45 Inspirational Quotes for Work | The Muse

Use The Muse to find a job at a company with a culture you love. Select the career path that aligns with you:

In fact, whether you’re at work or at home, each day of the week seems to present a different challenge to maintaining your productivity and focus. On Monday, you’re looking for a bit of a jolt to start the week. Tuesday inspiration isn’t always as high as needed. On Wednesday, you need some help to get over the hump. Thursday and Friday motivation can be ever-elusive. And on the weekends, you might need to tie up some loose ends, cull reflections for meetings and still try to get rejuvenated for the week ahead.

SEARCH OPEN JOBS ON THE MUSE! See who’s hiring here, and you can even filter your search by benefits, company size, remote opportunities, and more. Then, sign up for our newsletter and we’ll deliver advice on landing the job right to you.

Well, no matter what day it is or what your work motto happens to be, we’re here to help with some stay-motivated quotes. These 45 inspirational quotes for work will offer perfect inspiration and just the push you need to succeed all week long. (Find even more motivational quotes for work on our Pinterest.)

Don’t worry, you’re going to make it through this!

Monday: Get Motivated

Sure, even The Carpenters agreed that “Mondays always get you down,” but that doesn’t mean some good old-fashioned motivation can’t get you geared up and excited for the week ahead, even with all of its attendant challenges. Let these inspirational quotes, culled from many generations of brilliant thinkers, motivate you to go that extra mile today—especially if it doesn’t seem possible. It is possible, and we also suspect that the rest of your week will thank you later for the effort you put out today.

1. “You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” —George Lorimer

2. “Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see further.” —Thomas Carlyle

3. “Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you’re willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.” —Lou Holtz

4. “The individual who says it is not possible should move out of the way of those doing it.” —Tricia Cunningham

5. “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

6. “When someone tells me ‘no,’ it doesn’t mean I can’t do it, it simply means I can’t do it with them.” —Karen E. Quinones Miller

7. “Build your own dreams or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” —Farrah Gray

Tuesday: Get Down to Business

When Tuesday rolls around, it’s really time to get down to work—but that’s sometimes easier said than done. Having trouble getting started on your Tuesday motivation? These expert motivational quotes will help boost your productivity so you can power through that to-do list and set yourself up for success for the rest of the week.

8. “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” —Karen Lamb

9. “Light tomorrow with today.” —Elizabeth Barrett Browning

10. “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” —Earl Nightingale

11. “Someday is not a day of the week.” —Janet Dailey

12. “Make each day your masterpiece.” —John Wooden

13. “Don’t count the days, make the days count.” —Muhammad Ali

14. “You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide. And if you don’t decide, others will decide for you.” —Tony Morgan

Wednesday: Keep it Going

It’s hump day, so you’re already halfway through the week—and you’re doing great so far. But don’t let that slow you down or stop you from working hard to achieve your goals for the rest of the week. These hump day quotes will give you that extra push to keep reaching.

15. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” —Theodore Roosevelt

16. “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

17. “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” —Will Rogers

18. “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong attitude.” —Thomas Jefferson

19. “The more I want to get something done the less I call it work.” —Richard Bach

20. “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” —Robert Collier

Thursday: Reflect on All You’ve Done

You’ve been focused and hard at work all week, so get your Thursday motivation started by taking a moment to look back at all that you’ve achieved. These reflective quotes for work will open your mind and allow you to appreciate where you’ve been, where you’re going and how well you accomplish your goals.

21. “If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.” —Mario Andretti

22. “Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

23. “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” —Albert Einstein

24. “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” —Yoda

25. “The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” —Nelson Henderson

26. “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” —Emile Zola

27. “Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.” —Arthur Christopher Benson

28. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan and guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” —Jim Rohn

Friday: Conquer Your Fears

It’s Friday, and if you’re lucky, this means that it’ll soon be the end of your work week responsibilities. You may need to be as productive as you can for one more day, but as you move into your weekend, remember not to let your fears hold you back—in your career or your life! These quotes will urge you to leave your current worries at the door and walk confidently toward the future.

29. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” —Dale Carnegie

30. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” —Truman Capote

31. “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” —e.e. cummings

32. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” —Thomas A. Edison

33. “What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

34. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” —Herman Melville

35. “Fall 7 times, stand up 8.” —Japanese Proverb

36. “It’s not what you say out of your mouth that determines your life, it’s what you whisper to yourself that has the most power.” —Robert T. Kiyosaki

Saturday and Sunday: Prep for Success

The weekend is a time for relaxing, rejuvenating, and reflecting on what you really want out of your life. It may also be a time to think about how to balance your job, the larger arc of your career, and your personal life in order to maximize happiness. Use these extra moments of free time to mentally prep for success!

37. “Success only comes to those who dare to attempt.” —Mallika Tripathi

38. “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” —Dale Carnegie

39. “We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” —Joseph Campbell

40. “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” —Maya Angelou

41. “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success.” —Henry Ford

42. “Don’t aim for success if you want it, just do what you love and believe in and it will come naturally.” —David Frost

43. “The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream, and how you handle disappointment along the way.” —Robert Kiyosaki

44. “The question isn’t who is going to let me, it’s who is going to stop me.” —Ayn Rand

45. “Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.” —Joyce Brothers

Read More

Photos courtesy of Monica Chon and Gordon Lew.