Inspiring Work Quotes to Ignite Your Passion and Drive

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."

- Vidal Sassoon

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."

- Aristotle

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

- Arthur Ashe

"If you can’t fly, then run; if you can’t run, then walk; if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

- African Proverb

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."

- Michael Jordan

"If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you."

- Steve Jobs

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."

- Mark Twain

"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."

- Steve Jobs

"Throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours."

- Dale Carnegie

"Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much."

- Helen Keller

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

- Steve Jobs

"A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work."

- Colin Powell

"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

- Napoleon Hill

"No great achiever – even those who made it seem easy – ever succeeded without hard work."

- Jonathan Sacks

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

- Walt Disney

"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself."

- Henry Ford

"I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Employees aren't just workers, they're the backbone of business and that makes them more important than the boss any day of the week. Good Employees = Good Business."

- Kilroy J. Oldster

"How wonderful it is that nobody needs wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

- Anne Frank

"The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck."

- Tony Robbins

"It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit."

- Harry S. Truman

"Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you."

- Stephen Covey

"All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work."

- Calvin Coolidge

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."

- Beverly Sills

"A boat doesn’t go forward if each one is rowing their own way."

- Proverb

"I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse."

- Florence Nightingale

"We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated."

- Maya Angelou

"If your dream is a big dream, and if you want your life to work on the high level that you say you do, there’s no way around doing the work it takes to get you there."

- Joyce Chapman

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence."

- Vince Lombardi

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra."

- Jimmy Johnson

"Life is about making an impact, not making an income."

- Kevin Kruse

"Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value."

- Albert Einstein

"Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that."

- Herb Kelleher

"The employer generally gets the employees he deserves."

- J. Paul Getty

"People want to know they matter, and they want to be treated as people. That’s the new talent contract."

- Pamela Stroko

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways."

- Bob Nelson

"A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent."

- Douglas MacArthur

"People may take a job for more money, but they often leave it for more recognition."

- Bob Nelson

"Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers."

- Stephen R. Covey

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

- Abraham Lincoln

"The real competitive advantage in any business is one word only, which is ‘people.’"

- Komil Toume

"If you don’t create a great, rewarding place for people to work, they won’t do great work."

- Ari Weinzweig

"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."

- Henry David Thoreau

"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him."

- David Brinkley

"Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

- Saint Francis

"Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are."

- Max DePree

"All employees have an innate desire to contribute to something bigger than themselves."

- Jag Randhawa

"Pay attention to those employees who respectfully ask why. They are demonstrating an interest in their jobs and exhibiting a curiosity that could eventually translate into leadership ability."

- Harvey Mackay

"Treat employees like partners, and they act like partners."

- Fred Allen

"Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customer. I think you build one with your employees first."

- Angela Ahrendts

"Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure."

- Stanley McChrystal

"Employees engage with employers and brands when they’re treated as humans worthy of respect."

- Meghan M. Biro

"An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage."

- Jack Welch

"Culture is about performance, and making people feel good about how they contribute to the whole."

- Tracy Streckenbach

"A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit."

- Arnold Glasow

"Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company."

- Zig Ziglar

"The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought and attended to my answer."

- Henry David Thoreau

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you."

- Margaret Thatcher

"A single leaf working alone provides no shade."

- Chuck Page

"Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean."

- Ryunosuke Satoro

"It doesn’t take strength to win. It takes the true heart of the team to win."

- Emily Voyles

"It is not a question of how well each process works; the question is how well they all work together."

- Lloyd Dobens

"Synergy — the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously."

- Mark Twain

"Teamwork is so important that it is virtually impossible for you to reach the heights of your capabilities or make the money that you want without becoming very good at it."

- Brian Tracy

"Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions."

- Paulo Coelho

"The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side."

- Margaret Carty

"Leadership is absolutely about inspiring action, but it is also about guarding against mis-action."

- Simon Sinek

"Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation."

- Doris Kearns Goodwin

"Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work—and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't."

- Lucille Ball

"Leave your ego at the door every morning, and just do some truly great work. Few things will make you feel better than a job brilliantly done."

- Robin Sharma

"When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute."

- Simon Sinek

"Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity and meaning in their job."

- Scott and Kelly Blanchard

"Motivating employees to work at their full potential is the main premise of successful management."

- Eraldo Banovac

"Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t keep it a secret."

- Mary Kay Ash

"Self-respect tends to inspire respect from others."

- Nathaniel Branden

"Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless."

- Jamie Paolinetti

"A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job."

- Michael Larsen

"The expert in anything was once a beginner."

- Helen Hayes

"Criticism is the best sign you’re onto something."

- Michael Lopp

"Goodness and hard work are rewarded with respect."

- Luther Campbell

"The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others."

- Hasidic Proverb

"You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

- Maya Angelou

"Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

- Joshua J. Marine

"We are really competing against ourselves. We have no control over how other people perform."

- Pete Cashmore

"The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work."

- Harry Golden

"I've always had a great work ethic, even when I was washing dishes."