Famous quotes

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Work

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“A child raised every 2. years is of more profit then the crop of the best laboring man. in this, as in all other cases, providence has made our duties and our interests coincide perfectly.... [W]ith respect therefore to our women & their children I must pray you to inculcate upon the overseers that it is not their labor, but their increase which is the first consideration with us.”
Thomas Jefferson (attributed) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In letter to plantation manager, as quoted in The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson, by Henry Wiencek, Smithsonian Magazine, (October 2012)
“Man, being essentially active, must find in activity his joy, as well as his beauty and glory; and labor, like every thing else that is good, is its own reward.”
Henry Benjamin Whipple (misattributed) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported as being by Henry Benjamin Whipple in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 3. Actually a misquotation from Edwin Percy Whipple, "Loafing and Laboring", The North…
“Labor humanizes, exalts.”
Amos Bronson Alcott (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What the country needs are a few labor-making inventions.”
Arnold Glasow (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every time a man sets himself to learn, he has to labor as hard as anyone can, and the limits of his learning are determined by his own nature. Therefore, there is no point in talking about knowledge. Fear of knowledge is natural; all of us experience it, and there is nothing we can do about it. But no matter how frightening learning is, it is more terrible to think of a man without knowledge.”
Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Today people live to work rather than work for a living. They have forgotten their true goal in life. Subsequently they have forgotten their dharma. There is no communication between hearts, there is no sharing. Having lost contact with other's hearts, we become totally isolated. But in truth we are not isolated islands, we are links that form one chain.”
Mata Amritanandamayi (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You have to really work at it to write. I guess there has to be talent first; but even with talent you still have to work at it, to write.”
James Jones (1921–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I feel convinced that every man has given him of God much more than he has any idea of, and that he can help on the world's work more than he knows of. What we want is the single eye that will see what our work is, the humility to accept it, however lowly, the faith to do it for God, the perseverance to go on till death.”
Norman MacLeod (1812–1872) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 123.
“Just remember — if you are really and truly determined to work with animals, somehow, either now or later, you will find a way to do it. But you have to want it desperately, work hard, take advantage of an opportunity — and never give up.”
Jane Goodall (1934–2025) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: My Life with the Chimpanzees (1996), p. 113
“My father was teaching me his trade. I was his son and he was showing me how to write the way his own father from Torricella Peligna had shown him, as a boy, how to work a wall of stone or lay a row of brick. I was learning how to build books. Watching a master at work. Those would be the most important days of my life.”
John Fante (1909–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dan Fante, about his late father John Fante. From the Introduction (December 2003) by Dan Fante to The Bandini Quartet by John Fante (the four 'Arturo Bandini' novels in one volume, published by Canongate Books Ltd.).
Also quoted by: Dan Fante
“If you don't clearly understand what you are looking for in a teacher or in internal work, you will inevitably accept someone else's agenda as your own. While you may start internal transformative work on the suggestion or advice of another person, at some point your practice has to become a response to your own questions about life and being.”
Ken McLeod (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..I believe it is a big mistake to think that money is the only way to compensate a person for his work. People need money, but they also want to be happy in their work and proud of it.”
Akio Morita (1921–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The life, no matter how traumatic, never explains the work, if the work is any good. W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Doris Lessing, and Saul Bellow variously believed in faeries, funny money, flying saucers, and orgone energy accumulation, but so have millions of other people who never got around to writing even a mediocre poem or novel.”
John Leonard (critic) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No Expectations", New York Magazine (12 December 2003)
“How long must the church live before it will learn that strength is won by action, and success by work, and that all this immeasurable feeding without action and work is a positive damage to it — that it is the procurer of spiritual obesity, gout, and debility.”
Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And as our friendship grew, and I learned more about Barack, he introduced me to the work he'd done when he first moved to Chicago after college. Instead of heading to Wall Street, Barack had gone to work in neighborhoods devastated when steel plants shut down and jobs dried up. And he'd been invited back to speak to people from those neighborhoods about how to rebuild their community.”
Michelle Obama (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So tonight, in honor of my father's memory and my daughters' future — out of gratitude to those whose triumphs we mark this week, and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment — let us devote ourselves to finishing their work; let us work together to fulfill their hopes; and let us stand together to elect Barack Obama president of the United States of America.”
