He that would eat the nut must crack the shell.

Toil is man’s allotment; toil of brain, or toil of hands, or a grief that’s more than either, the grief and sin of idleness.

The workers are the saviors of society, the redeemers of the race.

Man must be doing something, or fancy that he is doing something, for in him throbs the creative impulse; the mere basker in the sunshine is not a natural, but an abnormal man.

I hate the present modes of living and getting a living. Farming and shopkeeping and working at a trade or profession are all odious to me. I should relish getting my living in a simple, primitive fashion.

A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is an invisible labor.

Every man is worth just so much as the things he busies himself with.

You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation.

The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.

A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can’t think of anything else to do.

Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.

A human being must have occupation, if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.

God sells us all things at the price of labor.