Work Quotes
You really have Social Disease when you make all your play work. The only reason to play hard is to work hard, not the other way around like most people think.
The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.
The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce. You can't weigh the soul of a man with a bar of pig-iron.
Some of the fastest growing American corporations are the ones that, as they put in the business press, sell workers. So Man Power Incorporated is just booming. And the reason for the turn to temporary workers is perfectly straight forward. They can be treated just as goods, as material goods. If you want to throw them out, you throw them out. You don't want to pay them benefits, you don't pay them benefits.
Without industriousness, there is no reward.
No man ever said on his deathbed, 'I wish I had spent more time at the office.'
It is best, it seems to me, to separate one's inner striving from one's trade as far as possible. It is not good when one's daily break is tied to God's special blessing.
Il faut cultiver notre jardin. [We must cultivate our garden.]
If one looks closely one sees that there is no essential difference between a beggar's livelihood and that of numberless respectable people. Beggars do not work, it is said; but then, what is work? A navvy works by swinging a pick. An accountant works by adding up figures. A beggar works by standing out of doors in all weathers and getting varicose veins, chronic bronchitis, etc. It is a trade like any other; quite useless, of course - but then, many reputable trades are quite useless.
I had a divorce to pay for, frankly.
I believe that this instinct to perpetuate useless work is, at bottom, simply a fear of the mob. The mob (the thought runs) are such low animals that they would be dangerous if they had leisure; it is safer to keep them too busy to think.
... we wise grown ups here at the company go gliding in and out all day long, scaring each other at our desks and cubicles and water coolers and trying to evade the people who frighten us. We come to work, have lunch, and go home. We goose-step in and goose-step out, change our partners and wander all about, sashay around for a pat on the head, and promenade home till we all drop dead.
Work's more fun than fun.
The idea that to make a man work you've got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We've done that for so long that we've forgotten there's any other way.