Quotes about working
page 36

D.H. Lawrence photo

“If I had my way, I would build a lethal chamber as big as the Crystal Palace, with a military band playing softly, and a Cinematograph working brightly; then I’d go out in the back streets and main streets and bring them in, all the sick, the halt, and the maimed; I would lead them gently, and they would smile me a weary thanks; and the band would softly bubble out the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Letter to Blanche Jennings (9 October 1908), Letters of D.H. Lawrence (1979), James T. Boulton, ed., as quoted in The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice Among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880-1939 (1992) by John Carey; also quoted in "Art for the Masses : The Death of Culture & the Culture of Death" http://www.touchstonemag.com/docs/issues/14.7docs/14-7pg22.html by Ralph McInery in Touchstone magazine (September 2001)

Anne Hutchinson photo

“One may preach a covenant of grace more clearly than another, so I said... But when they preach a covenant of works for salvation, that is not truth.”

Anne Hutchinson (1591–1643) participant in the Antinomian Controversy

Trial and Interrogation (1637)

Ayn Rand photo
Bhakti Tirtha Swami photo
Shaun Ellis photo

“It smells funny, but it works.”

Radio From Hell (April 20, 2006)

Alan Keyes photo
John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge photo
Adam Steltzner photo

“If you come up with a big new idea in our world and everyone says "Hey, that's great, definitely go ahead with that," then you know it's not a big new idea at all. Anything really new brings out all the reasons why it can't possibly work, and why it's crazy to even think about it.”

Adam Steltzner (1963) American aerospace engineer

Marc Kaufman. Mars Up Close: Inside the Curiosity Mission https://books.google.com/books/about/Mars_Up_Close.html?id=o6XaCwAAQBAJ&hl=en. National Geographic page 15. ISBN 978-1-4262-1278-9.

Barbara Ehrenreich photo
Richard Koch photo
Edward Bernays photo

“When Napoleon said, 'Circumstance? I make circumstance‚' he expressed very nearly the spirit of the public relations counsel's work.”

Edward Bernays (1891–1995) American public relations consultant, marketing pioneer

Source: Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), p. 51

Hastings Banda photo

“Douglas Brown: Dr Banda, what is the purpose of your visit?
Hastings Banda: Well, I've been asked by the Secretary of State to come here.
Brown: Have you come here to ask the Secretary of State a firm date for Nyasaland's independence?
Banda: I won't tell you that.
Brown: When do you hope to get independence?
Banda: I won't tell you that.
Brown: Dr Banda, when you get independence, are you as determined as ever to break away from the Central African Federation?
Banda: Need you ask me that question at this stage?
Brown: Well, this stage is as good as any other stage. Why do you ask me why I shouldn't ask you this question at this stage?
Banda: Haven't I said that enough for everybody to be convinced that I mean just that?
Brown: Dr Banda, if you break with the Central African Federation, how will you make out economically? After all, your country isn't really a rich country.
Banda: Don't ask me that, leave that to me.
Brown: In which way is your mind working?
Banda: Which way? I won't tell you that.
Brown: Where do you hope to get economic aid from?
Banda: I won't tell you that.
Brown: Are you going to tell me anything?
Banda: Nothing.
Brown: Are you going to tell me why you've been to Portugal?
Banda: That's my business.
Brown: In fact you're going to tell me nothing at all.
Banda: Nothing at all.
Brown: So it's a singularly fruitless interview?
Banda: Well, it's up to you.
Brown: Thank you very much.”

Hastings Banda (1898–1997) First president of Malawi

BBC Training "Interviews from hell" http://www.bbctraining.com/modules/2604/hell2.html. BBC INFAX http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/programme/SX+28015_9
BBC Interview, 21 June 1962

Satya Nadella photo

“We have a lot of work to do. We have 90% of PC [market] share and 14% of total device share. We get that”

Satya Nadella (1967) CEO of Microsoft appointed on 4 February 2014

How Nadella will really change Microsoft http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nadella-will-really-change-microsoft-2014-7 in Business insider (15 July 2014)

