Quotes About Work

No wealth can buy the requisite leisure, freedom, and independence which are the capital in this profession.

The ways by which you get money almost without exception lead downward

When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shopkeepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon, but all the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so many of them—as if the legs were made to sit upon, and not to stand or walk upon—I think that they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago. I

I foresee, that, if my wants should be much increased, the labor required to supply them would become a drudgery.

find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh.

By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man's morning work in this world?

We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you. And every few years a new lot is laid down and run over; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon.

One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;" and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plough along in spite of every obstacle.

We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us.

I did not read books the first summer; I hoed beans

the devil finds employment for the idle —

This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once. What!

An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not.

They who are at work abroad are not cold, but rather it is they who sit shivering in houses.

They who are at work abroad are not cold, but rather it is they who sit shivering in houses. As with temperatures, so with flavors; as with cold and heat, so with sour and sweet.

Para resumir, estou convencido, por e fé e experiência, que a automanutenção neste mundo não é um sofrimento mas um passatempo, se a pessoa viver de modo simples e sábio; tanto que as ocupações dos povos mais simples são os esportes dos mais sofisticados. Não é necessário que um homem ganhe a vida com o suor de seu rosto, a não ser que ele sue muito mais que eu

Mas o trabalho manual, mesmo quando se torna quase enfadonho e pesado, talvez nunca seja a pior forma de ociosidade

La mayoría de los hombres, incluso en este país relativamente libre, se afanan tanto por los puros artificios e innecesarias labores de la vida, que no les queda tiempo para cosechar sus mejores frutos.

Do empenho vem a sabedoria e a pureza; da preguiça a ignorância e a sensualidade. Uma pessoa impura é universalmente preguiçosa, que se senta junto à estufa, deita-se ao calor do sol, repousa sem estar cansada. Se vocês querem evitar a impureza e todos os pecados, que trabalhem com empenho, mesmo que seja limpando um estábulo. A natureza é difícil de vencer, mas deve ser vencida.

If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen. As if a town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down!

he details a cost-analysis of the entire construction project. In order to make a little money, Thoreau cultivates a modest bean-field, a job that tends to occupy his mornings. He reserves his afternoons and evenings for reflection, reading, and walking about the countryside.

A penny to your thoughts, or a thousand pounds. When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shopkeepers live of their stores not best all the forenoon, but all of the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so lots of them—as though the legs had been made to take a seat upon, and now not to face or walk upon—I suppose that they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago.

We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us! or

Meanwhile my beans, the length of whose rows, added together, was seven miles already planted, were impatient to be hoed