Logo - Feel The Words

Work Quotes

Quotes on the meaning of work.

Several quotes here describe work as a solitary process, one that takes real effort to protect from distraction, while others connect a person's politics directly to the character of their work. Related reading includes Growth Quotes.

I've been really lucky in that I've been able to work so much, and pretty much everything I've done has been really great fun.

Quotes by Peter Billingsley

You're going to spend a long time with the stuff you work on; you might as well like it.

Quotes by Peter Billingsley

I like to work for a while, and then do nothing for some period.

Quotes by Peter Boyle

To my parents, Morris and Helen, I give thanks for the gift of life, the vehicle for the expression of my work, and for your continued full and unequivocal support from both sides of the physical plane.

Quotes by Peter A. Levine

I am often asked how I can work with a subject as morbid as trauma without becoming burned out or depressed. My answer to this question is that witnessing the transformation that takes place in people when they master their...

Quotes by Peter A. Levine

My mother went to work in the homes of white folk, usually living in and looking after their children. The money was small.

Quotes by Peter Abrahams

I detest self-regard. If my work has taught me anything, it is that self-aggrandisement is completely unhistorical.

Quotes by Peter Ackroyd

I don't find myself interesting as a person and the details I find boring, quite frankly. You could sum it up in a few words or sentences really: came from nothing. Self-educated. Luck. Energy. Curiosity. Ambition. That's it. Nothing at...

Quotes by Peter Ackroyd

To be a writer was always my greatest aim. I remember writing a play about Guy Fawkes when I was 10. I suppose it's significant, at least to me, that my first work should be about a historical figure.

Quotes by Peter Ackroyd

Why should a novelist not also be a historian? To force unnatural divisions within the English language is to work against its capacious and accommodating nature. To expect a writer to produce only novels, or only histories, is equivalent to...

Quotes by Peter Ackroyd

So, my advice to young scientists is, think critically about your work; probably don't blab unnecessarily.

Quotes by Peter Agre

Now a cholera epidemic was sweeping through Southeast Asia and south Asia in the early 1970s, so I started medical school and I joined a laboratory to work on this.

Quotes by Peter Agre

One of my motivations to become a blood specialist was to study malaria in red blood cells. But in science, you discover something and you want to go this way, but your work goes that way.

Quotes by Peter Agre

I refuse to be typecast, and I'll have a go at anything so long as it's different, challenging, hard work and demands great versatility.

Quotes by Pete Postlethwaite

Retirement is a work in progress. I try to figure out my day, and what I know about myself is that I need structure.

Quotes by Pete Sampras

I've worked hard my whole life, since I was a little kid. But now it's a point in my life now where I can just enjoy it, but at the same time I still need to work.

Quotes by Pete Sampras

The entire issue is that women bear a disproportionate share of the hard work. Birthing, carrying, the whole thing - it's hard work.

Quotes by Pete Sessions

But what was interesting about what the Who did is that we took things which were happening in the pop genre and represent them to people so that they see them in a new way. I think the best example...

Quotes by Pete Townshend

Some of our early work was two minutes twenty when it actually came out on vinyl, very, very, very short. Sometimes if you made a three-minute record they would make you do an edited version for radio, particularly in America.

Quotes by Pete Townshend

I think I probably would have enjoyed to keep my own private pain out of my work. But I was changed by my audience who said your private pain which you have unwittingly shown us in your early songs is...

Quotes by Pete Townshend

Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of quotes are on the "Work" page?
These lean toward the thoughtful side of work — the idea that "intellectual work is essentially a lonely process," the belief that one's politics and "the character of his particular work are inseparable," and an image of people unwinding after work all over the world talking about life's bigger questions.
Is there a spiritual angle to any of these?
While these particular quotes are secular, if you're looking for a spiritual perspective on work, see Prayers for that theme.
Do these quotes connect work to personal identity?
Yes, one of the strongest lines here argues that your politics and "the character of his particular work are inseparable" — the idea that what you do reflects who you are. If that resonates, Growth quotes explore a similar idea of work shaping the person.
Is there anything here about effort or persistence?
These specific quotes focus more on the nature and meaning of work than on effort itself, but Effort quotes cover that ground directly.
What about setting goals through work?
For that angle, Goal quotes is the better fit — the "Work" page here is more about the character and process of working itself.

There's also a lighter side - people unwinding after work to talk through life's bigger questions over drinks. See Effort Quotes and Goal Quotes for more on getting things done.