Work Quotes - Page 39

• You have to earn money the hard way. Because no-one will serve it up to you on a silver platter.

  Gordon Wu

  Money, Silver Platter, Up To You

  10 Copy quote

• So much of unhappiness, it seems to me, is due to nerves; and bad nerves are the result of having nothing to do, or doing a thing badly, unsuccessfully or incompetently. Of all the unhappy people in the world, the unhappiest are those who have not found something they want to do. True happiness comes to those who do their work well, followed by a refreshing period of rest. True happiness comes from the right amount of work for the day.

  Lin Yutang

  People, Unhappy, Nerves

  40 Copy quote

• The beauty of work depends upon the way we meet it — whether we arm ourselves each morning to attack it as an enemy that must be vanquished before night comes, or whether we open our eyes with the sunrise to welcome it as an approaching friend.

  Lucy Larcom

  Morning, Eye, Night

  13 Copy quote

• Work and play can be the same. When you are following your energy and doing what you want to do all the time, the distinction between work and play dissolves. Work is no longer what you have to do, and play what you want to do. When you are doing what you love, you may work harder and produce more than ever before, because you are having fun.

  Shakti Gawain

  Fun, Love You, Doing What You Love

  10 Copy quote

• Work, especially good work, becomes easy only when desire has learnt to discipline itself.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Discipline, Desire, Easy

  6 Copy quote

• There is a condition or circumstance that has a greater bearing upon the happiness of life than any other. What is it? Something to do; some congenial work. Take away the occupation of all people and what a wretched world it would be.

  John Burroughs

  People, Would Be, World

  4 Copy quote

• Occupation was one of the pleasures of paradise, and we cannot be happy without it.

  Anna Brownell Jameson

  Occupation, Paradise, Pleasure

  7 Copy quote

• I believe that earning your living doing something you enjoy is one of the very best ways to nourish yourself. But even if you are employed at something that is not your ideal work, it is important to find ways to take as much pleasure in it as possible. Living in the present moment can make ordinary activities more interesting and joyful; you may be surprised, if you only look, at what you will find. If you try to stay connected with why you are doing what you are doing, for example, then even the parts of your life that aren't especially interesting can become more meaningful.

  Nathaniel Branden

  Meaningful, Believe, Interesting

  7 Copy quote

• One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important, and that to take a holiday would bring all kinds of disaster. If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his or her work important.

  Bertrand Russell

  Holiday, Men, Important

  'The Conquest of Happiness' (1930) ch. 5

  6 Copy quote

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• As one woman told me, "When I decided to come in to work happy, everybody around me became happy." This woman had decided to quit a job she hated, and on the last day of her two weeks' notice, she woke up happy. At the end of the day, she noticed that everybody around her was happy, too- so she didn't quit after all. She decided to come to work happy instead. Two years later, she's still on the job, radiating happiness and love.

  Bernie Siegel

  Jobs, Years, Two

  26 Copy quote

• A great business success was probably never attained by chasing the dollar, but is due to pride in one's work, the pride that makes business an art.

  Henry Latham Doherty

  Success, Art, Pride

  Henry Latham Doherty (1923). “Principles and Ideas for Doherty Men: Papers, Addresses and Letters”

  4 Copy quote

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• I will try not to panic, to keep my standard of living modest and to work steadily, even shyly, in the spirit of those medieval carvers who so fondly sculpted the undersides of choir seats.

  John Updike

  Trying, Panic, Spirit

  John Updike, James Plath (1994). “Conversations with John Updike”, p.16, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• It is the experience of those who have tried it, that working from a sense of duty, working for the work's sake, working as a service, instead of for a living, or to make money, or in order to hoard up wealth, brings blessings into the life.

  Henry Thomas Hamblin

  Blessing, Order, Sake

  14 Copy quote

• I would have been content with any job however thankless, in any quarter however remote, if I had a chance of making a corner of the desert blossom and the solitary place glad.

  John Buchan

  Jobs, Would Be, Desert

  12 Copy quote

• If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go.

  Laozi

  Letting Go, Jobs, Tao Te Ching

  8 Copy quote

• One can't be happy as I have been for very long. There's a law against it. I have worked hard and enjoyed my work and it is the punishment of man to hate his work. Sooner or later I will have work that I hate.

  John Steinbeck

  Hate, Men, Law

  4 Copy quote

• Vineyards and shining harvests, pastures, arbors,
  And all this our very utmost toil
  Can hardly care for, we wear down our strength
  Whether in oxen or in men, we dull
  The edges of our ploughshares, and in return
  Our fields turn mean and stingy, underfed,
  And so today the farmer shakes his head,
  More and more often sighing that his work,
  The labour of his hands, has come to naught.

  Lucretius

  Mean, Men, Oxen

  4 Copy quote

• Capitalism arose and took off its pajamas. Another day, another dollar. Each man is valued at what he will bring in the marketplace. Meaning has been drained from work and assigned instead to remuneration.

  Donald Barthelme

  Men, Dollars, Another Day

  Donald Barthelme (1982). “Sixty stories”, Plume

  14 Copy quote

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• As American productivity, once the exuberant engine of national wealth, has dipped to an embarrassingly uncompetitive low, Americans have shaken their heads: the country's old work ethic is dead.

  Lance Morrow

  Country, Ethics, Wealth

  4 Copy quote

• If you can't be bothered to work on Saturday, don't bother to come in on Sunday.

  Jay Chiat

  Sunday, Saturday, Bother

  7 Copy quote

• The man who wins is the average man,
  Not built on any particular plan;
  Not blessed with any particular luck

  Conrad Hilton

  Blessed, Winning, Men

  9 Copy quote

• There are few things that you can't do as long as you are willing to apply yourself.

  Greg LeMond

  Long, Hardwork, Willing

  21 Copy quote

• A man's labor is not only his capital but his life. When it passes it returns never more. To utilize it, to prevent its wasteful squandering, to enable the poor man to bank it up for use hereafter, this surely is one of the most urgent tasks before civilization.

  William Booth

  Men, Civilization, Tasks

  William Booth (1890). “In Darkest England, and the Way Out”

  24 Copy quote

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• The sport I love has taken me around the world and shown me many things.

  Bonnie Blair

  Sports, Taken, World

  Bonnie Blair, Greg Brown (1996). “A Winning Edge”, Taylor Trade Pub

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• I couldn't get any jobs, and when that happens, you get so humble it's disgusting. I didn't feel like a man anymore -- I felt really creepy. I was bumping into walls and saying, Excuse me.

  Joe Pesci

  Jobs, Wall, Humble

  55 Copy quote