Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

English Italiano Polski עברית Français Português فارسی Español 中文 Русский Deutsch العربية हिन्दी 日本語 Ελληνικά Latina

Work

Love Friendship Happiness Hope Fear Courage Death Life Time War Peace Freedom Truth Wisdom Knowledge Science Art Music Nature Money Work Power God Beauty Laughter Family Success and failure Change Dreams Books and reading

“I wanted to increase the work requirement. I said, for instance, that even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, "Well, that's heartless." And I said, "No, no, I'm willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It'll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.”
Mitt Romney (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The party must fight with all its power and with every necessary strategy against the attempt to isolate it and throw its energy back upon itself. The party must also conduct a resolute struggle against the tendency to construe “party work” only in the sense of inner party work as well as against the tendency to make an artificial separation between mass work and inner party work.”
James P. Cannon (1890–1974) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Unite the Party!", (1925)
“The return from your work must be the satisfaction which that work brings you and the world's need of that work. With this, life is heaven, or as near heaven as you can get. Without this — with work which you despise, which bores you, and which the world does not need — this life is hell.”
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To His Newborn Great-Grandson, address on his ninetieth birthday (1958)
“There is a reciprocal action between the work of art and the viewer. The river changes the work of art and criticism can also change the artist.. .There are so many ideas afloat; any of them could have triggered the work of art. It is impossible to determine exactly if the idea has been transmitted by the critic, or if the work itself has determined its outcome..”
Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1986) n.p.
“I am gradually approaching the period in my life when work comes first. When both the boys went away for Easter, I hardly did anything but work. Worked, slept, ate and went for short walks. But above all I worked. And yet I wonder whether the "blessing" is not missing from such work. No longer diverted by other emotions, I work the way a cow grazes.”
Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diary entry (April 1910).
“Understanding how maps work and why maps work (or do not work) as representations in their own right and as prompts to further representations, and what it means for a map to work, are critical issues as we embark on a visual information age.”
Alan MacEachren (born 1952) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (2004), p. v
“That is something that I of course will continue to work on. To work for Sweden, to work for the people of Sweden and together with my family continue to work in the coming years for the monarchy in Sweden.”
Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hire someone looking to work, they’ll work for the next check. Hire someone who believes in the work and they’ll work for a lifetime.”
Marcus Orelias (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Short stories come to you whole. A novel is work—work, work, work—and then one day it’s over; it’s finished. But a short story is something that happens to you—it’s like catching the flu.”
Isabel Allende (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Work is more than income; work is dignity, work is respect, and work is the lifeblood of the nation.”
Samia Suluhu Hassan (born 1960) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Samia pledges pay rise next year, urges workers to step up performance the citizen (May 01, 2026 )
“Whenever I'd heard anyone say "Relationships are work," I'd always scoffed, because I thought relationships should grow wild like untended gardens, but now I knew they were work, and unpaid work too - volunteer work.”
Steve Toltz (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the political-cartoons genre I like Ares and (Angel) Boligan´s work for their graphic style. I also admire the work of Quino…In children´s illustration, I could give a lot of names also but if I had to choose only one I can say I really admire the work of Rebecca Dautremer. I’m fascinated by her work.”
Anne Derenne wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a society, we've put work first, and it hasn't helped work. We have not done better work when we put work first,”
Heather McGowan first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Practical Advice On How To Lead An Empowered Workforce Forbes (March4, 2023)
“Words are mere wind, but wind too has always been part of our work, this work of sowers for the future, the work of story-tellers, the work of masters in the arts of eloquence.”
Ayi Kwei Armah (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is so hard because I literally put in so much work. I put in so much work for that story. But now it seems that my head is overlooking my work. You guys are not focused on my craft. You guys are more focused on my physicality and my head. I literally work so hard, but you know”
Nomvelo Makhanya (born 1996) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I will say to the young, upcoming footballers, they need to work hard, stay disciplined and carry themselves (well). What is important is how to carry yourself and don’t forget to pray and work hard, because your hard work, is going to pay off. So they need to work hard and leave the friends that have bad habits.”
