Top 150 Employee Motivational Quotes To Motivate Your Workforce

Inspiration isn't always easy to come through. So, whenever employee morale is down, and motivation is running low, a collection of the best motivational quotations will help lift your team's spirits.

Motivating employees is a primary concern for any good leader. That's why they must search for new ways to boost the morale of their teams.

Here’s a shocking statistic for you:

52% of employees perform without enthusiasm or care for their work.

We need to understand the concept that motivation is a constant process. Employees who are enthusiastic today may not be motivated tomorrow.

Thus, building a company culture that constantly motivates and encourages employees to do better is vital. Thus, we've come up with a bunch of powerful motivational quotes for you to share with your team.

Display these quotes for all to see in your workplace, and maybe you could overhear a few lighthearted and positive chats about them. Let the conversation spread forward!

Check out this ultimate collection of 150 employee motivational quotes to inspire your team.

1. 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. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.

2. Lao Tzu

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

3. Elon Musk

It is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.

4. Sheryl Sandberg

Let me fall if I must fall. The one I become will catch me.

5. Simon Sinek

What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world.

6. Mark Twain

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

7. Benjamin Franklin

By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.

8. Alan Turing

Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.

9. Mark Zuckerberg

Some people dream of success, while others wake up and work hard at it.

10. Michael Jordan

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.

11. Walt Disney

The difference between winning and losing is most often not quitting.

12. Tim Cook

History rarely yields to one person, but think and never forget what happens when it does. That can be you. That should be you. That must be you.

13. Abraham Lincoln

I will prepare, and someday my chance will come.

14. Albert Einstein

Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.

15. Theodore Roosevelt

When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.

16. Jack Dorsey

You can worry about the competition…or you can focus on what’s ahead of you and drive fast.

17. Winston Churchill

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

18. Lou Holtz

You were not born a winner, and you were not born a loser. You are what you make yourself be.

19. Henry Ford

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.

20. Seth Godin

Don’t try to be the ‘next.’ Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new.

21. Thomas Edison

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.

22. Indra Nooyi

The world is full of ideas today. If we don’t do it, somebody else is going to do it.

23. José Mourinho

You win by effort, by commitment, by ambition, by quality, by expressing yourself individually but in the team context.

24. Marie Curie

First principle: never to let one’s self be beaten down by persons or by events.

25. Warren Buffet

Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does.

26. Barack Obama

The cynics may be the loudest voices, but I promise you, they will accomplish the least.

27. Babe Ruth

The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.

28. Satya Nadella

Always keep learning. You stop doing useful things if you don’t learn. So the last part to me is the key, especially if you have had some initial success. It becomes even more critical that you have the learning ‘bit’ always switched on.

29. Sergio Marchionne

We all tend to filter the world around us through what we know. So try and go beyond what you already know, fill your mind with the new, nourish it with different interests, open it to the extraordinary. Life is too short to let the world we experience be restricted by our own limited vision.

30. Confucius

If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.

31. Mary Barra

Whatever you decide to do, do it with passion and all of the energy that you have.

32. Llyod Blankfein

Life is unpredictable. Don’t close your minds to possibilities.

33. Michael Bierut

The more things you’re interested in, the better your work will be.

34. Donald Knuth

Always remember, however, that there’s usually a simpler and better way to do something than the first way that pops into your head.

35. David Ogilvy

Encourage innovation. Change is our lifeblood, stagnation our death knell.

36. Michael Phelps

With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination.

37. Robert De Niro

Time goes on. So whatever you’re going to do, do it. Do it now. Don’t wait.

38. Oprah Winfrey

Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don’t fight them. Just find a new way to stand.

39. J.K.Rowling

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 fail by default

40. Zig Ziglar

Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission.

41. Yoda

Do or do not. There is no try.

42. Robert Louis Stevenson

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

43. Will Rogers

Don’t Let Yesterday Take Up Too Much of Today.

44. George Addai

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.

45. Lewis Carroll

I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.

46. Jill Konrath

I got lucky because I never gave up the search. Are you quitting too soon? Or are you willing to pursue luck with a vengeance?

47. Tom Hirshfield

If you hit the target every time, it’s too near or too big.

48. Salvador Dali

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

49. Helen Keller

Keep your face to the sun and you cannot see the shadows.

50. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

Don’t take rest after your first victory because if you fail in second, more lips are waiting to say that your first victory was just luck.

51. Lucius Seneca

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.

52. Vince Lombardi

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

53. Karen Salmansohn

The best things in life are often waiting for you at the exit ramp of your comfort zone.

54. Helen Hayes

The expert in anything was once a beginner.

55. Charles Kingsleigh

The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible.

56. John Muir

The power of imagination makes us infinite.

57. Bruce Lee

The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.

58. A.C. Benson

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

59. Mildred Struven

A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.

60. Saji Ijiyemi

You were hired because you met expectations, you will be promoted if you can exceed them.

61. David Brinkley

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

62. Calvin Coolidge

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

63. Carol Dweck

Becoming is better than being.

64. Joshua J. Marine

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

65. Habeeb Akande

Embrace the pain to inherit the gain.

66. Luther Campbell

Goodness and hard work are rewarded with respect.

