137 Inspiring Quotes About Work to Motivate Your Day

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

- Steve Jobs

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is hard work."

- Stephen King

"Work is doing it. Discipline is doing it every day. Diligence is doing it well every day."

- Dave Ramsey

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."

- Jim Ryun

"Be humble, be hungry, and always be the hardest worker in the room."

- Dwayne Johnson

"A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence."

- Jim Watkins

"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"I knew that if I failed I wouldn't regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying."

- Jeff Bezos

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

- Thomas Jefferson

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

- Harry Golden

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

- Michael Larsen

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

- Colin Powell

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

- Jonathan Sack

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

- Walt Disney

"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

"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 III

"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

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

- Jimmy Johnson

"Working hard is very important. You're not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard."

- George Lucas

"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy."

- Robert Hall

"It's not about money or connection —it's the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone."

- Mark Cuban

"Talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything."

- Patrick Suskind

"Once you have commitment, you need the discipline and hard work to get you there."

- Haile Gebrselassie

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

- St. Francis of Assisi

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

- Michael Jordan

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."

- Mark Twain

"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

"Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

- Winston Churchill

"My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time."

- Charles Dickens

"The most efficient way to do it is to do it."

- Amelia Earhart

"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place."

- Nora Roberts

"When you set out to accomplish something, recognize that slow, steady progress over time can lead to big success."

- Erica Hudson

"The key to success is to start before you are ready."

- Marie Forleo

"Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going."

- Sam Levenson

"Don't wait for the right opportunity. Create it."

- George Bernard Shaw

"Either you run the day, or the day runs you."

- Jim Rohn

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing."

- Abraham Lincoln

"The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it."

- Debbi Fields

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."

- Ayn Rand

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

- Arthur Ashe

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

- Joshua J. Marine

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

- Henry Ford

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

- African Proverb

"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."

- Swahili proverb

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

- Florence Nightingale

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

- Jamie Paolinetti

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

- Vince Lombardi

"A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be."

- Rosalynn Carter

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

- Napoleon Hill

"There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment."

- Norman Vincent Peale

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

- Henry David Thoreau

"Goodness and hard work are rewarded with respect."

- Luther Campbell

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

- David Brinkley

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

- Dale Carnegie

"When I meet successful people, I ask about 100 questions to find out who they attribute their success to. It is usually the same: persistence, hard work and hiring good people."

- Kiana To

"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

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

- Stanley McChrystal

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

- Jack Welch

"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

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

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"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

"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

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

- Doris Kearns Goodwin

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

- Simon Sinek

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

- Eraldo Banovac

"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

"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

"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

"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

"Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you."

- Oprah Winfrey

"If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation."

- Robert H. Schuller

"If you can't figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For passion will lead you right into your purpose."

- Bishop T.D. Jakes

"If you find something you're passionate about, Monday will be your favorite day of the week."

- Jan Almasy

"Starting strong is good. Finishing strong is epic."

- Robin Sharma

"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make."

- Jane Goodall

"Work hard in silence. Let your success be your noise."

- Frank Ocean

"Professionalism is not about what work you do; it is about how well you do the work."

- Amit Kalantri

"Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me."

- Carol Burnett

"There are no regrets in life, just lessons."

- Jennifer Aniston

"Be there for others, but never leave yourself behind."

- Dodinsky

"Embrace what you don't know, especially in the beginning, because what you don't know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will absolutely be doing things different from everybody else."

- Sara Blakely

"There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed."

- Ray Goforth

"If you're not a leader on the bench, don't call yourself a leader on the field. You're either a leader everywhere or nowhere."

- Abby Wambach

"Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it, the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me."

- Arianna Huffington

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

- Helen Keller

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

- Tony Robbins

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

- Maya Angelou

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

- Kevin Kruse

"The expert in anything was once a beginner."

- Helen Hayes

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

- Pete Cashmore

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

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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

- Hasidic Proverb

"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

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

- Meghan M. Biro

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

- Margaret Thatcher

"A single leaf working alone provides no shade."

- Chuck Page

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

- Lloyd Dobens

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

- Simon Sinek

"Oh what we could be if we stopped carrying the remains of who we were."

- Tyler Knott Gregson

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

- Mark Twain

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

- Margaret Carty

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

- Mary Kay Ash

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, so do it."

- Kurt Vonnegut

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

- Pamela Stroko

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

- Abraham Lincoln

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious."

- Albert Einstein

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

- George Eliot

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

- Tracy Streckenbach

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

- Nathaniel Branden

"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

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

- Henry David Thoreau

"The employer generally gets the employees he deserves."

- J. Paul Getty

"The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow."

- H.G. Wells

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

- Michael Lopp

"What might happen if you chose a softer view of yourself?"

- Kelly Rae Roberts

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

- Anne Frank

"If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you."

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