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Quotes about work

220 quotes from 151 people

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Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.
Jesse Jackson1941–2026
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Ch. XII
- Success
Employment, sir, and hardships prevent melancholy.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Johnson (Boswell) (1777)
I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal.
John Maynard Keynes1883–1946Letter to Duncan Grant (15 December 1917)
- Government
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
Martin Luther King Jr.1929–1968
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Martin Luther King Jr.1929–1968Martin Luther King, Jr. in: Heavenly Wisdom: Talent, Imagination, Creativity and Wisdom, Author House, 8 July 2013, p. 304
Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.
Stephen Kingborn 1947Danse Macabre (1981).
Your chances of success are directly proportional to the degree of pleasure you derive from what you do. If you are in a job you hate, face the fact squarely and get out.
MKMichael Kordaborn 1933Success! (1977), p. 145
- Success
What’s terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don’t need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you’re capable of better.
Doris Lessing1919–2013The Golden Notebook (1962), Anna Wulf, in “Free Women: 2”
- Love
If God is satisfied with the work, the work may be satisfied with itself.
C. S. Lewis1898–1963The Weight of Glory
- God
Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Reply to the New York Workingmen’s Democratic Republican Association (21 March 1864); Collected Works, Vol. 7, pp. 259-260
- Economics
The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.
Vince Lombardi1913–1970
- Success
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.
- Art
Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands,
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882The Village Blacksmith (1840)In context
Anytime you have to rely upon your enemy for a job you’re in bad shape.
Malcolm X1925–1965Speech in Detroit, Michigan (12 April 1964)
- Enemies