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“There probably has to be a worldview for practical men who must be strong enough to get their hands dirty in political practice without getting dirty themselves, and even if they do, who cares? And a second worldview for youths, simpletons, women, and sensitive souls, for whom “purity” is just the right thing. One could call it a division of labor among temperaments.”
Peter Sloterdijk (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the core values of libertarianism is the right of people to keep all the fruits of their labor. No taxes are fair. All taxes are, at their root, immoral because they involve the use of force to take money from people, money that rightfully belongs to them, and give it to others. That is why libertarians would fund most government services with voluntary user fees.”
R. Lee Wrights (1958–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If valuation in the financial markets provides the bottom line for the performance of the company, it is labor that remains the source of productivity, innovation, and competitiveness.”
Manuel Castells (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They had a good picture of the world as it is, not the rosy misconceptions so many other utopians labor under. They did the jobs that needed doing.”
John Varley (1947–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the secret scandal of capitalism that at no point has it been organized primarily around free labor.”
David Graeber (1961–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Struggles between nations and struggles between classes we shall surely have during the coming decades. All indications point to further wars between nations. The struggle between capital and labor is daily growing in intensity. ...It may be that we shall witness scenes surpassing in horror even those of the recent war.”
Kirby Page (1890–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As long as ministers and laymen labor under the delusion that contemporary Christianity is the same religion that Jesus practiced they will remain immunized against his way of life and will lack the vision.”
Kirby Page (1890–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“National unions embracing a considerable portion of the workers in a given industry are able to exert terrific power in the determination of the relative levels of wages, dividends and interest. To the degree that organized labor is strong, the power of owners is decreased.”
Kirby Page (1890–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Slaving gave rise to a division of labor in which the business of capture, maintenance, and overland transport of slaves was in African hands, while Europeans took charge of transoceanic transport, the "seasoning" or breaking in of slaves, and their eventual distribution.”
Eric Wolf (1923–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Marx the dialectical method aims at understanding society as a whole. Bourgeois thought concerns itself with objects that arise either from the process of studying phenomena in isolation, or from the division of labor and specialisation in the different disciplines.”
György Lukács (1885–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dissensions over the use of force, that have been so continuous and passionate in the labor movement, arise from two diametrically opposed points of view. One is at bottom anarchistic, and looks upon all social evils as the result of individual wrong-doing. The other is at bottom socialistic, and looks upon all social evils as in the main the result of economic and social law.”
Robert Hunter (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Contrary to every tendency which, in modern society, leads to the separation of men and classes, Tolstoy beseeches us to go to those in hunger and distress, to share their manual labor and even the greatest extreme of their poverty.”
Robert Hunter (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He [Tolstoy] seems to have felt somehow that social evolution was standing in his way. He did not like the division of labor. He hated all forms of commerce and trade. The State was an abomination in his eyes. He wanted it abolished and with it, indeed, all of modern society based upon machine industry. With Rousseau, he would go back to the primitive state.”
Robert Hunter (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“History is never antiquated, because humanity is always fundamentally the same. It is always hungry for bread, sweaty with labor, struggling to wrest from nature and hostile men enough to feed its children. The welfare of the mass is always at odds with the selfish force of the strong.”
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) said by 1918 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“# satisfying shareholders and employees; labor and management.”
Henri Fayol (1841–1925) said by 1925 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Success for a woman means absolute surrender, in whatever direction. Whether she paints a picture, or loves a man, there is no division of labor possible in her economy. To the attainment of any end worth living for, a symmetrical sacrifice of her nature is compulsory upon her.”
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (1844–1911) first seen 1877 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Study of Avis (1877)
“The greatest problem before engineers and managers today is the economical utilization of labor. The limiting of output by the workman, and the limiting by the employer of the amount a workman is allowed to earn, are both factors which militate against that harmonious co-operation of employer and employee which is essential to their highest common good.”
