80 Motivational Desktop Wallpapers With Quotes and Their Origins

80 Motivational Wallpapers For Your Desktop

Looking for a motivational wallpaper for your desktop? Below are 80 of them, from single words like "Learn" and "Shine" to full quotations from George Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard and Gandhi, plus a few that poke fun at the whole genre. The handwritten sign above, with "with" crossed out so it reads "Be someone that makes you happy", sums up the spirit: small nudges you will see dozens of times a day.

Motivational quotes travel fast online and often lose their authors on the way, or gain famous ones they never had. So alongside each wallpaper you will find what it shows and, where it matters, where the words really come from. Many of these images were shared on wallpaper sites such as Wallbase, Desktop Nexus and Inkdryer Creative around 2013, and credits are given under each one where the original maker or host is known.

The wallpapers are grouped by type rather than in the order they were first posted: lines with a known author, famous names attached to doubtful quotes, short one-word nudges, nature scenes, lists and design pieces, and finally the jokes. To use one, open the image, save it at full size and set it as your background. Note that some appear in more than one style.

Lines with a known author

These wallpapers quote writers, artists and public figures whose words can be traced to a book, play, artwork or speech.

This too, shall pass. Storm clouds roll over a high-rise skyline, with the old saying set in the sky. The phrase comes from a Persian fable about a ring meant to make a sad king happy and a happy king sad. It was popularised in English in the nineteenth century, and Abraham Lincoln told the story in an 1859 speech.

The secrets of success. This busy chart maps eight traits around the word "Success": passion, work, focus, push, ideas, improve, serve and persist. The eight come from the Canadian researcher Richard St. John, who interviewed hundreds of successful people and summed up his findings in a short, widely watched TED talk in 2005. The joke box in the corner warns about CRAP: criticism, rejection, unpleasant people and pressure.

Everything is going to be alright. Glowing blue letters float on black, recalling the neon text works of the British artist Martin Creed. His Work No. 203, the phrase in white neon, was first installed on a portico in Hackney, London, in 1999, and he has made several versions since. Here the words are a calm reminder for a stressful day.

Empty your mind. A glowing yin-yang symbol sits on blue with the line "having no limitation as limitation". It is part of Bruce Lee's motto for his martial art, Jeet Kune Do, which pairs it with "using no way as way". Lee meant that a fighter should adapt rather than follow one rigid style.

Imagination, not history. Pale chalk handwriting on dark green urges you to live out of your imagination rather than your history. The line comes from Stephen Covey's bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989), in his chapter on beginning with the end in mind. It is a good wallpaper for anyone trying to break an old habit.

Imagine. A fantasy scene of cherry blossom under a starry sky sits above a quotation: some people see things and ask why, but I dream of things that never were and ask why not. The words are George Bernard Shaw's, spoken by the Serpent in his play Back to Methuselah (1921). Robert F. Kennedy later made them famous in his speeches.

New roads. A shadowy figure in a coat stands on a teal background with Ayn Rand's signature. The line about people who took the first steps down new roads armed only with their own vision is from the courtroom speech of Howard Roark in her 1943 novel The Fountainhead. It celebrates independent creators, a central theme of her work.

Don't panic. Big friendly red letters glow over the curve of the Earth at sunrise. "Don't Panic" is the advice printed on the cover of the fictional guidebook in Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, first a 1978 radio series and then a novel. It is perhaps the most useful wallpaper here before a deadline.

About critics. Typewriter-style labels ask who the critics are and answer: those who have failed in literature and art. The line is from Benjamin Disraeli's 1870 novel Lothair, written by a man who was both a novelist and a British prime minister. The background imitates the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, an artist critics loved to mock.

Carpe diem. "Seize the day" comes from the Roman poet Horace. Small print adds two famous lines: the end of Robert Frost's 1916 poem "The Road Not Taken" and Kris Kristofferson's "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" from "Me and Bobby McGee", misspelled here as "loose". Frost's poem, by the way, is more ironic than it looks: the speaker admits both roads were really about the same.

