Inspirational Quotes About Work-Life Balance

Balancing work and life is never easy, especially these days when workers are constantly in contact with each other via mobile devices and laptop computers that can make it so easy to bring work home at the end of the day. It can be even more complicated when you're trying to juggle working from home with your life at home.

But, it’s important to take care of yourself emotionally and physically. So, in the spirit of self-care, perhaps these inspirational quotes can help you focus on what's most important for you and remind you to maintain a work-life balance.

Quotes from Powerful Women on Work-Life Balance

Michelle Obama: "Women, in particular, need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we're scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don't have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own 'to do' list."

Hillary Clinton: "Don't confuse having a career with having a life."

Oprah Winfrey: "I've learned that you can't have everything and do everything at the same time."

Beyonce: "I have so much admiration for women who are mothers, who balance family and work."

Marissa Mayer: "Burnout is about resentment. Preventing it is about knowing yourself well enough to know what it is you're giving up that makes you resentful."

Dolly Parton: "Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life." 

Quotes from Comedians

Art Garfunkel: "I have the feeling that in a balanced life one should die penniless. The trick is dismantling."

Lily Tomlin: "For fast-acting relief, try slowing down."

Quotes from Writers

Anna Quindlen: "I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less." 

Sydney Harris: "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."

Stephen R. Covey: "Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important."

Orison Swett Marden: "Work, love, and play are the great balance wheels of man's being."

Heather Schuck: “You will never feel truly satisfied by work until you are satisfied by life.”

Catherine Pulsifer: "May you find the balance of life—time for work but also time for play. Too much of one thing ends up creating stress that no one needs in their life."

Mary Anne Radmacher: "Find your balance and stand with it. Find your song and sing it out. Find your cadence and let it appear like a dance. Find the questions that only you know how to ask and the answers that you are content to not know."

Quotes from Spiritual Teachers

Barbara de Angelis: "Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away."

Thomas Merton: "Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm, and harmony."

Jonathan Lockwood Huie: "It's a paradox. How does one balance living in the now with preparing responsibly for the future? The key to this dilemma lies in the distinction between 'worrying about the future' and 'preparing for the future.' The two concepts are not at all the same."

Dr. Kathleen Hall: "We have overstretched our personal boundaries and forgotten that true happiness comes from living an authentic life fueled with a sense of purpose and balance."​

Quotes from Other Inspirational Leaders

Betsy Jacobson: "Balance is not better time management, but better boundary management. Balance means making choices and enjoying those choices."

Harriet Braiker: "Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing."

Alexander Kjerulf: "Most people chase success at work, thinking that will make them happy. The truth is that happiness at work will make you successful."

Henry Ward Beecher: "It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Worry is rust upon the blade."

Charles Buxton: "You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it."

Aristotle: "It is better to rise from life as from a banquet—neither thirsty nor drunken."