200+ Quotes of the Day for Work to Help You Find Motivation

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: 

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

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.

25. “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

45. “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

67. “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

82. “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

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

140. “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

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

174. “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!