80 Motivational Wallpapers For Your Desktop.jpg

Wallpaper: The Tasselflower Blog

Summertime. A June 2013 calendar with a drifting dandelion quotes the opening of "Summertime", the lullaby from Porgy and Bess (1935) with words by DuBose Heyward and music by George Gershwin. It was designed by Mervi Eskelinen of The Tasselflower Blog as a free printable. The calendar has dated, but the lyric has not.

Wallpaper: Wallbase

No, you move. A lone protester sits in a street clouded with tear gas, beneath a long speech about standing firm when the crowd, the press and the politicians tell you to move. The words are Captain America's, from the Marvel comic The Amazing Spider-Man #537 (2007), written by J. Michael Straczynski during the "Civil War" storyline. They became popular again after the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War.

Wallpaper: KnightsTavern

Every exit is an entry somewhere. A suspension bridge vanishes into fog under this line from Tom Stoppard's 1966 play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. In the play it is a wry joke about actors leaving one scene to enter another. On a desktop it reads as comfort for anyone facing a big change.

Wallpaper: World HD Wallpaper

My life is my message. A black-and-white portrait of Mohandas Gandhi carries one of his best documented sayings. In 1947, asked for a message to take back to the people, he reportedly wrote these words on a scrap of paper. They summed up his belief that actions persuade more than speeches.

Famous names, uncertain sources

Quotes stick better with a famous name attached. These wallpapers carry popular lines whose real origin is unknown or different from what the image suggests.

Thankful people are happy. White letters on weathered wooden planks reverse the usual order: gratitude comes first, happiness follows. The line has no clear author and is shared under several names. Research on gratitude practices, such as writing down a few things you are thankful for, suggests modest but real benefits for mood.

Wallpaper: Wallbase

As simple as possible. Albert Einstein looks out beside the famous advice that everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. Einstein never wrote that exact sentence. According to the Quote Investigator, it is a compressed version of an idea from his 1933 Oxford lecture, first printed in this short form in 1950 by the composer Roger Sessions.

If you never failed. Pale letters float among out-of-focus lights, saying that someone who has never failed has never tried anything new. The line is often credited to Einstein, but no source in his writings is known. The idea itself is sound: trying anything unfamiliar means accepting some failures.

Your future is created today. A snowy peak under a night sky frames bold typography: your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow. The saying is often credited to the author Robert Kiyosaki, though it circulates in many forms. It works as a gentle push against putting things off.

The same idea, in bold type. This dark version repeats the line about the future being made today, with "not tomorrow" crossed out for emphasis. Seeing the same message twice in a collection shows how quickly popular lines get redesigned and reshared online.

Dreams and courage. A word cloud spells out the line that all our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them, signed Walt Disney. It is widely linked to him, but we could not find it in a recorded speech or interview. It suits Disney's story well: his first studio went bankrupt before Mickey Mouse made his name.

Six lessons on wooden boards. Each plank carries a motto and a short paragraph: work hard and leave no stone unturned, don't be afraid to fail, get up and do it, never listen to "you can't", and push it to the limit. The first refers to the boxer Muhammad Ali's reported remark that he only started counting sit-ups when they began to hurt. The line about wanting success as badly as you want to breathe is from the American speaker Eric Thomas.

10,000 hours. A silhouetted martial artist kicks against a burning sunset, asking how many hours of practice you have clocked today. The "10,000-hour rule" was popularised by Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers (2008), based on research by Anders Ericsson. Later work is more cautious: a 2014 meta-analysis by Brooke Macnamara and colleagues found that deliberate practice explained about 12% of the differences in performance overall, more in games and music, far less in professions.

Wallpaper: Wallbase

So close to success. Elegant capitals on beige say that many of life's failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up, signed with Thomas Edison's autograph. The line is commonly credited to Edison, though it is not clear where he said it. It fits his reputation for patient trial and error.

Wallpaper: Desktop Nexus

Stand for something. Curving script on a pale abstract background says that if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything, credited to Martin Luther King Jr. Researchers such as the Quote Investigator have traced versions of the saying back well before King's career, and it has also been pinned on Alexander Hamilton and others. It is safest to call it a proverb.

