Sayings about Work
Not to watch your workmen is to lose your money. ~ Spanish Proverb
He who works as a slave, eats as a king. ~ Indian Proverb
It is easier to give orders than to work. ~ Lithuanian Proverb
One never tires working for oneself. ~ Russian Proverb
Urge people to work, not to eat. ~ Chinese Proverb
When a woman is not singing, she is not working much either. ~ Egyptian Proverbs
A bad workman never finds a good tool. ~ French Proverb
A person always breaking off from work never finishes anything. ~ Nigerian Proverb
The work praises the man. ~ Irish Proverb
I have two masters — God and the devil; I work for the devil until lunch then I follow the Lord. ~ Gypsy Proverb
You must judge a man by the work of his hands. ~ African Proverb
The first one to eat, the last one to work. ~ Spanish Proverb
If the wine bothers you while you work, stop working. ~ French Proverb
Work is our business; it’s success is God’s. ~ German Proverb
The lazybones must work twice. ~ South American Proverb
Good pay makes happy workers. ~ German Proverb
It is better to work in your own land than to count your money abroad. ~ Croatian Proverb
While the sun is still up, let people work that the earth may live. ~ Hawaiian Proverb
Work is good provided you do not forget to live. ~ Bantu Proverb
Pray as though no work could help, and work as though no prayer could help. ~ German Proverb
A woman who dances too much gets ill from little work. ~ French Proverb
It is no shame at all to work for money. ~ Ghanaian Proverb
If you give orders and leave, the work won’t get done. ~ Portuguese Proverbs
Work is half of health. ~ Swedish Proverb
Everyone according to their talent and every talent according to its work. ~ French Proverb
Work improves the harvest better than the field itself. ~ Spanish Proverb
The hand suffers at work, but the mouth still must eat. ~ Sudanese Proverb
Your hand is never the worse for doing its own work. ~ Welsh Proverb
Never let a boy do a man’s work. ~ Creole Proverb (Southern U.S.)
Many hands make light work. ~ English Proverbs
No bees, no honey; no work, no money. ~ Traditional Proverb
A wise man without a book is like a workman with no tools. ~ Moroccan Proverb
Working on the land is better than praying in the desert. ~ German Proverb
Hunger, work, and sweat are the best herbs. ~ Icelandic Proverb
Work and you will be strong; sit and you will smell. ~ Moroccan Proverbs
A learned man without work is a cloud without rain. ~ Arabian Proverb
When mosquitoes work, they bite and then they sing. ~ Malian Proverb
In the morning of life, work; in the mid day give council; in the evening, pray. ~ German Proverb
You won’t get sick if you have plenty of work. ~ Japanese Proverbs
Work paid for in advance has feet of lead. ~ German Proverb
Working and painting are better from a distance. ~ Spanish Proverb
Work is the medicine for poverty. ~ Beninese Proverb
A bad workman always blames his tools. ~ Traditional Proverb
The misery is that you have to ruin your day with work. ~ German Proverbs
Voluntary work is better than slavery. ~ Nigerian Proverb
If work were good for you, the rich would leave none for the poor. ~ Haitian Proverbs
Over a distance of a thousand miles only humanity works, not power. ~ Chinese Proverb
Ready money works great cures. ~ French Proverb
The work will teach you how to do it. ~ Estonian Proverb
A doctor will take care of the rich man; the poor man is cured with work. ~ Polish Proverb
Work like a slave and eat like a gentleman. ~ Albanian Proverb
The French work to live, but the Swiss live to work. ~ French Proverb
If the hours are long enough and the pay is short enough, someone will say it’s women’s work. ~ Swahili Proverb
He who works has much; he who saves, still more. ~ Yugoslavian Proverb
A thousand workers, a thousand plans. ~ Chinese Proverb
Much talk, little work. ~ Dutch Proverb
The lazy sweat when they eat and complain of the cold when they work. ~ Finnish Proverbs
You don’t satisfy your hunger by watching others work. ~ Armenian Proverb
Work is twice done by the man in a hurry. ~ Iranian Proverbs
Pay beforehand if you would have your work poorly done. ~ Traditional Proverb
A work ill done must be twice done. ~ Welsh Proverbs
Even a clock that does not work is right twice a day. ~ Polish Proverbs
The day is short and work lasts a long time. ~ Hebrew Proverb
A good rest is half the work. ~ Yugoslavian Proverb
As long as the white man stutters, the interpreters have a lot of work. ~ African Proverb
When the head does not work, the legs suffer. ~ Romanian Proverbs
Work relieves us from three great evils, boredom, vice, and want. ~ French Proverb
It is better to work and be free than to be fed in captivity. ~ Gabonese Proverb
Better than the ignorant are those who read books; better still are those who retain what they read; even better are those who understand it; the best of all are those who go to work. ~ Indian Proverbs
Paid workmen have no arms. ~ Spanish Proverbs
Two thirds of the work is the semblance. ~ Irish Proverbs
Work makes you into a hunchback and then rich. ~ Russian Proverbs
A man dies when he stops working. ~ Hebrew Proverb
God is a busy worker but loves to be helped. ~ Basque Proverb
Work is the source of all good. ~ Thai Proverbs
Borrowed money shortens time; working for others lengthens it. ~ Chinese Proverb
A bad workman quarrels with his tools. ~ Romanian Proverbs
A stupid act entails doing the work twice over. ~ Burmese Proverbs
