LABOR QUOTES III

quotations about labor

Labor quote

He who labors diligently need never despair.

MENANDER

attributed, Day's Collacon


But every acquisition that is disproportionate to the labor spent on it is dishonest.

LEO TOLSTOY

Anna Karenina

Tags: Leo Tolstoy


The only real riches are labor; everything else is but the sign or abuse of it.

LEMONTEY

attributed, A Concise Exposition of the Doctrine of Association


Labor in all its variety, corporeal and mental, is the instituted means for the methodical development of all our powers, under the direction and control of will.

JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND

Gold-Foil

Tags: Josiah Gilbert Holland


The lot of man is ceaseless labor, Or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder.

T. S. ELIOT

The Rock

Tags: T. S. Eliot


Labour is the root of riches.

EDWARD COUNSEL

Maxims

Tags: Edward Counsel


The qualities of labor, like tools,
Grow brighter when used.

SUSAN H. BOGGS

"Labor", Poems


By persistent labor man may attain to all excellence.

DEMOSTHENES

attributed, Day's Collacon


It's hard to find cheap labor in the land of the brave and free. And the only thing that's better, that's if they work for free.

RICHARD FORD

Poems Written by a Government Prisoner in Georgia, USA


Providence has decreed that those common acquisitions, money, gems, plate, noble mansions, and dominion, should be sometimes bestowed on the indolent and unworthy; but those things which constitute our true riches, and which are properly our own, must be procured by our own labor.

ERASMUS

attributed, Day's Collacon


One of the huge disadvantages of being an American is that most of the hard labor is done for us.

JOSH DAFFERN

"10 Things That Will Ruin Your 2016 If You're Not Careful", Patheos, February 17, 2016


Under the regime of property, labor is not a condition, but a privilege.

PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON

What is Property?


The motto marked upon our foreheads, written upon our door-posts, channeled in the earth, and wafted upon the waves, is and must be, "Labor is honorable, and idleness is dishonorable."

T. CARLYLE

attributed, Life's Common Way


All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

attributed, A Martin Luther King Treasury

Tags: Martin Luther King, Jr.


It is to labor, and to labor only, that man owes everything possessed of exchangeable value. Labor is the talisman that has raised him from the condition of the savage: that has changed the desert and the forest into cultivated fields; that has covered the earth with cities, and the ocean with ships; that has given us plenty, comfort, and elegance, instead of want, misery, and barbarism.

JOHN RAMSAY MCCULLOCH

The Principles of Political Economy


As salt savors the broth, so does labor give a relish to pleasure.

WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY

Proverbs

Tags: William Scott Downey


Labour is good for a man, bracing up his energies to conquest,
And without it life is dull, the man perceiving himself useless.

MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER

Proverbial Philosophy

Tags: Martin Farquhar Tupper


How happy he who crowns in shades like these, A youth of labour with an age of ease.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The Deserted Village

Tags: Oliver Goldsmith


I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

remarks at the 75th Anniversary Celebration of Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., "To Men of Vision and High Purpose", May 3, 1941


Labor, laughing at difficulties, spans majestic rivers, carries viaducts over marshy swamps, suspends bridges over deep ravines, pierces the solid mountains with the dark tunnel, blasting rocks and filling hollows, and, while linking together all nations of the earth pities the proud fool and laughs him to scorn. He shall pass to dust, forgotten; but Labor will live forever, glorious in its conquests and monuments, and will keep organized no matter how many temporary defeats it endures.

NEWMAN HALL

"The Dignity of Labor", The Golden Treasury of Poetry and Prose