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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.

Work continuously to trim the White House staff from your first day to your last. All the pressures are to the contrary.

Quotes by Donald Rumsfeld

Artists don't compare themselves to each other based on money. Nobody really knows what money other artists have. They don't care that much. The measure is the work and how you think your work is perceived. How the museums are....

Quotes by Donald Sultan

You have a little bit of talent, a certain amount of good fortune and a lot of hard work in pursuit of whatever truth you can find in it, and if you are really lucky, a terrific partner and I...

Quotes by Donald Sutherland

I have never planned anything. I have been doing this job for over 50 years. I have been paid to work with some wonderful people and it has been a huge gift, to me.

Quotes by Donald Sutherland

Joe Wright called me and I also had some trepidation along those lines but he said no, it would work. He had a very clear and specific idea of what he wanted to do.

Quotes by Donald Sutherland

If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable.

Quotes by Donald Trump

We were spoiled in many ways, but we were always taught to understand the value of the dollar. If there was something we wanted, we had to earn it. Even in college, we were very fiscally responsible. I had 300...

Quotes by Donald Trump, Jr.

I think the reason we fought so hard during this campaign, whether it was my father and the work that he put into it, whether it was the rest of our family and the efforts that we put into it...

Quotes by Donald Trump, Jr.

The Left only worries about people who don't want to work; they could care less. They cater more to people who are here illegally, and they care more about the feelings of countries that would love to see us wiped...

Quotes by Donald Trump, Jr.

I think my very best work came out when I was about 60, not when I was 20. I was publishing all the time when I was in my 20s, and some of those poems I still like. And there...

Quotes by Donald Hall

Some days I feel good about my work, and sometimes I feel I've never written anything worthwhile. That's par for the course.

Quotes by Donald Hall

I was being groomed as an undergraduate to specialize in Midwestern prehistory, but going back to my teenage days, my interest has always been in our early human ancestors. I wanted to work in Africa.

Quotes by Donald Johanson

After all, the work isn't the point; the piece is.

Quotes by Donald Judd

Building is just skilled labor, I suppose. It's a lot of work. I don't mind other people building them, but the way things go together and are made is interesting to me; I like that a lot.

Quotes by Donald Judd

But I think you have to - whatever the environment looks like, it does enter into people's art work one way or another; it's very remote or it isn't. It's remote in my work but it has to have a...

Quotes by Donald Judd

I recognize very much in Hopper that it does look like the United States; it looks like the 30's and my first impressions of everything, all of which I have to deal with and which gets mixed up in my...

Quotes by Donald Judd

I think most of the best new work is intended to have much more impact at once.

Quotes by Donald Judd

The older painting - well, it does have an effect all at once, I suppose, but it's of a lesser intensity than a lot of the American work in the last ten or fifteen years.

Quotes by Donald Judd

They certainly aren't connected with the old geometric art. My work isn't geometric in that sense.

Quotes by Donald Judd

Well, there's a morality in that you want your work to be good, I suppose.

Quotes by Donald Judd

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.