Mpumi Nyandeni (born 1987) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hope ex-members will continue to work with Labour on issues like homelessness, the benefit system, the NHS and most of all fighting this Tory Brexit”
Diane Abbott (born 1953) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Labour and Conservatives could see more MP exits" BBC News (21 February 2019).
“What should I do with your strong, manly, spirited sketches, full of variety and glow? How could I possibly join them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour?”
Jane Austen (1775–1817) first seen 1816 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to J. Edward Austen (1816-12-16) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
“Many will there be who will give up work and labour and poverty of life and goods, and will go to live among wealth in splendid buildings, declaring that this is the way to make themselves acceptable to God.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) said by 1519 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For 'im that doth not work must surely die; But that's no reason man should labour all 'Is life on one same shift—life's none so long.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sestina of the Tramp-Royal, Stanza 4 (1896).
“[The Labour government] flung away the opportunity. They flung away a Heaven-given opening. What for? Not in order to emancipate the land, not in order to find work for the unemployed, not in order to build homes for the houseless, but in order to commit the taxation of this country to a gigantic loan to a number of fanatical visionaries who are ruining the great land of Russia.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Pembroke Dock (23 October 1924), quoted in The Times (24 October 1924), p. 16
“I know the expense of this would not pay 1 per cent. interest. Perhaps not, but it would pay better than doles to rot men in idleness, and their work would leave the national estate for ever richer. On every account the best exchange for the workless is an exchange of the green doors of the Labour Bureau for the green fields of Britain.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Killerton Park, near Exeter, opening the Liberal land campaign (17 September 1925), quoted in The Times (18 September 1925), p. 14
“This is the gospel of labour, ring it, ye bells of the kirk! The Lord of Love came down from above, to live with the men who work. This is the rose that He planted, here in the thorn-curst soil: Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth is toil.”
Henry van Dyke (1852–1933) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Toiling of Felix, Pt. III, st. 5. (1898)
“Not to go on for ever repeating what man has already done is our work, but to arrive at new realisations and undreamed-of masteries. Time and soul and world are given us for our field, vision and hope and creative imagination stand for our prompters, will and thought and labour are our all-effective instruments.”
Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is something at work in my soul which I do not understand. I am practically industrious — painstaking, a workman to execute with perseverance and labour — but besides this there is a love for the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore.”
Mary Shelley (1797–1851) said by 1851 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have said as much as that the aim of art was to destroy the curse of labour by making work the pleasurable satisfaction of our impulse towards energy, and giving to that energy hope of producing something worth its exercise.”
William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mission which the agents of the State in Congo must fulfill is noble and of high purpose. Their task is to develop the work of civilization. They must gradually contain the primitive wildness, the bloodthirsty habits of thousands of years. They must subject the population to new laws. among which the most urgent and the most beneficial is undoubtedly that of labour.”
Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Inculturation of Christian marriage in the Belgian Congo. 1919-1950. The Policy Making of the Mission Superiors on Polygamy; their directives to the missionaries and influence on the policy of the State. (Betty Eggermon…
“John Ruskin: 'The labour of two days is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?' Whistler: 'No. I ask it for the knowledge I have gained in the work of a lifetime.'”
James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) first seen 1878 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Whistler v. Ruskin (1878)
“New Labour’s community development work was all private-sector driven, consultation-tinged regeneration that was done to poor people rather than being controlled by them. I found it, on the whole, a massive waste of money.”
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman (born 1961) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Third Sector, 6 June 2011
“The most powerful urge known to Man is the urge to be free of manual labour. Any means that accomplishes that end is fine. Some people erroneously imagine that they have a birthright to non-manual work.”
Elfriede Jelinek (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They were going to work their own country for all it was worth, to bring human labour into touch with God's natural endowments, so that the land would blossom like the rose and have houses and firesides where there would be happiness and glorious aspirations.”
Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to a Labour Party luncheon in the Hotel Belgravia, Victoria (1 November 1923), quoted in The Times (2 November 1923), p. 9
“The way Labour work is that they have demonised Thatcher as if she was an evil force... It's only because Scots are so thick that this was swallowed.”
