40 Best Motivational Quotes for your Employees

It’s Monday morning. You are holed up inside the conference room, your team gathered around, waiting for the weekly meeting to start. There’s a serious affliction of the Monday Blues going around.

Not the best sight for you as a team manager if you already have “Go, go, go!” screaming inside your head ever since you left for work in the morning. Here’s where you need to do a Samuel Jackson, roll up your sleeves, and become Coach Carter to a rag-tag bunch of hoop players (well, not really, but you know where we’re going with this).

But it’s not like you are bursting with newly found energy either. Maybe that Force is not with you, after all.

History has countless orators and leaders who have stood tall and delivered hard-hitting words of wisdom. So, motivational quotes for work should do the trick here.

But you know you are no Martin Luther King, for inspirational quotes to be rolling off your tongue. But inspire, you must.

So, what do you do?

What you, in fact, do is lean back, prop up your legs (in your cabin, of course, not in the meeting room), and pick your way through what we’ve put together for you.

We have scoured through the annals of motivational and inspirational quotes to bring you a truckload of sayings that will stimulate and induce your workforce to bring out their A-game.

So, let’s get cracking.

“I have a dream that one day, this office will rise….”

Not that one? We know. King is a bit too heavy for what you need.

Here’s something more office-ish (we do have the other King, though) some amazing and effective motivational messages for your employees.

Motivational quotes for the workplace

1. "The sun himself is weak when he first rises and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on." - Charles Dickens

2. "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." - Anne Frank

3. "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." - Michael Jordan

4. Your work will 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. - ‍Steve Jobs

6. Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purposes and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not. - Mary Shelley

7. Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination. - Benjamin Disraeli

8. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too. - Paulo Coelho

9. If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry. Worry fixes nothing. - Ernest Hemingway

10. Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Motivational quotes for teamwork

Suppose those didn’t strike a chord, the next few wills. Remember, your team has its own personality. Like any person. Each team has its own “individuality.” So choose your motivational quotes to suit the occasion and your team’s personality.

11. ordinary people can choose to be extraordinary. - Elon Musk

12. 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. - Marissa Mayer

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

14. Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. - Lou Holtz

15. If you hear a voice within you say, “you cannot paint,” then, by all means, paint, and that voice will be silenced.  - Vincent Van Gogh

16. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. - Henry Ford

17. 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? - Jill Konrath

18. 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. - Mary Kay Ash

19. You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you. - Barack Obama

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

Motivational quotes by famous people

Since we’re halfway through the list, it makes sense to take a pause. And take in the heady essence of the fact that the words we are reading have originated from some of the century's greatest minds. We have authors, litterateurs, sports personalities, businessmen, artists, hell even complete Presidents—all on the same page. Pun intended. Read on.

21. You 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. - Ellen Degeneres

22. Sometimes, it is the people no one can imagine who do the things no one can imagine. - Alan Turing

23. A dream doesn’t become a reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work. - Colin Powell

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

25. If your dream is big and you want your life to work on the high level you say you do, there’s no way to do the work it takes to get you there. - Joyce Chapman

26. It's not the load that breaks you down. It's the way you carry it. - Lou Holtz

27. Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence. - Vince Lombardi

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

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

30. Embrace the pain to inherit the gain. – Habeeb Akande

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

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

33. “In the confrontation between the river and the rock, the river always wins, not through strength but by perseverance.” - Louis Agassiz

34. You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. - Maya Angelou

35. Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Take the first step. - Martin Luther King Jr

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

37. Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration. The rest of us get up and go to work. - Stephen King

38. No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it. – H.E. Luccock

39. The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. - Winston Churchill

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

These inspirational quotes for your employees should help you hold the fort when morale drops faster than the winter temperature. Motivation is like wildfire - ignite it with a spark of wisdom and sit back and watch as it spreads around the office. Witness ideas bouncing off each other as your colleagues get creative and buzz around with innovative solutions.