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Work Quotes

127QUOTES

Work quotes on labor, craft and the daily grind, from Voltaire and Thoreau to Will Smith, each checked to its source.

What makes men happy is liking what they have to do.

Claude Adrien Helvétius · From the preface to De l'Esprit; he adds that this is a principle on which society is not founded.

No plans, no enterprise, no struggle to aid the general cause. Just sit still on the spacious throne and snooze.

Winston Churchill · To his brother-in-law, September 1916 (Martin Gilbert)

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Theodore Roosevelt · From his Labor Day "Square Deal" speech at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, 7 September 1903.

The fortunate people in the world—the only really fortunate people in the world, in my mind—are those whose work is also their pleasure.

Winston Churchill · Author’s Club, London, 17 February 1908

There is no greater delusion than that low wages mean high profits. No labour is so dear as cheap labour, and the labour which costs nothing is the dearest of all.

Winston Churchill · House of Commons, 22 February 1906

Most of these woolly phrases are mere padding, which can be left out altogether or replaced by a single word. Let us not shrink from using the short expressive phrases, even if it is conversational.

Winston Churchill · Recorded in the official biography by Randolph Churchill and Martin Gilbert, 9 August 1940

Business first; pleasure afterwards.

William Makepeace Thackeray · The Queen of Paflagonia in 'The Rose and the Ring' (1855) ch. 1.

Clarity and cogency can be reconciled with a greater brevity; it is slothful not to compress your thoughts.

Winston Churchill · S, 1940

It is always more easy to discover and proclaim general principles than to apply them.

Winston Churchill · Churchill on principles.

Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.

Anthony Trollope

I have always understood that the theory upon which a pension is granted is that it has been earned, and is to be regarded as deferred pay.

Winston Churchill · House of Commons, 9 April 1913

The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife.

David Ogilvy

Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality.

John Ruskin

One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts.

Albert Einstein · To his former student Walter Dällenbach, 31 May 1915.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

Plato · Socrates in the Republic, on the raising of children.

To my mind, to be able to make your work your pleasure is the one class distinction in the world worth striving for.

Winston Churchill · Author’s Club, London, 17 February 1908

The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.

The Bible · Matthew 9:37

It arises most of all, I think, from excessive zeal in preparing against dangers which often change, and sometimes fade as soon as they are faced; and still more from the well-intentioned desire of every branch and section to reach 100 per cent standard of safety, which, of course, is never attainable in war.

Winston Churchill · House of Commons, 27 February 1940

A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.

Dean Acheson

The maxim "Nothing avails but perfection" spells paralysis.

Winston Churchill · The source reads: “The maxim "Nothing avails but perfection" may be spelt shorter: "Paralysis."” · From a wartime minute to his staff, 1942.

I have always affirmed that those who work in these hard and dangerous conditions far from the light of the sun have the right to receive exceptional benefits from the nation which they serve.

Winston Churchill · Woodford, 21 July 1951

Sleep is sweet to the labouring man.

John Bunyan

God for a month of power & a good shorthand writer.

Winston Churchill · Flanders, 3 January 1916

The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.

Albert Einstein · Recalled by Lincoln Barnett in Smithsonian, 1979.

Frequently asked questions

How many work quotes are here?

127 quotes, dealt in a fresh order every day, so the page reads differently each morning, and every quote keeps its own page.

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