Quotes About Work

The past cannot change what is to come. The work that you do each and every day is the only true way to improve and prepare yourself for what is to come. You cannot change the past, but you can influence the future by what you do today." —

How hard you work at correcting your faults reveals your character.

Never mistake mere activity for accomplishment

Too often fathers neglect it because they get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a life.

Your family is what counts, and you must always remember that as you get caught up in your own professional responsibilities.

The trick to learning Chinese is to always carry the flashcards into work every time, and also to write Chinese letters to your children.

I am afraid of some math, science, and engineering problems, but I know I can at least read the chapters through and perhaps the fear will go away at some point in the future as I attempt the work and ask the experts.

What sort of Englishman is forever too busy for tea? The nose-to-the-grindstone sort, to begin with. The sort who gets ahead without connections, who makes something of himself without benefit of small talk or social lubrication or the seeking of personal kindnesses.

The only way you can do anything of value is to have the effort come out of non-doing and to let go of caring whether it will be of use or not. Otherwise, self-involvement and greediness can sneak in and distort your relationship to the work, or the work itself, so that it is off in some way, biased, impure, and ultimately not completely satisfying, even if it is good.

It is a hard message to swallow at first blush because it brings into question everything that we think we are, which for the most part seems to come from what we identify with, our bodies, our thoughts, our feelings, our relationships, our values, our work, our expectations of what is "supposed" to happen and how things are "supposed" to work out for me in order for me to be happy, our stories of where we came from and where we are going and of who we are.

But if you don't see and accept things as they actually are, you won't know how to act. Or you might be overwhelmed by fear, and that fear might cloud the mind just when you most need clarity and equanimity, or at least, if clarity and equanimity seem elusive, just when you need to be aware of the fear so that you can find ways to work with it rather than have it work against you.

I live in a sort of insular world. It's mostly my family, my house, staying home and working.

I was an assistant once. I worked for Rob Reiner and his family. I did sign a confidentiality agreement, though.

I was raised in a very blue-collar family.

It is no longer an unwritten law of American capitalism that industry will attempt to maintain wages at a level that allows a single wage to support a family.

Adults are just children who earn money.

Employee fathers need to step up to the plate and put their family needs on the table.

The last three decades have seen the collapse of the family wage system.

I have three kids and a wife, and any moments that aren't dedicated to working on this film in some way, or family, are immediately reserved for sleep.

You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It's a Catch-22 kind of thing.

When I'm not working, my family and I have a house in the San Juan Islands. We've been here since '94.

I'm a homebody. If I'm not working I'm with my family being a dad.

It all starts with the script: it's not worth taking myself away from my family if I don't have something I'm really passionate about.

I have worked every day since the age of fifteen, supporting not only myself, but also helping a sizable family when needed.