We’re big believers in expressing gratitude and motivating our employees, and usually we have the right words to do that. However, sometimes a person has already said something more articulately than we ever could, so we quote them. These 101 quotes are from some of the most successful and inspirational people around the world. Use this list of simple yet powerful motivational quotes and messages for employees to inspire teamwork and positivity.
Looking for some ways to work motivational quotes for employees into your daily routine and company culture? Use quotes to start meetings and choose a different one for each. Add them to your email signature. Post a new one every day in your workplace messaging system. With these 101 motivational quotes for employees, you have a few months worth of inspiration to get you started.
We’ve broken down the inspirational quotes for employees into five categories so you can easily find the best one for your situation and occasion, whether it's Monday motivation quotes for employees or just an anytime pick-me-up. These 101 quotes range from profound to funny motivational quotes for employees.
Our 101 motivational quotes & MOTIVATIONAL MESSAGES for employees
Positive quotes AND MESSAGES for employees
Keep company culture strong by making everyone feel like you’re on the same team with these positive motivational quotes for the workplace.
- “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe
- “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
- “Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” –Joshua J. Marine
- “The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.”– Harry Golden
- “Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
- “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford
- “How wonderful it is that nobody needs wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” —Anne Frank
- The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck. – Tony Robbins
- "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." – African Proverb
- “A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job.” – Michael Larsen
- “It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit”. – Harry S. Truman
- “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” – Maya Angelou
- “Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.” – Stephen Covey
InspirATIONAL quotes for employees
Use these inspirational quotes for team morale to inspire your team to dream bigger and work harder. These are perfect for big moments when you need motivational quotes for employees to achieve targets such as sales goals and deadlines.
- “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” – Colin Powell
- “No great achiever – even those who made it seem easy – ever succeeded without hard work.” – Jonathan Sack
- “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney Company
- “All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.”– Calvin Coolidge
- “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”– Beverly Sills
- “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon
- “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle
- “A boat doesn’t go forward if each one is rowing their own way.” – Proverb
- “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.
- “I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.” – Florence Nightingale
- “We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.”- Maya Angelou
- “If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed.
The vision pulls you.”- Steve Jobs
- “If your dream is a big dream, and if you want your life to work on the high level that you say you do, there’s no way around doing the work it takes to get you there.”– Joyce Chapman
- “Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” — Jamie Paolinetti
- “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” — Vince Lombardi
- “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” – Jimmy Johnson
- “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs
- “Life is about making an impact, not making an income.” – Kevin Kruse
- “Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” – Jamie Paolinetti
- “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” – Rosalynn Carter (Former US First Lady)
- “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford
- “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
- “The expert in anything was once a beginner.” – Helen Hayes
- There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment. – Norman Vincent Peale
Motivational MESSAGES AND quotes for employee appreciation
You know your employees are great, and it’s important to remind them. Use these employee motivation quotes to make sure they know they're appreciated.
- "Working hard is very important. You're not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard." – George Lucas
- “Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.”– Robert Hall
- “It’s not about money or connection — it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone.” – Mark Cuban, American investor
- “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is hard work.” – Stephen King
- “Talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.” – Patrick Suskind
- “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
- “Criticism is the best sign you’re onto something.” – Michael Lopp
- “Goodness and hard work are rewarded with respect.”– Luther Campbell
- “Once you have commitment, you need the discipline and hard work to get you there.” – Haile Gebrselassie
- “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley
- “Throw yourself into some work you believe in with all you heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.”– Dale Carnegie
- “Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”– St. Francis of Assisi
- “We are really competing against ourselves. We have no control over how other people perform.” – Pete Cashmore
- “When I meet successful people, I ask about 100 questions to find out who they attribute their success to. It is usually the same: persistence, hard work and hiring good people.”– Kiana To
Employee engagement AND MOTIVATION quotes
Keeping a team engaged is a huge part of building a strong company culture. Remind them what your mission and vision is and reinforce engagement with these motivational quotes for employee teamwork.
- “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “Self-respect tends to inspire respect from others.” – Nathaniel Branden, Ph.D.
- “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” – Max DePree
- “All employees have an innate desire to contribute to something bigger than themselves.” – Jag Randhawa, Author
- “The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others.” – Hasidic Proverb
- “Pay attention to those employees who respectfully ask why. They are demonstrating an interest in their jobs and exhibiting a curiosity that could eventually translate into leadership ability.” – Harvey Mackay
- “Treat employees like partners, and they act like partners.” – Fred Allen
- "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." – Michael Jordan
- “Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customer. I think you build one with your employees first.” – Angela Ahrendts
- “Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure.” —Stanley McChrystal
- “Employees engage with employers and brands when they’re treated as humans worthy of respect.” –Meghan M. Biro
- “An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” – Jack Welch
- “Culture is about performance, and making people feel good about how they contribute to the whole.” – Tracy Streckenbach
- “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
- "A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit." – Arnold Glasow
- “Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.” – Zig Ziglar
- “The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought and attended to my answer.” – Henry David Thoreau
- "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." – Dwight D. Eisenhower
- "Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you." – Margaret Thatcher
- “The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others.”– Hasidic Proverb
- “A single leaf working alone provides no shade.” – Chuck Page
- “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro
- “It doesn’t take strength to win. It takes the true heart of the team to win.” – Emily Voyles
- “It is not a question of how well each process works; the question is how well they all work together.” – Lloyd Dobens
- “Synergy — the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously.” – Mark Twain
- “Teamwork is so important that it is virtually impossible for you to reach the heights of your capabilities or make the money that you want without becoming very good at it.” – Brian Tracy
- “Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.” – Paulo Coelho
- “The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side.” – Margaret Carty
- “Leadership is absolutely about inspiring action, but it is also about guarding against mis-action.” – Simon Sinek
- “Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation.” – Doris Kearns Goodwin
- “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
- "I've always had a great work ethic, even when I was washing dishes." – Leon Bridges
- "Leave your ego at the door every morning, and just do some truly great work. Few things will make you feel better than a job brilliantly done." – Robin S. Sharma
- “When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” – Simon Sinek, Author
- “Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity and meaning in their job.” – Scott and Kelly Blanchard
MOTIVATIONAL Quotes about employee value
Make sure your employees feel valued to prevent turnover and to attract the best possible talent.
- “Motivating employees to work at their full potential is the main premise of successful management.” –Eraldo Banovac
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“Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t keep it a secret.” – Mary Kay Ash
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“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein
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“Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that.” – Herb Kelleher
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“The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.” – J. Paul Getty
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“People want to know they matter, and they want to be treated as people. That’s the new talent contract.” – Pamela Stroko
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"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
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“Take time to appreciate employees and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways.” – Bob Nelson
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"A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent." – Douglas MacArthur
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“People may take a job for more money, but they often leave it for more recognition.” – Bob Nelson
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“Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” – Stephen R. Covey
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." –Abraham Lincoln
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“The real competitive advantage in any business is one word only, which is ‘people.’” – Komil Toume
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“If you don’t create a great, rewarding place for people to work, they won’t do great work.” – Ari Weinzweig
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“Employees aren't just workers, they're the backbone of business and that makes them more important than the boss any day of the week. Good Employees = Good Business.” – Kilroy J. Oldster
Go beyond motivational AND inspirational quotes for employee appreciation in 2024.
If your workplace could use some motivation, try incorporating some of these inspirational quotes and messages for employees into your office space, meetings, and more. If you’re looking for other ways to improve your company culture, check out our library of team building experiences and book yours today.