As labor is the common burden of our race, so the effort of some to shift their share of the burden onto the shoulders of others is the great durable curse of the race.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
It is well to add a trade to your studies; you will then be free from sin.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.
—Alexander Hamilton (c.1757–1804) American Federalist Politician, Statesman
The pernicious, debilitating tendencies of bodily pleasure need to be counteracted by the invigorating exercises of bodily labor; whereas, bodily labor without bodily pleasure converts the body into a mere machine, and brutifies the soul.
—Anonymous
Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
Labor is the instituted means for the methodical development of all our powers under the direction and control of the will.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
Get your living by skinning carcasses in the street, if you cannot otherwise, and do not say, “I am a priest, I am a great man; this work would not befit my dignity”.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Happy the child who sees its parents engage in an honest trade; woe to the child who must blush on account of their dishonest trade.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Blessed is the man that has found his work. One monster there is in the world, the idle man.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Love makes labor light.
—Dutch Proverb
Thinking is the hardest and most exhausting of all labor; and hence many people shrink from it.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
There is no real wealth but the labor of man.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
If a man loves the labor of his trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the gods have called him.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Toil and pleasure, in their nature opposites, are yet linked together in a kind of necessary connection.
—Livy (Titus Livius) (59 BCE–17 CE) Roman Historian
If we would have anything of benefit, we must earn it, and earning it become shrewd, inventive, ingenious, active, enterprising.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
We are coming to see that there should be no stifling of labor by capital, or of capital by labor; and also that there should be no stifling of labor by labor, or of capital by capital.
—John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874–1960) American Philanthropist, Businessperson
He who derives his livelihood from the labor of his hands is as great as he who fears God.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
To create a little flower is the labor of ages.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The guard of virtue is labor, and ease her sleep.
—Torquato Tasso (1544–95) Italian Poet
Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.
—Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) British Author, Reformer
Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
It is not, truly speaking, the labor that is divided; but the men: divided into mere segments of men—broken into small fragments and crumbs of life, so that all the little piece of intelligence that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin, or a nail, but exhausts itself in making the point of a pin or the head of a nail.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
The true epic of our times is not “arms and the man,” but “tools and the man,” an infinitely wider kind of epic.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
Labor is the divine law of our existence; repose is desertion and suicide.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) Italian Patriot, Political Leader
Labor’s face is wrinkled with the wind, and swarthy with the sun.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
You and I toiling for earth, may at the same time be toiling for heaven, and every day’s work may be a Jacob’s ladder reaching up nearer to God.
—Theodore Parker (1810–60) American Unitarian Minister, Abolitionist
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