If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper that did his job well.

Man is a tool-using animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.

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

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

He that would eat the nut must crack the shell.

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

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.

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