Archive

Quotes

Labor is no disgrace.

—Hesiod, c. 700 BC

The workers are the saviors of society, the redeemers of the race.

—Eugene V. Debs, 1905

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.

—W.H. Auden, 1946

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.

—Billie Holiday, 1956

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.

—Nell Scovell, 1991

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

—Théophile Gautier, c. 1835

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.

—Henry David Thoreau, 1855

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

—Anatole France, 1881
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