80 Top Employee Happiness Quotes for Work (2024)

Here is our list of the best employee happiness quotes.

Employee happiness quotes are inspirational messages about workplace happiness. For example, “The greatest asset of a company is its people.” The purpose of these quotes is to motivate employees and inspire company leaders. Employee happiness quotes are also known as “employee appreciation quotes” and “quotes about positivity.”

These quotes are similar to motivational success quotes, quotes about teamwork, and motivational quotes about jobs.

This list includes:

• employee appreciation quotes
• employee engagement quotes
• inspirational work quotes about employee happiness
• quotes about positivity
• employee empowerment quotes
• quotes about employee happiness

Let’s get to it!

Employee appreciation quotes

• “The greatest asset of a company is its people.” —Jorge Paulo Lemann, cofounder of Banco Garantia
• “On what high-performing companies should be striving to create: A great place for great people to do great work.” —Marilyn Carlson,businesswoman
• “Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t keep it a secret.” —Mary Kay Ash, businesswoman
• “Employees are the heart of any company; nurturing their growth leads to a flourishing organization.” ―Dax Bamania, entrepreneur
• “An effective workplace well-being program can deliver mutual benefit to people, organizations, economies and communities. When people are happy and well, businesses can thrive and societies flourish.” —Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
• “Culture is about performance, and making people feel good about how they contribute to the whole.” —Tracy Streckenbach, businesswoman

Employee engagement quotes

• “Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.”” —Zig Ziglar, author
• “Your number one customers are your people. Look after employees first and then customers last.” —Ian Hutchinson, author
• “Employees engage with employers and brands when they’re treated as humans worthy of respect.” —Meghan M. Biro, author
• “The key element of engagement is trust; building trust requires companies to provide workers with as much autonomy and flexibility as possible.” —Matt Charney, businessman
• “Environments that support their employees in the right way will naturally foster employee engagement.” —Aaron Tucker, executive
• “You’ll attract the employees you need if you can explain why your mission is compelling: not why it’s important in general, but why you’re doing something important that no one else is going to get done.” —Peter Thiel, former CEO of PayPal
• “When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” —Simon Sinek, author and speaker
• “You have to want to be engaged. There has to be a deep-seated desire in your heart and mind to participate, to be involved, and to make a difference. If the desire isn’t there, no person or book can plant it within you.” —Tim Clark, executive
• “While you’re going through this process of trying to find the satisfaction in your work, pretend you feel satisfied. Tell yourself you had a good day. Walk through the corridors with a smile rather than a scowl. Your positive energy will radiate. If you act like you’re having fun, you’ll find you are having fun.” —Jean Chatzky, journalist
• “This is the real secret of life—to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” —Alan Wilson Watts, writer and speaker
• “One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.” —Viggo Mortensen, actor

Inspirational work quotes about employee happiness

• “Your work is going to 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.” —Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple
• “I never went into business just to make money—but I found that if I have fun, the money will come. I often ask myself, is my work fun and does it make me happy? I believe that the answer to that is more important than fame or fortune. If it stops being fun, I ask why? If I can’t fix it, I stop doing it.” —Sir Richard Branson, businessman
• “Good health IS good business.” —Paul Drechsler, CEO of Wates Group Limited
• “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., activist
• “Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of—that’s the metric to measure yourself against. Your standards are. Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can be assholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version of themselves.” ―Ryan Holiday, marketer and author
• “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” ―Muhammad Ali, boxer and activist
• “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” ―Aristotle, philosopher
• “It is better to be a stepping stone than a stumbling block.” ―Mark Samraj, author
• “The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.” —Joshua Becker, author
• “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” —Michael Altshuler, author and speaker
• “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.” —Stephen Covey, educator and author
• “As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better.” —Dr. Steve Maraboli, speaker and author
• “Don’t lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don’t have a career. You have a life.” —Cheryl Strayed, writer
• “You must want to be a butterfly so badly, you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” —Trina Paulus, author and activist
• “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” —Émile Zola, author
• “When you start living the life of your dreams, there will always be obstacles, doubters, mistakes and setbacks along the way. But with hard work, perseverance and self-belief there is no limit to what you can achieve.” ―Roy T. Bennett, author
• “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” —Beverly Sills, singer

Quotes about positivity

• “There is little success where there is little laughter.” —Andrew Carnegie, entrepreneur
• “The more you feed your mind with positive thoughts, the more you can attract great things into your life.” —Roy T. Bennett, author
• “Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness. It’s the spark that lights a fire of joy in your soul.” —Amy Collette, author
• “Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities in blessings.” —William Arthur Ward, author
• “People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.” ―John C. Maxwell, author and speaker
• “Positive anything is better than negative nothing.” ―Elbert Hubbard, author
• “Taking time to do nothing often brings everything into perspective.” ―Doe Zantamata, author
• “A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success.” —Joyce Brothers, psychologist
• “If you see the world and yourself through a lens smudged by negativity, then you’ll find much misery. If you look outwards and inwards through lens brightened by positivity you’ll find much to be happy and appreciative about.” —Henrik Edberg, blogger and author
• ​”A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, and it sparks extraordinary results.” —Wade Boggs, baseball player
• “Positive thinking is more than just a tagline. It changes the way we behave. And I firmly believe that when I am positive, it not only makes me better, but it also makes those around me better.” —Harvey Mackay, businessman
• “Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.” —Mary Lou Retton, gymnast

