Labour Quotes - Page 16

• This great increase of the quantity of work which, in consequence of the division of labour, the same number of people are capable of performing, is owing to three different circumstances; first, to the increase of dexterity in every particular workman; secondly, to the saving of the time which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many.

  Adam Smith

  Men, Numbers, People

  Adam Smith (2016). “The Wealth of Nations: the Great Master”, p.16, VM eBooks

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• Failure is less attributable to either insufficiency of means or impatience of labours than to a confused understanding of the thing actually to be done.

  John Ruskin

  Confused, Mean, Understanding

  John Ruskin (1849). “The Seven Lamps of Architecture”, p.1

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• The simple is carefully shunned by those who labour to seem what they would be.

  Paul Fussell

  Simple, Would Be, Seems

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• Once we begin to speak of men mixing their labour with the earth, we are in a whole world of new relations between man and nature, and to separate natural history from social history becomes extremely problematic.

  Raymond Williams

  Men, Mixing, World

  Raymond Williams (2005). “Culture and Materialism: Selected Essays”, p.76, Verso

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• Endeavour-with most diligent labour, O aspiring artist!-to master content. The form will rise to meet you.

  Multatuli

  Artist, Endeavour, Form

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• Discussing the attempts of Augustus' generals to add to the extent of the Roman Empire early in his reign:
  The northern countries of Europe scarcely deserved the expense and labour of conquest. The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune.

  Edward Gibbon

  Country, Yield, Race

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• Servile labour disappeared because it could not stand the competition of free labour; its un-profitability sealed its doom in the market economy.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Competition, Economy, Doom

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• I must be allowed to add some explanatory remarks to bring the subject home to reason-to that sluggish reason, which supinely takes opinions on trust, and obstinately supports them to spare itself the labour of thinking.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Home, Thinking, Support

  Mary Wollstonecraft (2012). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, p.177, Courier Corporation

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• The region belonging to the pure intellect is straitened: the imagination labours to extend its territories, to give it room. She sweeps across the boarders, searching out new lands into which she may guide her plodding brother. The imagination is the light which redeems from the darkness for the eyes of the understanding. Novalis says, 'The imagination is the stuff of the intellect' -affords, that is, the material upon which the intellect works.

  George MacDonald

  Brother, Eye, Light

  George MacDonald (1883). “The Imagination: And Other Essays”

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• The most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little bodily labour, might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, mathematics, and theology, without the least assistance from genius or study.

  Jonathan Swift

  Philosophy, Book, Writing

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.583, Delphi Classics

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• Now in regard to trades and other means of livelihood, which ones are to be considered becoming to a gentleman and which ones are vulgar, we have been taught, in general, as follows. First, those means of livelihood are rejected as undesirable which incur people's ill-will, as those of tax-gatherers and usurers. Unbecoming to a gentleman, too, and vulgar are the means of livelihood of all hired workmen whom we pay for mere manual labour, not for artistic skill; for in their case the very wage they receive is a pledge of their slavery.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Mean, Skills, Ill Will

  Marcus Tullius Cicero (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Cicero (Illustrated)”, p.3108, Delphi Classics

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• You know, the technology was at the right place for us to build this world. The most difficult thing about doing The Croods was no doubt the building of the world. Every single thing in this film is organic. Organic things are tough. Very very labour intensive. And we have no man-made structures. You could argue that everything in this film is really an exterior. Even the interiors of the cave are exteriors. So building this world was the biggest thing of all, and the technology was there to do it.

  Chris Sanders

  Technology, Men, Doubt

  Source: www.denofgeek.com

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• Sublime tobacco! which from east to west, Cheers the tar's labour or the Turkman's rest; Which on the Moslem's ottoman divides His hours, and rivals opium and his brides; Magnificent in Stamboul, but less grand, Though not less loved, in Wapping or the Strand: Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe, When tipp'd with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe; Like other charmers wooing the caress, More dazzlingly when daring in full dress; Yet thy true lovers more admire by far Thy naked beauties Give me a cigar!

  Lord Byron

  Cheer, Giving, Sublime

  Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.1029, Delphi Classics

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• In youth alone, unhappy mortals live; But, ah! the mighty bliss is fugitive: Discolour'd sickness, anxious labour, come, And age, and death's inexorable doom.

  Virgil

  Age, Unhappy, Youth

  Virgil (1825). “The Works of Virgil, Translated Into English Verse by John Dryden”, p.84

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• I have said as much as that the aim of art was to destroy the curse of labour by making work the pleasurable satisfaction of our impulse towards energy, and giving to that energy hope of producing something worth its exercise.

  William Morris

  Art, Exercise, Giving

  William Morris, May Morris (2012). “The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris”, p.91, Cambridge University Press

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• Is not labour, like learning, its own reward?

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Rewards

  Mahatma Gandhi (1974). “Collected Works”

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• The division of labour was limited by the extent of the market

  Adam Smith

  Division, Economics

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• No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.

  Adam Smith

  Should Have, People, Body

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.33

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• When a doubt is once received, men labour rather how to keep it a doubt still, than how to solve it; and accordingly bend their wits.

  Francis Bacon

  Men, Doubt, Wit

  Francis Bacon, Robert Leslie Ellis, William Rawley (1861). “The philosophical works of Francis Bacon, with prefaces and notes by the late Robert Leslie Ellis, together with English translations of the principal Latin pieces”, p.364

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• So I say, if you cannot learn to love real art; at least learn to hate sham art and reject it. It is not because the wretched thing is so ugly and silly and useless that I ask you to cast it from you; it is much more because these are but the outward symbols of the poison that lies within them; look through them and see all that has gone to their fashioning, and you will see how vain labour, and sorrow, and disgrace have been their companions from the first-and all this for trifles that no man really needs!

  William Morris

  Art, Lying, Hate

  William Morris, May Morris (2012). “The Collected Works of William Morris: With Introductions by His Daughter May Morris”, p.150, Cambridge University Press

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• The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.

  Adam Smith

  Division Of Labor, Skills, Dexterity

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.2

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• The value of any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command. Labour, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities. The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.

  Adam Smith

  Real, Mean, Men

  Adam, Smith (2016). “The Wealth of Nations”, p.24, Aegitas

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• In general, if any branch of trade, or any division of labour, be advantageous to the public, the freer and more general the competition, it will always be the more so.

  Adam Smith

  Competition, Division, Branches

  Adam Smith (2016). “The Wealth of Nations: the Great Master”, p.360, VM eBooks

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• Both ground- rents and the ordinary rent of land are a species of revenue which the owner, in many cases, enjoys without any care or attention of his own. The annual produce of the land and labour of the society, the real wealth and revenue of the great body of the people, might be the same after such a tax as before. Ground-rents, and the ordinary rent of land are, therefore, perhaps the species of revenue which can best bear to have a peculiar tax imposed upon them.

  Adam Smith

  Real, Land, People

  Adam Smith (1869). “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Volume 2”, p.437

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• Elections are also about the future - the pledges that we are making for this country. For those who care about equality and fairness in the UK, and beyond, Labour really is the only choice.

  Anne Campbell

  Country, Equality, Choices

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