Wallpaper: Wallbase

From A to B. Large serif type says logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere, signed Albert Einstein. No source for this line in Einstein's writings has been found. He did value imagination, and in a 1929 interview said that imagination was more important than knowledge.

Wallpaper: Wallbase

Two mistakes on the road to truth. A rough country road runs beside a stone wall, under the line that there are two mistakes on the road to truth: not going all the way, and not starting. It is credited to the Buddha but does not appear in early Buddhist texts. Like many "Buddha quotes" online, it is modern wording in a spiritual style.

Wallpaper: Desktop Nexus

The same thinking. Einstein, hands clasped, appears beside the line that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them. It is a popular paraphrase. What he actually said, in a 1946 telegram about nuclear weapons, was that a new type of thinking is essential if humanity is to survive.

Short nudges and single words

Minimal wallpapers are easy on the eye and leave room for your desktop icons.

Be original. A torn scrap of paper with two words floats on deep blue. The rough edges make the message feel handmade, which suits its meaning.

Life is beautiful. A torn strip of paper with a hand-drawn heart is tucked between the spines of colourful books. The soft focus and warm tones make it one of the gentlest images here.

Live like there's no tomorrow. The word "LIVE" on grey linen texture has a bold red O at its centre. The design is clean enough to work on almost any screen size.

Believe in yourself. Chunky letters run across a split background, black on white on one side and white on black on the other. The contrast reflects the idea of holding steady through good and bad days.

Expect nothing. Rainbow-coloured capitals say that if you expect nothing, you will never be disappointed, though "disappointed" is misspelled. It is a cynical-sounding line, but it echoes the Stoic idea of lowering expectations to protect your peace of mind.

You're special. A winking smiley on bright yellow carries a short compliment. It is pure cheer, and the yellow-and-black smiley design dates back to the 1960s.

Be happy. Two words are written in red ink that spreads into a blot on textured paper. It is simple, bold and easy to read at a glance.

You're a superstar. A grinning man in a 1950s-style pop-art illustration points straight at you, telling you not to listen to them. The retro advertising look makes the pep talk feel playful rather than pushy.

Go ahead. A white paint splash on blue says "And go ahead... never look back". The unfinished sentence invites you to fill in your own start.

Each day is a gift. A single birthday candle burns on a rough stone ledge, with the words curving beside it. The image works as a quiet reminder to notice ordinary days.

You can do anything. Tall white letters on black urge you to get up, do it and follow your dreams. It is the most direct pep talk in the collection.

Defeat should motivate you. Gold letters glow over a smoky red and green background. The message treats losing as fuel rather than a final verdict.

Do all things with love. Narrow white capitals are stacked in the middle of a black screen. The saying is often credited to the American author Og Mandino, but it sounds like a simple principle that belongs to many traditions.

Rise above it. Red and grey letters sit on soft light grey, with "above it" slightly blurred as if in shadow. It is a calm, low-key reminder not to be dragged into conflict.

Wallpaper: Inkdryer Creations

Shine. One small word sits in the corner of a burst of coloured bokeh, the soft circles of out-of-focus lights. It was made by Inkdryer Creative, a design studio that released a daily wallpaper series.

Wallpaper: Inkdryer Creative

Learn. Elegant cursive writing on ruled notebook paper says just one word. It is another Inkdryer Creative design and suits a student's laptop.

Wallpaper: DeviantART

Challenge your limits. Cut-out letters in ransom-note style tell you not to limit your challenges but to challenge your limits. A faint spiral in the background adds movement.

Forget to start again? White letters on black ask whether you ever stop to think and then forget to start again. It is a playful jab at overthinking, and a good wallpaper for anyone who plans more than they act.

Nature scenes with a message

Landscapes with text are the classic motivational wallpaper. A calm photo makes the words feel less like an order.

The weight of the past. A ball and chain sits beneath red text comparing the past to a heavy weight chained to you. You can drag it along forever, looking back at what holds you back, or let it go and move on. The image makes the metaphor literal, which is why it sticks.

