Are you struggling to find motivation at work? Do you feel like your hard work amounts to nothing?
Sometimes, all we need are a few wise words from successful people to motivate us to push through and achieve our goals.
So, in this article, we’re bringing you over 200 best quotes of the day for work to inspire you to work hard, become successful, and enjoy the process!
And, if you’re looking for a random quote to inspire your workday, use this random quote generator:
Table of Contents
10 Best quotes of the day for work
Are you looking for quotes you can hang up on a wall to inspire you to maintain your motivation and focus on your goals?
Here are the 10 best quotes of the day for work!
1. “Nothing will work unless you do.” — Maya Angelou
2. “Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.” — Robert Half
3. “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” — Peter Drucker
4. “Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” — Dwayne Johnson
5. “The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” — Harry Golden
6. “A man can make what he wants of himself if he truly believes that he must be ready for hard work and many heartbreaks.” — Thurgood Marshall
7. “There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.” — Michael Phelps
8. “You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” — George Horace Lorimer
9. “Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” — Madam C.J. Walker
10. “‘If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” — Banksy
Inspirational quotes for working hard
When it comes to achieving your goals, nothing beats hard work.
But you don’t have to listen to us. Here’s what successful people had to say about working hard!
1. “Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.” — Oprah Winfrey
2. “The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.” — Elbert Hubbard
3. “Dreams are lovely. But they are dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen.” — Shonda Rhimes
4. “It’s not about money or connections. It’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone.” — Mark Cuban
5. “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all.” — Michelangelo
6. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” — Tim Notke
7. “Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.” — Horace
8. “Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.” — Frank Ocean
9. “You can’t have a million-dollar dream with a minimum wage work ethic.” — Zig Ziglar
10. “Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.” — Booker T. Washington
11. “Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.” — Will Rogers
12. “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
13. “Without labor nothing prospers.” — Sophocles
14. “He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest.” — Dylan Thomas
💡 Clockify Pro Tip
Did you know that boredom can make you more productive? Read more about it here:
15. “Work is the best friend I have ever known. It has brought me all the good things I have had.” — John Soforic
16. “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson
17. “Talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.” — Patrick Suskind
18. “Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.” — Helena Rubinstein
19. “Once you have commitment, you need the discipline and hard work to get you there.” — Haile Gebrselassie
20. “When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.” — Theodore Roosevelt
21. “Work hard and be kind and amazing things will happen.” — Conan O’Brien
22. “Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
23. “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” — Vince Lombardi
24. “Work hard, stay positive, and get up early. It’s the best part of the day.” — George Allen, Sr.
Work smart and track with Clockify25. “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goals: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.” — Louis Pasteur
Encouraging quotes about success
Is there a formula for success? How did successful people achieve their goals? Here are the best success quotes to inspire you to keep dreaming!
26. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill
27. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” — Robert Collier
28. “Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.” — Colin Powell
29. “I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that 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
30. “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” — Pele
31. “Sometimes, you have to give up. Sometimes, knowing when to give up, when to try something else, is genius. Giving up doesn’t mean stopping. Don’t ever stop.” — Phil Knight
32. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
33. “Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.” — Virat Kohli
34. “We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” — Arianna Huffington
35. “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” — George Bernard Shaw
36. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” — Maya Angelou
37. “Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” — Napoleon Hill
38. “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” — Vince Lombardi
39. “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” — Bill Bradley
40. “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” — Stephen King
41. “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.” — Bill Gates
42. “Don’t wait for the right opportunity: create it.” — George Bernard Shaw
43. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” — Albert Einstein
44. “Forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, harness your power to your passion. Honor your calling. Everybody has one. Trust your heart, and success will come to you.” — Oprah Winfrey
Aim for success — use Clockify45. “You learn more from failure than from success. Don’t let it stop you. Failure builds character.” — Unknown
Inspirational work quotes for finding passion
Being passionate about what you do makes work much more enjoyable.
These quotes show you how satisfying life can be when you find passion in your work.
46. “Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.” — Simon Sinek
47. “Throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.” — Dale Carnegie
48. “If you love your work, you’ll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you — like a fever.” — Sam Walton
49. “To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.” — Pearl S. Buck
50. “Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.” — Buddha
51. “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” — Rumi
52. “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” — Anonymous
53. “It is the ultimate luxury to combine passion and contribution. It’s also a very clear path to happiness.” — Sheryl Sandberg
54. “I’d rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate.” — George Burns
55. “Find a job you like and you add five days to every week.” — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
56. “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” — Vincent van Gogh
57. “When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work isn’t an option. It’s a necessity.” — Steve Pavlina
58. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
59. “To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work.” — Sister Mary Lauretta
60. “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” — Aristotle
61. “Happiness is the real sense of fulfillment that comes from hard work.” — Joseph Roland Barbera
62. “This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. Instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” — Alan Wilson Watts
63. “It is only when I am doing my work that I feel truly alive.” — Federico Fellini
64. “The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else. Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career!” — Earl Nightingale
65. “Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.” — Vincent van Gogh
66. “If you feel like there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be doing, if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it.” — Wanda Sykes
Find your drive and track time67. “The things you are passionate about are not random, they are your calling.” — Fabienne Fredrickson
Positive work quotes for not giving up
Do you feel like you’ve reached your limits? Are you contemplating giving up?