Dana Gioia photo
Ron Paul photo

“Question: You wanna gut that safety net…
Ron Paul: But the safety net doesn't work.
Question: Tell me why it doesn't work.
Ron Paul: It does work for some people, but overall it ultimately fails, because you spend more money than you have, and then you borrow to the hilt. Now we have to borrow $800 billion a year just to keep the safety net going. It's going to collapse when the dollar collapses, you can't even fight the war without this borrowing. And when the dollar collapses, you can't take care of the elderly of today. They're losing ground. Their cost of living is going up about 10%, even though the government denies it, we give them a 2% cost of living increase.
Question: So do you think the gold standard would fix that?
Ron Paul: The gold standard would keep you from printing money and destroying the middle class. Every country where you have runaway inflation, there's no middle class. Mexico, there's no middle class, you have a huge poor class, and a lot of wealthy people. Today we have a growing poor class, and we have more billionaires than ever before. So we're moving into third world status…
Question: Who is the safety net that you're speaking of, who does benefit from all those programs and all those agencies?
Ron Paul: Everybody on a short term benefits for a time. If you build a tenement house by the government, for about 15 or 20 years somebody might live there, but you don't measure who paid for it: somebody lost their job down the road, somebody had inflation, somebody else suffered. But then the tenement house falls down after about 20 years because it's not privately owned, so everybody eventually suffers. But the immediate victims aren't identifiable, because you don't know who lost the job, and who had the inflation, the victims are invisible. The few people who benefit, who get some help from government, everyone sees, "oh! look what we did!", but they never say instead of what, what did we lose. And unless you ask that question, we'll go into bankruptcy, we're in the early stages of it, the dollar is going down, our standard of living is going down, and we're hurting the very people that so many people wanna help, especially the liberals…”

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

Interview by Mac McKoy on KWQW, December 17, 2007 http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=x3lxo9WIR6w
2000s, 2006-2009

Derren Brown photo
Henri Matisse photo
Tom DeLay photo

“Emotional appeals about working families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour [the minimum wage in 1996] are hard to resist. Fortunately, such families do not exist.”

Tom DeLay (1947) American Republican politician

From the Congressional Record, H3706 [1996 April 23] http://frwebgate3.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=93746225856+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve.
1990s

“When I graduated, work was still hard to come by, and the nice bosses at Macy's took me on full time.”

Larry LeSueur (1909–2003) American journalist

Bliss, Edward. Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism, ( Google Books link http://books.google.com/books?id=lAdv3youHkYC&pg=PA93&dq=Larry+LeSueur&hl=en&ei=ZCkATsnRGcOp0AGA85WTDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Larry%20LeSueur&f=false), Columbia University Press, 1991, p. 93, ISBN 0231044038.

Roger Ebert photo
Edward Hopper photo

“The man's the work. Something does not come out of nothing.”

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) prominent American realist painter and printmaker

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

Koenraad Elst photo
David D. Levine photo
Johannes Grenzfurthner photo

“Contemporary art -- the field we are usually working in because there's money -- is mostly concerned with systems or systematic concepts. In the context of their work, artists adapt models of individual art-specific or economic or political systems like in a laboratory, to reveal the true nature of these systems by deconstructing them. So would it be fair to say that by their chameleon-like adaptation they are attempting to generate a similar system? Well… the corporate change in the art market has aged somewhat in the meantime and looks almost as old as the 'New Economy'. Now even the last snotty brat has realized that all the hogwash about the creative industries, sponsoring, fund-raising, the whole load of bullshit about the beautiful new art enterprises, was not much more than the awful veneer on the stupid, crass fanfare of neo-liberal liberation teleology. What is the truth behind the shifting spheres of activity between computer graphics, web design and the rest of all those frequency-orientated nerd pursuits? A lonely business with other lonely people at their terminals. And in the meantime the other part of the corporate identity has incidentally wasted whole countries like Argentina or Iceland. That's the real truth of the matter.”

Johannes Grenzfurthner (1975) Austrian artist, writer, curator, and theatre and film director

Interview on Furtherfield http://www.furtherfield.org/interviews/interview-johannes-grenzfurthner-monochrom-part-1

Cesare Pavese photo

“We like to have work to do, so as to have the right to rest.”

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator

This Business of Living (1935-1950)

Calvin Coolidge photo
Phillip Guston photo
Daniel Levitin photo
Sinclair Lewis photo
Lindsay Lohan photo
Lee Kuan Yew photo

“I have said this on many a previous occasion: that had the mix in Singapore been different, had it been 75% Indians, 15% Malays and the rest Chinese, it would not have worked. Because they believe in the politics of contention, of opposition. But because the culture was such that the populace sought a practical way out of their difficulties, therefore it has worked.”

Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) First Prime Minister of Singapore

[President's Address, Debate on President's Address, Parliament of Singapore, http://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/topic.jsp?currentTopicID=00062986-ZZ&currentPubID=00069476-ZZ&topicKey=00069476-ZZ.00062986-ZZ_1%2Bid005_19850301_S0005_T00051-president-address%2B, March 01 1985, January 16 2015]
1980s

Frank Gehry photo

“[ Brancusi ] has had more influence on my work than most architects.”

Frank Gehry (1929) Canadian-American (b.1929)

Frank Gehry in: Caroline Evensen Lazo (2005) Frank Gehry. p. 43.

Jane Espenson photo
Henry Moore photo
Joseph Pisani photo

“My favourite painting is often the one or the collection that I am currently working on. This is probably due to the fact that I don’t yet know where it will take me.”

Joseph Pisani (1971) American artist and photographer

As quoted in "The Conceptual Artist" Inside Switzerland magazine Individuals (Summer 2006), p. 23

Derren Brown photo
Henry Miller photo
Connie Willis photo

““How dare you contradict their opinions! You are only a common servant.”
“Yes, miss,” he said wearily.
“You should be dismissed for being insolent to your betters.”
There was a long pause, and then Baine said, “All the diary entries and dismissals in the world cannot change the truth. Galileo recanted under threat of torture, but that did not make the sun revolve round the earth. If you dismiss me, the vase will still be vulgar, I will still be right, and your taste will still be plebeian, no matter what you write in your diary.”
“Plebeian?” Tossie said, bright pink. “How dare you speak like that to your mistress? You are dismissed.” She pointed imperiously at the house. “Pack your things immediately.”
“Yes, miss,” Baine said. “E pur si muove.”
“What?” Tossie said, bright red with rage. “What did you say?”
“I said, now that finally have dismissed me, I am no longer a member of the servant class and am therefore in a position to speak freely,” he said calmly.
“You are not in a position to speak to me at all,” Tossie said, raising her diary like a weapon. “Leave at once.”
“I dared to speak the truth to you because I felt you were deserving of it,” Baine said seriously. “I had only your best interests at heart, as I have always had. You have been blessed with great riches; not only with the riches of wealth, position, and beauty, but with a bright mind and a keen sensibility, as well as with a fine spirit. And yet you squander those riches on croquet and organdies and trumpery works of art. You have at your disposal a library of the great minds of the past, and yet you read the foolish novels of Charlotte Yonge and Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Given the opportunity to study science, you converse with conjurors wearing cheesecloth and phosphorescent paint. Confronted by the glories of Gothic architecture, you admire instead a cheap imitation of it, and confronted by the truth, you stamp your foot like a spoilt child and demand to be told fairy stories.””

Source: To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998), Chapter 22 (p. 374)

Angela Davis photo
Robert Rauschenberg photo
Jack London photo
Harold Innis photo
Mary Parker Follett photo
John Ralston Saul photo

“The best work is done with the heart breaking, or overflowing.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Kamisese Mara photo

“It was the work of opportunists, crooks, thugs for their own self-gain and interest.”

Kamisese Mara (1920–2004) President of Fiji

Attributed to him posthumously by his friend, business tycoon Hari Punja[citation needed]

Klaus Barbie photo

“If there were mistakes, there were mistakes. But a man has to have a line of work, no?”

Klaus Barbie (1913–1991) SS-Hauptsturmführer, soldier and Gestapo member

Quoted in "Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press" - Page 184 - by Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair - Political Science - 1998

George Peacock photo
John Buchan photo
Jonathan Ive photo

“I think a beautiful product that doesn't work very well is ugly.”

Jonathan Ive (1967) English designer and VP of Design at Apple

Vanity Fair: "Jonathan Ives Shares Three Lessons He Learned From Steve Jobs" https://www.vanityfair.com/news/tech/2014/10/jony-ive-lessons-from-steve-jobs (9 October 2014)

“I work in waves because I'm impatient. It has to be done. I take liberties.”

Cy Twombly (1928–2011) American painter

Quote, as cited by Serota N. in the interview 'Cy Twombly: History behind the Thought' , Exhitbition catalogue: Cycles & Seasons, Tate Modern, London 2008
2000 - 2011

Alberto Giacometti photo

“In every work of art the subject is primordial, whether the artist knows it or not. The measure of the formal qualities is only a sign of the measure of the artist's obsession with his subject; the form is always in proportion to the obsession.”

Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) Swiss sculptor and painter (1901-1966)

Alberto Giacometti (1945), as cited in: Joel Shatzky, ‎Michael Taub (1999), Contemporary Jewish-American Dramatists and Poets. p. 302

Nicholas Sparks photo
Alexandra Kollontai photo
Robert Southey photo

“It was a summer evening,
Old Kaspar's work was done,
And he before his cottage door
Was sitting in the sun,
And by him sported on the green
His little grandchild Wilhelmine.”

Robert Southey (1774–1843) British poet

St. 1.
The Battle of Blenheim http://www.poetry-archive.com/s/the_battle_of_blenheim.html (1798)

Charles Kingsley photo

“This is eternal life; a life of everlasting love, showing itself in everlasting good works; and whosoever lives that life, he lives the life of God, and hath eternal life.”

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) English clergyman, historian and novelist

Source: Attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 209.

Winston S. Churchill photo

“The greatest danger to the British Empire and to the British people is not to be found among the enormous fleets and armies of the European Continent, nor in the solemn problems of Hindustan; it is not in the 'Yellow Peril' nor the 'Black Peril' nor any danger in the wide circuit of colonial and foreign affairs. No, it is here in our midst, close at home, close at hand in the vast growing cities of England and Scotland, and in the dwindling and cramped villages of our denuded countryside. It is there you will find the seeds of Imperial ruin and national decay—the unnatural gap between rich and poor, the divorce of the people from the land, the want of proper discipline and training in our youth, the exploitation of boy labour, the physical degeneration which seems to follow so swiftly on civilized poverty, the awful jumbles of an obsolete Poor Law, the horrid havoc of the liquor traffic, the constant insecurity in the means of subsistence and employment which breaks the heart of many a sober, hard-working man, the absence of any established minimum standard of life and comfort among the workers, and, at the other end, the swift increase of vulgar, joyless luxury—here are the enemies of Britain. Beware lest they shatter the foundations of her power.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The People's Rights [1909] (London: Jonathan Cape, 1970), pp. 139-140
Early career years (1898–1929)

Nigel Cumberland photo

“Many people find it hard working with their boss and often leave their jobs because of their boss’ working style, behaviours and attitude. I once heard someone say, “I joined the company, but I left my boss.””

Nigel Cumberland (1967) British author and leadership coach

page 184
Your Job-Hunt Ltd – Advice from an Award-Winning Asian Headhunter (2003), Successful Recruitment in a Week (2012) https://books.google.ae/books?id=p24GkAsgjGEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=nigel+cumberland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=nigel%20cumberland&f=false, Managing Teams in a Week (2013) https://books.google.ae/books?id=qZjO9_ov74EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=nigel+cumberland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIIDAB#v=onepage&q=nigel%20cumberland&f=false, Secrets of Success at Work – 50 techniques to excel (2014) https://books.google.ae/books?id=4S7vAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=nigel+cumberland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=nigel%20cumberland&f=false

Adolphe Quetelet photo
James Cromwell photo
Marianne von Werefkin photo
Jonah Goldberg photo
Marlon Brando photo
John F. Kennedy photo
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan photo
William Faulkner photo
Harry Turtledove photo
Samuel Butler photo

“An energy is a soul — a something working in us.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Matter and Mind, iii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VI - Mind and Matter

Francis Bacon photo
Francine Prose photo
George W. Bush photo
George H. W. Bush photo

“To those who work outside Washington, I would send a special message. At times it may be frustrating when it seems that the head office is thousands of miles away and the message is not getting through. But if I may, I'm going to issue a verbal Executive order: We're going to listen, because the heart of our government is not here in Washington, it's in every county office, every town, every city across this land. Wherever the people of America are, that's where the heart of our government is.”

