In today’s fast workplace, people often feel worn out and have trouble getting things done because they face goal pressure, heavy tasks, and poor communication. That’s why our blog picks the best quotes from successful people for each situation to spark motivation and keep everyone moving forward.
Table of Contents
- Morning Meeting
- Monday Motivation
- Team Icebreakers
- Daily Motivation
- Project Critical Period
- Teamwork Principles
- Combating Burnout
- Career Transitions
- Learning from Setbacks
- Self-Motivation
Morning meeting
The most effective way to do is to do it. — Amelia Earhart
Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day―in, and day―out.
Every morning, you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams or wake up and chase them. — Carmelo Anthony
Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day. — Dalai Lama
Success is to wake up each morning and consciously decide that today will be the best day of your life. — Ken Poirot
Either you run the day, or the day runs you. — Jim Rohn
You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction. — George Horace Lorimer
Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. — Lou Holtz
The sun himself is weak when he first rises; and gathers strength and courage as the day goes on. — Charles Dickens
I suppose my formula might be: dream, diversify—and never miss an angle. — Walt Disney
If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it. — Olin Miller
Nothing is impossible. The word itself says “I’m possible!” — Audrey Hepburn
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. — Jim Ryun
Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal…that will enable you to attain the success you seek. — Mario Andretti
Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground. — Theodore Roosevelt
Monday motivation
Monday is for people with a mission. — Cristina Imre
Your Monday morning thoughts set the tone for your whole week. See yourself getting stronger, and living a fulfilling, happier and healthier life. — Germany Kent
When life gives you Monday, dip it in glitter and sparkle all day. — Ella Woodward
What do sharks do on Monday mornings? They get up and start biting. That’s me. — Gemma Collins
So. Monday. We meet again—we will never be friends—but maybe we can move past our mutual enmity toward a more positive partnership. — Julio Alexi Genao
Mondays are the potholes in the road of life. — Tom Wilson
There isn’t a Monday that would not cede its place to Tuesday. — Anton Chekhov
Hey, I know it’s Monday. But it’s also a new day and a new week. And in that lies a new opportunity for something special to happen. — Michael Ealy
Mondays are the start of the work week, offering new beginnings 52 times a year. — David Dweck
Monday is a fresh start. It’s never too late to dig in and begin a new journey of success.
Mondays are proof that we survived the weekend and are ready for new challenges.
Embrace Monday with open arms; it’s the key to a productive and positive week.
Each Monday is a canvas; paint it with vibrant colors of hope and energy.
The way you start your Monday sets the tone for your entire week. Make it count.
Team icebreaker
Nothing is a better icebreaker than a great joke. — Dane Cook
A smile is the universal welcome. — Max Eastman
If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself. — Henry Ford
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. — Margaret Mead
The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team. — Phil Jackson
Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher. — Oprah Winfrey
A good team needs three things: the right people, the right spirit, and a couple inside jokes. — Unknown
If you take out the team in teamwork, it’s just work. Now who wants that? — Matthew Woodring Stover
The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible. — Charles Kingsleigh (Lewis Carroll)
Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. — Winston S. Churchill
It takes two flints to make a fire. — Louisa May Alcott
If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. — Booker T. Washington
Ideas are always made better by a group of people dedicated to collaboration. — Southern Living
Positive world change is seldom achieved by one person; more often than not, amazing things happen when like-minded people are committed to a singular goal. — Southern Living
Teamwork means never having to take all the blame yourself. — Stephen Hawking
Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember, the only taste of success some people get is to take a bite out of you. — Zig Ziglar
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. — Arthur Ashe
Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much. — Helen Keller
It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up. — George Herman Ruth
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. — Michael Jordan
Daily motivation
You don’t become great by trying to be great. You become great by wanting to do something, and then doing it so hard that you become great in the process. ― Marie Curie
When you’re doing the work you’re meant to do, it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what you’re getting paid. ― Oprah Winfrey, Stanford Commencement Adress, 2008 US actress & television talk show host (1954 ― )
Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them. ― Joseph Joubert
Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love. ― David McCullough,US biographer & historian (1933 ― )
Folks who never do more than their paid for, never get paid for any more than they do. ― Elbert Hubbard,US author (1856 ― 1915)
Derive happiness in oneself from a good day’s work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us. ― Henri Matisse,French Impressionist & Fauvist painter (1869 ― 1954)
Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it. ― Henry David Thoreau,US Transcendentalist author (1817 ― 1862)
People forget how fast you did a job ― but they remember how well you did it. ― Howard Newton
The secret of greatness is simple: do better work than any other man in your field ― and keep on doing it. ― Wilfred A. Peterson
The critical period of the project
Patience is not the ability to wait. Patience is to be calm no matter what happens, constantly take action to turn it to positive growth opportunities, and have faith to believe that it will all work out in the end while you are waiting. ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
Things usually work out in the end.
