A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can’t think of anything else to do.

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

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

He that would eat the nut must crack the shell.

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it.

I hate the present modes of living and getting a living. Farming and shopkeeping and working at a trade or profession are all odious to me. I should relish getting my living in a simple, primitive fashion.

Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.

It is shameful and inhuman to treat men like chattels to make money by, or to regard them merely as so much muscle or physical power.

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

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation.

Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.

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.