Labor Quotes - Page 2

• I would rather have a big burden and a strong back, than a weak back and a caddy to carry life's luggage.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Strong, Labor Day, Weak

  Harry Persons Taber, Elbert Hubbard (1912). “The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest”

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• The lot of man is ceaseless labor, Or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder.

  T. S. Eliot

  Men, Harder, Stills

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• Labour is the source of every blessing.

  Aesop

  Blessing, Source, Labour

  Aesop, George Fyler Townsend (1871). “Three Hundred Æsop's Fables”, p.88

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• It is to labor, and to labor only, that man owes everything possessed of exchangeable value. Labor is the talisman that has raised him from the condition of the savage: that has changed the desert and the forest into cultivated fields; that has covered the earth with cities, and the ocean with ships; that has given us plenty, comfort, and elegance, instead of want, misery, and barbarism.

  John Ramsay McCulloch

  Ocean, Men, Cities

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• Labor is the instituted means for the methodical development of all our powers under the direction and control of the will.

  J. G. Holland

  Mean, Power, Development

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• I believe you should tell the story of injustices, of inequalities, of bad conditions, so that the people as a whole in this country really face the problems that people who are pushed to the point of striking know all about, but others know practically nothing about.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Country, Believe, People

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• Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours, and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor.

  John F. Kennedy

  Self, Justice, Presidential

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• Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.

  Anatole France

  Work, Men, Labor Day

  The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard pt. 2, ch. 4 (1881)

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• Even in the meanest sorts of labor, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony the instant he sets himself to work.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Real, Work, Men

  Thomas Carlyle (1848). “Past and Present: Chartism. New Ed., Complete in One Volume”, p.197

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• Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labor is the future of America.

  John L. Lewis

  Future, Thoughtful, America

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• Labor was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things.

  Adam Smith

  Labour Movement, Labor Day, Firsts

  1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, bk.1, ch.5.

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• I have spent my life laboriously doing nothing.

  Hugo Grotius

  Doing Nothing, Last Words

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• They can expect nothing but their labor for their pains. - Cervantes

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Pain, Expect Nothing

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, John Gibson Lockhart (1854). “The History of the Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha”, p.9, London : Hurst, Robinson ; Edinburgh : A. Constable

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• With fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat in unwomanly rags, Plying her needle and thread.

  Thomas Hood

  Inspirational, Red, Rags

  'The Song of the Shirt' (1843)

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• Our fruitless labours mourn, And only rich in barren fame return.

  Homer

  Return, Rich, Fame

  Homer (1822). “The Odyssey of Homer”, p.209

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• It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that it have free and independent labor unions.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Independent, Organized Labor, Unions

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• What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.

  Samuel Gompers

  Beautiful, Revenge, Book

  The Shoe workers' Journal, Volume 16‎ (p. 4), 1915.

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• Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected.

  Samuel Gompers

  Respect, Rights, Organization

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• Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior ofcapital, and deserves muchthe higher consideration.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Independent Women, Dignity Of Work, Labor Day

  "Leadership Lessons of Abraham Lincoln: Apply the Principles of the Sixteenth President to Your Own Work and Life".

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• Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labor.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Faith, Work, Labor Day

  "The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci".

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• Love the earth and sun and animals, Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, Stand up for the stupid and crazy, Devote your income and labor to others... And your very flesh shall be a great poem.

  Walt Whitman

  Love, Inspirational, Crazy

  Walt Whitman (1953). “The best of Whitman”

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• Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work.

  Susan B. Anthony

  Girl, Equal Pay, Diversity

  The Revolution, 8 Oct. 1869

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• It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Despair, Boring, Amusing

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• Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth...

  Dolores Huerta

  Way, Organized Labor, Distribution Of Wealth

  "It’s the Little Things: Obama Insults Poland, Awards Medal of Freedom to Socialist Icons". "The Rush Limbaugh Show", www.rushlimbaugh.com. May 30, 2012.

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• The labor movement is organized upon a principle that the strong shall help the weak.

  John L. Lewis

  Strong, Labour Movement, Principles

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