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Quotes about work

220 quotes from 151 people

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Depend upon it, after all, Thomas, Literature is the most noble of professions. In fact, it is about the only one fit for a man. For my own part, there is no seducing me from the path.
Edgar Allan Poe1809–1849“Letter to Frederick W. Thomas” (February 14, 1849).
- Writing
Movement will cease before we are weary of being useful.
Leonardo da Vinci1452–1519The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, tr. J. P. Richter, X: Studies and Sketches for Pictures and Decorations
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
Anatole France1844–1924The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), Pt. II, ch. 4
Frankly, I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left me.
Hunter S. Thompson1937–2005Letter to Arch Gerhart (29 January 1958), p. 106
- Writing
There is a great satisfaction in building good tools for other people to use.
Freeman Dyson1923–2020Disturbing the Universe (1979)
As the little boy said when asked if he wanted to be a lawyer like his mother, “Oh no, that’s women’s work.” Logic has nothing to do with oppression.
Gloria Steinem1934–2026Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983), p. 367
- Women
As soon as I did my first five minutes of stand-up I knew that I would rather be a failure at comedy than a success in marketing.
Jimmy Carrborn 1972Will Hodgkinson (16 December 2004) “Comedy’s overgrown schoolboy”, The Irish Times.
- Failure
- Success
Cooking should be a way of life⁠—an extension of oneself⁠—never a job.
Marco Pierre Whiteborn 1961Marco Pierre White in Hell’s Kitchen (2008)
- Food
My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.
Charles Dickens1812–1870David Copperfield (1850), Chapter 42In context
- Motivation & Goals
There is all the difference in the world between paying and being paid.
Herman Melville1819–1891Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter IIn context
- Money
I don’t like work⁠—no man does⁠—but I like what is in the work⁠—the chance to find yourself. Your own reality⁠—for yourself, not for others⁠—what no other man can ever know.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIn context
You’re an expatriate. You’ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafés.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961The Sun Also Rises (1926), Book II, Chapter 12In context
- Comedy
Whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag, Chapter VIIIn context
- Politics
For we pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement.
L. M. Montgomery1874–1942Anne of Green Gables (1908), Chapter XXXVIIn context
- Motivation & Goals
The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.
Kenneth Grahame1859–1932The Wind in the Willows (1908), Chapter IIn context