“Work on yourself harder than you work on your job or your business.”
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Ralph Smart 339
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Source: Lilith A and Lilith, 1896: A Duplex

“Writing is a lonely way of life. You shut yourself up in your study and work and work.”
Introduction to The Golden Man (1980)

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
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).
Misattributed, Not Chinese

“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.”

Fast Company interview (2011)

“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

TV Interview for BBC1 Panorama (8 June 1987) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106647
Second term as Prime Minister
Context: I believe passionately that people have a right, by their own efforts, to benefit their own families, so we have taken down taxation. It doesn't matter to me who you are or what your background is. If you want to use your own efforts to work harder—yes, I am with you all the way, whether it is unskilled effort or whether it is skilled, we have taken the income tax down.