George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American politician, 41st President of the United States

George Bush: "Remarks to Members of the Senior Executive Service," January 26, 1989. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=16628&st
Address to the Senior Executive Service (1989)

E.M. Forster photo
Eugène Delacroix photo

“I have started work on a modern subject, a scene on the barricades… I may not have fought for my country but at least I shall have painted for her.. [quote is referring to his famous painting 'Liberty Leading the People', 1830]”

Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) French painter

Quote in an unpublished letter to Delacroix' brother, 18 October 1830, but mentioned by M. Sérullaz; as quoted in Eugene Delacroix – selected letters 1813 – 1863, ed. and translation Jean Stewart, art Works MFA publications, Museum of Fine Art Boston, 2001, p. 13
1815 - 1830

Koenraad Elst photo

“One Western author who has become very popular among India’s history-writers is the American scholar Prof. Richard M. Eaton…. A selective reading of his work, focusing on his explanations but keeping most of his facts out of view, is made to serve the negationist position regarding temple destruction in the name of Islam. Yet, the numerically most important body of data presented by him concurs neatly with the classic (now dubbed “Hindutva”) account. In his oft-quoted paper “Temple desecration and Indo-Muslim states”, he gives a list of “eighty” cases of Islamic temple destruction. "Only eighty", is how the secularist history-rewriters render it, but Eaton makes no claim that his list is exhaustive. Moreover, eighty isn't always eighty. Thus, in his list, we find mentioned as one instance: "1994: Benares, Ghurid army. Did the Ghurid army work one instance of temple destruction? Eaton provides his source, and there we read that in Benares, the Ghurid royal army "destroyed nearly one thousand temples, and raised mosques on their foundations. (Note that unlike Sita Ram Goel, Richard Eaton is not chided by the likes of Sanjay Subramaniam for using Elliott and Dowson's "colonialist translation.") This way, practically every one of the instances cited by Eaton must be read as actually ten, or a hundred, or as in this case even a thousand temples destroyed. Even Eaton's non-exhaustive list, presented as part of "the kind of responsible and constructive discussion that this controversial topic so badly needs", yields the same thousands of temple destructions ascribed to the Islamic rulers in most relevant pre-1989 histories of Islam and in pro-Hindu publications…. If the “eighty” (meaning thousands of) cases of Islamic iconoclasm are only a trifle, the “abounding” instances of Hindu iconoclasm, “thoroughly integrated” in Hindu political culture, can reasonably be expected to number tens of thousands. Yet, Eaton’s list, given without reference to primary sources, contains, even in a maximalist reading (i. e., counting “two” when one king takes away two idols from one enemy’s royal temple), only 18 individual cases…. In this list, cases of actual destruction amount to exactly two…”

Koenraad Elst (1959) orientalist, writer

2000s, Ayodhya: The Case Against the Temple (2002)

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“I repeat, let us paint as much as we can and be productive, and be ourselves with all our faults and qualities; I say us, because the money from you [Theo], which I know costs you trouble enough to procure me, gives you the right, when there is some good in my work, to consider half of it your creation.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote in his letter to brother Theo, from Nuenen, The Netherlands, Spring 1885; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, p. 7 (letter 399)
1880s, 1885

“One, the people in charge wanting to give up control. This tends to eliminate some 80 percent of businesspeople. Two, a profound belief that humankind will work toward its best version, given freedom; that would eliminate the other 20 percent.”

Ricardo Semler (1959) Brazilian businessman

Strategy+business: "Ricardo Semler Won't Take Control" https://www.strategy-business.com/article/05408?gko=3291c (29 November 2005)

Charles Bukowski photo
Terrell Owens photo

“T. O., he's a phenomenal player and a good leader. A lot of people in the media try to make him to be a bad guy, which he's really not. He's a team player. He works hard.”

Terrell Owens (1973) former American football wide receiver

Alonzo Ephraim — reported in Alex Marvez (November 11, 2005) "Ephraim Says Owens Was A Good Teammate", South Florida Sun-Sentinel, p. 7C.
About

John McCain photo
Jim Yong Kim photo
James Connolly photo

“A revolution will only be achieved when the ordinary people of the world, us, the working class, get up off our knees and take back what is rightfully ours.”

James Connolly (1868–1916) Irish republican and socialist leader

As cited in Legendary Locals of Troy, New York (2011), p. 11

Pope John Paul II photo

“peace is possible. It needs to be implored from God as his gift, but it also needs to be built day by day with his help, through works of justice and love.”

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint

Message for the celebration of XXXIII World Day of Peace, 8 December 1999
Source: www.vatican.va http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/peace/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_08121999_xxxiii-world-day-for-peace_en.html

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn photo
Leo Tolstoy photo
Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar photo
Larry Niven photo