Henry Gantt (1861–1919) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: H.L. Gantt (1904) paper presented before the International Congress of Arts and Sciences at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, St. Louis, 1904. Published in: H.L. Gantt (1910) Work, Wages, and Profits: Their Influence o…
“The post-Freudians … have fallen victim to the ravages of the intellectual division of labor.”
Russell Jacoby (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Social differentiation is a universal characteristic of human societies. Early human societies survived and became dominant among animal species because of their superior social organization — that is, their more elaborate division of labor and consequent close coordination of activities.”
Walter F. Buckley (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Socialism, when it attempts to predict or imagine the future (which Marx refused to do, since he conceived of a path, not a model), provides us merely with an improved form of labor (salaries and material conditions on the job).”
Henri Lefebvre (1901–1991) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Henri Lefebvre (1970/2003) The Urban Revolution p. 110.
“We hope this car will be less labor intensive, less material intensive, less everything intensive than anything we have done before.”
Roger Smith (executive) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: R.B. Smith cited in: Lloyd L. Byars (1987) Strategic management: planning and implementation : concepts and cases p. 150.
“We should rebuild a just and harmonious society, where amicability exists between labor and capital, the younger and older generations, men and women, as well as concerned parties in the recent debates about legalizing same-sex marriage.”
Wu Den-yih (born 1948) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wu Den-yih (2017) cited in: "Wu pledges just governance if elected" in Taipei Times, 10 January 2017.
“Motion study is the science of eliminating wastefulness resulting from using unnecessary, ill-directed, and inefficient motions. The aim of motion study is to find and perpetuate the scheme of least waste methods of labor.”
Frank Bunker Gilbreth (1868–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I believe, what the Labor Party believes, is that marriage is between a man and a woman.”
Julia Gillard (born 1961) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2010 Australian federal election press conference, 2 August 2010
“I know the Leader of the Opposition [Tony Abbott] has an unhealthy kind of obsession with the so-called "faceless men in the Labor Party"; what he really should be obsessed about is the useless men sitting behind him.”
Julia Gillard (born 1961) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Question Time, c. March 2012
“I thought that, that side of [Rudd's] character – the very anxious, 'I must be in the media, I must shine in Parliament today' – would fall away when he became Labor leader and there was no more fighting for the spotlight; the spotlight was well and truly on him.”
Julia Gillard (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bruce Hawker was a useful press secretary for a state premier a few years ago before becoming a lobbyist. Right now I am sure he has his hands full helping bail out a sinking Labor government with a recycled Kevin Rudd.”
Bruce Hawker (born 1955) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lynton Crosby, quoted in Evening Standard, Wednesday 7 August 2013, p. 2
“I got involved in electoral politics because I believed that movement activism on behalf of civil rights and women's rights and labor rights and environmental protection and peace needed to be reflected on our ballots and in the corridors of power.”
Bernie Sanders (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The minutest details of cost of materials and labor in every department appeared from day to day and week to week in the accounts; and soon every man about the place was made to realize it. The men felt and often remarked that the eye of the company were on them through the books.”
Alfred D. Chandler Jr. (1918–2007) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bridge (1903, p. 85), cited on p. 268; Cited in: Best (1990, p. 63).
“International specialization and division of labor requires institutions and organizations to safeguard property rights across international boundaries so that capital markets as well as other kinds of exchange can take place with credible commitment on the part of the players.”
Douglass North (1920–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Both... the separation of labor from control and of the owner from control... have made possible the continuing development of the size of the individual enterprise, have reduced the area within which economic processes is organized through the interplay of prices and have increased the area within which production is organized... and the coordination of production on a planned basis.”
Gardiner C. Means (1896–1988) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gardiner C. Means (1933; 6) as cited in: Samuels and Medema (1990; 69)
“So vast the labor to create The fabric of the Roman state!”
John Conington (1825–1869) said by 1869 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Years from now, when historians can look back and put our time into perspective, they will say that of its towering figures—more truly great than generals and diplomats, business grants and labor grants, bigger than most of our presidents—was a man called Brandeis.”
