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

God sells us all things at the price of labor.

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

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.

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

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

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