Ivor Tiefenbrun (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our laws have our mindset negative, dishonest, unproductive, obstructionist and indisciplined. [Kurien says] we must liberate our resources. Economic liberalization is aimed at liberating our material resources. Economic liberalization is aimed at liberating our material resources. We need to liberate our mental resources, viz. the mindset, from our anti-national and anti-work ethic labour laws.”
Verghese Kurien (1921–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hope that youngsters and civil society organizations and every Indian will feel proud. It is a noble cause to work for the rights of children. It is a movement against child labour and everyone must join it.”
Kailash Satyarthi (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was a passion from my childhood to work for children, I carried it forward. I have been very strongly advocating that poverty must not be used as an excuse to continue child labour. It perpetuates poverty. If children are deprived of education, they remain poor.”
Kailash Satyarthi (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Organization is a mechanism or structure that enables things to work effectively together. The basic elements of organization are division of labour, a source of authority, and relationships. This is true for all forms of living organizations.”
Louis A. Allen (1917–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This great squire—he was a very rich, influential man—sent for me to go down to his house when my work was over, in order to canvass me. I went down, and after some talk he said to me, "Do your Liberals find you employment?" "What has that to do with my vote?" I said. "I sell you my labour, but not my conscience ; that's not for sale.”
Joseph Arch (1826–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Against this background of improvisation and violence, the first Soviet labour camps were born. Like so many other Bolshevik institutions, they were created ad hoc... as an emergency measure in the heat of the civil war. This is not to say the idea had no prior appeal. Three weeks before the , Lenin... was... sketching... [a] vague plan to organize 'obligatory work duty' for wealthy capitalists.”
Anne Applebaum (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m a radical on this; I’d get rid of a lot of these child labour laws. I want people starting to work at 11, 12.”
Stephen Moore (born 1960) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2016, during a debate on the minimum wage at the 2016 Republican National Convention sponsored by FreedomWorks (; ; )
“Some men work to maintain others who labour not. That is unjust.”
Leon MacLaren (1910–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I managed to start changing the funding formulas, to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve because we inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I started the work of undoing that.”
Rishi Sunak (born 1980) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Leaked speech delivered in Tunbridge Wells, Kent (29 July 2022)
“Russians taking Ukrainian citizens to so called “filtration camps” then relocating them to distant parts of Russia to work for free. In other words slave labour. Straight out of Nazi Germany playbook.”
Andrew Neil (born 1949) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter, 6:37 PM · 21 March 2022
“Work hard, stay positive, do some good, walk your own path and keep persisting. You will definitely see the fruits of your labour.”
Hamisha Daryani Ahuja (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You cannot work with people who have come to undermine the biggest challenge we've had - we've never had a leader like Corbyn before in the whole history of the Labour Party ... and that's why the dirty tricks are going to come out.”
Ken Loach (born 1936) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At a speech delivered at a Labour Party meeting in Bristol cited in "Loach: Labour MPs who protested against antisemitism should be 'kicked out'" The Jewish Chronicle (11 April 2018)
“The work is tiring, drudgery, a labour of years, and when the reader receives the book, he has to feel the trickery, the magic. He must not see the heart that suffers, the grubby hands.”
Dorit Rabinyan (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many people work hard to get their names into the newspapers. For Tariq Ali it is enough to fill in an application form to join the Labour Party, enclosing a cheque for £5, and he makes the front page of The Times.”
Maureen Cleave (1934–2021) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The discreet charm of the bogeyman", Evening Standard (17 December 1981), p. 7
“No smell doth stink as sweet as labour, Tis joyous times when man and man Do work and sweat in common toil.When all the world’s my neighbor.”
Athol Fugard (1932–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gender gaps are also a matter of concern. A woman is associated globally with 30 per cent less chance of being in the labour force and often being at the bottom of the economic ladder. Women continue to be paid approximately 20 per cent less than men per month across the world, even when they are engaged in the same or work of equal value.”
Janat Mukwaya (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In 2005, the Obasanjo regime said the labour unions had become too powerful, so they decided to break them,” he said. “Today, because of the ruthless exploitation of workers in Nigeria, the NLC and TUC work together.”
Femi Falana (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The home used to be very labour intensive. After all, with the advent of electricity the work load was eased and women began to search for employment.”
Kirsten Bodley wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source