Michelle Obama (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He went to Los Angeles to do the work even though he hated the city; it was full of happy homogeneous people without structure or direction. While on the bus to work, it seemed to him Los Angeles went on long after it had already made its point.”
Gregory Benford (born 1941) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: White Creatures, p. 170 (Originally published in New Dimensions 5, edited by Robert Silverberg), 1975
“There’s a huge amount of work that goes into placating a network in regular television. It’s literally 70% or 80% of your workload, is showing them the material, getting their notes and presenting it to them and making sure they weigh in. It’s a huge amount of work.”
Louis C.K. (born 1967) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (2010)
“Up, then, with speed, and work; Fling ease and self away — This is no time for thee to sleep — Up, watch, and work, and pray!”
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'...one of those men who seem commonplace when first met but then prove to be completely original both in their work and their lives... Apparently slight and unpretentious, his work has a queer magic, which is what I want from poetry.”
Ralph Hodgson (1871–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: J.B. Priestley The Edwardians (London: Heinemann, 1970. SBN 434 60332 5. P.125.)
“I don’t get angry, I don’t want to use harsh words. They are our colleagues and we have to work with them. But they also have to learn to work with us.”
Manmohan Singh (1932–2024) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Responding to the opposition of Communist Party of India (Marxist) towards the India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement, as quoted in "‘Anguished’ PM to Left: If you want to withdraw, so be it", The Telegraph (India)…
“As long as we work on God's line, He will aid us. When we attempt to work on our own lines, He rebukes us with failure.”
Theodore L. Cuyler (1822–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Little work from a scholar is doubly accepted; much work from the men of low desire and ignorance is refused.":309”
Musa al-Kadhim (745–799) said by 799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When women's consciousness was raised, women ended up seeing housework as their shit work ; when men's consciousness is raised, risking sexual rejection will be seen as the male shit work .”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Feminists often discuss women having two jobs: work and children. True. But no one discusses those divorced and remarried men who have three jobs: work, and two sets of children to nurture and financially support.”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we suggest that men are at the top because men discriminate, we miss the point. Men are at the top of the work hierarchy because work has been primarily men's responsibility.”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After years of work in both areas of study, I concluded that the social sciences were different, in many important ways, from the natural sciences, but that the same scientific methods were applicable in both areas, and, indeed, that no very useful work could be done in either area except by scientific methods.”
Carroll Quigley (1910–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is not for the personal satisfaction of one or the other, but art wants to return all what’s in life... Art wants to give back everything what’s in our lives. The more comprehensive the artist stands in life the more powerful his work will speak, and therefore a work of art is a measure of the mental size of his creator.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to H. E. Kramer, 25-10-1926, as quoted in: Bram van Velde, A Tribute, Municipal Museum De Lakenhal Leiden, Municipal Museum Schiedam, Museum de Wieger, Deurne 1994, p. 44 (English translation: Charlotte Burgmans)
“My work is independent of my will. My best works are created when driven by an inner strength. This has nothing to do with my will. It is that immediate spontaneity of my intense way of living that makes the difference between my work and a lot of other artists who make art works with their mind.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to H. E. Kramer, 14-11-1927, as quoted in: Bram van Velde, A Tribute, Municipal Museum De Lakenhal Leiden, Municipal Museum Schiedam, Museum de Wieger, Deurne 1994, p. 46 (English translation: Charlotte Burgmans)
“If these gouaches [Bram van Velde recently made] live at all, it is because they are true, they derive from life. They are born of the unknown – and not of habit or know-how, or intention, or of some recipe.. ..there comes a time when serious work is no longer an effort. When demanding work of that kind no longer tires you.”
Bram van Velde (1895–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the Bernstein Manual there is a short chapter on undercover work. The first line says, in capital letters, AVOID UNDERCOVER WORK.”
Eoin Colfer (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He produced a work of art which by its deep appreciation of natural beauty and the melancholy tenderness of its treatment of the ancient legend did more than any single work to bring about the romantic movement in European, and especially in German, literature.”
James Macpherson (1736–1796) said by 1796 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edn. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910-11) vol. 17, p. 268.
“The balance between karma and akarma gives holistic vision..Lots of discussions regarding Karmayoga.No work can be completed without karma.That is the truth.Everybody accepts this truth.Our world is one of incompleteness.Where there is incompleteness, there is relativity.Both karma and akarma are relative.No work is completed without akarma.”