Quotations about Work
We work for praise, and dawdle once we have it. ~ Mignon McLaughlin
Work is the world’s easiest escape from boredom and the only sure fire road to success. ~ Marabel Morgan
A work well begun is half ended. ~ Plato
The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work. ~ Elbert Hubbard
You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play. ~ Warren Beatty
The better work men do is always done under stress and at great personal cost. ~ William Carlos Williams
Work is the price which is paid for reputation. ~ Baltasar Gracian
The more powerful the work, the more powerless the worker. ~ Karl Marx
Most people show up for work being physically accoutered but mentally disheveled. ~ Eric Butterworth
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. ~ Aristotle
You never will be saved by works; but let us tell you most solemnly that you never will be saved without works. ~ Theodore Ledyard Cuyler
A person who has not done one half his day’s work by ten o’clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone. ~ Emily Jane Brontë
Work is the inevitable condition of human life, the true source of human welfare. ~ Leo Tolstoy
To each man is reserved a work which he alone can do. ~ Susan Blow
Many a man works himself to death by burying himself in his work. ~ Evan Esar
We enjoy ourselves only in our work, our doing; and our best doing is our best enjoyment. ~ Hermann Jacobi
The man who chooses his work because it fulfills a purpose he approves is the only one who grows in stature by working. He alone can properly say, at the end of it, “It is finished!” ~ Fulton John Sheen
There’s only one thing worse than to live without working, and that is to work without living. ~ Evan Esar
When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work. ~ George Bernard Shaw
We have too many people who live without working, and we have altogether too many who work without living. ~ Charles R. Brown
There is dignity in work only when it is work freely accepted. ~ Albert Camus
Unless a man works he cannot find out what he is able to do. ~ Philip Gilbert Hamerton
I don’t like work — no man does — but I like what is in work — the chance to find yourself. ~ Joseph Conrad
Our salvation is in work, but let us also take delight in that work. ~ Maxim Gorky
Work is the greatest thing in the world, so we should always save some of it for tomorrow. ~ Don Herold
Beauty is also to be found in a day’s work. ~ Mamie Sypert Burns
All work is an act of philosophy. ~ Ayn Rand
If you love your work, if you enjoy it, you’re already a success. ~ Jack Canfield
No fine work can be done without concentration and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt. ~ Max Beerbohm
Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction. ~ Anne Frank
Measure not the work until the day’s out and the labor’s done. ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The real essence of work is concentrated energy. ~ Walter Bagehot
Love and work have the virtues of making a man pretty indifferent to anything else. ~ Honore de Balzac
To do great work, a man must be very idle as well as very industrious. ~ Samuel Butler
The more one works, the better one works, and the more one wants to work. The more one produces, the more fertile one grows. ~ Charles Bauelaire
It is our actual work which determines our value. ~ George Bancroft
Work is much more fun than fun. ~ Noel Coward
Good for the body is the work of the body, good for the soul the work of the soul, and good for either the work of the other. ~ Henry David Thoreau
After all, it is hard to master both life and work equally well. So if you are bound to fake one of them, it had better be life. ~ Joseph Brodsky
If you don’t want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work. ~ Ogden Nash
A great work demands a great sacrifice, and who is not capable of a great sacrifice is not capable of a great work. ~ Muriel Strode
Everyone should find something they love doing. Then work isn’t work. It’s a part of themselves. Of who they are. ~ Paul McAuley
Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else. ~ J. M. Barrie
If a man does not go about his work with enthusiasm, it means that he has not yet found a work that he likes. ~ George Ade
Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. ~ Thomas Carlyle
Blessed be the man whose work drives him. Something must drive men; and if it is wholesome industry, they have no time for a thousand torments and temptations. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
I believe that good things come to those who work. ~ Wilt Chamberlain
The man who has the largest capacity for work and thought is the man who is bound to succeed. ~ Henry Ford
One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. ~ Elbert Hubbard
I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely. ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
You reach a point where you don’t work for money. ~ Walt Disney
The phrase “work-life balance” tells us that people think that work is the opposite of life. We should be talking about life-life balance. ~ Patrick Dixon
Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit. ~ George Carlin
It is not work that kills; but no work and overwork. ~ Aldo Manuzio
Work is the best thing to make us love life. ~ Ernest Renan
We work to eat to get the strength to work to eat to get the strength to work. ~ John Dos Passos
