152 Greatest Motivational Quotes for Work We Hand-Picked For You (2021 Edition)

We all encounter days where we need an extra pick-me-up to get realigned with our goals. On such days, you can choose to give up or stay true to your dreams. Indeed, in every phase of your life, motivation is the backbone of your success. That's precisely why you need the most inspiring motivational quotes for work near you in case you ever lose hope.

The right quote can inspire and make you feel motivated. Additionally, it can tug at your heartstrings and reinvigorate your mind. A good quote can give you the right mindset to view a challenging situation to conquer and work even harder.

Therefore, check out our compilation of the 80 incredible motivational quotes for work from successful entrepreneurs, leaders, and creatives.

Best Motivational Quotes For Work To Spur Inspiration

These top motivational quotes for work are primarily taken from a series of badass people who never ever gave up and had a legacy that can never be forgotten. Presidents, founders, scientists, actors, writers- every person below is notable in their field of work. So let's take a look:

1. Abraham Lincoln

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

2. Theodore Roosevelt

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

3. Maya Angelou

Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more.

4. Henry Ford

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

5. Thomas Edison

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

6. Thomas Jefferson

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

7. Helen Keller

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

8. Albert Einstein

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

9. Babe Ruth

I hear the cheers when they roared and the jeers when they echoed.

10. Mahatma Gandhi

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.

11. Jim Rohn

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

12. Vince Lombardi

Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to ignore the minor hurts, the opponent's pressure, and the temporary failures.

13. Winston Churchill

If you're going through hell, keep going.

14. Eleanor Roosevelt

Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do and damned if you don't.

15. Steve Jobs

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.

16. Jack Ma

I don’t want to be liked. I want to be respected.

17. Jason Fried

Workaholics aren't heroes. They don't save the day; they just use it up. The real hero is home because she figured out a faster way.

18. Mark Cuban

I wouldn’t be where I am now if I didn’t fail … a lot. The good, the bad, it’s all part of the success equation.

19. Ingvar Kamprad

The most dangerous poison is the feeling of achievement. The antidote is to, every evening, think what can be done better tomorrow.

20. Ted Turner

I just love it when people say I can't do it; there's nothing that makes me feel better because all my life, people have said that I wasn't going to make it.

21. John Rockefeller

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

22. Elon Musk

I could either watch it happen or be a part of it.

23. Oprah Winfrey

The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.

24. Jeff Bezos

If you can’t tolerate critics, don’t do anything new or interesting.

25. Magnus Carlsen

Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s okay to lose. I don’t. You have to be merciless.

26. Shirley Chisolm

You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering, and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.

27. Nikki Giovanni

I really don’t think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don’t mind the failure, but I can’t imagine that I’d forgive myself if I didn’t try.

28. Rumi

Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.

29. Bruce Lee

Absorb what is useful, disregard that which is useless.

30. Rob Siltanen

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

31. Vincent Van Gogh

If you hear a voice within you, say, 'You cannot paint,' then by all means, paint, and that voice will be silenced.

32. Anne Lamott

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.

33. Tim Ferriss

Someday is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it 'eventually,' just do it and correct course along the way.

34. Steven Pressfield

The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.

35. Jeff Olson

Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do — even when it doesn’t look like it makes any difference. And they do it long enough for the compounding effect to start to kick in.

36. PT Barnum

Comfort is the enemy of progress.

37. Steve Martin

Be so good they can’t ignore you.

38. Shigeru Miyamoto

A good idea is something that does not solve just one single problem but rather can solve multiple problems at once.

39. Michael Jordan

I play to win, whether during practice or a real game.

40. Ikuo Maeda

I truly put passion and soul into the design to make it feel like a living thing.

41. Jamie Hewlett

It’s like being in a trance — it’s a fluid — and you almost don’t remember doing the picture. Drawing is an escape from all the unnecessary things in life that get in the way of being free.

42. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.

43. Dhirubhai Ambani

If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.

44. William Durant

Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.

45. Yoda

Do or do not. There is no try.

46. Brian Tracy

Self-doubt does more to sabotage individual potential than all external limitations put together.

47. Kevin Systrom

If you've got an idea, start today. There's no better time than now to get going. That doesn't mean quit your job and jump into your idea 100 percent from day one, but there's always small progress that can be made to start the movement.

48. Daniel Ek

We led with our conviction rather than rational because rational said it was impossible.

49. Anne Sweeney

Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you're proud to live.

50. Stephen Covey

Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it's holy ground. There's no greater investment.

51. Ayn Rand

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

52. Henry David Thoreau

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.

53. John A. Shedd

A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not why ships are built.

54. Max Lucado

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

55. Calvin Coolidge

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

57. T. E. Lawrence

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

58. Teddy Roosevelt

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

59. Muhammad Ali

I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.

60. Chuck Palahniuk

It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.

61. Albert Camus

In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me, there lay an invincible summer.

62. John F. Kennedy

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

63. Aang, Legend Of Kora

When we hit our lowest point, we are opened to our greatest change.

64. Mary Anne Radmacher

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.

65. Steven Furtick

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.

66. Bojack Horseman

It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day; that's the hard part.

67. Satya Nadella

Our industry does not respect tradition - it only respects innovation.

68. Tim Cook

Work takes on new meaning when you feel you are pointed in the right direction. Otherwise, it's just a job, and life is too short for that.

69. Michael Dell

You don't have to be a genius or a visionary, or even a college graduate to be successful. You just need a framework and a dream.

70. Larry Ellison

When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.

71. John C. Maxwell

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

72. Drew Houston

Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.

