“A man might as well play for nothing as work for nothing.”
In an obituary, Canada Law Journal, January 1, 1881, p. 11. According to the journal: "[Cockburn] subsequently acquired a large practice in London in railway and election cases. Although he did his best for his clients, he was careful that they should do their duty by him, and the story is told that on one occasion, when an election committee met, Mr. Cockburn, the counsel for one of the parties, was absent because his fee had not accompanied the brief and the only message left was that he had gone to the Derby, with the remark that 'A man might as well play for nothing as work for nothing'".
Attributed
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Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet 13
Lord Chief Justice 1802–1880Related quotes
“Play: Work that you enjoy doing for nothing.”
Esar's Comic Dictionary
“Nothing is fair in this world. You might as well get that straight right now”
Source: The Secret Life of Bees
“You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.”
“For of all gainful professions, nothing is better, nothing more pleasing, nothing more delightful, nothing better becomes a well-bred man than agriculture.”
Omnium autem rerum, ex quibus aliquid adquiritur, nihil est agri cultura melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine libero dignius.
Book I, section 42. Translation by Cyrus R. Edmonds (1873), p. 73
De Officiis – On Duties (44 BC)
“A man ain't nothing but a man. But a son? Well, now, that's somebody.”
Source: Beloved (1987), Ch. 2
“The man is nothing, the work — all. (December 1875)”
L'homme n'est rien, l'oeuvre – tout
Slightly misquoted in "The Red-Headed League" by Arthur Conan Doyle as L'homme c'est rien – l'oeuvre c'est tout.
Correspondence, Letters to George Sand
“The man's the work. Something does not come out of nothing.”
Hopper's answer to journalists -quoted by Avis Berman in 'Hopper, the Supreme American Realist of the 20th Century' Smithsonian Magazine June 2007
1941 - 1967
“I trust to luck and do nothing but work, hoping that all will end well.”
3 February 1944
(1942 - 1944)