67. Joseph Barbara

Happiness is the real sense of fulfilment that comes from hard work.

68. Helena Rubinstein

Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.

69. Robert Hall

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

70. Thomas Jefferson

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

71. 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.

72. Jonathan Sacks

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

73. Paul Coffey

Nobody’s a natural. You work hard to get good and then work to get better. It’s hard to stay on top.

74. JJ Goldwag

Refuse failure. No matter how difficult the obstacles, find a way to around them.

75. Harry Golden

The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.

Related:50 Effective Teamwork Quotes To Spur Unity & Collaboration

76. Colin Powell

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

79. Ellen DeGeneres

You just have to keep driving down the road. It’s going to bend and curve and you’ll speed up and slow down, but the road keeps going.

80. Charles Dickens

The sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.

81. Judy Garland

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

82. Truman Capote

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.

83. Ernest Hemingway

If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing.

84. Elizabeth Gilbert

If you’re alive, you’re a creative person.

85. Kevin Kruse

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

86. Dwight D. Eisenhower

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

87. F. Scott Fitzgerald

Strength shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over.

88. Hasidic Proverb

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

89. Amelia Earhart

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.

90. Dr. Robert Schuller

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

91. Plato

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light

92. Henry J. Kaiser

When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.

93. Ralph Marston

Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.

94. Oscar Wilde

Genius is born—not paid

95. Rebecca Wells

It’s life. You don’t figure it out. You just climb up on the beast and ride.

96. Jamie Paolinetti

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

97. Audrey Hepburn

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, I’m possible!

98. John Skoll

Someone, at some point, came up with this very bad idea that an ordinary individual couldn't make a difference in the world. I think that's just a horrible thing.

99. Arthur Ashe

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

100. Steve Schulte

The day is what you make it! So why not make it a great one?

101. Jimmy Johnson

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.

102. Ayn Rand

The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me?

103. Aristotle

There is only one way to avoid criticism. Do nothing. Be nothing. Say nothing.

104. Maya Angelou

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

105. Buddha

If you light a lamp for someone else, it will also brighten your path.

106. Paulo Coelho

When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

107. Wade Boggs

A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results.

108. Socrates

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

109. Abraham Maslow

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

110. Mahatma Gandhi

You can't change how people treat you or what they say about you. All you can do is change how you react to it.

111. Martin Luther King Jr.

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

112. Proverb

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed...every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle...when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.

113. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but sail we must and not drift, nor lie at anchor.

114. Neil Gaiman

The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.

115. Successories

It takes courage to step off of the familiar to embrace the new and unknown future. But when you do, the possibilities are endless.

116. H. Jackson Brown Jr.

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but by perseverance.

117. Anonymous

Take the initiative and lead the way. You can make the difference.

118. Ronnie Oldham

Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible.

119. Anonymous

Do what you know is right always. With commitment to your deepest convictions you stand tall against time and tide.

120. 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.

121. Doug Conant

To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.

122. Chris Hadfield

Focus on the journey, not on arriving at a certain destination.

123. Tony Hsieh

We must all learn not only to not fear change, but to embrace it enthusiastically and, perhaps even more important, encourage and drive it.

124. John F. Kennedy

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.

125. Malcolm X

If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.

126. Tyra Banks

You can have all the potential in the world, but unless you have confidence, you have nothing.

127. 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.

128. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

If you don’t understand, ask questions. If you’re uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway. It’s easy to tell when a question is coming from a good place. Then listen some more.

129. Richard Branson

The first thing that has to be recognized is that one cannot train someone to be passionate–it’s either in their DNA or it’s not.

130. Coco Chanel

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.

131. Arianna Huffington

Failure is not the opposite of success; it’s part of success.

132. Michele Ruiz

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

133. Edmund Hillary

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

134. Chloe Kim

The one thing I learned is to just give everything a shot. You don’t want to live in regret.

135. Madam C. J. Walker

Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.

136. Ben Horowitz

Often any decision, even the wrong decision, is better than no decision.

137. Robert Downey Jr.

Remember that just because you hit bottom doesn’t mean you have to stay there

138. Michelle Obama

Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.

139. J.R.R. Tolkien

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.

140. Bill Gates

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.

141. Mark Cuban

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

142. Tom Brady

The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.

143. LeBron James

You can’t be afraid to fail. It’s the only way you succeed. You’re not gonna succeed all the time and I know that.

144. Larry Page

Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting.

145. Warren Buffett

The most important investment you can make is in yourself.

146. Anita Roddick

If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.

147. Wayne Gretzky

You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.

148. Denis Waitley

Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.

149. Lily Tomlin

The road to success is always under construction.

150. Louis Pasteur

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goals: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.

Takeaway

There are essentially two approaches to motivating your employees:

• Intrinsic Motivation
• Extrinsic Motivation

Employing a mix of motivating approaches that urge your team to be more proactive and boost their productivity is the ultimate secret to victory.

Irrespective of how their day goes, these inspirational quotes may definitely bring inspiration and motivate your employees.

Share our compilation of the best employee motivational quotes with your team for a top-notch employee engagement. And let your employees feel how much you appreciate them, how much you respect their efforts, and how much you want to see them succeed!