Work without love is slavery. ~ Mother Teresa
Every man is the son of his own works. ~ Miguel De Cervantes
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 Klapka Jerome
You work that you may keep peace with the earth and the soul of the earth. ~ Kahlil Gibran
Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. ~ Harvey MacKay
It is far better to give work which is above the men than to educate the men to be above their work. ~ John Ruskin
Few of us get anything without working for it. ~ William Feather
Work is a necessary evil to be avoided. ~ Mark Twain
We work not only to produce but to give value to time. ~ Eugene Delacroix
The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity. ~ George Carlin
None but those who work are entitled to eat. ~ Aesop
A man perfects himself by working. ~ Thomas Carlyle
If you don’t find a way to do something as work that is fulfilling and enjoyable, then your life is going to be really sad. ~ Rudolph Giuliani
Work is not a curse, but drudgery is! ~ Henry Ward Beecher
People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up. ~ Ogden Nash
Do all the work you can; that is the whole philosophy of the good way of life. ~ Eugene Delacroix
The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. ~ Emile Zola
It isn’t the hours you put in your work that count, it’s the work you put in the hours. ~ Evan Esar
Get work. Be sure it is better than what you work to get. ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Work is the weapon of honor; he who lacks the weapon will never triumph.~ D.G. Mitchell
A day’s work is a day’s work, neither more nor less, and the man who does it needs a day’s sustenance, a night’s repose, and due leisure, whether he be a painter or ploughman. ~ George Bernard Shaw
Work is the Rent we pay for our time on Earth. ~ Tubby Clayton
The work praises the workman. ~ Roger Payne
Some men are so eager for success that they are even willing to work for it. ~ Evam Esar
Work is the curse of the drinking class. ~ Oscar Wilde
Every man is better for a period of work under the open sky. ~ Henry Ford
Work is alone noble. ~ Thomas Carlyle
He must put his whole life into his work, who would do it well, and make it potential to influence other lives. ~ Christian Nestell Bovee
Work banishes those three great evils, boredom, vice, and poverty. ~ Voltaire
Work seemed something fundamental for man, something which enabled him to endure the aimless flight of time. ~ Kobo Abe
It is the first of all problems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to do in this universe. ~ Thomas Carlyle
A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune’s inequality exhibits under this sun. ~ Thomas Carlyle
My work is a game, a very serious game. ~ M.C. Escher
We live not to ourselves, our work is life. ~ Philip James Bailey
Work is the activity undertaken with our hands which gives objectivity to the world. ~ Keith Grint
It is necessary to work, if not from inclination, at least from despair. Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself. ~ Charles Baudelaire
Work is the means of living, but it is not living. ~ Josiah Gilbert Holland
Immediate work, even poor, is worth more than dreams. ~ Charles Baudelaire
Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing. ~ Robert Benchley
The Devil often finds work for them who find none for themselves. ~ Benjamin Whichcote
You must work; we must all work to make the world worthy of its children. ~ Pablo Casals
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
Loyal and efficient work in a great cause, even though it may not be immediately recognized, ultimately bears fruit. ~ Jawaharlal Nehru
No matter how humble your work may seem, do it in the spirit of an artist, of a master. In this way you lift it out of commonness and rob it of what would otherwise be drudgery. ~ Orison Swett Marden
A man who looks for easy work goes to bed tired. ~ Ken Alstad
Much good work is lost for the lack of a little more. ~ Edward H. Harriman
In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you. ~ Leo Tolstoy
No man ever did or can do a great work alone. ~ Elbert Hubbard
By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day. ~ Robert Lee Frost
Keep doing some kind of work, that the devil may always find you employed. ~ Saint Jerome
Work first, and then rest. ~ John Ruskin
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. ~ C. Northcote Parkinson
Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself. ~ Samuel Butler
As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey. ~ Thomas Edison
The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work. ~ Richard Bach
A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Many hands make light work. ~ John Heywood
Remember, work, well done, does good to the man who does it. It makes him a better man. ~ George Samuel Clason
The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them. ~ Robert Frost
Nothing will work unless you do. ~ Maya Angelou
The chances of a man’s succeeding who does not love his work are very small. For all success costs labor. ~ Frank Chapman Sharp
If one man has a dollar he didn’t work for, some other man worked for a dollar he didn’t get. ~ Bill Haywood
A man is seen in his works. ~ Clement Metezeau
Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results. ~ James Allen
The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today. ~ Elbert Hubbard
