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Quotes about work

220 quotes from 151 people

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Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)
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
Tension weakens the bow; the want of it, the mind.
PSPublilius Syrus101–101 BCThe Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave, Maxim 59
Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment.
Nassim Nicholas Talebborn 1960The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 8
- Time
Death is the end of life; ah! why
Should life all labour be?
Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809–1892The Lotos-Eaters (1832)In context
- Life & Death
Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.
Nikola Tesla1856–1943“A Visit to Nikola Tesla” by Dragislav L. Petković, Politika (April 1927)
- Time
I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.
Margaret Thatcher1925–2013
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.
Hunter S. Thompson1937–2005Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century (2004)
- Truth & Lies
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
I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Life Without Principle (1863), p. 485
- Business
It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Letter to Harrison Blake (November 16, 1857)
I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Life Without Principle (1863), pp. 486–7
- Time
You must get your living by loving.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Life Without Principle (1863), pp. 486–7
- Love
Nothing tends to materialize man and to deprive his work of the faintest trace of mind more than the extreme division of labor.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XVIII.
It’s a job that’s never started that takes the longest to finish.
J. R. R. Tolkien1892–1973