” —Barack Obama

63) “The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.” —Rupert Murdoch

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing [themself].” —Leo Tolstoy

“Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.” —Frank Herbert

“All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.” —Ellen Glasgow

tuesday inspirational quotes for work

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird — it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” —C. S. Lewis

“Change your opinions, keep to your principles. Change your leaves, keep your roots intact.” —Victor Hugo

 “You’re only as young as the last time you changed your mind.” —Timothy Leary

“What’s dangerous is not to evolve.” —Jeff Bezos

“The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.” —James Russell Lowell

“Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.” —Confucius

“Ignorance is always afraid of change.” —Jawaharlal Nehru

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” —John D. Rockefeller

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” —Oprah Winfrey

Inspirational Quotes For Work About Failure

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” —Winston Churchill

“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” —Maya Angelou

“Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” —Harper Lee

“I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.” —Benjamin Franklin

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” —Truman Capote

“Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” —Voltaire

“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” —Albert Einstein

“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.” —Oprah Winfrey

“Fall seven times and stand up eight.” —Japanese Proverb

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” —Thomas Edison

“Failure is the only opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” —Henry Ford

“A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.” —B.F. Skinner

“Failure is often that early morning hour of darkness which precedes the dawning of the day of success.” —Leigh Mitchell Hodges

“A winner is just a loser who tried one more time.” —George M. Moore Jr.

“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.” —George Edward Woodberry

 “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” —Babe Ruth

tuesday inspirational quotes for work

 “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” —Winston Churchill

“Ask yourself this question: ‘Will this matter a year from now?’” —Richard Carlson

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” —Ken Robinson

“Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.” —Morihei Ueshiba

“Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo.” —Jon Sinclair

“Don’t think of it as failure. Think of it as time-released success.” —Robert Orben

 “A minute’s success pays the failure of years.” —Robert Browning

 “Failure is success in progress.” —Albert Einstein

“Failure defeats losers, but it inspires winners.” —Robert T. Kiyosaki

Inspirational Quotes For Work About Excellence

“What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same? I doubt you’d be happy. So, why are you so afraid of change?” —Karen Salmansohn

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” —Mary Anne Radmacher

“I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.” —Marie Curie

“Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.” —Louis Pasteur

“The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.” —Mignon McLaughlin

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” —Walter Elliot

“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” —James A. Michener

“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” —Theodore Roosevelt

“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” —Abraham Lincoln

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you…never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” —Harriet Beecher Stowe

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” —Dale Carnegie

“As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better.” —Dr. Steve Maraboli

“Ask yourself this question: ‘Will this matter a year from now?’” —Richard Carlson

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road…unless you fail to make the turn.” —Helen Keller

“It’s always too soon to quit!” —Norman Vincent Peale

“The only guarantee for failure is to stop trying.” —John C. Maxwell

tuesday inspirational quotes for work

“We cannot solve problems with the kind of thinking we employed when we came up with them.” —Albert Einstein

“Learn as if you will live forever. Live like you will die tomorrow.” —Mahatma Gandhi

“Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions. Small minds will always do that, but great minds will give you a feeling that you can become great too.” —Mark Twain

“When you give joy to other people, you get more joy in return. You should give a good thought to happiness that you can give out.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“When you change your thoughts, remember to also change your world.” —Norman Vincent Peale

“It is only when we take chances that our lives improve. The initial and the most difficult risk that we need to take is to become honest.” —Walter Anderson

“Nature has given us all the pieces required to achieve exceptional wellness and health, but has left it to us to put these pieces together.” —Diane McLaren

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” —Winston Churchill

“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” —Will Rogers

Inspirational Quotes For Work About Motivation

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” —Lou Holtz

“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.” ―Vernon Sanders Law

“To know how much there is to know is the beginning of learning to live.” —Dorothy West

“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

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” —Alexander Graham Bell

 “Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with direction.” —Unknown

“Failure is not the opposite of success: it’s part of success.” —Arianna Huffington

“If your dreams don’t scare you, they are too small.” —Richard Branson

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” —Theodore Roosevelt

“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” —Henry Ford

tuesday inspirational quotes for work

“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” —Jimmy Johnson

“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” —George Bernard Shaw

“You learn more from failure than from success. Don’t let it stop you. Failure builds character.” —Unknown

