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 live at home and, if I want to start work at 11 o'clock, I can.

Quotes by Jilly Cooper

I don't believe that there are two sides to a story when it's a matter of right versus wrong. It just doesn't work that way.

Quotes by Jim Acosta

Horses are prey animals, and most of the other animals that I've shot are predators. If you act mellow with predators, they know that they can kill you, so they are cool, but if you work with prey, they think...

Quotes by Jill Greenberg

I have a list of ideas that I want to do for my art series, but I'm always trying to figure out what's going to work. Ever since I was in art school, I would read and get ideas. Sometimes...

Quotes by Jill Greenberg

Running gives you a great opportunity to work stuff out in your head.

Quotes by Jill Hennessy

I'm in so many Charles Bronson films because no other actress will work with him.

Quotes by Jill Ireland

In the last years of the nineteen-eighties, I worked not at startups but at what might be called finish-downs. Tech companies that were dying would hire temps - college students and new graduates - to do what little was left...

Quotes by Jill Lepore

As with the factory, so with the office: in an assembly line, the smaller the piece of work assigned to any single individual, the less skill it requires, and the less likely the possibility that doing it well will lead...

Quotes by Jill Lepore

I feel very protective in the first draft, when all the pieces are coming together. I work in a way that is not linear or chronological at all, even with the short story. I will just be writing bits and...

Quotes by Jill McCorkle

One day, when my son was eight, he came into the kitchen while I was cooking and said: 'You put bad words in your books, don't you?' No doubt he had overheard my mother, who often tells people who ask...

Quotes by Jill McCorkle

Mos Def is one of the most creative, intelligent human beings I've had the opportunity to work with. He is fun. The entire time, he would go in and out of different characters, just for the fun of it. Awesome...

Quotes by Jill Scott

I'm looking for someone who works as hard as I do. Who loves their work as much as I do, so at the end of the night we have something real to talk about, something exciting that makes our blood...

Quotes by Jill Scott

My experiences and training back at drama school were very enlightening. I always believe in improving, be it kathak or my acting skills, and would want to experiment more when it comes to work.

Quotes by Jiah Khan

Painters who do self-portraits are engaging in a form of narcissism. But it doesn't work like that in movies. A truly narcissistic person wouldn't go into filmmaking because it's just too tiring.

Quotes by Jiang Wen

I'm especially keen to work with good scriptwriters on stories we have developed.

Quotes by Jiang Wen

From now on, I will work with other people's material if it fits where I want to go.

Quotes by Jiang Wen

I work predominantly with tailors from Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal.

Quotes by Jidenna

When you make an album, you have a team of musicians you work with; when you're a director and you're creating a motion picture, it's a much bigger animal.

Quotes by Jihae

Budget cuts are a sad reality in most newsrooms, and I am concerned that they reduce the collective muscle of journalists who are doing the expensive, and often dangerous, work of on-the-ground reporting.

Quotes by Jill Abramson

I have to pay attention to work on the weekends and always have my iPhone with me, but I don't mind.

Quotes by Jill Abramson

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.