Quotes About Work

Robert trusted in the law of empathy, by which he could, by his will, transfer himself into an object or a work of art, and thus influence the outer world. He did not feel redeemed by the work he did. He did not seek redemption. He sought to see what others did not, the projection of his imagination.

One step into a living space and one can sense the centrality of work in a life. Half-empty paper coffee cups. Half-eaten deli sandwiches. An encrusted soup bowl. Here is joy and neglect. A little mescal. A little jacking off, but mostly just work. This is how I live, I am thinking.

Most often the alchemy that produces a poem or a work of fiction is hidden within the work itself, if not embedded in the coiling ridges of the mind.

slowly I discerned a familiar shift in my concentration. That compulsion that prohibits me from completely surrendering to a work of art, drawing me from the halls of a favored museum to my own drafting table. Pressing me to close Songs of Innocence in order to experience, as blake, a glimpse of the divine that may also become a poem. That is the decisive power of a singular work:a call to action. And I, time and again, am overcome with the hubris to believe I can answer that call.

I was always interested in French poetry sort of as a sideline to my own work, I was translating contemporary French poets. That kind of spilled out into translation as a way to earn money, pay for food and put bread on the table.

So it goes as I work my way down the page, and each cluster of marks is a word, and each word is a sound in my head, and each time I write another word, I hear the sound of my own voice, even though my lips are silent.

A lot of film people are like that– especially the ones below the line, the blue-collar guys, the grunts. They like putting their hands on the equipment and getting it to do things for them. It's not about art or ideas. It's about working at something and making it come out right.

Bir ölüm ferman? ç?karmak zaten yeterince kötüydü, ama ölmü? bir adam için çal??mak en az onun kadar kötüydü.

those men worked in order to live, whereas his father seemed to live in order to work, which meant that his parents' friends were defined more by their enthusiasms than their burdens or responsibilities,

I am an ardent believer in universal happiness. I would like everyone in the world to have satisfying, fulfilling work, for everyone to earn enough to escape the menace of poverty, but I have no idea how to achieve such worthy goals. Therefore, I will pass over these matters in silence.

Pero yo sí tengo un trabajo. Me levanto por la mañana como todo el mundo y luego intento ver si consigo llegar al final del día. Ése es un trabajo de jornada completa. Nada de diez minutos para el café, nada de fines de semana, nada de pagas extraordinarias, nada de vacaciones. No es que me queje, pero el sueldo es bastante bajo.

The formulaic repetitiveness of filing and stuffing envelopes appeals to me in some fundamental life-affirming way.

Like the good Reverend King I too 'have a dream' but when I wake up I forget it and remember I'm running late for work.

effort becomes enjoyable when it's seen as play, or as a game.

has long been known that effort can be the secret sauce that makes things better. One of the classic findings in psychology is that the more effort you put into something, the more you value it. This is the logic of Benjamin Franklin's classic advice on how to turn a rival into a friend—ask him or her to do you a favor. Having worked to help you, they'll like you more.

We are constituted so that simple acts of kindness, such as giving to charity or expressing gratitude, have a positive effect on our long-term moods. The key to the happy life, it seems, is the good life: a life with sustained relationships, challenging work, and connections to community.

Cleaning the bathroom for thirty minutes is unpleasant, but wouldn't it be worse to spend a half hour cleaning a Sisyphean bathroom, one that stayed dirty no matter how much you scrubbed it?

Greater Effort Increases Perceived Value in an Invertebrate," Journal of Comparative Psychology

When you bring your car into the shop, you're charged for "parts and labor," and you've never questioned for a second that the more labor it takes, the more you have to pay. Indeed, the relationship between effort and financial cost is so tight that we often talk about our everyday efforts in economic terms

We will often choose to do something rather than nothing, even if the something is effortful and provides no tangible benefits. Effort itself can be a source of pleasure.

Effort sweetens the value of the products of labor.

By ten o'clock, the sidewalk along Vine Street looks like the Fourth of July parade. Mama minds the cash box while Daddy and Mitch go to haul more tomatoes and peppers from the truck. The basket of beans is almost empty, so I fill it up again.

When Jesus Christ started His public ministry, the very first work accomplished by Him was the work of taking-on all our sins by receiving baptism in the Jordan River.

An attraction for him was the natives' habit of gathering after work, a custom that helped keep them warm and cheerful as they danced away what Johnny fetchingly called the "long white evenings.