“I do not like work even when someone else is doing it.”

—  Mark Twain

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I do not like work even when someone else is doing it." by Mark Twain?
Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain637
American author and humorist 1835–1910

Related quotes

Margaret Atwood photo

“I thought my heart was pure. We do like to have such good opinions of our own motives when we're about to do something harmful, to someone else.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

“When someone is not free to do what they feel like doing, like every other person on the street, it causes depression which can even lead to death.”

Tope Alabi (1970) Nigerian Gospel artist

https://quotes.ng/mobile/author.php?title=tope-alabi&id=1290

Cassandra Clare photo

“And I also know that loving someone—even when it’s scary, even when there are consequences—is never the wrong thing to do.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Pale Kings and Princes

Laurell K. Hamilton photo

“What do you do when you know you are breaking someone's heart, but to do anything else would break your own?”

Laurell K. Hamilton book A Lick of Frost

Source: A Lick of Frost

Regina Spektor photo

“No, this is how it works —
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again.”

Regina Spektor (1980) American singer-songwriter and pianist

"On the Radio"
Begin to Hope (2006)

Jack Williamson photo

“Civilization.…
Like everything else, it has a price. The down payment is freedom. For the privilege of living together, men surrender the right to do as they please; they make laws and restrict themselves within them.
When civilization is conferred from outside, the price is even steeper: someone else makes the laws.”

Jack Williamson book Star Bridge

Source: Star Bridge (1955), “The History,” prelude to Chapter 3, “The Narrow Bridge” (p. 37)

Julie Taymor photo

“I can't design a mask and say to someone else, "Just do it."”

Julie Taymor (1952) American film and theatre director

It's partly because I'm a better sculptor than I am a drawer. Considering the amount of time it would take me to draw exactly what I want, I might as well sculpt it. I paint most of it too. It's incredibly time consuming so I end up turning down a lot of jobs I want to do.
As quoted in "The Lively Arts" in Connoisseur No. 219 (1989), p. 72

Marc Acito photo

“There are moments in your life when you see yourself through someone else’s eyes, when your only hope of believing you’re capable of doing something is because someone else believes it for you.”

Marc Acito (1966) American novelist, humorist, screenwriter

Source: How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater

Aldo Leopold photo

“Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching — even when doing the wrong thing is legal.”

Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) American writer and scientist

Presumably a paraphrase of "A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct" or of "Hunting for sport is an improvement ..." above.
Unlikely to be by Leopold, who knew that ethics involves not only doing the right thing, but also determining the right thing in the face of competing desirable criteria.
Misattributed

Related topics