Max Lerner (1902–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The breakdown of discrimination in one part of the labor market facilitates a similar change in all other parts of it. The vicious circle can be reversed.”
Gunnar Myrdal (1898–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In November 1944 the Nazi authorities finally decided to deport my labor unit from Budapest to an Austrian concentration camp, where most of my comrades eventually perished. But I was lucky enough to make my escape from the railway station in Budapest, just before our train left for Austria. Then a Jesuit father I had known gave me refuge in the cellar of their monastery.”
John Harsanyi (1920–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Did America owe something to the slaves whose labor had been stolen? ... That debt...is best discharged through memory, because the slaves are dead and their descendants...are better off as a consequence of their ancestors being hauled from Africa to America.”
Dinesh D'Souza (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Capitalism is based on the endless accumulation of wealth, extracted from the environment and from our labor, and government is based on the accumulation of power and control directly stolen from all the rest of us. A marriage between these two systems, which has defined the social reality for at least five hundred years, means everyone gets fucked.”
Peter Gelderloos (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The increment of the commodity which he is only just induced to acquire (whether by... direct labor or by purchase) may be called its Marginal Increment; because he is on the margin of doubt whether it is worth his while to incur the outlay required to obtain it. And the benefit-giving power, or Utility, of that increment to him may be called the Marginal Utility of the commodity to him.”
Alfred Marshall (1842–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The necessity of every one paying in his own labor for what he consumes, affords the only legitimate and effectual check to excessive luxury, which has so often ruined individuals, states, and empires; and which has now brought almost universal bankruptcy upon us.”
Josiah Warren (1798–1874) said by 1874 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Caste, religion, the political system, the economic system — all are helping the bonded labor owners … I believe in Gandhi’s philosophy of the last man, that is, the bonded laborer is the last man in Indian society, that we are here to liberate the last man.”
Kailash Satyarthi (born 1954) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi Are Awarded Nobel Peace Prize" by Alan Cowell and Declan Walsh, in The New York Times (10 October 2014)
“No analysis of the limits of economic freedom or the uses of coercion by government, labor unions, or organizations of any kind can do justice to the complexity of the subject without taking account of the distinction between collective and noncollective goods.”
Mancur Olson (1932–1998) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (1965), III. The Labor Union and Economic Freedom
“The mechanism of the market was asserting itself and clamoring for its completion: human labor had to be made a commodity. Reactionary paternalism had in vain tried to resist this necessity. Out of the horrors of Speenhamland men rushed blindly for the shelter of a utopian market economy.”
Karl Polanyi (1886–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They call us thieves and bandits. They say we steal. But it was not we who stole millions of Black people from the continent of Africa. We were robbed of our language, of our Gods, of our culture, of our human dignity, of our labor, and of our lives. They call us thieves, yet it is not.”
Assata Shakur (1947–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We define substance abuse as throwing away substance in favor of a better-looking wrapper. Running off experienced people for cheaper labor makes as much sense as peeling a banana, throwing the fruit away, and eating the peel.”
John Hoover (consultant) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only substantial difference between them, and the one that divided them politically almost since birth, was their system of labor.”
William C. Davis (historian) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thanks to slavery, in the South capital and labor were combined in nearly four million sweating field hands picking cotton and planting rice.”
William C. Davis (historian) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What a son I’ve made. The midwives must have turned me in my labor so that I lay on your brain and crushed it.”
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Crede vigori femineo. Castum haud superat labor ullus amorem.”
Silius Italicus (26–101) said by 101 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Quoque magis subiere iugo atque euadere nisi erexere gradum, crescit labor. ardua supra sese aperit fessis et nascitur altera moles.”
Silius Italicus (26–101) said by 101 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is essential to realize that it was this analysis of the social characteristics of commodity production, and not an arbitrary preconception or an ethical principle, which led Marx to identify labor as the substance of value.”
Paul Sweezy (1910–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source