A smooth sea. Choppy blue water stretches to a bright horizon under the old proverb that a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. It is often credited to Franklin D. Roosevelt, but it is a traditional English saying. Its point is that difficulty builds skill.

Rain on your parade. Raindrops fall on bright green grass while the text suggests looking up rather than down, since without rain there would be no rainbow. It is a nice touch of science, too: rainbows form when sunlight is bent and reflected inside raindrops.

You live every day. A lit pier stretches toward a thatched hut over calm water at dusk. The text turns "you only live once" around: you only die once, but you live every day.

The best dreams. A lone bare tree stands on a snowy mountain slope, beside the line that the best dreams happen when you are awake. The faded colours give it a dreamy feel that matches the words.

I want to fly. A dark bird swoops over glowing water, with ornate lettering about wanting to fly, drive, go and be part of something unknown. It captures restlessness more than calm.

Pay attention. A single bird perches on power lines against a bright sky, with faint script lines asking you to look, pay attention and remember. The small text rewards anyone who stops to read it.

Every day is a new beginning. Dark rocks rise from a misty sea, photographed with a long exposure that turns the water into fog. The text asks you to stop looking at what might have been and look at what can be.

Wallpaper: Wallbase

Stop asking for permission. A stencilled young woman with a bandana and a sign reading "greatness" stands beside a block of text: if you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission. The street-art style suits its rebellious message.

Use your imagination. A white paper plane on green casts the shadow of a real aeroplane. It is one of the cleverest designs here, showing in one image how a small idea can carry a big ambition.

A wall of favourite lines. This dense collage mixes lines from fiction: Gandalf's advice about deciding what to do with the time we are given, from The Lord of the Rings; the Doctor's remark that in 900 years he never met anyone unimportant, from Doctor Who; a line from The Perks of Being a Wallflower; and Charlie Chaplin's call for a world of reason in The Great Dictator (1940). It is a fan's scrapbook more than a single message.

Wallpaper: Desktop Nexus

The shape of life. The word "LIFE" is built from smaller words such as hope, love, patience, pain, frustration and dream, while a tree above it dissolves into flying birds. The mix of good and bad words is the point: a full life includes both.

Sticky notes on the road. Pink, blue and lilac notes are scattered on dark asphalt among fallen yellow leaves, each with a handwritten line: take risks, be yourself, dream big, smile, try again, never give up. It looks like someone left encouragement for strangers to find.

Lists, charts and design pieces

Some wallpapers hold more information, and a few carry no motto at all, just good design.

Fourteen habits. A colourful stacked list runs down the right side of a dark screen: think positively, network well, exercise daily, eat healthy, work hard, stay strong, build faith, worry less, read more, be happy, volunteer freely, relax often, love always and live forever. Leaving the left side empty keeps space for desktop icons.

A wish for you. On a soft rainbow background, an anonymous verse wishes the reader comfort on hard days, rainbows after clouds, friendships, faith, patience, courage and love. The design repeats the verse twice, side by side, so it fills a wide screen.

Wallpaper: MyGFX

Design your life. Dozens of open paint cans in every colour fill the frame under the words "Let's get it on". It turns life into a blank canvas waiting for colour.

Wallpaper: Bartelme Design

Flowing light. Glowing ribbons of red, orange and teal twist across a dark background. It is credited to Bartelme Design, the Austrian studio of the designer Wolfgang Bartelme, and shows that a wallpaper can lift your mood without any words.

Wallpaper: Squidspot

The periodic table of typefaces. This chart arranges popular fonts like chemical elements, from Helvetica (H) to Futura (F) and Garamond. It was made by Squidspot, which built the ranking by combining designers' published lists of favourite fonts, and it remains a favourite with graphic designers.

Wallpaper: Smashing Magazine

Healthy living. An exercise ball, a potted plant, a salad, half an avocado, a tray of wheatgrass and a white tulip line up with short notes on their benefits. It was published by Smashing Magazine in its monthly wallpaper series in 2013.

Wallpaper: FreeHDWallpapers

Sea of sand. Smooth golden dunes stretch to the horizon, with a line of footprints along one crest. Without any text, it still suggests a long journey taken one step at a time.

