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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.

Dad was a machinist who had to work hard - harder than any man I have ever known.

Quotes by Jacques Plante

It take me one year to lose all that weight. Look, it takes a long time to put it in; it takes a long time to take it off. It's a struggle in the beginning, and then you get used...

Quotes by Jacques Torres

Everybody is just at the start of this huge process of trying to unravel what's going on with the 4,400, where they've been and why they're back and what they're trying to do with us in the present. And we're...

Quotes by Jacqueline McKenzie

It was hysterical going to work. I would just walk in and think, 'What in hell? Am I here? What's going on? I'm going to wake up in a minute. I'm in a dream.'

Quotes by Jacqueline McKenzie

You don't choose. I just go where the work is.

Quotes by Jacqueline McKenzie

It's just so fragile. The growing sense of 'Oh, God, what am I doing? Am I any good? Will I ever work again?' All those questions of self doubt, they do creep in.

Quotes by Jacqueline McKenzie

Acting is glamour but writing is hard work, so I'm going to be an actress.

Quotes by Jacqueline Susann

The second draft is on yellow paper, that's when I work on characterizations. The third is pink, I work on story motivations. Then blue, that's where I cut, cut, cut.

Quotes by Jacqueline Susann

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.

Quotes by Jacques Barzun

If this work seems so threatening, this is because it isn't simply eccentric or strange, but competent, rigorously argued, and carrying conviction.

Quotes by Jacques Derrida

It's so many years of reading story. You leave work and it goes away till you see it air on television.

Quotes by Jacob Young

It's better to take sobriety with you when you work.

Quotes by Jacob Zachar

I say my greatest strength is my speed, and I think that I could use some work on my concentration.

Quotes by Jacoby Jones

I could never have conceived that I would ever get to work in a Truffaut film. It was astonishing to me, and still is. I felt like an old pro, but it was still so unexpected.

Quotes by Jacqueline Bisset

I work hard, and I tend to play hard. I very seldom rest hard.

Quotes by Jacqueline Bisset

Not everyone likes watching rushes, but it makes me work harder, and I don't feel I am watching myself, but watching the progression of the character.

Quotes by Jacqueline Bisset

When you share work, and you have the opportunity of seeing people you like doing what they do best, and you also interchange socially with them, it's very addictive.

Quotes by Jacqueline Bisset

I'd like to work more, but I don't just want to do kind of generic characters. I want to do interesting characters, and I'd like to be cast against type.

Quotes by Jacqueline Bisset

I work very hard at relationships. I've done the thing of being home. I worked all day and came home and did all the stuff at home that a woman is supposed to do, the cooking and the entertaining. I'm...

Quotes by Jacqueline Bisset

I don't really consider my work, on the whole, 'fringe' in my own mind; science fiction and fantasy have been pretty solidly in the mainstream for a while.

Quotes by Jacqueline Carey

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.