Employee recognition engages employees, but sometimes employees need inspiration. Employees who are succeeding can feel inspired to dream bigger and those who are struggling or facing defeat can find new purpose with the right idea or goal.
We’ve put together a list of inspirational goats for you to use as you mentor your employees to be their best. We’ve included over 100 inspirational goals to fit every occasion.
Quotes to Inspire Employee Dreams
“You can never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” Ted Turner
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Will Rogers
“Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.” Neil Gaiman
“To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.” Doug Conant
“When you hand good people possibility, they do great things.” Biz Stone
“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” Sun Tzu
“Talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.” Patrick Suskind
“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.” Kahlil Gibran
The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” Elbert Hubbard
“Refuse failure. No matter how difficult the obstacles, find a way to around them.” JJ Golding
Inspirational Employee Quotes for Managers
“A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but out to be.” Rosalynn Carter
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” Thomas Jefferson
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Steve Jobs
“Don’t persuade, defend or interrupt. Be curious, be conversational, be real. And listen.” Elizabeth Lesser
“Hire character. Train skill.” Peter Schytz
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” John Quincy Adams
“The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with assistants and associates smarter than they are. They are frank in admitting this and are willing to pay for such talents.” Antos Parrish
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Albert Einstein
“If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.” Simon Sinek
“Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure.” Stanley McChrystal
“So many things are possible just as long as you don’ know they’re impossible.” Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it” Dwight D. Eisenhower
Employee Quotes on Hard Work
“Hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard.” Tim Notke
“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” Henry Ford
“Focus on being productive instead of busy.” Tim Ferriss
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” Robert Louis Stevenson
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary” Vidal Sassoon
“Quality is job one.” Henry Ford
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” Michael Jordan
“All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.” Calvin Coolidge
“The only way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Walt Disney
“Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.” Helena Rubinstein
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison
“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goals; my strength lies solely in my tenacity.” Louis Pasteur
“Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.” Conan O’Brien
“Luck is a matter of preparation meets opportunity.” Seneca
Employee Quotes for Employees Trying to Grow
“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” Paulo Coelho
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” Maya Angelou
“If you light a lamp for someone else, it will also brighten your path.” Buddha
“Life’s like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending.” Jim Hensen
“Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination.” Benjamin Disraeli
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” Salvador Dali
“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” Mark Twain
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” Stephen Covey
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” Lou Holtz
Motivational Employee Quotes
“If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” Seth Godin
“Becoming is better than being.” Carol Dweck
“If I had nine hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first six sharpening my ax.” Abraham Lincoln
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” Judy Garland
“The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible.” Charles Kingsleigh
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
“Strength shows not only in the ability to persist but in the ability to start over.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
“If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you off… no matter what they say.” Barbara McClintock
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” Theodore Rosevelt
Positive Employee Quotes to Inspire
“We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” Marie Curie
“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.” Herman Melville, Moby Dick
“The world you desire can be won. It exists.. It is real..it is possible..it’s yours.” Ayn Rand
“First principle: never to let one’s self be beaten down by persons or by events.” Marie Curie
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” Muhammad Ali
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, I’m possible.” Audrey Hepburn
“Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” Harper Lee
“My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.” Pablo Picasso
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” Carl Sagan
“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” Zig Zigler
Inspirational Employee Quotes About Success
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” Thomas Jefferson
“Keep your face to the sun and you cannot see the shadows.” Helen Keller
“Our destiny is not written for us, it’s written by us.” Barack Obama
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Mark Twain
“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” Harry Golden
“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me?” Ayn Rand
“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment.” Mahatma Gandhi
“If you hit the target every time, it’s too near or too big.” Tom Hirshfield
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Vince Lombardi
“The man who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others.” Hasidic Proverb
Employee Quotes on Creativity
“Imitation is suicide.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“When the ideas are coming, I don’t stop until the ideas stop because that train doesn’t come along all the time.” Dr. Dre
“I’ve learned about the poetry and the wisdom and the grace that can be found in the words of people all around us when we simply take the time to listen.” Dave Islay
“It’s easy to solve a problem that everyone sees, but it’s hard to solve a problem that almost no one sees.” Tony Fadell
“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” Marc Chagall
“An innovator is one who does not know it cannot be done.” R.A. Mashelkar
“The power of imagination makes us infinite.” John Muir
“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” Albert Einstein
“If you’re alive, you’re a creative person.” Elizabeth Gilbert
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Jack London
“When they give you lined paper, write the other way.” Ray Bradbury
Employee Quotes To Inspire Struggling Employees
“Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.” Malcolm Forbes
“The Sun himself is weak when he first rises and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.” Charles Dickens
“If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing.” Ernest Hemingway
“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” Albert Einstein
“There are heroes and there are legends. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you’ll never go wrong.” Babe Ruth, The Sandlot
“Oh yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it, or learn from it.” Rafiki, The Lion King
“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” John Milton
“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” Stephen Hawking
“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” Lou Holtz
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” Will Rogers
Inspirational Quotes For Employees Who Failed
“As long as they are well-intentioned, mistakes are not a matter for shame, but for learning.” Margaret Heffernan
“There is only one way to avoid criticism. Do nothing. Be nothing. Say nothing.” Aristotle
“Someone once told me growth and comfort do not coexist. And I think it’s a really good thing to remember.” Ginni Rometty
“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” Joseph Campbell
“I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.” Charles Dickens
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” Colin Powell
“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” Dr. Robert Shuller
“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.” Lucille Ball
“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.” Thomas Jefferson
“Failure it appears is not the regret that haunts most people; it is the choice not to risk failure at all.” Dr. John Izzo
“You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.” Barrack Obama
Employee Quotes For Those Who Want to Make an Impact
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” Anne Frank
“Unless someone like you care a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.” Dr Suess
“When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.” Henry J Kaiser
“You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind.” Irish Proverb
“Someone, at some point, came up with this very bad idea that an ordinary individual couldn’t make a difference in the world. I think that’s just a horrible thing.” John Skoll
“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.” William Faulkner
“A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.” Mildren Struven
“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” Zig Zigler
“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” Robin Williams
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” Babe Ruth
Touching Quotes For Employees
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Arthur Ashe
“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” Joshua J. Marine
“The expert in anything was once a beginner.” Helen Hayes
“No great achiever – even those who made it seem easy – ever succeeded without hard work.” Jonathan Sacks
“Embrace the pain to inherit the gain.” Habeeb Akande
“Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.” Stephen Covey
“I will prepare and someday my chance will come.” Abraham Lincoln
“Goodness and hard work are rewarded with respect.” Luther Campbell
“Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.” Robert Hall
“The best things in life are often waiting for you at the exit ramp of your comfort zone.” Karen Salmansohn
“Nobody’s a natural. You work hard to get good and then work to get better. It’s hard to stay on top.” Paul Coffey
“Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.” Jim Rohn
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy, but in a product that is geared for fast, easy and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition.