200+ Motivational Quotes To Inspire You in 2025
Revisit these motivational quotes often to stay motivated in any area of your life.
200+ Motivational Quotes To Inspire You in 2025
Are you looking for a quote that sparks your energy, helps you break free from excuses, and step out of your comfort zone? The right motivational quote can change your mindset and encourage you to take action—whether that means starting a new project, pursuing your goals, or pushing yourself at work.
Keep reading to discover over 200 quotes from successful business leaders, visionaries, and public figures—both past and present. Refer back to these inspiring words whenever you need motivation in your personal life, career, or entrepreneurial journey.
Finding a Quote That Resonates
When you find a motivational quote that speaks to you, it feels like someone has put your own thoughts into clear words. Quotes can:
Shift your perspective
Encourage you to stop procrastinating
Help you tackle challenges
Motivate your team
Boost productivity
Inspire you to grow personally or professionally
Give you the push you need to start a business or finish a to-do list
In short, the right quote can remind you of your core values and help you move forward.
Table of Contents
Deep Motivational Quotes
Motivational Quotes About Success
Motivational Quotes for Personal Life
Motivational Quotes for Work
Motivational Quotes for Women
Motivational Quotes for Men
Motivational Quotes for Students
Success Quotes
Funny Motivational Quotes
Team Motivational Quotes
Short Motivational Quotes
Motivational Monday Quotes
Friday Motivational Quotes
Best Motivational Quotes to Start Your Day
Positive Quotes for Motivation
Daily Motivational Quotes
Inspirational Quotes
Positive Quotes
Encouraging Quotes
Motivation Quotes
Quotes About Life
More Motivating Quotes
Inspirational New Year Quotes
Deep Motivational Quotes
Albert Einstein once said:
“We cannot solve problems with the kind of thinking we employed when we came up with them.”
This means we must change our mindset if we want to fix the problems we created.
Mahatma Gandhi encouraged us to:
“Learn as if you will live forever, live like you will die tomorrow.”
In other words, keep learning while also appreciating each day.
Mark Twain reminded us:
“Stay away from those people who try to disparage your ambitions…”
This highlights how negative influences can hold you back.
Eleanor Roosevelt taught us about spreading happiness:
“When you give joy to other people, you get more joy in return.”
Norman Vincent Peale pointed out the power of thoughts:
“When you change your thoughts, remember to also change your world.”
Walter Anderson spoke of taking risks:
“The initial and the most difficult risk we need to take is to become honest.”
Diane McLaren spoke about wellness:
“Nature has given us all the pieces required to achieve exceptional wellness … but has left it to us to put these pieces together.”
Motivational Quotes About Success
Winston Churchill said:
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”
This shows that success and failure are just steps along the way.
Herman Melville reminded us of the risk in copying others:
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
Henry David Thoreau stressed the importance of work ethic:
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”
Dale Carnegie believed failures help us grow:
“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are … stepping stones to success.”
Calvin Coolidge famously spoke about persistence:
“… Press On … always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Mister Rogers summed up a path to success in a single word:
“… The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.”
John Wooden defined peace of mind:
“Success is peace of mind … you made the effort to become the best…”
Estée Lauder spoke of hard work:
“I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”
Motivational Quotes for Personal Life
Winston Churchill contrasted pessimists and optimists:
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”
Will Rogers warned us against living in the past:
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.”
Unknown on learning from failure:
“You learn more from failure than from success. Don’t let it stop you…”
Steve Jobs on vision pulling you forward:
“If you are working on something you really care about … the vision pulls you.”
Vernon Sanders Law on how experience works:
“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.”
Dorothy West believed knowing what you don’t know is key:
“To know how much there is to know is the beginning of learning to live.”
Tony Robbins emphasized goal setting:
“Goal setting is the secret to a compelling future.”
Motivational Quotes for Work
Alexander Graham Bell on focus:
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand…”
Jim Rohn on taking charge of your day:
“Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
Thomas Jefferson believed in creating your own luck:
“I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
Paulo Coelho saw how self-improvement spreads:
“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
Thomas Edison reminded us that opportunity can look like work:
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls …”
Tony Robbins repeated the value of goals:
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
Steve Jobs on loving your work:
“Your work … is to do what you believe is great work … If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”
Motivational Quotes for Women
Cindy Gallop highlighted women’s unique perspective:
“Women challenge the status quo because we are never it.”
Arlan Hamilton reminds us to take action:
“We don’t just sit around and wait for other people. We just make, and we do.”
Oprah Winfrey on failing forward:
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail … another stepping stone to greatness.”
Unknown recognized women’s self-love:
“The strongest actions for a woman is to love herself, be herself…”
Lady Gaga compared men vs. dreams:
“Some women choose to follow men, and some choose to follow their dreams…”
Shirley Chisholm on making your own space:
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
Malala Yousafzai on raising your voice:
“… We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.”
Diane Von Furstenberg on independence:
“When a woman becomes her own best friend, life is easier.”
Motivational Quotes for Men
Confucius on self-mastery:
“He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.”
Albert Einstein on being a person of value:
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather become a man of value.”
Andrew Jackson on courage:
“One man with courage makes a majority.”
Benjamin Disraeli on opportunity:
“One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”
Confucius Kongzi again on learning from mistakes:
“A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake.”
Dale Carnegie on trying again:
“The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.”
Motivational Quotes for Students
George Lorimer on determination:
“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.”
Nelson Mandela on the power of education:
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Amelia Earhart on deciding to act:
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act…”
Augustine Og Mandino on always asking questions:
“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions…”
Success Quotes
Charlie Munger on not being stupid:
“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid…”
Tina Fey on taking the plunge:
“You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it…”
Melissa McCarthy on tenacity:
“When I believe in something, I’m like a dog with a bone.”
Anaïs Nin on taking risks:
“… the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Winston Churchill on keeping enthusiasm:
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
Funny Motivational Quotes
Joe Girard poked fun at how success really works:
“The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…”
Zig Ziglar on daily motivation:
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing…”
Oscar Wilde with self-deprecating humor:
“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”
Winnie the Pooh on doing the impossible:
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
Team Motivational Quotes
Michael Jordan on teamwork:
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
Vince Lombardi on group effort:
“Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work…”
Henry Ford on coming together:
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
Patrick Lencioni on trust:
“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust…”
Short Motivational Quotes
Sometimes, a short quote can have a big impact:
Dalai Lama: “Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”
Chris Grosser: “Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.”
Gary Vaynerchuk: “Love your family, work super hard, live your passion.”
George Eliot: “It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
Les Brown: “Don’t let someone else’s opinion of you become your reality.”
Stephen R. Covey: “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
Walt Disney: “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Motivational Monday Quotes
William James on how attitude changes your life:
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.”
Edmond Mbiaka on doers vs. wishers:
“Some successful and unsuccessful people … one group is full of doers, while the other is full of wishers.”
Lucille Ball on taking action:
“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.”
Marcus Aurelius on the privilege of living:
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive…”
Germany Kent on setting the tone for your week:
“Your Monday morning thoughts set the tone for your whole week…”
Friday Motivational Quotes
Kate Summers on Friday smiles:
“Friday sees more smiles than any other day of the workweek!”
Byron Pulsifer on celebrating success:
“Make a Friday a day to celebrate work well done…”
Catherine Pulsifer on work-life balance:
“When you leave work on Friday, leave work. Don’t let technology follow you…”
Best Motivational Quotes to Start Your Day
Zig Ziglar: “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people…”
Pablo Picasso: “Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.”
Angela Bassett: “Don’t settle for average. Bring your best to the moment.”
Isabel Allende: “Show up, show up, show up…”
David Ogilvy: “Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ballpark…”
Barbara Elaine Smith: “I have stood on a mountain of no’s for one yes.”
Tobias Lütke: “If you believe something needs to exist … don’t let anyone ever stop you…”
Positive Quotes for Motivation
Anne Lamott: “Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.”
Warren Buffet: “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Mortimer J. Adler: “True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.”
A. A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh): “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.”
Martha Graham: “There is a vitality, a life force … unique. And if you block it, it will never exist…”
Jason Fried: “Small is not just a stepping stone. Small is a great destination itself.”
Daily Motivational Quotes
Steve Jobs: “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you…”
Albert Einstein: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson: “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
Napoleon Hill: “If you can’t yet do great things, do small things in a great way.”
Jim Rohn: “If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”
Abraham Lincoln: “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”
Epicurus: “The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.”
