Some work mottos to get you through the day.
No labor, however humble, is dishonoring. – The Talmud
Anything that comes easy, comes wrong. – Josephine Tessier
Pennies do not come from heaven — they have to be earned here on earth. – Margaret Thatcher
Men have become the tools of their trade. – Henry David Thoreau
Let us be grateful to Adam, our benefactor. He cut us out of the “blessing” of idleness and won for us the “curse” of labor. – Mark Twain
A woman’s work is never done, especially the part she asks her husband to do. – Source Unknown
Even the woodpecker owes its success to the fact that he used his head. – Source Unknown
I love the work; I could sit and look at it for hours. – Source Unknown
Work is a four letter word! – Source Unknown
Work to survive, survive by consuming, survive to consume: the hellish cycle is complete. – Raoul Vaneigem
A new breed of Americans born out of the social movements of the 60s and grown into a majority in the 70s holds a set of values so markedly different from the traditional outlook that they promise to transform the character of work in America in the 80s. – Daniel Yankelovitch
Better to burn out than rust out. – Neil Young
Making a success of the job at hand is the best step toward the kind you want. – Bernard M. Baruch
What is the good of being a genius if you cannot use it as an excuse for being unemployed? – Gerald Barzan
To each man is reserved a work which he alone can do. – Susan Blow
A man must drive his energy, not be driven by it. – William Frederick Book
When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts, the circle of Creation is completed inside us, the doors of our souls fly open and love steps forth to heal everything in sight. – Michael Bridge
Beauty is also to be found in a day’s work. – Mamie Sypert Burns
It is an article of faith in my creed to pick the man who does not take himself seriously, but does take his work seriously. – Michael C. Cahill
Our works are the mirror wherein the spirit first sees its natural lineaments, Hence, too, the folly of that impossible precept, Know thyself; till it be translated into this partially possible one, know what thou canst work at. – Thomas Carlyle
Cessation of work is not accompanied by cessation of expenses. – Cato The Elder
Never hire anyone who is going to report directly to you who you do not intuitively just plain like from first impressions. If your instincts tell you you’re going to have a hard time working with someone, pass. – Fred Charette
If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play. – John Cleese
Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity. In what we call art, it’s one of the most desirable characteristics of a piece of work. – Leonard Cohen
A man is a worker. If he is not that he is nothing. – Joseph Conrad
It is better to wear out than to rust out. – Richard Cumberland
I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work. – Thomas A. Edison
Work is victory. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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
There isn’t any luck that enters into anything, unless it’s poker or shooting dice, maybe. There is no luck to merchandising. There is no luck in going out and working from early in the morning to long after dinner. That is not luck, it’s work. – Fred W. Fitch
Good work habits help develop an internal toughness and a self-confident attitude that will sustain you through every adversity and temporary discouragement. – Paul J. Fleyer
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it. – Henry Ford
My father always told me, “Find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” – Jim Fox
Laziness may appear attractive but work gives satisfaction. – Anne Frank
I don’t have anything against work. I just figure, why deprive somebody who really loves it. – Dobie Gillis
Like the bee, we should make our industry our amusement. – Oliver Goldsmith
Labor disgraces no man, but occasionally men disgrace labor. – Ulysses S. Grant
I have long been of the opinion that if work were such a splendid thing the rich would have kept more of it for themselves. – Bruce Grocott
Intimate or drastic elements in the work of others are untouchable and should not be commented upon even in their absence. Private conflicts, quarrels, sentiments, animosities are unavoidable in any human group. It is our duty towards creation to keep these in check in so far as they might deform and wreck the work process. – Jerzy Grotowski
Every calling is great when greatly pursued. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
Work your way up or rust your way out. – Holton
A shoe that is too large is apt to trip one, and when too small, to pinch the feet. So it is with those whose fortune does not suit them. – Horace
The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work. – Elbert Hubbard
If your work is becoming uninteresting, so are you. Work is an inanimate thing and can be made lively and interesting only by injecting yourself into it. Your job is only as big as you are. – George C. Hubbs
I am his mistress. His work is his wife. – Marion Javits
I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me; the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart. – Jerome K. Jerome
The sharp employ the sharp. – Douglas William Jerrold
It is wonderful when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession. – Samuel Johnson
The question is not whether the system works, but whether we like the way it works. Just because something works doesn’t mean it is desirable. Concentration camps work, if your purpose is to enslave people. Stealing works, if all you care about is money. Lying works, if you don’t give a damn about your personal integrity. Literally anything, no matter how monstrously immoral will work, depending on your desires and how you define the term work, – Sy Leon
Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged. – Abraham Lincoln
Keep quiet. Do your work in the world, but inwardly keep quiet. Then all will come to you. – Nisaragada Ha Maharaj
He worked like hell in the country so he could live in the city, where he worked like hell so he could live in the country. – Don Marquis
Remember that your work comes only moment by moment, and as surely as God calls you to work, he gives the strength to do it. – Priscilla Maurice
Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished, or if it does, as in the case of the tilled field, this product of human activity requires still more labor, incessant, tireless labor, to maintain its identity as a “work” of man. – Mary Mccarthy
Life is just a dirty four-letter word: W-O-R-K. – J. P. Mcevoy
Every job has drudgery, whether it is in the home, in the school, or in the office. The first secret of happiness is the recognition of this fundamental fact. – M. C. Mcintosh
If it’s true that men today value their lives outside of work as much as women do–and research proves it is–then they have to join women’s fight to reconstruct the way we work and create a new, broader definition of success. – Elizabeth Perle Mckenna
Work for the fun of it, and the money will arrive some day. – Ronnie Milsap
I suspect that American workers have come to lack a work ethic. They do not live by the sweat of their brow. – Kiichi Miyazawa
A man at work, making something which he feels will exist because he is working at it and wills it, is exercising the energies of his mind and soul as well as of his body. Memory and imagination help him as he works. Not only his own thoughts, but the thoughts of the men of past ages guide his hands; and, as part of the human race, he creates. If we work thus we shall be men, and our days will be happy and eventful. – William Morris
There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in –that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible. – Mother Teresa
Work either expands or contracts in order to fill the time available. – Parkinson’s Law
You don’t grow up in our neck of the woods believing that someone can outwork you. – Joseph Parkinson
My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work. – Rosa Parks
No one can arrive from being talented alone. God gives talent; work transforms talent into genius. – Anna Pavlova
Want is the mother of industry. – Proverb
Work relieves us from three great evils, boredom, vice, and want. – French Proverb
The work praises the man. – Irish Proverb
While a person gets they can never lose. – Scottish Proverb
The intellectual equipment needed for the job of the future is an ability to define problems, quickly assimilate relevant data, conceptualize and reorganize the information, make deductive and inductive leaps with it, ask hard questions about it, discuss findings with colleagues, work collaboratively to find solutions and then convince others. – Robert B. Reich
When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. – Eleanor Roosevelt
It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living. – Jean Jacques Rousseau
The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor find much fun in life. – Charles M. Schwab
I never worked a day in my life. It’s not work when you love what you’re doing. – David Shakarian
When I think of work, it’s mostly about having control over your destiny, as opposed to being at the mercy of what’s out there. – Gary Sinise
No matter how big or soft or warm your beds is, you still have to get out of it. – Grace Slick
Our works decay and disappear but God gentlest works stay looking down on the ruins we toil to rear. – Dr. Walter Smith