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.

If you want a job, do what I did: work for other people for 50 years; but the odds of you getting swallowed up by the blasphemous godless, decadent, deadly spirit of today's show business are thousands to one.

Quotes by Dean Jones

I don't work on a project unless I believe that it will dramatically improve life for a bunch of people.

Quotes by Dean Kamen

Most of the time you will fail, but you will also occasionally succeed. Those occasional successes make all the hard work and sacrifice worthwhile.

Quotes by Dean Kamen

An innovation is one of those things that society looks at and says, if we make this part of the way we live and work, it will change the way we live and work.

Quotes by Dean Kamen

I would argue that education, actual learning - it is hard work. It's very personal. Your parents don't teach you anything. Your teachers don't teach you anything. The government doesn't teach you anything. You read it. You don't understand it;...

Quotes by Dean Kamen

Thinking is my hobby. But sometimes you get to where you're stuck and you can't figure it out, so you just go work on another project. I always have multiple projects.

Quotes by Dean Kamen

When I'm working on a novel, I work 70-hour weeks.

Quotes by Dean Koontz

I receive about 10,000 letters a year from readers, and in the first year after a book is published, perhaps 5,000 letters will deal specifically with that piece of work.

Quotes by Dean Koontz

I don't write a quick draft and then revise; instead, I work slowly page by page, revising and polishing.

Quotes by Dean Koontz

When most people think about my work, they think about diet. To me, diet has always been the least interesting part of it.

Quotes by Dean Ornish

I'm a big admirer of Walter Willett's work. I think he's done some really important research. He and I agree on most things.

Quotes by Dean Ornish

Knowledge and engagement are a powerful antidote to forces that often work against our kids being healthy.

Quotes by Dean Ornish

Educators and school personnel work on the front lines of childhood obesity, but every day they face the challenges of budget cuts, mandated tests, rushed lunch periods, and a decrease in time for physical activity.

Quotes by Dean Ornish

So I'm going to go on and work on preserving the ozone layer, encouraging everyone to recycle.

Quotes by Dean Stockwell

I've come to see that these politicians that release books - no way are they actually writing those books. Not when they are working fulltime, too. There's no way. That's their name on the book, but it's not their work....

Quotes by Dean Wareham

I work hard, so I play harder.

Quotes by Dean Winters

My motto is I'm going to go out and work every day no matter who is here. It's a mentality that I always play with since I've been playing football.

Quotes by DeAndre Hopkins

There's a lot of things I can get better at as an individual, knowing where defenders are, having a better awareness. Those are things I can work on.

Quotes by DeAndre Hopkins

You know what? I did a lot of things that were deliberate, and they all backfired. I was trying desperately to become Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler, and it did not work for me. I took a lot of leaps...

Quotes by Dax Shepard

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.