Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Occupation

Beware of a misfit occupation… . Consider carefully your natural bent, whether for business or a profession.
Marshall Field (1834–1906) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson, Philanthropist

The busy have no time for tears.
Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet

The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher

I take it to be a principal rule of life, not to be too much addicted to any one thing.
Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist

Occupation is the scythe of time.
Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France

Occupation was one of the pleasures of paradise, and we cannot be happy without it.
Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) Irish-born Literary, Art Critic

I have lived to know that the great secret of human happiness is this: never suffer your energies to stagnate. The old adage of “too many irons in the fire,” conveys an abominable lie. You cannot have too many—poker, tongs, and all—keep them all going.
Adam Clarke (1762–1832) British Methodist Scholar, Theologian, Clergyman

Genial manners are good, and power of accommodation to any circumstance, but the high prize of life, the crowning fortune of a man is to be born with a bias to some pursuit, which finds him in employment and happiness,—whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or canals, or statutes, or songs. I doubt not this was the meaning of Socrates, when he pronounced artists the only truly wise, as being actually, not apparently so.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher

By rights, satire is a lonely and introspective occupation, for nobody can describe a fool to the life without much patient self-inspection.
Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925) American Encyclopedia Editor, Essayist

The prosperity of a people is proportionate to the number of hands and minds usefully employed. To the community, sedition is a fever, corruption is a gangrene, and idleness is an atrophy. Whatever body or society wastes more than it acquires, must gradually decay; and every being that continues to be fed, and ceases to labor, takes away something from the public stock.
Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist

The want of occupation is no less the plague of society, than of solitude.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher

Monotony is the law of nature. Look at the monotonous manner in which the sun rises. The monotony of necessary occupation is exhilarating and life giving.
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist

Let a man choose what condition he will, and let him accumulate around him all the goods and gratifications seemingly calculated to make him happy in it; if that man is left at any time without occupation or amusement, and reflects on what he is, the meagre, languid felicity of his present lot will not bear him up. He will turn necessarily to gloomy anticipations of the future; and unless his occupation calls him out of himself, he is inevitably wretched.
Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian

The highest excellence is seldom attained in more than one vocation. The roads leading to distinction in separate pursuits diverge, and the nearer we approach the one, the farther we recede from the other.
Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist

Occupation is the necessary basis of all enjoyment.
Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) British Poet, Essayist, Journalist

It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer

The great happiness of life, I find, after all, to consist in the regular discharge of some mechanical duty.
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist

You see men of the most delicate frames engaged in active and professional pursuits who really have no time for idleness. Let them become idle,—let them take care of themselves, let them think of their health,—and they die! The rust rots the steel which use preserves.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician

Let parents who hate their offspring rear them to hate labor and to inherit riches, and before long they will be stung by every vice, racked by its poison, and damned by its penalty.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer

My mother has always been unhappy with what I do. She would rather I do something nicer, like be a bricklayer.
Mick Jagger (b.1943) English Rock Singer, Songwriter

Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent o people who have none.
Jules Renard (1864–1910) French Writer, Diarist

Absence of occupation is not rest; a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer

Writing books is certainly a most unpleasant occupation. It is lonesome, unsanitary, and maddening. Many authors go crazy.
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic

No thoroughly occupied man was ever yet very miserable.
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–38) English Poet, Novelist

We protract the career of time by employment, we lengthen the duration of our lives by wise thoughts and useful actions. Life to him who wishes not to have lived in vain is thought and action.
Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann (1728–1795) Swiss Philosophical Writer, Naturalist, Physician

It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do the less time one finds to do it in. One yawns, one procrastinates, one can do it when one will, and, therefore, one seldom does it all; whereas those who have a great deal of business, must (to use a vulgar expression) buckle to it; and then they always find time enough to do it in.
Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters

Most of the trades, professions, and ways of living among mankind, take their original either from the love of pleasure, or the fear of want. The former, when it becomes too violent, degenerates into luxury, and the latter into avarice.
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician

You cannot give an instance of any man who is permitted to lay out his own time, contriving not to have tedious hours.
Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist

Every base occupation makes one sharp in its practice, and dull in every other.
Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *