There has never been but one question in all civilization-how to keep a few men from saying to many men: You work and earn bread and we will eat it.

Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

A man can only do what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.

Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965)

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation¹ from one kind of labor² by taking up another.

Anatole France (1844 - 1924), The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

You can't rest on your laurels³. Your own body of work is yet to come.

Barack Obama (1961 - ), Arizona State Commencement Speech, 2009

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown⁴ is the belief that one's work is terribly important.

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), Conquest of Happiness (1930) ch. 5

It has been my experience that one cannot, in any shape or form, depend on human relations for lasting⁵ reward. It is only work that truly satisfies.

Bette Davis (1908 - 1989), The Lonely Life, 1962

You do your best work if you do a job that makes you happy.

Bob Ross (1942 - 1995), Best of Joy of Painting, Winter Elegance⁶

We have too many people who live without working, and we have altogether too many people who work without living.

Charles Reynolds Brown

At least one study of blocked writers has found that they were more productive and more creative when they were essentially⁷ forced to write instead of scribbling⁸ only when the mood struck them.

Daniel Akst, We Have Met the Enemy: Self-Control in an Age of Excess, 2011

Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.

David McCullough (1933 - )

Doing what you love means dealing⁹ with things you don't.

David Shore, House M.D., Last Temptation, 2011

Working from home meant we could vary snack and coffee breaks, change our desks or view, goof¹⁰ off, drink on the job, even spend the day in pajamas¹¹, and often meet to gossip or share ideas. On the other hand, we bossed ourselves around, set impossible goals, and demanded longer hours than office jobs usually entail¹². It was the ultimate "flextime," in that it depended on how flexible we felt each day, given deadlines, distractions¹³, and workaholic crescendos.

Diane Ackerman, One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, A Marriage, and the Language of Healing, 2011

When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?'

Don Marquis (1878 - 1937)

A human being must have occupation if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893 - 1957)

Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?

Edgar Bergen (1903 - 1978), (Charlie McCarthy)

Folks who never do more than their paid for, never get paid for any more than they do.

Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915)

Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is.

Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915)

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

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

Our great weariness comes from work not done.

Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983), The New York Times Magazine, April 25, 1971

A professional is one who does his best work when he feels the least like working.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1869 - 1959)

Getting fired is nature's way to telling you that you had the wrong job in the first place.

Hal Lancaster, in The Wall Street Journal

One kernel¹⁴ is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell¹⁵ the ocean; a spark of fire helps to give light to the world. None are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service. Think of this and act.

Hannah More

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble¹⁶ tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty¹⁷ shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate¹⁸ of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.

Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)

Derive¹⁹ happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating²⁰ the fog that surrounds us.

Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954)

Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted²¹ to you.

Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.

Henry J. Kaiser (1882 - 1967)

Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.

Horace (65 BC - 8 BC), Satires