quotations about work
It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
letter to Harrison Blake, November 16, 1857
The truth is, any of us in a position to choose and chase work out of love do so from a place of relative privilege. Overwhelmingly, work in the world is done for income, and income alone, and love doesn't even get a look-in.
SIMON CASTLES
"Do what you love mantra devalues hard work", The Age, February 9, 2016
The poor man with industry is happier than the rich man in idleness.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
A man who looks for easy work goes to bed tired.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
Playing games at work is a time-honored tradition. Windows computers come with Minesweeper and Solitaire for a reason, you know. But getting caught by the boss slacking off on company time isn't terribly good for your paycheck. If you're gaming on the clock, you need to be playing something that lets you cover your tracks.
K. THOR JENSEN
"The best games to secretly play at work", Geek, February 5, 2016
If we look at things from a results level -- what hours one puts in -- which is, I think, where we're going in the future of work, then we're going to have to balance our lives a little better. And, therefore, the organisational challenge really will be how we facilitate people to do that.
MARGOT SLATTERY
"Data is absolutely essential to the future of work", Silicon Republic, March 23, 2017
If every man should work at that for which nature fitted him, the cows would be well tended.
FLORIAN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Labor produces marvels for the rich but it produces deprivation for the worker. It produces palaces, but hovels for the worker. It produces beauty, but deformity for the worker. It replaces labor by machines, but it throws one section of the workers back to barbaric labor, and it turns the remainder into machines.
KARL MARX
"Alienated Labor", Economic and Philosophic
The better shaped his product, the more misshapen the worker.
KARL MARX
"Alienated Labor", Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts
When master and workmen unite the work is soon done.
WAKATAUKI
attributed, Day's Collacon
Have you beheld a man skillful in his work? Before kings is where he will station himself; he will not station himself before commonplace men.
SOLOMON
Proverbs 22:29
Some people were born to work for others. Not in a mindless, servile-way--rather they simply work better in a set regimen of daily tasks and functions. Others were born of the entrepreneurial spirit and enjoy the demands of self-determination and the roll of the dice.
RICHARD PAUL EVANS
The Christmas Box
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
We need economy that rewards work, not just wealth.
JOE BIDEN
speech on Super Tuesday, March 3, 2020
It just seems so useless to have to work so hard and nothin' ever really seems to come from it.
TOM PETTY
Here Comes My Girl
Call no work low that is honest;
Honest toil never degrades.
MARTHA LAVINIA HOFFMAN
"Workers"
It is useless work that darkens the heart.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Dispossessed
How technology will transform the future of work is the burning question. And interestingly, when I talk with other executives about it, the conversation quickly moves from the technology itself -- to the people. Because at the heart of this digital revolution are human beings. And companies are trying to get their arms around what this Liquid Workforce means for their business, customers, communities and employees.
ELLYN SHOOK
"The Future of Work Is Now", Huffington Post, January 19, 2016
A woman's work is never done.
ENGLISH PROVERB
I am not sure that life, to any one,
A fuller measure of contentment brings,
With all its gifts, than in the draught which springs,
From honest work, well plann'd, and bravely done.
WILLIAM WILSEY MARTIN
"Labor"