What are good motivational quotes for work?

The best ones are short, true to the person who said them and tied to a real moment: Plato's “The beginning is the most important part of any work” for a Monday, or Amelia Earhart's “Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture” before a launch. The 100 above are sorted by situation so you can match the quote to the week your team is having.

What is a good inspirational quote for employees?

Pick one that respects the work people are already doing. Neil Armstrong's line about being recognized “for the ledger of our daily work” and Goethe's “Instruction does much, but encouragement everything” both work well in a note to a team. Add one sentence about what your team actually did.

What is a positive quote for a hard day at work?

Try Erma Bombeck's “If you can't make it better, you can laugh at it,” or Julia Child's reminder to “grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.” On a really hard week a quote is not enough, so pair it with something practical. Our words of encouragement page has messages to send a teammate who is struggling.

What are the best quotes about success?

The ones that point at the work behind it. Booker T. Washington measured success by “the obstacles which he has overcome,” and Nelson Mandela noted that after one great hill there are many more to climb. For quotes about effort itself, see our hard work quotes.

What are good work life balance quotes?

Short ones about slowing down travel best, like Søren Kierkegaard's “Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.” John Muir and Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about walks and quiet minds a century before anyone said burnout. The rest and work-life balance list above has ten, all about rest rather than effort.

How do I share a motivational quote at work without it sounding cheesy?

Add one sentence of your own that ties the quote to this week, credit the person who said it and keep it to one quote at a time. Never ask people to respond. If you want a fresh one every day, our quote of the day for work picks one for you.

Are these quotes real?

Every quote here was checked against a sourced entry on Wikiquote or the original book, speech or letter, and we used the sourced wording when it differs from the popular one. Famous lines that turned out to be misattributed, like the Einstein line about insanity, were left out. Lines first written in another language are marked as translations, with the translator named where the source gives one.

Team culture
Quotes

100 motivational quotes for work, each one checked at the source

Real quotes from real people, sorted by the moment you need them, each with a copy button. Plus how to share one at work without sounding like a poster.

KraftyLab TeamUpdated Oct 202612 min read

A smiling woman holding a laptop stands by an office window with a city skyline at sunrise.

Most lists of motivational quotes for work and inspirational work quotes are full of lines nobody actually said. Every one of these 100 was checked against a sourced record of the book, speech, letter or interview it came from, and where the popular wording drifted, we used the original. They are sorted by situation, from starting the week and big launches to setbacks, success, rest and leading a team. Each Copy button copies the quote with the name in brackets, ready to paste into Slack, Teams, an email or a slide.

Motivational quotes for work, from Monday to the big launch

Quotes to start a week, kick off a project and keep the team on the work that matters.

Starting the week

Monday inspirational quotes for a team post, a kickoff call or the first page of a new notebook.

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
Helen Keller, author and activist
I've always been more interested in the future than in the past.
Grace Hopper, computer scientist
I know how it looks. But just start. Nothing is insurmountable.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton creator
The only thing we know about the future is that it is going to be different.
Peter Drucker, management writer
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist and poet
Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.
Ernest Hemingway, American novelist
The beginning is the most important part of any work.
Plato, Greek philosopher, translated by Benjamin Jowett
Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.
Seneca, Roman philosopher, translated by Richard M. Gummere
Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.
Henry David Thoreau, writer and naturalist
In the morning, when thou art sluggish at rousing thee, let this thought be present; “I am rising to a man’s work.”
Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, translated

Before a big goal or launch

Most of these are about preparation, because that is what the people who said them actually credited.

Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture.
Amelia Earhart, aviation pioneer
When you're getting ready to launch into space, you're sitting on a big explosion waiting to happen.
Sally Ride, astronaut and physicist
We used to dream about this stuff. Now we get to build it. It's pretty great.
Steve Jobs, Apple cofounder
I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges.
Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 astronaut
Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.
Ray Bradbury, science fiction author
In the fields of observation chance favours only the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur, chemist and microbiologist, translated
In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th U.S. president
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. president
Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.
Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. president
In all things success depends on previous preparation, and without such previous preparation there is sure to be failure.
Confucius, Chinese philosopher, translated by James Legge

Focus and doing the work

Quotes about doing over talking, for a team with too many meetings and not enough finished work.

Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking.
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace laureate
Whenever anything is being accomplished, it is being done, I have learned, by a monomaniac with a mission.
Peter Drucker, management writer
I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger of our daily work.
Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 astronaut
The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
Stephen Covey, 7 Habits author
If you can eliminate it, you'll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, “Is this necessary?”
Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, translated by Gregory Hays
The world cares very little what you or I know, but it does care a great deal about what you or I do.
Booker T. Washington, educator and author
Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.
Mark Twain, author and humorist
To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.
Stephen Covey, 7 Habits author
The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.
Alexander Graham Bell, telephone inventor
Concentration is the root of all the higher abilities in man.
Bruce Lee, martial artist and actor

Inspirational quotes for work on the hard days

For the week after a miss, the meeting where someone needs to say the risky idea, and the afternoon that just needs a lift.

