“We are so close to the world of work that we can't see what it does to us. We have to rely on outside observers from other times or other cultures to appreciate the extremity and the pathology of our present position.”

—  Bob Black, book The Abolition of Work

The Abolition of Work (1985)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We are so close to the world of work that we can't see what it does to us. We have to rely on outside observers from ot…" by Bob Black?
Bob Black photo
Bob Black63
American anarchist 1951

Related quotes

Stanisław Lem photo

“We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is.”

Stanisław Lem book Solaris

Source: Solaris

Marshall Goldsmith photo

“If we can stop, listen, and think about what others are seeing in us, we have a great opportunity. We can compare the self that we want to be with the self that we are presenting to the rest of the world. We can then begin to make the real changes that are needed to close the gap between our stated values and our actual behavior.”

Marshall Goldsmith (1949) American author of leadership and management literature

Source: What Got You Here Won't Get You There, 2008, p. 125 (in 2010 edition)

Glenn Beck photo

“Most times we're so focused on what we think we want that we can't appreciate how happy we already are. It's only when we forget about our problems and help others forget theirs that we realize how good we really have it.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

2008-11-11
Threshold Editions
141659485X
52
2000s
Source: The Christmas Sweater

Ben Carson photo

“It does not matter where we come from or what we look like. If we recognize our abilities, are willing to learn and to use what we know in helping others, we will always have a place in the world.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence

“We must walk together, preserving our culture and identifying but paying respect to difference, to the other person. We can work in a way pleasing to God only while respecting, appreciating and helping each other. Let us walk together!”

Gergely Kovács (1968) archbishop of Alba Iulia

Gergely Kovács, the new Archbishop of Transylvanian Catholics https://transylvanianow.com/this-is-my-diocese-i-am-coming-home-says-new-leader-of-transylvanian-catholics-archbishop-gergely-kovacs/ (February 23, 2020)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo

“When we judge other people we confront them in a spirit of detachment, observing and reflecting as it were from the outside. But love has neither time nor opportunity for this. If we love, we can never observe the other person with detachment, for he is always and at every moment a living claim to our love and service.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Discipleship (1937), The Disciple and Unbelievers, p. 184.

John Gray photo

“Nothing is more alien to the present age than idleness. If we think of resting from our labours, it is only in order to return to them. In thinking so highly of work we are aberrant. Few other cultures have ever done so. For nearly all of history and all prehistory, work was an indignity.”

John Gray book Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

As It Is: Sisyphus's Progress (p. 195)
Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002)

Czeslaw Milosz photo

“And yet the world is different from what it seems to be
and we are other than how we see ourselves in our ravings.”

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator

"Ars Poetica?"
Context: There was a time when only wise books were read
helping us to bear our pain and misery.
This, after all, is not quite the same
as leafing through a thousand works fresh from psychiatric clinics. And yet the world is different from what it seems to be
and we are other than how we see ourselves in our ravings.

Adolf Hitler photo

“We have a great aim before us; a mighty work of reform of ourselves and our lives, of our life in common, of our economy, of our culture. This work does not disturb the rest of the world. We have enough to do in our own house.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Source: Speech in Gera (17 June 1934), quoted in The Times (26 September 1939), p. 9

Paul Hinder photo

“Although we may be different in our look, ethnicity, culture, and clothing we are all the same and want the same – faith, hope and love. Our beliefs bind us so closely, that even though we come from various backgrounds we are able to live with each other in peace and harmony.”

Paul Hinder (1942) Roman Catholic bishop, Capuchin Friar

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Ahead of Being on Papal Flight for United Arab Emirates, ZENIT Speaks with Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia Bishop Paul Hinder https://zenit.org/2019/02/03/exclusive-interview-ahead-of-being-on-papal-flight-for-united-arab-emirates-zenit-speaks-with-apostolic-vicar-of-southern-arabia-bishop-paul-hinder-2/ (3 February 2019)

Related topics