Back To Work quotes page 2
“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist
“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.”
Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet
Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale
“The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Source: The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People (1989), p. 161
“A girl doesn't need anyone who doesn't need her”
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer
“If you’re alive, you’re a creative person.”
Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer
Dale Carnegie, quoted in Permission to Play : Taking Time to Renew Your Smile (2003) by Jill Murphy Long, p. 69
“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
Beverly Sills (1929–2007) opera soprano
As quoted in Conquering an Enemy Called Average (1996) by John L. Mason
Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film
Reddit IAmA (c. April 2012) http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/s2uh1/i_am_joss_whedon_ama/c4ao0m1
“We never can just stop time. Or take moments back. Life doesn't work that way, does it?”
Christine Feehan American writer
Source: Oceans of Fire
Samuel Butler book The Way of All Flesh
Source: The Way of All Flesh (1903), Ch. 14
Context: Every man’s work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself, and the more he tries to conceal himself the more clearly will his character appear in spite of him.
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer
Variant: Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.
“Any damn fool can beg up some kind of job; it takes a wise man to make it without working.”
Charles Bukowski book Post Office
Source: Post Office (1971)
“The humblest tasks get beautified if loving hands do them.”
Louisa May Alcott book Little Women
Source: Little Women
“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
Karen Lamb (1982) British tennis player
“When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?”
Don Marquis (1878–1937) American writer
“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”
Marc Chagall (1887–1985) French artist and painter
“Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.”
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
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“Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Variant: Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
“It’s life. You don’t figure it out. You just climb up on the beast and ride.”
Rebecca Wells book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
“It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
As quoted in "Ali's Quotes" at BBC Sport : Boxing (17 January 2007)
“There is no such thing as a good tax.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The correct attribution is Oklahoma Senator Thomas Gore, in his speech to the National Tax Association in 1935.. Though it is often attributed to Churchill, there is no evidence he ever said it.
Misattributed
Variant: There is no such thing as a good tax.
Source: http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/there_is_no_such_thing_as_a_good_tax/
Source: http://newspaperarchive.com/san-antonio-express/1935-10-17/page-2
“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.”
Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)
Soyez réglé dans votre vie et ordinaire comme un bourgeois, afin d'être violent et original dans vos œuvres. To Gertrude Tennant (December 25, 1876)
Correspondence
Variant: Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
James Lee Burke (1936) Novelist, short story writer
Source: In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead
Earl Nightingale (1921–1989) American motivational speaker
“Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.”
Maya Angelou book Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
Source: Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
“Go and get your things,' he said. 'Dreams mean work.”
Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet
As quoted in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989) by Jeffrey M. Elliot
“When they give you lined paper, write the other way.”
Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451
Misattributed
Variant: If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.
Source: Epigraph, in Fahrenheit 451 a translation of a statement by Juan Ramón Jiménez
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
“Silence is a true friend who never betrays.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
“The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.”
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!
“If they give you lined paper, write the other way.”
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) American poet
Patrick Süskind (1949) German writer and screenwriter
Source: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
“I have been bent and broken, but -I hope- into a better shape.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
“In matters of style, swim with the current: in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
As quoted in Careertracking: 26 success Shortcuts to the Top (1988) by James Calano and Jeff Salzman; though used in an address by Bill Clinton (31 March 1997), and sometimes cited to Notes on the State of Virginia (1787) no earlier occurence of this has yet been located.
Disputed
“It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.”
Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist
Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
“Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.”
Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film
“The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.”
Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer
Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.”
Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
This phrase was created by reporter Sharon Begley in the end of a 1977 Newsweek article with an extended profile of Carl Sagan. It was a final conclusion about Sagan's work and the topic of hypotethical extra-terrestrial life forms. "Quote Investigator" http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/18/incredible/ <br class="br">Misattributed
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship
“Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist
Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
“When given an opportunity, deliver excellence and never quit.”
Robert Rodriguez (1968) American film director and producer
Source: Rebel Without a Crew, or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player
“Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.”
Claus Moser, Baron Moser (1922–2015) British statistician and Civil Servant
The Daily Telegraph, 21 August 1990 http://www2.gsu.edu/~dscthw/8350/bayes/perfinfo.pdf
“The business of business is business.”
Alfred P. Sloan (1875–1966) American businessman
Widely attributed to Milton Friedman, and sometimes cited as being in his work Capitalism and Freedom (1962) this is also attributed to Alfred P. Sloan, sometimes with citation of a statement of 1964, but sometimes with attestations to his use of it as a motto as early as 1923.
Disputed
Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer
As quoted in Become a Conscious Creator: A Return to Self-Empowerment (2007) by Lisa Ford, p. 44
“They can because they think they can.”
John Conington (1825–1869) British classical scholar
Source: Translations, The Aeneid of Virgil (1866), Book V, p. 153
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Misattributed to Confucius since at least 1985; correct origins are dubious, as mentioned in "Choose a Job You Love, and You Will Never Have To Work a Day in Your Life" at QuoteInvestigator.com (2 September 2014) http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/09/02/job-love/: the oldest English-language use of the proverb has been found in Woolfolk, Ann, "Toshiko Takaezu," Princeton Alumni Weekly, Vol. 83(5), 6 October 1982, p. 32: "Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life." (attributed to Arthur Szathmary, who attributes it, in his turn, to an unnamed source). <br class="br">Misattributed, Not Chinese
“Each man had only one genuine vocation — to find the way to himself”
Hermann Hesse book Demian
Source: Demian (1919), p. 193
“Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.”
Nil sine magno
vita labore dedit mortalibus.