What if they don’t?
That just means you haven’t come to the end yet.
― Jeannette Walls
Every project is an opportunity to learn, to figure out problems and challenges, to invent and reinvent. — David Rockwell
Every project has challenges, and every project has its rewards. — Stephen Schwartz
Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them. — W. Edwards Deming
Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise. — Kobe Bryant
Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, dig deep within yourself to conquer fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You got to keep going. — Chantal Sutherland
Focus on what lights a fire inside of you and use that passion to fill a white space. Don’t be afraid of the challenges, the missteps, and the setbacks along the way. What matters is that you keep going. — Kendra Scott
You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it’s important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages. — Michelle Obama
If you’re going through hell, keep going. — Winston Churchill
Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going. — Sam Levenson
You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead. — George Lucas
I am not the richest, smartest or most talented person in the world, but I succeed because I keep going and going and going. — Sylvester Stallone
If you are fearful, choose courage. If you frequently procrastinate, choose to take action now. If you have always waited for others to lead, use your own initiative. — Paul J. Meyer
A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. — David Brinkley
Progressive improvement beats delayed perfection. — Mark Twain
Tough times never last, but tough people do. — Robert H. Schuller
The key is in not spending time, but in investing it. — Stephen R. Covey
Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future. — Deepak Chopra
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. The best is yet to come. — Zig Ziglar
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.
Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. — Napoleon Hill
Teamwork
Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team. — John C. Maxwell
None of us is as smart as all of us. — Ken Blanchard
Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. — Andrew Carnegie
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. — Helen Keller
If you take out the team in teamwork, it’s just work. Now who wants that? — Matthew Woodring Stover
Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity—not a threat. — Steve Jobs
Individual commitment to a group effort: That is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. — Vince Lombardi
Talent wins games; teamwork wins championships. — Michael Jordan
Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare. — Patrick Lencioni
When there is trust, conflict becomes nothing but the pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer. — Patrick Lencioni
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. — Henry Ford
Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean. — Ryunosuke Satoro
Teamwork can build friendships that last a lifetime. — Natalya Neidhart
It is teamwork that makes the dream work. — Jay Rock
Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people. — Steve Jobs
A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other. — Simon Sinek
No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it. — Halford E. Luccock
Individual commitment to a group effort, gentlemen, that’s what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. — Vince Lombardi
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. — Henry Ford
If you can laugh together, you can work together. — Robert Orben
Period of Job Burnout
Dreams don’t work unless you take action. The surest way to make your dreams come true is to live them. ― Roy T. Bennett
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. ― Aristotle, Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC ― 322 BC)
The moral of the story is: We thrive when we have a positive goal to move toward, not just a negative state we’re trying to move away from. — Emily Nagoski, Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
There’s a difference between intensity and volume. — Adam Grant
Burnout happens when you neglect to replenish those tanks for weeks, months, or years. — Adam Weber
Burnout is what happens when you try to sprint the marathon. — Deep Patel
You can’t give what you don’t have. — Nataly Kogan
Just because we invest more time in something doesn’t mean we’re going to get more results. — Tasha Eurich
You can’t think and do at the same time. — Yogi Berra
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 which has been opened for us. — Helen Keller
The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself. — Anna Quindlen
Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain. — Joseph Campbell
The function of man is to live, not to exist. — Jack London
Burnout is a sign that something needs to change. — Sarah Forgrave
If you don’t give your mind and body a break, you’ll break. Stop pushing yourself through pain and exhaustion and take care of your needs. — Lori Deschene
When you’re at peace with yourself and love your self, it is virtually impossible to do things to yourself that are destructive. — Wayne Dyer
