Quotes about work
220 quotes from 151 people
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950The Doctor’s Dilemma (1911), Act I
John Ruskin1819–1900The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), Chapter VI: The Lamp of Memory, section 10The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.
Richard Bachborn 1936Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)The right kind of leisure is better than the wrong kind of work.
Baltasar Gracián1601–1658The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647), Maxim 247Labor, n. One of the processes by which A acquires property of B.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.
Wernher von Braun1912–1977“On Bureaucracy”, Chicago Sun Times (10 July 1958), as quoted in Gaither’s Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, 2nd edition (2012), by Carl C. Gaither and Alma E. Cavazos-Gaither, editors, p. 925I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.
Douglas Adams1952–2001The Salmon of Doubt (2002)Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.
Thomas Carlyle1795–1881Past and Present (1843), Bk. III, ch. 11.For his heart was in his work, and the heart
Giveth grace unto every Art.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882The Building of the Ship, Line 7.If you want work well done, select a busy man ‚ the other kind has no time.
Elbert Hubbard1856–1915The Note Book (1927)The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays (1935), Ch. 1: In Praise of IdlenessNothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the result of hard work.
Booker T. Washington1856–1915Up From Slavery (1901), Chapter XII: Raising MoneyThere is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.
Calvin Coolidge1872–1933Telegram to AFL president Samuel Gompers (14 September 1919); concerning the 1919 Boston Police strike.Men work together,” I told him from the heart,
“Whether they work together or apart.
Robert Frost1874–1963A Boy’s Will (1913, 1915)Any damn fool can beg up some kind of job; it takes a wise man to make it without working.
Charles Bukowski1920–1994Post Office (1971)