Book I, satire ix, line 59
Satires (c. 35 BC and 30 BC)
“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America
Originated with Samuel Goldwyn as a paraphrase of a proverb from a collection by Coleman Cox, but similar proverbs have existed since the 16th century. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/07/21/luck-hard-work/ <br class="br">Misattributed
“There is zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.”
Susan Cain (1968) self-help writer
Downey, Maureen (interviewer), "Teaching introverts: Do schools prefer big talkers to big thinkers?", The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 5, 2016.
“Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.”
Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) Joyce Brothers
As quoted in The Pocket Philosopher/ Psychologist (2004) by Mark J. Merten, p. 87
“The business of business is business.”
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer
Widely attributed to Friedman, and sometimes cited as being in his work Capitalism and Freedom (1962) this is also attributed to Alfred P. Sloan, sometimes with citation of a statement of 1964, but sometimes with attestations to his use of it as a motto as early as 1923.
Disputed
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
Hays translation
At dawn of day, when you dislike being called, have this thought ready: "I am called to man's labour; why then do I make a difficulty if I am going out to do what I was born to do and what I was brought into the world for?(Farquharson translation)
Ὄρθρου, ὅταν δυσόκνως ἐξεγείρῃ, πρόχειρον ἔστω ὅτι ἐπὶ ἀνθρώπου ἔργον ἐγείρομαι· ἔτι οὖν δυσκολαίνω, εἰ πορεύομαι ἐπὶ τὸ ποιεῖν ὧν ἕνεκεν γέγονα καὶ ὧν χάριν προῆγμαι εἰς τὸν κόσμον; ἢ ἐπὶ τοῦτο κατεσκεύασμαι, ἵνα κατακείμενος ἐν στρωματίοις ἐμαυτὸν θάλπω;
V, 1
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book V
Edward Hopper (1882–1967) prominent American realist painter and printmaker
Hopper quoted this from Ralph Waldo Emerson's book Self Reliance, the book he loved throughout his life
1941 - 1967
Source: 'How Edward Hopper Saw the Light', by Joseph Phelan, at Artcyclopedia online
“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
Jay Samit (1961) American businessman
Source: Disrupt You! (2015), p.151
“There are things worth fighting for.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer
Rand al'Thor
(15 October 1994)
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
This is presented as a statement of 1877, as quoted in From Telegraph to Light Bulb with Thomas Edison (2007) by Deborah Headstrom-Page, p. 22.
1800s
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
As quoted in An Enemy Called Average (1990) by John L. Mason, p. 55.
Date unknown
“Be silent and safe—silence never betrays you.”
John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–1890) Irish-born poet and novelist
Rules of the Road.
Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) scientist and inventor known for his work on the telephone
Bell Telephone Talk (1901)
“This is the thing that I was born to do.”
Samuel Daniel book Musophilus
Musophilus (1599), Stanza 100, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
Truman Capote (1924–1984) American author
From "Self-Portrait" (1972)
Truman Capote: Conversations (1987)
“They can because they think they can.”
Possunt, quia posse videntur.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book V, Line 231 (tr. John Conington)
“This is the challenge facing modern man.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
"Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" (31 March 1968)
1960s
Context: On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of good will to come together with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "We ain't goin' study war no more." This is the challenge facing modern man.
“Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”
Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general
This evokes Will Durant's famous summation of Aristotle: "Excellence then is not an act, but a habit."
2000s, The Powell Principles (2003)
Context: If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
“I look back on my life like a good day's work, it was done and I am satisfied with it.”
Grandma Moses (1860–1961) American artist
Grandma Moses : My Life's History (1951)
Context: I have written my life in small sketches, a little today, a little yesterday, as I have thought of it, as I remember all the things from childhood on through the years, good ones, and unpleasant ones, that is how they come out and that is how we have to take them.
I look back on my life like a good day's work, it was done and I am satisfied with it. I was happy and contented, I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered. And life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.
“But these are the people who never get it.”
Tallulah Bankhead (1902–1968) American actress
"I want everything" http://home.earthlink.net/~2lulah2/everything.htm in What I Want from Life (1934) edited by Edmund George Cousins, p. 108 <br class="br">Context: I don’t know what I want.<br>Nobody knows — or if they do, they don’t know for long. I mean, you don’t want the same thing long enough for it to be What You Want From Life in capital letters.<br>Well, maybe some people do. Maybe there's a few simple folks — or maybe a few million, I don't know — who fix their hearts, and their minds, and their everlasting souls on a thing, and keep on all their lives hoping for it. Living for it. Wanting It From Life.<br>But these are the people who never get it.
“So these are changes that are important.”
Donovan (1946) Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist
Donovan: "We are all one shining Being" (1998)
Context: Today I can’t comment on what the problem is in China, Russia, or Africa without realizing again and again the Diamond Sutra, which says that we look at the world and see it as separate but in fact, this is an illusion, but the reality is that we are one shining being. Until this can be understood, I can’t see any change. But I see some change now. There is a world consciousness. In the "old" New Age, they talked about the Age of Aquarius being an age of enlightenment. And now when a man goes to the moon he sees the earth. Before when someone did meditation he or she could meditate on the earth and the moon but now a man and a woman can see that we are on one planet and that the water is polluted and that the air is dirty. So these are changes that are important. But when we spoke about these things in the 60s people said we were dreamers.
“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer
“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”
Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian
“The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
David Fleming (1940–2010) British activist
It was Thomas Jefferson who started the stream of variations on that theme. He should have added, 'The harder I work on one thing, the unluckier I get on all the other commitments I haven’t had time for'. <br class="br"> Lean Logic, (2016), p. 472, entry on Time Fallacies http://www.flemingpolicycentre.org.uk/lean-logic-surviving-the-future/
Simon Sinek (1973) British/American author and motivational speaker
Source: Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”
Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909) American author and Unitarian clergyman