What’s more motivating than some inspiring song lyrics to help get your day started? We’ve compiled a list of our favorite motivational song quotes to help get you inspired and moving. From Jay-Z to Elvis Presley, these artists know just how to motivate us with their words. Whether you’re gearing up for a big meeting or just trying to get out of bed on a Monday morning, these song quotes are sure to give you the boost you need.
1. She took comfort in the familiarity of his smell, knowing that if she lost all her possessions and her home, at least she would have her family. — Sage Steadman, Upon Destiny’s Song
2. I can reach the mass audience if I come from different perspectives on every song. — Miranda Lambert
3. The song ‘Innocent’ is a song that I wrote about something that really, really emotionally impacted me. — Taylor Swift
4. A good song should make you wanna tap your foot and get with your girl. A great song should destroy cops and set fire to the suburbs. I’m only interested in writing great songs. — Tom Morello
5. The unpurged images of day recede; The Emperor’s drunken soldiery are abed; Night resonance recedes, night–walkers’ song After great cathedral gong. — William Butler Yeats
6. I think when people make a record with a goal in mind–like taking it to the next level or making them seem more mature–that gets in the way of writing great songs. — Taylor Swift
7. A song should have all the color and beauty of every rose. — Quincy Jones
8. Every song is a story unfolding. — Truth Devour, Unrequited
9. People–especially white people–they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me. — Rihanna
10. Well, memory can play tricks. Most people, I think, tend to remember the good rather than the bad when someone close to them dies. — Soheir Khashoggi, Nadia’s Song
11. I often write songs, and when I do, I usually write quite a few of them. I really have to be in the mood. — Ric Ocasek
12. Slade was never pretentious. It was just music to them. Pop, rock, soul….it was all the same to Slade. They wrote great songs. And, besides, I’d like to raid their wardrobe. — Noel Gallagher
13. I guess in this culture of ever–shortening attention spans, it’s good if a song can lift us out of the madness, even if only for a few minutes. — Peter Bradley Adams
14. When I want to be popular, I pull on a guitar and sing a song. Pras did not affect me because, in the realm of politics, he has never stood up for anything. — Wyclef Jean
15. He wondered what she would taste of–fantasized about how gunpowder and scorched earth would weigh on his tongue. — Vanessa Gravenstein, war/SONG
16. I grew up in an era where the record companies just sold records to everybody, and the whole family bought songs. — Tony Bennett
17. Yes, all my songs come from personal experience and relationships. — Rick Springfield
18. I’m 60, and I did 60–year–old women songs. I’m not trying to be the Hip–Hop Queen, although I am the original Hip Hop Queen. — Patti Labelle
19. Songs have taught me more about life than school ever has and how to follow my ambitions no matter what they are and how to live my life no matter the trade–off. — Meghan Blistinsky
20. As far as songwriters, I’ve always been a fan of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin; those guys mean a lot to me. — Mel Brooks
21. I think Katy B encapsulates young London in a way I never could. She reps London harder than anyone song–wise since Lily Allen. — Mark Ronson
22. I have my own opinions, but my songs don’t share them. — Shania Twain
23. Holding my hands, kissing the palms, his smile is ecstatic, jubilant, adoring, and the song playing speaks for him, ‘Have you ever seen the light…the way it shines in you. — Poppet, Aisyx
24. I’m 60, and I did 60–year–old women songs. I’m not trying to be the Hip–Hop Queen, although I am the original Hip Hop Queen. — Patti Labelle
25. I don’t set goals for myself too much, but I’m always trying to write that one great song. — Sheryl Crow
26. Dickens must have first heard his famous The law is an ass quote from a woman. And she was damned right, for all the good it did her. — Moriah Densley, Song For Sophia
27. To be honest, I think about the clubs when I write. But I should probably start thinking about stadiums, because the songs sound even better there–and bigger. — Young Jeezy
28. Sparks are warm while they last. — Susan Price, Ghost Song
29. Your happy songs bring to me the scent of Heaven. Please keep singing! — Rumi
30. A lot of times songs are very much of a moment, that you just encapsulate. They come to you, you write them, you feel good that day, or bad that day. — Mick Jagger
31. I knew the words to 25 rock songs, so I got in the group. Long Tall Sally and Tutti–Frutti, that got me in. That was my audition. — Paul Mccartney
32. All of our saddest songs have somewhere in them at least a glimmer of resolve–Street Spirit has no resolve. It is the dark tunnel without the light at the end. — Thom Yorke
33. By all means write new songs. Each generation must do that. But to neglect the church’s original hymnbook is, to put it bluntly, crazy — N. T. Wright
34. A close–up on screen can say all a song can. — Stephen Sondheim
35. The clouds wept when my heart sand a song of sorrow — Sonya Watson, The Tide Breaker
36. I’m unable to really write the kind of song that doesn’t have a visual element, which most songs don’t. — Nick Cave
37. For Ripley I learned to play some songs on the piano, and I never really played them again. — Matt Damon
38. You can’t hit it out of the park if you’re not at the plate — Phillip Gary Smith, HARMONIZING: Keys to Living in the Song of Life
39. Now I am a vagabond of the universe, a drifter among spaces where the madness of things has no limits. — Thomas Ligotti, Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
40. A cat can make you feel well rested when you’re tired or turn a rage into a calm just by sitting on your lap. His very nearness is a healing song. — Shannon Hale, Book of a Thousand Days
41. Any artist, when he goes in to record, should have the feeling that any song he records can be a hit. This may sound egotistical, but it makes sense. — Ray Charles
42. My experience is that lots of people go to church, sing the songs, tell the story, etc but have profound ambivalence about God. — Rob Bell
43. The song we’re composing already exists in potential. Our work is to find it. — Steven Pressfield, Do the Work
44. When the melody touches your heart emotionally and the words hit your brain intellectually, more than likely you’ll find you’ll have an excellent song to sing. — Yip Harburg
45. Everything starts and ends with the song, and working with writers and really learning their process and craft was an invaluable experience. — Tommy Mottola
46. Sometimes when you’re making songs you just make sounds, and the sounds slowly mutate and evolve into actual words that have meaning. — Tom Waits
47. I just love pretty things, whether it is art, a song or a pair of shoes. — Rita Ora
48. I’m not the kind of guy who sits around at home and writes songs. Once in a while I’ll pick up a guitar and noodle around, but it’s rare. — Scott Ian
49. I think about every song is pretty much raw emotion–even if it’s not specifically about topic there’s songs like ‘All I Know Is Pain’ and ‘Green Piece of Paper’. — Styles P
50. Most wretched men Are cradled into poetry by wrong: They learn in suffering what they teach in song. — Percy Bysshe Shelley