Wallpaper: Wallpapers Wide

Zen stones. Four smooth black stones are stacked on a bamboo mat in front of green bamboo stems. Balanced stone stacks are a familiar symbol of calm and focus.

Wallpaper: Desktop Nexus

A pirate key. A close-up of a keyboard shows one key printed with a skull and crossed swords. It is a tongue-in-cheek nod to internet piracy rather than motivation in the usual sense.

Wallpaper: Inkdryer Creative

Change the world. A blue globe on a blue background has one square highlighted in yellow. The message is that changing the world starts with your own small patch.

Wallpaper: Inkdryer Creative

Explore. Bright red script runs across a faded antique world map. It is an Inkdryer Creative design, perfect for anyone saving up for a trip.

Wallpaper: Inkdryer Creative

You, beta. A grey profile icon sits above the word "You" with a small "BETA" tag, a software term for a version still being tested. It is a witty way of saying you are a work in progress.

Wallpaper: Be a Freelance Blogger

Inspiration hides in strange places. A dark brick tunnel opens onto bright light, beside the words in large italic type. It was shared by the blog Be a Freelance Blogger as a free download.

Jokes, parodies and one to skip

Not every wallpaper here takes itself seriously, and one hides a source you may want to know about.

It's not the fall. A tiny stick figure plunges toward a red splat beneath two physics formulas. It is a nerdy version of the old joke that it is not the fall that kills you but the sudden stop: velocity grows as you fall, but force depends on how fast that velocity changes at the end.

The handwritten sign again. This is the same "Be someone that makes you happy" sign shown at the top. The crossed-out "with" turns a dating tip into advice about self-respect.

Waste it while you can. A clock face on dark blue says "Time: waste it while you still can". The joke works because it is the opposite of every other wallpaper in the set.

Like a boss. A blue thumbs-up icon in the style of Facebook's "Like" button sits next to the words "A Boss", making "Like a Boss". The phrase was popularised by a 2009 comedy song by The Lonely Island.

Wallpaper: Freelance Switch

Think outside the cubicle. A cartoon office worker points upward next to a twist on the business cliché "think outside the box". It is a good fit for an office computer.

Wallpaper: DeviantART

There's no wallpaper. A yellow sticky note on a dark damask background simply says there is no wallpaper. The deadpan joke comes from a DeviantArt user and is oddly restful to look at.

Wallpaper: Desktop Nexus

A huge inspirational quote. Hay bales on a field under a dramatic sky carry the text "Huge inspirational quote on a landscape", signed "Famous smart person". A small note in the corner says "God, I'm so deep". It is the perfect parody of this whole genre, and a healthy reminder not to take quotes too seriously.

Obstacles are there to be broken. An old printed page, blurred except for one sharp line: obstacles do not exist to be surrendered to, but only to be broken. It is shared as a generic motivational quote, but the page is from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf (1925), in the passage where he describes going back to Vienna hoping to become an architect. The words themselves are harmless, but most people would not want that author on their desktop, so this is the one wallpaper we suggest skipping.

Life doesn't get easier, you just get stronger!

Life doesn't get easier. Our own image shows a wolf, pierced by arrows, labelled "new me" standing over a fallen "old me", under the line that life does not get easier, you just get stronger. The point is resilience: the hard things do not stop, but we learn to carry them.

Choosing a wallpaper that works for you

Pick one message, not ten. A single short line is easier to notice than a dense paragraph.
Change it now and then. Anything you see every day fades into the background, so a new image every few weeks keeps the message fresh.
Keep space for icons. Designs with text on one side, like the habits list, work best on busy desktops.
Check the source before sharing. As several of these wallpapers show, a famous name on an image is no guarantee the person said it.

Sources: wallpaper makers and hosts credited under each image; Quote Investigator, "As Simple as Possible"; Quote Investigator, "Stand for Something"; Wikipedia, Everything Is Going to Be Alright (Martin Creed); Princeton University, Becoming an Expert Takes More Than Practice; Goodreads, Mein Kampf quotation.

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