Inspirational Quotes
Cindy Gallop: “Fear of what other people will think is the single most paralyzing dynamic in business…”
Arthur C. Clarke: “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture … into the impossible.”
Maya Angelou: “Courage is the most important of all the virtues…”
Edna Mode (The Incredibles): “I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now.”
Jay-Z: “I will not lose, for even in defeat, there’s a valuable lesson learned…”
Arianna Huffington: “I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.”
Positive Quotes
Henry Ford: “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
Confucius: “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Wayne Dyer: “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Bill Gates: “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
Encouraging Quotes
Arlan Hamilton: “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been given a no, only to find a bigger yes around the corner.”
Arianna Huffington: “Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”
Henry Ford: “When everything seems to be going against you … the airplane takes off against the wind.”
Wayne Dyer: “You cannot always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.”
Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Ross Simmonds: “Hustle beats talent when talent doesn’t hustle.”
Motivation Quotes
George Addair: “Everything you’ve ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear.”
Ayn Rand: “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
Babe Ruth: “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”
Thomas Edison: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Robin Sharma: “Ideation without execution is delusion.”
Quotes About Life
Laird Hamilton: “Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.”
Vincent Van Gogh: “For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone … little things that are brought together.”
Maria Edgeworth: “If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.”
Paul Bryant (Bear Bryant): “It’s not the will to win that matters … It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
Henry David Thoreau: “As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth … we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
Earl Nightingale: “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”
More Motivating Quotes
Mark Twain: “The two most important days in your life are the day you’re born and the day you find out why.”
Pema Chodron: “Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.”
Bruce Lee: “We can see through others only when we can see through ourselves.”
Octavia Butler: “First, forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable…”
Jesse Owens: “The struggles within yourself … that’s where it’s at.”
Paul Graham: “Relentlessly prune bullshit, don’t wait to do things that matter…”
Marcus Tullius Cicero: “More is lost by indecision than wrong decision.”
Thomas Aquinas: “If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.”
Dita Von Teese: “You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”
Inspirational New Year Quotes
Dr. Seuss: “You’ll never get bored when you try something new. There’s really no limit to what you can do.”
Don Cheadle: “I think it’s intoxicating when somebody is so unapologetically who they are.”
Dolly Parton: “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.”
Childish Gambino: “If it makes you nervous, you’re doing it right.”
Louise Hay: “I choose to make the rest of my life the best of my life.”
Coco Chanel: “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.”
Kurt Vonnegut: “Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.”
Billie Jean King: “No one changes the world who isn’t obsessed.”
Mia Hamm: “I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing the goal, and that’s not pulling the trigger.”
What Is Motivation?
Motivation is a state of mind (or a set of external factors) that drives you to achieve a goal. It influences:
The actions we take
The words we say
The thoughts we have
Think of motivation as the energy that gets you out of bed in the morning, fuels your dreams, and pushes you over the finish line. It’s also the bridge between your vision of success and the steps you take to reach it.
Two Main Types of Motivation
Intrinsic motivation: Comes from within (like curiosity or ambition). It’s doing something because you love it, not for a reward.
Extrinsic motivation: Comes from external sources (like prizes or recognition). It’s doing something because of a reward or status.
Understanding what motivates you (and your team) is a powerful tool for achieving business and personal goals. Remember, motivation ebbs and flows—so keep an eye out for new sources of inspiration as you grow.
How to Motivate Yourself: 6 Strategies
Set Clear (SMART) Goals
Break big dreams into smaller steps.
Use Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) targets.
Use Visualization
Picture yourself completing your goal.
Rehearse how you’ll feel and what you’ll do once you succeed.
Cultivate a Positive Mindset
Practice mindfulness or meditation to focus on the positive.
Embrace a growth mindset: see challenges as opportunities.
Surround Yourself with Inspiration
Quotes, books, or mentors can keep you going.
Listen to motivational podcasts if you’re an entrepreneur.
Prioritize Wellbeing
Avoid burnout by setting work-life boundaries.
Get regular exercise, eat well, and sleep enough to keep your energy high.
Celebrate Achievements
Recognize small wins as well as big successes.
A quick reward or pat on the back can keep you moving forward.
These motivational quotes and simple strategies can help you stay focused, energized, and ready for anything life throws at you. Revisit them often for a quick dose of inspiration—and remember that your potential is limitless when you believe in yourself.
Here’s to your success in 2025 and beyond!