The following quotes will help you find the strength to keep going.
68. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.” — Helen Keller
69. “The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.” — Theodore Roosevelt
70. “The most important thing in life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will.’ Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.” — Charles Dickens
71. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert Frost
72. “When you think of quitting, remember why you started!” — John Di Lemme
73. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs
74. “Don’t count the days, make the days count.” — Muhammad Ali
75. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
76. “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” — Coco Chanel
77. “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.” — Helen Keller
78. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” — Dale Carnegie
79. “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” — Mark Twain
80. “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — Christopher Robin (Winnie-the-Pooh)
81. “Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.” — Malcolm Forbes
Keep up the good work with Clockify82. “Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.” — Helen Keller
Motivational quotes for work-life balance
If you push yourself too hard, you may become overworked and overwhelmed. This can lead to burnout and serious physical and mental health issues.
Thus, maintaining a healthy work-life balance is key to leading a good life.
Here are some quotes that prove that work-life balance and taking a break are sometimes the most productive things you can do!
83. “Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” — Dolly Parton
84. “We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.” — Michelle Obama
85. “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” — Stephen Covey
86. “You don’t have to make yourself miserable to be successful.” — Andrew Wilkinson
87. “As you grow older, you learn a few things. One of them is to actually take the time you’ve allotted for vacation.” — John Battelle
88. “The opportunity to step away from everything and take a break is something that shouldn’t be squandered.” — Harper Reed
89. “No one on his deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office’.” — Arnold Zack
90. “Rest until you feel like playing, then play until you feel like resting, period. Never do anything else.” — Martha Beck
91. “Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.” — Maya Angelou
92. “A ‘good job’ can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.” ― Alain de Botton
93. “I think it’s important to try to be present with whatever it is you’re doing. And if you can’t be present, take a break.” — Emily Giffin
94. “The most valuable thing we can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of room, not try to be or do anything whatever.” — May Sarton
95. “In this game, everyone needs a break to refuel, recharge, and jump back in full throttle.” — Helen Edwards
96. “Managing our stress and our rest is a sign of living wisely. Refueling as a way to find joy, to create pleasure, and to celebrate life in the midst of all its demands fills our hearts with renewed hope. When we take the time to breathe, listen, and rest from the daily grind to see miracles bubbling up in our lives.” — Sally Clarkson
97. “Taking a break can lead to breakthroughs.” — Russell Eric Dobda
98. “Never forget that the most important thing in life is the quality of life we lead.” — Tony Hsieh
💡 Clockify Pro Tip
Looking for specific tips on improving the quality of your work life? Check out this blog post:
Uplifting resilience quotes
Sometimes, you keep giving your best, but nothing’s working out the way you wanted.
Check out some uplifting quotes that will change your perspective on resilience.
99. “It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment.” — Bram Stoker (Dracula)
100. “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” — Nelson Mandela
101. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” — Og Mandino
102. “Just stick with it. What seems so hard now will one day be your warm-up.” — Unknown
103. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” — Thomas Edison
104. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” — Margaret Thatcher
105. “I tried and failed. I tried again and again and succeeded.” — Gail Borden
106. “If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.” — Shane Koyczan
107. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” — Maya Angelou
108. “My barn having burned down, I can now see the moon.” — Mizuta Masahide
109. “A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”— B.F. Skinner
110. “What helps you persevere is your resilience and commitment.” — Roy T. Bennett
111. “Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up.” — Mary Holloway
112. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I will try again tomorrow.'” — Mary Anne Radmacher
113. “Resilience can only form if we face, and learn how to be better equipped to manage our problems.” — Jo Frost
114. “Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going.” — Yasmin Mogahed
115. “Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.” — Bern William
116. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” — Robert F. Kennedy
117. “Successful people demonstrate their resilience through their dedication to making progress every day, even if that progress is marginal.” ― Jonathan Mills
118. “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” — William Feather
119. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Confucius
120. “The most important characteristics you need to succeed in business are resilience, determination and persistence.” — Karren Brady
121. “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.” — Elizabeth Edwards
122. “A winner is just a loser who tried one more time.” — George M. Moore Jr.
123. “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” — Robert Jordan
Valuable work organization quotes
A proper organization of the work makes your daily activities much easier.
If you need more persuasion to plan your day and stay organized, check out these quotes.
124. “Either you run the day or the day runs you.” — Jim Rohn
125. “Organizing is a journey, not a destination.” — Anonymous
126. “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” — Alexander Graham Bell
127. “The obvious rule of efficiency is you don’t want to spend more time organizing than it’s worth.” — Daniel Levitin
128. “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” — Stephen Covey
129. “With organization comes empowerment.” — Lynda Peterson
130. “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.” — Benjamin Franklin
131. “Once you have a clear picture of your priorities — that is your values, goals, and high-leverage activities, organize around them.” — Stephen Covey
132. “Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.” — Bobby Unser
133. “The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.” — John C. Maxwell
134. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” — Colin Powell
135. “It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
136. “Getting organized is a sign of self-respect.” — Gabrielle Bernstein
137. “Good order is the foundation of all things.” — Edmund Burke
138. “All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination.” — Earl Nightingale
139. “A good system shortens the road to the goal.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Use time better with Clockify140. “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” — Vincent van Gogh
Best teamwork quotes
When you’re not feeling like you’re able to do your best at work, it’s great to know you can rely on your team to make everything better.
These quotes highlight the value of creating and promoting teamwork in the workplace.
141. “I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” — Mother Teresa
142. “Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” — Steve Jobs
143. “Teamwork makes the dream work.” — John Maxwell
144. “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” — Ryunosuke Satoro
145. “I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I sure can pick smart colleagues.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
146. “Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.” — Virginia Burden
147. “There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.” — George Shinn
148. “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” — Henry Ford
149. “None of us is as smart as all of us.” — Ken Blanchard
150. “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” — Amy Poehler
151. “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.” — African Proverb
152. “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” — Henry Ford
153. “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” — Phil Jackson
154. “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” — Reid Hoffman
155. “You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.” — Jim Stovall
156. “It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” — Charles Darwin
157. “A single leaf working alone provides no shade.” — Chuck Page
158. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” — Michael Jordan
159. “A major reason capable people fail to advance is that they don’t work well with their colleagues.” — Lee Iacocca
160. “Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes
161. “Don’t aspire to be the best on the team. Aspire to be the best for the team.” — Brian Tracy
162. “One piece of log creates a small fire, adequate to warm you up, add just a few more pieces to blast an immense bonfire, large enough to warm up your entire circle of friends; needless to say that individuality counts but teamwork dynamites.” — Jin Kwon (Lost)
163. “Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.“ — Vince Lombardi
164. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller
165. “Many hands make light work.” — John Heywood
166. “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
167. “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” — H.E. Luccock
💡 Clockify Pro Tip
If you want to elevate your team spirit in a fun way, here are some memes to check out:
Motivational Monday work quotes
We all have a bit of Garfield in us! If you hate Mondays like Garfield, here are some quotes that make this day less dreadful.
168. “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
169. “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
170. “Who said Mondays have to suck? Be a rebel and have a great day anyway.” — Kimberly Jiménez
171. “Monday is for people with a mission.” — Cristina Imre
172. “I really need a day in between Sunday and Monday.” — Unknown
173. “Even the best weeks start with Monday.” — Nice Peter
Make Mondays easy with Clockify174. “Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams or wake up and chase them.” — Carmelo Anthony
Funny positive quotes for work
Hard work and perseverance will help you reach your goals. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun in the meantime!
These funny quotes will inspire you not to take yourself too seriously.
175. “I believe in stopping work and eating lunch.” — L’Wren Scott
176. “I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” — Jerome K. Jerome
177. “Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.” — Ray Kroc
178. “Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?” — Edgar Bergen
179. “If you trust in yourself… and believe in your dreams… and follow your star… you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy.” — Terry Pratchett
180. “Work is the greatest thing in the world, so we should always save some of it for tomorrow.” — Don Herold
181. “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” — Oscar Wilde
182. “If A equals success in life, then the formula is A = X + Y + Z. Where X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.” — Albert Einstein
183. “The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.” — Robert Frost
184. “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” — Bill Gates
185. “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime is doubly so.” — Douglas Adams
186. “No man goes before his time — unless the boss leaves early.” — Groucho Marx
187. “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” — Douglas Adams
188. “There’s no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn’t tell you about it?” — Kin Hubbard
189. “By faithfully working eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.” — Robert Frost
190. “It’s a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can’t eat for eight hours; he can’t drink for eight hours; he can’t make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.” — William Faulkner
191. “Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.” — Sam Ewing
192. “Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he’s supposed to be doing at that moment.” — Robert Benchley
193. “Success looks a lot like failure up until the moment you break through the finish line.” — Dan Waldschmidt
194. “When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: ‘Whose?’” — Don Marquis
195. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” — Thomas Edison
Choose the most inspiring quotes of the day for work
Hopefully, you found some quotes that inspire you to accomplish everything you imagined and be even better at your job!
If you’re still having trouble staying motivated and focused on your goals at work, you can try Clockify.
Clockify is a free time tracker with features such as time-tracking reminders and a Pomodoro timer that help you stay on top of your tasks!
Use our powerful software to:
- Organize your time better,
- Recognize productivity peaks and valleys,
- Set time blocks for some deep work,
- Keep track of your tasks and projects, and more.
Apart from that, Clockify offers more advanced plans and features such as targets and reminders, time off, and more.
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