Quotes about work
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“Be good to your work, your word, and your friend.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present - I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

World

“It seemed that we loved each other better when there were large swaths of two continents between us. The daily work of love was often hard to perform at home.”

Aleksandar Hemon The Lazarus Project

Source: The Lazarus Project

Love, Home

“Remember that there is meaning beyond absurdity. Know that every deed counts, that every word is power… Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

Life, Art

“No amount of love can cure madness or unblacken one's dark moods. Love can help, it can make the pain more tolerable, but, always, one is beholden to medication that may or may not always work and may or may not be bearable”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Source: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Depressing, Love, Pain, Mood

“Instead of working so hard to please him, work harder to please yourself…because ultimately, this is what will truly please him.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl-A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

“For me, I think the greatest achievements of science is to allow humanity to realize that our world is comprehensible. Through science, rational thinking, we can understand how the universe works.”

Jim Al-Khalili (1962) British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster

World, Understanding, Thinking, Universe

“Keeping up the appearance of having all your marbles is hard work, but important.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

Appearance

“There was no twinkle in his eyes.
"Maybe I just love some of you. Maybe not enough."
Tiger Lily blinked at him, and she didn't understand how anyone could only love a part. Her greedy heart didn't work that way.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

Love, Way, Understanding, Heart

“Llarimar had told him to do his best. That sounded like an awful lot of work. Unfortunately, doing nothing was beginning to seem like even MORE work.”

Brandon Sanderson book Warbreaker

Source: Warbreaker

“Once you realize that trickle-down economics does not work, you will see the excessive tax cuts for the rich as what they are -- a simple upward redistribution of income, rather than a way to make all of us richer, as we were told.”

Ha-Joon Chang book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Source: 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Way

“He would work through the night and sleep until lunch. There wasn't really much else to do. Make something, and die.”

Ian McEwan book Amsterdam

Source: Amsterdam

Sleep, Night

“We work to become, not to acquire.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

“In many cases, our need to wonder about or be told what God wants in a certain situation is nothing short of a clear indication of how little we are engaged in His work.”

Dallas Willard (1935–2013) American philosopher

Source: Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God

God

“Sometimes skulls are thick. Sometimes hearts are vacant. Sometimes words don't work.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

page 323
Source: A Million Little Pieces (2003)

Heart

“Somebody dies and people eat your food. Funny how that works.”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

People, Food

“What's really important is to simplify. The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous. If you strive for simplicity, you are more likely to reach the viewer.”

William Albert Allard (1937) Photographer

“Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work.”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

People, Success

“Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

“Allegra's Austen wrote about the impact of financial need on the intimate lives of women. If she'd worked in a bookstore, Allegra would have shelved Austen in the horror section.”

Karen Joy Fowler The Jane Austen Book Club

Source: The Jane Austen Book Club

Women

“Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

“Christmas tree stands are the work of the devil and they want you dead.”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Source: I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away

Tree, Christmas, Dead

“I love beautiful; always have. I never saw why I should hate what I wish I had. Love it harder. Work your way closer. Clasp your hands around it tighter. Till you find a way to make it yours.”

Tana French book The Secret Place

Source: The Secret Place

Love, Hate, Beauty, Way

“Phone calls like ours only happen when you've spent several years hurting and being hurt, until every work you utter or hear becomes coded and loaded, as complicated and full of subtext as a bleak and brilliant play.”

Nick Hornby book How to Be Good

Source: How to Be Good

Hurt

“Well, for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own. Most people can't do it.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

People, Feeling, Strong

“Carl Jung called this his shadow work. He said we never see others. Instead we see only aspects of ourselves that fall over them. Shadows. Projections. Our associations.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Diary

Source: Diary

“Do what you love.
Do what makes your heart sing.
And NEVER do it for the money,
Go to work to spread joy.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

Love, Money, Singing, Heart

“I believe that we form our own lives, that we create our own reality, and that everything works out for the best.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Reality

“There's nothing more prized to a man than something he had to wait for, work for, or strugle a little bit to get.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Marry Bitches: A Woman's Guide to Winning Her Man's Heart

Waiting

“One thing about great art: it made you love people more, forgive them their petty transgressions. It worked in the way that religion was supposed to, if you thought about it.”

