Quotes about work
220 quotes from 151 people
Men work together,” I told him from the heart,
“Whether they work together or apart.
Robert Frost1874–1963A Boy’s Will (1913, 1915)We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living.
Buckminster Fuller1895–1983“The New York Magazine Environmental Teach-In” by Elizabeth Barlow in New York Magazine (30 March 1970), p. 30
Lady Gagaborn 1986Cosmopolitan (April 2010).Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.
Personally I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.
What from your fathers’ heritage is lent,
Earn it anew, to really possess it!The words you’ve bandied are sufficient;
’Tis deeds that I prefer to see:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Faust (1808), Prelude at the Theatre, spoken by ManagerIn contextThe right kind of leisure is better than the wrong kind of work.
Baltasar Gracián1601–1658The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647), Maxim 247
David Graeber1961–2020“Bullshit Jobs,” August 2013- David Graeber1961–2020Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Chapter Eleven, “Age of the Great Capitalist Empires”, p. 350
The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.
Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately you occasionally find men disgrace labor.
Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885Speech at Midland International Arbitration Union, Birmingham, United Kingdom (1877)