You will burn and you will burn out; you will be healed and come back again. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Promotion/Transition period
Being ready isn’t enough; you have to be prepared for a promotion or any other significant change. — Pat Riley
Never let your fear of the unknown and things being too difficult make your choices for you. — Shannon L. Alder
Formal education will earn you a living. Self-education will earn you a fortune. — Jim Rohn
The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. — George Addair
If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. — Jim Rohn
Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful. — Mark Victor Hansen
Life is about making an impact, not making an income. — Kevin Kruse
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. — Robert Frost
I hope you realize that every day is a fresh start for you. That every sunrise is a new chapter in your life waiting to be written. — Juansen Dizon
The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all. — Josiyah Martin
Failed review period
You can’t rest on your laurels. Your own body of work is yet to come. ― Barack Obama, Arizona State Commencement Speech, 2009
A man can only do what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day. ― Albert Schweitzer, French philosopher & physician (1875 ― 1965)
You do your best work if you do a job that makes you happy. ― Bob Ross,American Artist and TV Presenter (1942 ― 1995)
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. — Benjamin Franklin
is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. — Winston S. Churchill
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. — Thomas A. Edison
There is no failure for the man who realizes his power… who persists when everyone else turns back. — Orison Sweet Marden
You must make a decision that you are going to move on… ‘I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m moving on with my life.’ — Joel Osteen
Face failure head on, don’t be afraid of it, and people will support and welcome you even more. — Richard Branson
In my experience, each failure contains the seeds of your next — if you are willing to learn from it. — Paul Allen
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to when they gave up. — Thomas A. Edison
The only time you don’t want to fail is the last time you try. — Charles F. Kettering
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. — Michael Jordan
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. — J. K. Rowling
Failure is a detour, not a dead‑end street. — Zig Ziglar
Remember that failure is an event, not a person. — Zig Ziglar
The greatest mistake you can make is to be continually fearing that you’ll make one. — Elbert Hubbard
Failure is God’s way of saying, ‘Excuse me, you’re moving in the wrong direction.’ — Oprah Winfrey
I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. — Michael Jordan
When you fail, face your failure. Face it head on. Admit it. Grow from it. — Johns Hopkins University commencement address
Failure is an option, fear is not. — James Cameron
Failure is a part of . — Hank Aaron
Private self-encourage period
Getting fired is nature’s way to telling you that you had the wrong job in the first place. ― Hal Lancaster, in The Wall Street Journal
Folks who never do more than their paid for, never get paid for any more than they do. ― Elbert Hubbard,US author (1856 ― 1915)
Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined. ― Johnny Carson,US comedian & television host (1925 ― 2005)
I like manual labor. Whenever I’ve got waterlogged with study, I’ve taken a spell of it and found it spiritually invigorating. ― W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge, 1943 English dramatist & novelist (1874 ― 1965)
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a work quote truly inspirational?
An inspirational work quote blends brevity with a clear call to action or mindset shift. It resonates emotionally and offers practical insight, making it easy to remember and apply to real situations.
How often should I share quotes with my team?
Aim for once or twice a week to keep messages fresh without overwhelming. Pair quotes with short discussions or reflections for deeper impact.
Can humorous quotes also motivate?
Absolutely. Humor breaks tension and fosters connection. Choose lighthearted quotes that still convey meaningful lessons, like Oscar Wilde’s witty insights on creativity.
Where’s the best place to display motivational quotes?
High‑visibility areas work best: meeting room walls, digital dashboards, email signatures, or Slack channels. Rotate quotes regularly to maintain interest.
Are there risks to overusing quotes?
Yes—too many quotes can feel clichéd. Balance quotes with original commentary, ensuring each one aligns with current goals and challenges.
How do I measure the impact of quotes on productivity?
Track engagement metrics—polls on which quotes resonate, meeting feedback, or observing changes in participation. Combine qualitative feedback with productivity data for a full picture.
Call to Action
- Share this blog post with anyone looking for inspirational quotes for work!
- Leave a comment below and tell us your favorite inspirational quotes for work!
- Use these quotes to create inspirational cards and messages!