Nick Hornby book Juliet, Naked

Source: Juliet, Naked

Love, People, Religion, Art

“Culture has tremendous inertia,” he said. “That’s why it’s culture. It works because it lasts. Culture strangles innovation in the crib.”

Atul Gawande book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Source: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

“Everything about it was wrong. Thats why it worked so good.”

Hubert Selby Jr. (1928–2004) American writer

“The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Love, Forgetting

“Him and God are supposed to be at war with each other. But if God hates sin and Satan punishes the sinners, aren’t they working the same side of the street? Aren’t the judge and the executioner on the same team?”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: Horns

God, Hate, War

“Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Sleep, Night

“I looked at him. "You really need to work on your threats. I can't tell if you're threatening me or inviting me for tea.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Tea

“Success in any field, but especially in business is about working with people, not against them.”

Keith Ferrazzi (1966) American businessman and writer

Source: Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

People, Business, Success

“The artist is always beginning. Any work of art which is not a beginning, an invention, a discovery is of little worth.”

Ezra Pound (1885–1972) American Imagist poet and critic

Art

“And you work for that demon, right? The one who looks like Matthew Broderick?”

“John Cusack,” I corrected. “He looks like John Cusack.”

“Whatever.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Dreams

“A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.”

Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet

Sir Walter Scott Collection Guy Mannering. Chap. xxxvii.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

History, Literature, Knowledge

“Now, young lady, I suppose you're here for a work assignment."
Work?" Tally said.
They both looked down at her puzzled expression, and Shay burst into laughter.”

Scott Westerfeld book Uglies

Source: Uglies

Laughter

“there is no reason why anyone should understand how it works… and of course no reason why anyone should care … unless you are curious, in which case I love you, for curiosity about the world and all its corners is a beautiful thing.”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist

Source: The Fry Chronicles

Love, World, Beauty, Understanding

“Let me tell you, Alex. He's a crook. He's based here in Miami. He's a nasty piece of work."
"He's mexican" Troy added.”

Anthony Horowitz book Skeleton Key

Source: Skeleton Key

“I've long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk. Whether we're talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime 'associates,' food, for me, has always been an adventure.”

Anthony Bourdain book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Kitchen Confidential (2000)
Source: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Food

“The way to learn to do things is to do things. The way to learn a trade is to work at it. Success teaches how to succeed. Begin with the determination to succeed, and the work is half done already.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Way, Learning, Success

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Hope, Waiting

“Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs.”

John Osborne (1929–1994) English playwright

Quoted in Time magazine, October 31, 1977. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,945814,00.html <br class="br">Also attributed to Christopher Hampton by the Sunday Times Magazine (16 October 1977)

Dogs, Feeling, Thinking

“Wednesdays were the best thing about Atlantis. The middle of the week was a traditional holiday there. Everyone stopped work and celebrated the fact that half the week was over.”

Walter Moers The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear

Source: The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear

Holiday

“Even if work were not an economic necessity, it is a spiritual necessity.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

“I'd have to kill Dimitri for real this time and lose any chance I might have to bring back my prince. Damn. It's a good thing I work well under pressure.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Chance, Time

“Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

“Idiots emit bogons, causing machinery to malfunction in their presence. System administrators absorb bogons, letting machinery work again.”

Charles Stross The Atrocity Archives

Source: The Atrocity Archives

“One minute was enough, Tyler said, "A person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Effort, Personality, Perfection

“As regards intellectual work it remains a fact, indeed, that great decisions in the realm of thought and momentous discoveries and solutions of problems are only possible to an individual, working in solitude.”

Sigmund Freud Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

Source: Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

Problem, Decision, Solitude

“All publicity works upon anxiety.”

John Berger book Ways of Seeing

Source: Ways of Seeing

“It was amazing how it worked: the tiniest bit of truth made credible the greatest lies.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

Truth

“The land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it's the only thing that lasts"….. Gerald O'Hara, Gone With The Wind.”

Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949) American author and journalist

World, Fight

“My brother broke into a toothy grin. "Yay! Your brain works!”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“The Government justifies keeping everyone else in poverty because people seem to work the hardest when they're right on the edge of survival.”

Margaret Peterson Haddix Among the Hidden

Source: Among the Hidden

People

“The truth is that all examples of child protection and parental care, and all associated bodily organs … are examples of the working in nature of the kin-selection principle.”

