Work Quotes
On this page Carlyle is first by count, followed by Shakespeare, Lincoln, Karl Marx and Albert Pike. The line most worth keeping is Mark Twain’s from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876): work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and play of whatever a body is not obliged to do. Emerson’s May-Day and Other Pieces (1867) has a good one on the crowded hour, and Woody Allen’s joke about immortality through not dying is here as well.
Three entries are flagged. “I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours” is credited to Oscar Wilde and marked misattributed. Two sayings credited to Publilius Syrus, about doing nothing both hastily and prudently and about the man who loves labour always having something to do, are disputed.
The secret is comprised in three words — Work, Finish, Publish.
Writing is a lonely way of life. You shut yourself up in your study and work and work.
Some of the ideas I try to get across to the people who work for me are the following
Ours is a strange job. If you work, you earn money; if you don't work, you don't.
Our talks were very pleasant, as usual. Remember I used to vote Labour when I was here.
Since the very beginning, I have had this dream of living and working for the dignity of mankind.