I use the word inquiry as synonymous with The Work…Inquiry is a way to end confusion and to experience internal peace, even in a world of apparent chaos. Above all else, inquiry is about realizing that all the answers we ever need are always available inside us.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
A person who has not done one half his day’s work by ten o clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.
—Emily Bronte (1818–48) English Novelist, Poet
He who would really benefit mankind must reach them through their work.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
No labor, however humble, is dishonoring.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
People with a high level of personal mastery are able to consistently realize the results that matter most deeply to them—in effect, they approach their life as an artist would approach a work of art. The do that by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning.
—Peter Senge (b.1947) American Management Consultant, Author, Scientist
A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
When men are employed, they are best contented; for on the days they worked they were good-natured and cheerful, and, with the consciousness of having done a good day’s work, they spent the evening jollily; but on our idle days they were mutinous and quarrelsome.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
People are smarter than you think. Give them a chance to prove themselves.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
He that labors and thrives spins gold.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
A Rescuer isn’t always a person. Addictions to alcohol or drugs, sexual addiction, workaholism—all the ways we numb out—can rescue the Victim from feeling his or her own feelings.
—David Emerald
Work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons.
—Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) Polish Catholic Religious Leader
Work is hard if you’re paid to do it, and it’s pleasure if you pay to be allowed to do it.
—Finley Peter Dunne (1867–1936) American Author, Writer, Humorist
The simple heart that freely asks in love, obtains.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
Our greatest weariness comes from work not done.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
No task, rightly done, is truly private. It is part of the world’s work.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
One of the saddest things is that the only thing that a man can do for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can’t eat eight hours a day nor drink for eight hours a day nor make love for eight hours—all you can do for eight hours is work. Which is the reason why man makes himself and everybody else so miserable and unhappy.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
Language learning deserves special mention. It is, bar none, the best thing you can do to hone clear thinking.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Nowhere so busy a man as he than he, and yet he seemed busier than he was.
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) English Poet, Philosopher, Diplomat, Bureaucrat
When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The idea that to make a man work you’ve got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We’ve done that for so long that we’ve forgotten there’s any other way.
—Indian Proverb
Employment gives health, sobriety, and morals.—Constant employment and well-paid labor produce, in a country like ours, general prosperity, content, and cheerfulness.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
All one’s work might have been better done; but this is a sort of reflection a worker must put aside courageously if he doesn’t mean every one of his conceptions to remain forever a private vision, an evanescent reverie.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
My God these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months.
—David McCullough (b.1933) American 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
If you’ve ever felt inspired by a purpose or calling, you know the feeling of Spirit working through you. Inspired is our word for in-spirited.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Being selective—doing less—is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
That’s the purpose of stress. It’s a friend. It’s an alarm clock, built in to let you know that it’s time to do The Work.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else. Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career!
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
Work is not man’s punishment! It is his reward and his strength, his glory and his pleasure.
—George Sand (1804–76) French Novelist, Dramatist
Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.
—P. T. Barnum (1810–91) American Businessperson, Entertainer
If you could make a pudding wi’ thinking o’ the batter,
it ‘ud be easy getting dinner.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
I feel sorry for the person who can’t get genuinely excited about his work. Not only will he never be satisfied, but he will never achieve anything worthwhile.
—Walter Chrysler (1875–1940) American Engineer, Industrialist
Everything keeps its best nature only by being put to its best use.
—Phillips Brooks (1835–93) American Episcopal Clergyman, Author
Kings are like stars—they rise and set,
they have the worship of the world, but no repose.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
The Three Rules of Work: 1. Out of clutter, find simplicity. 2. From discord, find harmony. 3. In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
There is no substitute for hard work.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Everything must degenerate into work if anything is to happen.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
Unbeknownst to most fun-loving bipeds, not all stress is bad. Indeed, the New Rich don’t aim to eliminate all stress. Not in the least.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Tomorrow becomes never. No matter how small the task, take the first step now!
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the sum of his own works.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
When I was a young man I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. I didn’t want to be a failure, so I did ten times more work.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I don’t pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
The right man can make a good job out of any job.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
The bad workmen who form the majority of the operatives in many branches of industry are decidedly of opinion that bad workmen ought to receive the same wages as good.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
Whimpering never kept a leaking vessel from foundering. Vigorously manning the pumps has. Get busy with your head and hands, not your chin.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
In a sense, your need to please shows you what you have to work on—and that is: letting go emotionally of the role of child and stepping into the role of adult.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author