73. Chris Dixon

Get big quietly, so you don’t tip off potential competitors.

74. Sara Blakely

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.

75. Biz Stone

Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.

76. Reid Hoffman

No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.

77. David Ogilvy

Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark. Aim for the company of immortals.

78. Stephen McCranie

The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.

79. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood; divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

80. Albert Einstein

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

81. Walt Disney

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

82. Mark Twain

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

83. Mary Kay Ash

Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.

84. Leah Busque

I wake up every morning and think to myself, ‘how far can I push this company in the next 24 hours.

85. Michele Ruiz

If people are doubting how far you can go, go so far that you can’t hear them anymore.

86. Arianna Huffington

We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.

87. Pablo Picasso

Everything you can imagine is real.

88. Socrates

Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.

89. Catherine Pulsifer

If we have the attitude that it’s going to be a great day it usually is.

90. Anonymous

You can either experience the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The choice is yours.

91. Paulo Coelho

Impossible is just an opinion.

92. Isabelle Lafleche

Your passion is waiting for your courage to catch up.

93. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Magic is believing in yourself. If you can make that happen, you can make anything happen.

94. John D. Rockefeller

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

95. Anonymous

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

96. Anonymous

One day or day one. You decide.

97. Jaymin Shah

No one is to blame for your future situation but yourself. If you want to be successful, then become “Successful”.

98. Ross Simmonds

Greatness only comes before hustle in the dictionary.

99. Gary Vaynerchuk

Without hustle, talent will only carry you so far.

100. Anonymous

Hold the vision, trust the process.

101. Aristotle

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

102. Sheryl Sandberg

If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on.

103. Marissa Mayer

I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.

104. Anne Frank

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

105. Simon Sinek

If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.

106. A.C. Benson

Very often, a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.

107. Stanley McChrystal

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

108. Lou Holtz

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

109. Aly Raisman

The hard days are what make you stronger.

110. Wayne Dyer

If you believe it’ll work out, you’ll see opportunities. If you don’t believe it’ll work out, you’ll see obstacles.

111. Shonda Rhimes

You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.

112. George Lorimer

You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.

113. Michelle Obama

I now tried a new hypothesis: It was possible that I was more in charge of my happiness than I was allowing myself to be.

114. Kurt Cobain

If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.

115. Roy T. Bennett

Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.

116. Frank Ocean

Work hard in silence, let your success be the noise.

117. H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.

118. Tim Notke

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

119. Mario Andretti

If everything seems to be under control, you’re not going fast enough.

120. Jimmy Johnson

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

121. Oscar Wilde

The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.

122. Benjamin Hardy

Unsuccessful people make their decisions based on their current situations. Successful people make their decisions based on where they want to be.

123. Kamari aka Lyrikal

Never stop doing your best just because someone doesn’t give you credit.

124. Leah LaBelle

Work hard for what you want because it won’t come to you without a fight. You have to be strong and courageous and know that you can do anything you put your mind to. If somebody puts you down or criticizes you, just keep on believing in yourself and turn it into something positive.

125. Conan O’Brien

Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.

126. Mother Teresa

The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.

127. Earl Nightingale

Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

128. Kenneth Goldsmith

If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.

129. Napoleon Hill

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

130. Anonymous

At any given moment you have the power to say: this is not how the story is going to end.

131. Stephen King

Amateurs sit around and wait for inspiration. The rest of us just get up and go to work.

132. Katharine Hepburn

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.

133. Herb Brooks

You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.

134. Yuri Kochiyama

Life is not what you alone make it. Life is the input of everyone who touched your life and every experience that entered it. We are all part of one another.

135. Buddha

If you want to fly give up everything that weighs you down.

136. Suzy Kassem

Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.

137. Nelson Mandela

I never lose. Either I win or learn.

138. Ken Poirot

Today is your opportunity to build the tomorrow you want.

139. C.S. Lewis

Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing the monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.

140. Martin Luther King Jr.

You don’t need to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

141. Stephen C. Hogan

You can’t have a million-dollar dream with a minimum-wage work ethic.

142. Estee Lauder

I didn’t get there by wishing for it, but by working for it.

143. Lalah Deliah

She remembered who she was and the game changed.

144. Susan Fales-Hill

If you’re too comfortable, it’s time to move on. Terrified of what’s next? You’re on the right track.

145. Frank Sinatra

The big lesson in life is never be scared of anyone or anything.

146. Arabic Proverb

Sunshine all the time makes a desert.

147. Louise Hay

I choose to make the rest of my life, the best of my life.

148. Hillary Clinton

Take criticism seriously, but not personally. If there is truth or merit in the criticism, try to learn from it. Otherwise, let it roll right off you.

149. Reese Evans

This is a reminder to you to create your own rule book, and live your life the way you want it.

150. Angelina Jolie

If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is.

151. Zig Ziglar

You don't have to be great at something to start, but you have to start to be great at something.

152. Colin Powell

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters.

Finally

While any motivational quotes for work can make you feel inspired, the most crucial part is to stick with it. So be disciplined, never be afraid of challenges, be willing to sweat, and produce great work. Because no worthy thing comes easy.

Indeed, we hope you can draw even a little bit of inspiration from these inspirational quotes for work as you continue to work towards your dream. Share these quotes with your team to stay motivated and instill a desire to strive harder.

This article is written by Barasha Medhi who is a part of the marketing team at Vantage Circle. Barasha can be found either searching for interesting HR, company culture, and corporate buzzwords to write about or looking at pictures of cozy Bel Air mansions. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com.