If the building of a bridge does not enrich the awareness of those who work on it, then that bridge ought not to be built. Frantz Fanon
An “acceptable” level of unemployment means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job. Unknown
To crush, to annihilate a man utterly, to inflict on him the most terrible of punishments so that the most ferocious murderer would shudder at it and dread it beforehand, one need only give him work of an absolutely, completely useless and irrational character. Dostoevsky
Don’t condescend to unskilled labor. Try it for half a day first. Brooks Atkinson
If while you are in school, there is a shortage of qualified personnel in a particular field, then by the time you graduate with the necessary qualifications, that field’s employment market is glutted. Marguerite Emmons
It is the privilege of any human work which is well done to invest the doer with a certain haughtiness. Emerson
We seldom break our leg so long as life continues a toilsome upward climb. The danger comes when we begin to take things easily and choose the convenient paths. Nietzsche
I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me; the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart. Jerome K. Jerome
Constant labor of one uniform kind destroys the intensity and flow of a man’s animal spirits, which find recreation and delight in mere change of activity. Karl Marx
Honest labor bears a lovely face. Thomas Dekker
Work is not the curse, but drudgery is. Henry Ward Beecher
The hand of little employment hath the daintier sense. William Shakespeare
Most people spend most of their days doing what they do not want to do in order to earn the right, at times, to do what they may desire. John Mason Brown
Few things are of themselves impossible, and we lack the application to make them a success rather than the means. La. Rochefoucauld
Employment is my right my destiny. James Baldwin
A great many people who spend their time mourning over the brevity of life could make it seem longer if they did a little more work. Don Marquis
The ant is knowing and wise; but he doesn’t know enough to take a vacation. Clarence Day
Greater is he who enjoys the fruits of his labor than he who fears heaven. The Haggadah
Every man who does not teach his son a trade, it is as though he teaches him to rob. The Haggadah
A man’s work is rather the needful supplement to himself than the outcome of it. Max Beerbohm
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor. Victor Hugo
He is idle that might be better employed. Thomas Fuller
Why, since we are always complaining of our ills, are we constantly employed in redoubling them? Voltaire
Whether our work is art or science or the daily work of society, it is only the form in which we explore our experience which is different. Jacob Bronowski
The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory. Pascal
He who does nothing renders himself incapable of doing anything; but while we are executing any work, we are preparing and qualifying ourselves to undertake another. William Hazlitt
It is weariness to keep toiling at the same things so that one becomes ruled by them. Heraclitus
If you direct your whole thought to work itself, none of the things which invade eyes or ears will reach the mind. Quintilian
Where there is most labor there is not always most life. Havelock Ellis
One of the saddest things is the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can’t eat eight hour a day nor drink for eight hours nor make love for eight hours. William Faulkner
He who considers his work beneath him will be above doing it well. Alexander Chase
Let us be grateful to Adam our benefactor. He cut us out of the “blessing” of idleness and won for us the curse of labor. Mark Twain
No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments. Samuel Johnson
Serious occupation is labor that has reference to some want. Hegel
Love labor: for if thou dost not want it for food, thou may for physic. It is wholesome for thy body and good for thy mind. William Penn
Most people work the greater part of their time for a mere living; and the little freedom which remains to them so troubles them that they use every means of getting rid of it. Goethe
No race can prosper until it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. Booker T. Washington
What is work? And what is not work? Are questions that perplex the wisest of men. Unknown
Every calling is great when greatly pursued. Olive Wendell Holmes
Life has not taught me to expect nothing, but she has taught me not to expect success to be the inevitable result of my endeavors. She taught me to seek sustenance from the endeavor itself, but to leave the result to God. Alan Paton
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Samuel Johnson
Human service is the highest form of self-interest for the person who serves. Elbert Hubbard
There is certainly no greater happiness than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed, to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow. Samuel Johnson
Originality and the feeling of one’s own dignity are achieved only through work and struggle. Dostoevsky
No one gains from fair employment law and legislation if there is no employment to be had. John F. Kennedy
He that will not work according to his faculty; let him perish according to his necessity: there is no law more just than that. Thomas Carlyle
He that would have the fruit must climb the tree. Thomas Fuller
To work is to pray. St. Benedict
