One of the hardest labours of the just man is to expunge from his soul a malevolence which it is difficult to efface.
You have to find a job that makes your heart feel big instead of one that makes it feel small.
Work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.
Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson.
To meditate is to labour; to think is to act.
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
Work! work! and God will work with us!
Work then without disputing, it is the only way to render life supportable.
Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so.
Work is a blessing when it helps us to think about what we’re doing; but it becomes a curse when its sole use is to stop us thinking about the meaning of our life.
Work almost always has a double aspect: it is a bondage, a wearisome drudgery; but it is also a source of interest, a steadying element, a factor that helps to integrate the worker with society. Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap.
When your toil has been a pleasure, you have not, as Thoreau says, “earned money merely,” but money, health, delight, and moral profit, all in one.