Setbacks and resilience

For the retro after a miss. None of these pretend failure feels good; they say what to do next.

A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.
Helen Keller, author and activist
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women
The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th U.S. president
Failure is not fatal but failure to change might be.
John Wooden, basketball coach
I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.
Michael Jordan, basketball player
Difficulties are just things to overcome after all.
Ernest Shackleton, polar explorer
There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.
Willa Cather, American novelist
We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do.
Samuel Smiles, Victorian self-help author
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
Truman Capote, American author
Your life is not static. Every decision, setback, or triumph is an opportunity to identify the seeds of truth that make you the wondrous human being that you are.
Oprah Winfrey, talk show host

Courage and new ideas

For brainstorms, pitches and the moment someone has to speak up first.

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
Helen Keller, author and activist
I like to think of ideas as potential energy. They're really wonderful, but nothing will happen until we risk putting them into action.
Mae Jemison, astronaut and physician
Avoidance will make you feel less vulnerable in the short run, but it will never make you less afraid.
Brené Brown, researcher and author
Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.
Michael Jordan, basketball player
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.
Nelson Mandela, former South African president
Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
Steve Jobs, Apple cofounder
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
Carl Sagan, astronomer and author
Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself and then stand up for somebody else.
Maya Angelou, poet and memoirist
Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
John Steinbeck, American novelist
It is only afterward that a new idea seems reasonable. To begin with, it usually seems unreasonable.
Isaac Asimov, science writer

Positive quotes for work on a hard day

Lighter quotes, several of them funny, for a day that is going sideways.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.
Helen Keller, author and activist
Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.
Anne Lamott, novelist and essayist
One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.
Julia Child, chef and author
Optimism is true moral courage.
Ernest Shackleton, polar explorer
We don't make mistakes; we just have happy accidents.
Bob Ross, painter and TV host
A little hope, even hopeless hope, never hurt anybody.
John Steinbeck, American novelist
Where there's hope, there's life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.
Anne Frank, wartime diarist, translated
If you can't make it better, you can laugh at it.
Erma Bombeck, humor columnist
Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.
Maya Angelou, poet and memoirist
It is important that man dreams, but it is perhaps equally important that he can laugh at his own dreams.
Lin Yutang, writer and translator

For a teammate going through a rough patch, a famous quote can feel distant. Our words of encouragement are messages you can send one person, in your own voice.

Motivational quotes for success, learning and growth

Inspirational quotes for success that say what it costs, plus quotes for anyone learning something new on the job.

Quotes about success and what it takes

Success quotes that point at the work, the obstacles and the next hill rather than the trophy.

It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le Guin, fantasy novelist
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
Nelson Mandela, former South African president
Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.
Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau, writer and naturalist
I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.
Jonas Salk, polio vaccine developer
Good is the enemy of great.
Jim Collins, business author
Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others.
Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, translated
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.
Booker T. Washington, educator and author
Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.
Nelson Mandela, former South African president
That’s the whole secret: to do things that excite you.
Ray Bradbury, science fiction author

Learning and growth

For new hires, new skills and anyone who has to give their first big presentation.

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive.
Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady and diplomat
Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.
Marie Curie, physicist and chemist, translated
I don't know anything, but I do know that everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough.
Richard Feynman, Nobel physicist
All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist and poet
When I think about my career, my successes are built on learning from failures.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO
I'm still learning, for learning is boundless.
Bruce Lee, martial artist and actor
We do not have to live the same mistakes over again if we can look at them, learn from them, and build upon them.
Audre Lorde, poet and essayist
Talent is a pursued interest. In other words, anything that you're willing to practice, you can do.
Bob Ross, painter and TV host
Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Winston Churchill, British prime minister
There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.
G. K. Chesterton, writer and critic

More about effort itself in our hard work quotes, and about working together in our teamwork quotes.

Work life balance quotes

Ten quotes about rest, slowing down and doing less, from people who also did a great deal of work. Good for a Friday post or the week before a holiday.

