When the going gets tough, sometimes you need some extra pearls of wisdom to help encourage and motivate your team. Here are 37 of our favourite motivational quotes for employees.
“If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to meet it.”
– Jonathan Winters
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
– Vidal Sassoon
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
– Walt Disney
“Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed.”
– Abraham Lincoln
“Don’t always scrape and search for compliments. Criticism is what builds character and strength”
– Unknown
“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”
– Henry Ford
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“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”
– Jimmy Dean
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
– Yoda
“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.”
– Farrah Gray
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there”
– Will Rogers
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
– Thomas Edison
“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
“Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing.”
–Donald Gardner
“The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.”
– Benjamin Mays
“Action is the foundational key to all success.”
– Pablo Picasso
“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
– Neale Donald Walsch
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“Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.”
– Unknown
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
– Mark Twain
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
– Steve Jobs
“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”
– Ralph Nader
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
– Bruce Lee
“You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.”
– Michael Jordan
“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.”
– Wayne Dyer
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
– Margaret Thatcher
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
– Chinese proverb
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
– Stephen Covey
“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”
– Aristotle
“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes, understanding that failure is not the opposite of success – it’s part of success.”
– Arianna Huffington
“You can fail at what you don’t want – so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”
– Jim Carrey
“I wish I could tell you it gets better. But it doesn’t get better. You get better.”
– Joan Rivers
“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
– Dr Seuss
“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”
– Norman Vincent Pearl
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”
– Stephen McCranie
“Normality is a paved road: it’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow.”
– Vincent van Gogh
This article was first published in February 2017. It was updated in August 2018 and again in February 2023 for freshness, clarity and accuracy.