Mahāprajña (1920–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lois: Oh, you guys have enough to worry about with your careers and all. You don't need to hear about my problems. Ginger: Are you kidding? I'd much rather hear about your problems than work on my dissertation. Lois: Thank you, Ginger. Considering you'd rather fellate Bill Clinton than work on your dissertation, that's very generous.”
Alison Bechdel (born 1960) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: #250, "Ph. D. & Sympathy" (1996), collected in Hot, Throbbing DTWOF (1997).
“The more we work the more we need to pray. In this day of activity there is great danger, not of doing too much, but of praying too little for so much work.”
Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The reason why those who are converted to Christ often make so poor a work of rectifying their old habits, is that they lay down their work in the very places where it needs to be prosecuted most carefully, that is, in their common employments. They do not live to God in that which is least.”
Horace Bushnell (1802–1876) said by 1876 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you want to do good research, it's important not to know too much. This almost sounds contradictory but really if you know too much and you get an idea, you will sort of talk yourself out of trying it because you figure it won't work. But if you know just the right amount and you get enthusiastic about your project, you go ahead, you do it and if you're lucky things'll work out.”
Ivar Giaever (1929–2025) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Ivar Giaever's Nobel Prize. Interview produced by Alfred Leitner in 1982.
“One day work is hard, and another day it is easy; but if I had waited for inspiration I am afraid I should have done nothing. The miner does not sit at the top of the shaft waiting for the coal to come bubbling up to the surface. One must go deep down, and work out every vein carefully.”
Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Untitled essay, reprinted in Arthur Lawrence Sir Arthur Sullivan: Life-story, Letters and Reminiscences (London: James Bowden, 1899) p. 225.
“You need to study other people's work. Their approaches to problem solving and the tools they use give you a fresh way to look at your own work.”
Gary Kildall (1942–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Elvis! Elvis! Wake up. It’s past six in de morning and all your mates are out dere looking for work,” his father, Sunday, said. “What work, sir? I have a job.” “Dancing is no job. We all dance in de bar on Saturday. Open dis bloody door!” Sunday shouted.”
Chris Abani (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whatever work you undertake to do in your lifetime, it is very important that first you have a passion for it — you know, get excited about it — and second, that you have fun with it. That's important. Otherwise, you see, your work becomes nothing but an idle chore. Then, you hate the life you live.”
Julius Sumner Miller (1909–1987) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Why Is It So?, episode 1 (1963), Australian ABC Television show
“The first great work that men are to attend in this world is the eternal safety and security of their souls; the next great work is to know, to be assured, that it shall go well with their souls forever.”
Thomas Brooks (Puritan) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Justification is the work of Christ for us; sanctification the work of the Spirit in us; justification is perfect at once; sanctification is progressive; justification is before sanctification, and sanctification is the fruit of justification; consequently the evidence of our justification is our sanctification.”
John Angell James (1785–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even among physicists, apart from... work in quantum theory or relativity.., those who do experimental work use hardly any more mathematics than... known to Maxwell in 1860.”
Jean Dieudonné (1906–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God's great work in man takes place in the Interior. The order that appears and is shown outside is the work and effect of the order inside.”
Francisco Palau (1811–1872) said by 1872 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Few people who are not actually practitioners of a mature science realize how much mop-up work of this sort a paradigm leaves to be done or quite how fascinating such work can prove in the execution.”
Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 24 (2012 ed.)
“Let us not torment each other because we are not all alike, but believe that God knew best what He was doing in making us so different. So will the best harmony come out of seeming discords, the best affection out of differences, the best life out of struggle, and the best work will be done when each does his own work, and lets every one else do and be what God made him for.”
James Freeman Clarke (1810–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I never saw a useful Christian who was not a student of the Bible. If a man neglects his Bible, he may pray and ask God to use him in His work; but God cannot make much use of him, for there is not much for the Holy Ghost to work upon.”
Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The work of my students and myself, for which you have so signally honoured me... is... a small part of much pioneering work... over... nearly twenty years, into the chemistry of radio-elements and the existence and nature of s.”
Frederick Soddy (1877–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was looking for a job when I found this one Don't need the work like you need the work done You look like you're under pressure I was already looking for a job two weeks ago, when I met you, remember?”
Todd Snider (1966–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source