I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.
John Muir, naturalist and writer
There’s seldom as much hurry as I used to think there was.
Ursula K. Le Guin, fantasy novelist
It is in his pleasures that a man really lives; it is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self.
Agnes Repplier, American essayist
I do what is mine to do; the rest doesn't disturb me.
Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, translated by Gregory Hays
Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
Jerome K. Jerome, English humorist
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher, translated by David and Lillian Swenson
It is a great art to saunter.
Henry David Thoreau, writer and naturalist
No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.
Lin Yutang, writer and translator
One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author and aviator

Inspirational quotes for leaders and their teams

Quotes about trust, encouragement and example, for a manager's note or the opening slide of an all-hands.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.
Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady and diplomat
You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership.
Grace Hopper, computer scientist
Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.
Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. president
The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.
Henry David Thoreau, writer and naturalist
We just don't get to be competent human beings without a lot of different investments from others.
Fred Rogers, children's TV host
Abilities wither under criticism, they blossom under encouragement.
Dale Carnegie, author and teacher
If you have an opportunity to accomplish something that will make things better for someone coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth.
Roberto Clemente, baseball player and humanitarian
Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.
Mark Twain, author and humorist
Instruction does much, but encouragement everything.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer and poet, translated

How to use a motivational quote at work

A quote on its own is decoration. A quote with one sentence about your team is a message. Here are four places it works, each with an example you can adapt.

A Monday post in Slack or Teams

Post the quote, then one line that ties it to this week. The second line is the part people read.

Happy Monday, everyone. This week's quote: “I know how it looks. But just start. Nothing is insurmountable.” (Lin-Manuel Miranda) The onboarding guide looks huge, so our one goal is a first draft by Thursday. Reply with the one thing you want finished by Friday.

A team meeting opener

Read the quote aloud, ask one question about it and give it five minutes. Skip it on days the agenda is packed.

Before we start, one quote from Samuel Smiles: “We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.” Quick round: what is one thing that went wrong last quarter that we now do better?

Two coworkers laugh and high five beside a whiteboard covered in pastel sticky notes.

A recognition note

Lead with what the person did, use the quote to name why it mattered, and keep it to three sentences.

Dana, you spent the last two weeks walking our two new hires through their first launch, and they are shipping on their own now. Dale Carnegie wrote “Abilities wither under criticism, they blossom under encouragement.” That is exactly what you did for them. Thank you.

A presentation slide

Give the quote a slide of its own with the name underneath, then say in one sentence why it is there.

Slide: “Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.” Mark Twain. Then say: “This quarter we talked less and shipped more. Here is what that looked like.”

Always add your own sentence. The quote sets the tone. The line about your team, your week or your project is what makes people reply.
Credit the person who said it. A name in brackets after the quote is enough. Every Copy button on this page adds it for you.
Match the quote to the moment. A rallying quote the morning after layoffs lands badly. On a hard week, pick from the setbacks or rest lists, or say nothing.
Keep it optional. One quote a week in a team channel is a nice habit. A required daily quote with forced replies is a chore.

Want a Monday message without a quote at all? Our Monday motivation messages are written to post straight to the team channel, and the quote of the day for work picks a fresh quote every morning.

10 short motivational lines we wrote ourselves

Sometimes no famous quote fits. These are ours, so there is no name to credit. Use them anywhere, change them freely.

Done and shared beats perfect and hidden.
Small steps still count as moving forward.
Hard weeks end. What you learned in them stays with you.
Ask the question. Someone else in the room is wondering the same thing.
Progress is quieter than you think. Look back a month and see it.
You do not need the whole plan, only the next honest step.
Good work is mostly showing up again the next morning.
Rest is part of the work, not time stolen from it.
Make it work first, then make it better.
Every expert on this team was once the new person asking basic questions.

Lines written to yourself work differently from lines written to a team. For those, see our positive affirmations for work.

Famous quotes we left out, and why

Each quote above was matched to a sourced entry on Wikiquote or to the original text. These popular ones failed that check, so you will not find them here.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Usually credited to Winston Churchill. Quote researchers trace it to an advertising campaign from the late 1930s, not to anything he said or wrote.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Usually credited to Albert Einstein. The earliest known versions turn up in 1981, in recovery-group literature and meetings, decades after his death.
“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” Usually credited to Maya Angelou. A close paraphrase of a line credited to Carl Buehner in a 1971 quote book.
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” Usually credited to Thomas Edison. Wikiquote lists it as disputed: the earliest source it gives is a 1967 magazine article, more than 30 years after he died.
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” Usually credited to Henry David Thoreau. Nothing like it appears in his works. It first shows up uncredited in the 1940s.

Bring the motivation to the whole team

A quote can start a conversation, and a live session can keep it going. In Power of Perseverance, speaker Lauren Ansley shares practical strategies for staying focused and motivated through setbacks. Success Supercharge is about focus: putting your energy where it matters most and building momentum.

Two hosted one-hour workshops, on Zoom by default (Teams, Google Meet or Webex on request). Book about 2 weeks ahead, or get a free quote.