Labor Quotes - Page 30

• The poet's labors are a work of joy, and require peace of mind.

  Ovid

  Joy, Mind, Poet

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• Having a baby is definitely a labor of love.

  Joan Rivers

  Baby, Children Love, Childbirth

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• Such are the vicissitudes of the world, through all its parts, that day and night, labor and rest, hurry and retirement, endear each other; such are the changes that keep the mind in action: we desire, we pursue, we obtain, we are satiated; we desire something else and begin a new pursuit.

  Samuel Johnson

  Change, Retirement, Night

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.35

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• Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a Life-purpose... Get your happiness out of your work or you will never know what real happiness is... Even in the meanest sorts of Labour, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony the instant he sets himself to work!

  Thomas Carlyle

  Real, Blessed, Men

  "Past and Present". Book by Thomas Carlyle, April 1843.

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• All true work is sacred.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Sacred

  Thomas Carlyle (1862). “Past and Present: Chartism, and Sartor Resartus”, p.203

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• In our country and in our times no man is worthy the honored name of statesman who does not include the highest practicable education of the people in all his plans of administration. He may have eloquence, he may have a knowledge of all history, diplomacy, jurisprudence; and by these he might claim, in other countries, the elevated rank of a statesman: but unless he speaks, plans, labors, at all times and in all places, for the culture and edification of the whole people, he is not, he cannot be, an American statesman.

  Horace Mann

  Country, Men, Names

  Horace Mann (1845). “Lectures on Education”, p.162

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• To-day Massachusetts; and the whole of the American republic, from the border of Maine to the Pacific slopes, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, stand upon the immutable and everlasting principles of equal and exact justice. The days of unrequited labor are numbered with the past. Fugitive slave laws are only remembered as relics of that barbarism which John Wesley pronounced "the sum of all villainies," and whose knowledge of its blighting effects was matured by his travels in Georgia and the Carolinas.

  Horace Mann

  Past, Lakes, Law

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• The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor.

  Helen Keller

  Country, Land, Bankers

  Helen Keller (1967). “Helen Keller, her Socialist years: writings and speeches”

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• The few who profit from the labor of the masses want to organize the workers into an army which will protect the interests of the capitalists.

  Helen Keller

  Army, Want, Profit

  Helen Keller (1967). “Helen Keller, her Socialist years: writings and speeches”

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• What was said by the Latin poet of labor--that it conquers all things--is much more true when applied to impudence.

  Henry Fielding

  Latin, Conquer, Poet

  Henry Fielding, William Ernest Henley (1903). “The Complete Works of Henry Fielding, Esq: The history of the life of the late Mr.Jonathan Wild and A journey from this world to the next, &c”

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• The greatest part of mankind labor under one delirium or another; and Don Quixote differed from the rest, not in madness, but the species of it. The covetous, the prodigal, the superstitious, the libertine, and the coffee-house politician, are all Quixotes in their several ways.

  Henry Fielding

  Coffee, House, Way

  Henry Fielding (1824). “Works: With a Life of the Author”, p.297

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• One should not be assigned one's identity in society by the job slot one happens to fill. If we truly believe in the dignity of labor, any task can be performed with equal pride because none can demean the basic dignity of a human being.

  Judith Martin

  Jobs, Work, Believe

  Judith Martin (1996). “Common courtesy: in which Miss Manners solves the problem that baffled Mr. Jefferson”

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• If thou desire to purchase honor with thy wealth, consider first how that wealth became thine; if thy labor got it, let thy wisdom keep it; if oppression found it, let repentance restore it; if thy parent left it, let thy virtues deserve it; so shall thy honor be safer, better and cheaper.

  Francis Quarles

  Parent, Honor, Desire

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• The labor of thinking was so great to me, that having once come to a conclusion upon any subject, I would rather persist in it, right or wrong, than be at the trouble of going over the process again to revise and rectify my judgment.

  Maria Edgeworth

  Thinking, Judgment, Trouble

  Maria Edgeworth, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1822). “Works”, p.33

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• I should rather labor as another's serf, in the home of a man without fortune, one whose livelihood was meager, than rule over all the departed dead.

  Homer

  Home, Men, Departed

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• Now you say, alas! Christianity is hard; I grant it; but gainful and happy. I contemn the difficulty when I respect the advantage. The greatest labors that have answerable requitals are less than the least that have no regard. Believe me, when I look to the reward, I would not have the work easier. It is a good Master whom we serve, who not only pays, but gives; not after the proportion of our earnings, but of His own mercy.

  Joseph Hall

  Believe, Giving, Looks

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• If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if food, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it: toil is the law.

  John Ruskin

  Law, Toil, Want

  John Ruskin (1871). “Selections from the Writings of John Ruskin”, p.439

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• There is large difference between indolent impatience of labor and intellectual impatience of delay, large difference between leaving things unfinished because we have more to do or because we are satisfied with what we have done.

  John Ruskin

  Differences, Leaving, Intellectual

  John Ruskin (1855). “Modern Painters: pt. 4. Of many things”, p.82

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• domestic work is the most elementary form of labor. It is suitable for those with the intelligence of rabbits. All it requires is cleanlines, tidiness and quickness - not moral or intellectual qualities at all, but merely the outward and visible signs of health.

  Rebecca West

  Intellectual, Quality, Rabbits

  Rebecca West (1982). “The Young Rebecca: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17”

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• nothing is more common than to mistake the sign for the thing itself; nor is any practice more frequent than that of endeavoring to acquire the exterior mark, without once thinking to labor after the interior grace.

  Hannah More

  Mistake, Thinking, Practice

  Hannah More (1835). “The works of Hannah More”, p.365

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• I detest so much ... those persons, who insist upon telling you everything - who labor every point, as the lawyers say, as if they thought all excellence consisted in length.

  Mary Russell Mitford

  Excellence, Lawyer, Length

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• Labor is like motherhood to most of our political leaders: a calling so fine and noble that it would be sullied by talk of vulgar, mundane things like pay.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Work, Motherhood, Leader

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• Health lies in labor, and there is no royal road to it but through toil.

  Wendell Phillips

  Lying, Health, Toil

  Wendell Phillips (1864). “Speeches, Lectures, and Letters”, p.54

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• The villager, born humbly and bred hard,
  Content his wealth, and poverty his guard,
  In action simply just, in conscience clear,
  By guilt untainted, undisturb'd by fear,
  His means but scanty, and his wants but few,
  Labor his business, and his pleasure too,
  Enjoys more comforts in a single hour
  Than ages give the wretch condemn'd to power.

  Charles Churchill

  Mean, Giving, Guilt

  Charles Churchill (1783). “The Poetical Works of C. Churchill: In Three Volumes. with the Life of the Author”, p.90

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• The erotic element always present in fashion, the kiss of loving labor on the body, is now overtly expressed by language. Belts hug or clasp; necklines plunge; jerseys bind. The word exciting tingles everywhere.

  Mary McCarthy

  Fashion, Kissing, Clothes

  Mary McCarthy (1961). “On the contrary”, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy

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