Richard Dawkins book The Selfish Gene

Source: The Selfish Gene (1976, 1989), Ch. 6. Genesmanship

Truth, Nature, Parent

“I do not mean to object to a thorough knowledge of the famous works we read. I object only to the interminable comments and bewildering criticisms that teach but one thing: there are as many opinions as there are men.”

Helen Keller book The Story of My Life

Source: The Story of My Life

Men, Knowledge, Reading

“If my work has a theme, I suspect it is a simple one: that most human beings are inescapably alone, and therein lies their tragedy.”

Richard Yates (1926–1992) Novelist, short story writer

“You're giving up. You're slipping into being miserable and if you are being miserable, then it's all about you again. But it's not all about you. Love doesn't work that way.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Love, Way

“The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation.”

Ezra Pound (1885–1972) American Imagist poet and critic

Parting

“NGOs have a complicated space in neoliberal politics. They are supposed to mop up the anger. Even when they are doing good work, they are supposed to maintain the status quo. They are the missionaries of the corporate world.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

World, Anger

“The mark which has dominated all my work is this longing for life, this sense of exclusion, which doesn't lessen but augments this love of life.”

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) Italian film director, poet, writer and intellectual

Love, Life, Sense

“The angel said, "I like black-and-white films more than color because they're more artificial. You have to work harder to overcome your disbelief. It's sort of like prayer.”

Jonathan Carroll (1949) novelist, short story writer

Source: The Ghost in Love

Angels, Color

“… lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and … stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to “walk about” into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?”

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) Russian painter

World, Music, Thinking, Painting

“Words are worth little when the heart refuses to hear. Therefore, judge us by our works.”

Stephen R. Lawhead (1950) American writer

Heart

“Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Source: Wilfrid Cumbermede

“I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn’t park anywhere near the place.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“Justice must always question itself, just as society can exist only by means of the work it does on itself and on its institutions.”

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher

Justice, Question

“I write description in longhand because that's hardest for me and you're closer to the paper when you work by hand, but I use the typewriter for dialogue because people speak like a typewriter works.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

People

“Lord, grant that my work increase knowledge and help other men. Failing that, Lord, grant that it will not lead to man’s destruction. Failing that, Lord, grant that my article in Brain be published before the destruction takes place.”

Walker Percy book Love in the Ruins

Source: Love in the Ruins

Men, Knowledge, Help

“In New York, people are unhappy on purpose, because unhappiness makes them seem more complex; in Washington DC it just sort of works out that way.”

Chuck Klosterman book Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Source: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

People, Way

“Mr. McGregor's a nasty piece of work, isn't he? Quite the Darth Vader of children's literature.”

Jasper Fforde (1961) British novelist

Children, Literature

“If you want something you can have it, but only if you want everything that goes with it, including all the hard work and the despair, and only if you're willing to risk failure.”

Philip Pullman book Clockwork

Source: Clockwork

Failure, Despair

“If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.”

Beryl Markham book West with the Night

Source: West with the Night

Light

“Can we go to work now? Because we're about a minute away from breaking out the
ice cream and talking about our feelings, and I don't think we can come back from that.”

Jennifer Crusie book Bet Me

Source: Bet Me

Feeling, Thinking

“There are times in life to grow, and there are times in life to shine. One can't grow and shine at the same time; it just doesn't work that way. Now you're growing. Tomorrow you'll shine.”

Carol Plum-Ucci (1957) American writer

Source: What Happened to Lani Garver

Life, Way, Time

“When you expect the world to end at any moment, you know there is no need to hurry. You take your time, you do your work well.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

World, Time

“The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

For Team, Good Morning, Back To Work

“Scientists are a friendly, atheistic, hard-working, beer-drinking lot whose minds are preoccupied with sex, chess and baseball when they are not preoccupied with science.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 1, p. 5

Sex, Drink, Beer, Science

“All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

Source: Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“i suppose i have a really loose interpretation of "work", because i think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do. the machinery is always going. even when you sleep”

Andy Warhol book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Variant: I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of 'work,' because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do.
Source: 1975, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975), Ch. 6: Work
Source: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Context: I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of "work" because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do. Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery. People are working every minute. The machinery is always going. Even when you sleep.

Thinking, Sleep