quotations about work
The better shaped his product, the more misshapen the worker.
KARL MARX
"Alienated Labor", Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts
If a man does not go about his work with enthusiasm, it means that he has not yet found a work that he likes. Every mortal is a busy bee when he comes to the task that Destiny has set aside for him.
GEORGE ADE
"The Fable of the Old Fox and the Young Fox", True Bills
Call no work low that is honest;
Honest toil never degrades.
MARTHA LAVINIA HOFFMAN
"Workers"
We need economy that rewards work, not just wealth.
JOE BIDEN
speech on Super Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction -- a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Walden
If one man has a dollar he didn't work for, some other man worked for a dollar he didn't get.
BILL HAYWOOD
Roughneck: The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood
There is no such thing as unfortunate genius; if a man or woman is fit for work, God appoints the field.
ADA ISAACS MENKEN
Infelicia
No longer diverted by other emotions, I work the way a cow grazes.
KÄTHE KOLLWITZ
Diaries and Letters
Measure not the work
Until the day's out and the labour done.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
Aurora Leigh
None but those who work are entitled to eat.
AESOP
"The Brazier and His Dog", Aesop's Fables
As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.
THOMAS EDISON
attributed, The Great Book of Best Quotes of All Time
If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn't anything you can't do if you want to.
JIM HENSON
It's Not Easy Being Green: And Other Things to Consider
True Work is the necessity of poor humanity's earthly condition. The dignity is in leisure. Besides, 99 hundredths of all the work done in the world is either foolish and unnecessary, or harmful and wicked.
HERMAN MELVILLE
letter to Catherine G. Lansing, September 5, 1877
I like to call in sick to work at places where I've never held a job. Then when the manager tells me I don't work there, I tell them I'd like to. But not today, as I'm sick.
JAROD KINTZ
This Book is Not For Sale
Nothing will work unless you do.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, January 2, 2014
It is useless work that darkens the heart.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Dispossessed
While it will never be possible for employers to control all the factors that contribute to happiness at work, you can certainly help to create the right conditions for it. Ultimately, happiness is a choice, and a positive, healthy workplace environment is a good starting point. The benefits will be seen in better quality work, and significant improvements in recruitment and retention.
ROBERT HALF
"Happiness at work -- is it natural or necessary?", Business Zone , March 31, 2017
A man succeeds in completing a work only when his qualities transcend that work.
CESARE PAVESE
The Business of Living
No matter how humble your work may seem, do it in the spirit of an artist, of a master. In this way you lift it out of commonness and rob it of what would otherwise be drudgery.
ORISON SWETT MARDEN
He Can Who Thinks He Can
Work that is pure toil, done solely for the sake of the money it earns, is also sheer drudgery because it is stultifying rather than self improving.
MORTIMER ADLER
A Vision of the Future: Twelve Ideas for a Better Life and a Better Society