Man must be doing something, or fancy that he is doing something, for in him throbs the creative impulse; the mere basker in the sunshine is not a natural, but an abnormal man.

God sells us all things at the price of labor.

Sick, irritated, and the prey to a thousand discomforts, I go on with my labor like a true workingman, who, with sleeves rolled up, in the sweat of his brow, beats away at his anvil, not caring whether it rains or blows, hails or thunders.

A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is an invisible labor.

I am a friend of the workingman, and I would rather be his friend than be one.

I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

Every man is worth just so much as the things he busies himself with.

To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.

The most fitting occupation for a civilized man is to do nothing.

The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

I began to realize how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow with fixed hours, a fixed salary, and very little original thinking to do.

Labor is no disgrace.