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” —Henry David Thoreau

“People who wonder if the glass is half empty or half full miss the point. The glass is refillable.” —Unknown

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Aristotle

“Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it.” —Chinese proverb

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing; that’s why we recommend it daily.” —Zig Ziglar

“The best revenge is massive success.” —Frank Sinatra

“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” —George Lorimer

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” —Amelia Earhart

“If you can’t yet do great things, do small things in a great way.” ―Napoleon Hill

“Do not wait for the perfect time and place to enter, for you are already onstage.” —Unknown

“If the decisions you make about where you invest your blood, sweat, and tears are not consistent with the person you aspire to be, you’ll never become that person.” ―Clayton M. Christensen

Inspirational Quotes For Work About Hard Work

“Work hard and be kind and amazing things will happen.” —Conan O’Brien

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” —Tim Notke

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” —Colin Powell

“Hard work spotlights the character of people. Some turn up their sleeves. Some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.” —Sam Ewing

“Nothing will work unless you do.” —Maya Angelou

“Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.” —Frank Ocean

“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.” —Simon Sinek

“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” ―Arthur C. Clarke

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” —Henry Ford

“Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” —Vince Lombardi

“Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right.” —Walt Disney

“You can have results or excuses. Not both.” —Arnold Schwarzenegger

“Always deliver more than expected.” —Larry Page

“You can do anything, but not everything. Prioritize better.” —David Allen

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.’” —Woody Allen

“You must want to be a butterfly so badly, you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” —Trina Paulus

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” —Maya Angelou

tuesday inspirational quotes for work

“Self-esteem comes from achieving something important when it’s hard to do.” —Clayton M. Christensen

“Challenges are what makes life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” —Joshua J. Marine

“Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” —Oprah Winfrey

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” —Muhammad Ali

“I see the invisible. I believe the incredible. I attempt the impossible.” —Robert Schuller

“If plan ‘A’ doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.” —Claire Cook

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one” —Dolly Parton

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” —Robert Schuller

Inspirational Quotes For Work About Positivity

“Every exit is an entry somewhere else.” —Tom Stoppard

“If you look for perfection, you will never be content.” —Leo Tolstoy

“Dream big and dare to fail.” —Norman Vaughan

“You were born to win, but to be a winner you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” —Zig Ziglar

“It’s always the hard part that creates value.” —Seth Godin

“Success is my only option, failure’s not.” —Eminem

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work”. —Stephen King

“When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, “Compared to what?” —Sydney Harris

“We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” —Marie Curie

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” —Albert Einstein

“If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” —John Rockefeller

“Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.” —Rumi

“If you hear a voice within you, say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means, paint, and that voice will be silenced.” —Vincent Van Gogh

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.” —Steve Martin

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.” — Dhirubhai Ambani

tuesday inspirational quotes for work

“Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.” —William Durant

“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me, there lay an invincible summer.” —Albert Camus

“When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.” —Larry Ellison

“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” —Biz Stone

“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” —Stephen McCranie

“I wake up every morning and think to myself, ‘How far can I push this company in the next 24 hours?’” —Leah Busque

“If people are doubting how far you can go, go so far that you can’t hear them anymore.” —Michele Ruiz

“If we have the attitude that it’s going to be a great day it usually is.” —Catherine Pulsifer

“Impossible is just an opinion.” —Paulo Coelho

Bonus Inspirational Quotes For Work

“Your passion is waiting for your courage to catch up.” —Isabelle Lafleche

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” —John D. Rockefeller

“One day or day one. You decide.” —Anonymous

“Greatness only comes before hustle in the dictionary.” —Ross Simmonds

“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.” —Sheryl Sandberg

“The hard days are what make you stronger.” —Aly Raisman

tuesday inspirational quotes for work

“If you believe it’ll work out, you’ll see opportunities. If you don’t believe it’ll work out, you’ll see obstacles.” —Wayne Dyer

“You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.” —Shonda Rhimes

“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” —George Lorimer

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” —Kurt Cobain

tuesday inspirational quotes for work

The Bottom Line

labor is labor, after all, and it’s not always easy. It’s critical to keep in mind that everyone faces difficulties, fails, and occasionally loses motivation.

These 210 motivational quotations for work are useful to know because of this. These quotations are from people who, despite their great accomplishments, have occasionally felt hopeless. Remember that always!

Trending Now

Dive into our hottest and most talked-about articles

Scroll to Top