Employee empowerment quotes

• “When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” —Theodore Roosevelt, former US president
• “Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.” —Katherine Whitehorn, journalist
• “Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person—not just an employee—are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.” —Anne M. Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox
• “If you fulfill the wishes of your employees, the employees will fulfill your visions.” —Amit Kalantri, author and mentalist
• “Think big thoughts, but relish small pleasures.” —Jackson Brown Jr., author
• “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” ―Oscar Wilde, author
• “You, yourself, as much as anyone in the entire universe, deserves your love and affection.” —Buddha, teacher
• “By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands—your own.” —Mark Victor Hansen, speaker and trainer
• “All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.” —Orison Swett Marden, author
• “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist
• “Attitude is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Optimism is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Giving is a choice. Respect is a choice. Whatever choice you make makes you. Choose wisely.” —Roy T. Bennett, author
• “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” —John C. Maxwell, author and speaker
• “Dreams can come true, but there is a secret. They’re realized through the magic of persistence, determination, commitment, passion, practice, focus, and hard work. They happen a step at a time, manifested over years, not weeks.” —Elbert Hubbard, author
• “If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing.” —Ernest Hemingway, author

Quotes about employee happiness

• “When your employees are happy at work, they do a better job. And when they do a better job, customers feel it. And when customers feel that happiness coming from a company’s employees, it’s like they just wanna spend their money there.” ―Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth
• “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” —Andrew Carnegie, entrepreneur
• “Happy employees ensure happy customers. And happy customers ensure happy shareholders—in that order.” —Simon Sinek, author and speaker
• “Improving employee happiness raises sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy of task completion by 19%.” ―Ines Garcia, author
• “It’s not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between 9 and 5. It’s whether or not our work fulfills us.” —Malcolm Gladwell, journalist and author
• “Throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could be yours.” —Dale Carnegie, author
• “Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” —Benjamin Desraeli, former prime minister
• “The most wasted of days is one without laughter.” ―E.E. Cummings, poet
• “Happiness is not by chance but by choice.” ―Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and author
• “Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.” —Dale Carnegie, writer and lecturer
• “Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.” —Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and author
• “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” —Mahatma Gandhi, activist
• “Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.” —Theodore Isaac Rubin, psychiatrist and writer
• “Stay positive and happy. Work hard and don’t give up. Be open to criticism and keep learning. Surround yourself with happy, warm and genuine people.” —Tena Desae, actress and model
• “What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same? I doubt you’d be happy. So, why are you so afraid of change?” —Karen Salmansohn, author and designer
• “Happiness is a direction, not a place.” —Sydney J. Harris, journalist
• “You, and only you, are ultimately responsible for who you become and how happy you are.” —Rachel Hollis, author and speaker
• “Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.” —John Barrymore, actor
• “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” —Albert Einstein, physicist
• “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” —Helen Keller, author

Benefits of employee happiness quotes

Employee happiness quotes have many advantages. These messages inspire workers to stay positive and focused, which can make them work better. These quotes also help create a friendly and supportive workplace where employees feel valued and included.

When companies show they care about their employees’ happiness, they can attract and keep good workers. Plus, reading uplifting messages can make employees feel happier and more satisfied with their jobs. Overall, these quotes make the workplace better by boosting morale, improving teamwork, and making employees feel good about their work.

When to use employee happiness quotes

You can use employee happiness quotes in various situations to uplift and motivate your team. You might use these messages during team meetings to start off on a positive note or to encourage discussion about well-being. Quotes are also a great addition to company newsletters, bulletin boards, or internal communication channels. Happiness quotes remind folks of the importance of happiness at work.

When celebrating milestones or achievements, sharing happiness quotes can add a touch of positivity to the occasion. Additionally, during times of change or challenges, these quotes can offer encouragement and resilience. Overall, employee happiness quotes are great for whenever you want to inspire and uplift your team.

Conclusion

Sharing inspiring quotes about happiness in the workplace can significantly boost morale and create a positive culture. These quotes are reminders of the significance of joy and fulfillment in the office. As organizations try to motivate and appreciate employees, the impact of uplifting quotes is significant. By prioritizing employee happiness, organizations can increase engagement, productivity, and satisfaction.

Next, check out our articles on work from home quotes, hard work quotes, positive quotes, and job satisfaction quotes.