Archive

Quotes

To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.

—Oscar Wilde, 1891

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

—Upton Sinclair, 1935

The most fitting occupation for a civilized man is to do nothing.

—Théophile Gautier, c. 1835

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

—Dorothy L. Sayers, 1947

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

—George Eliot, 1876

Plough deep while sluggards sleep.

—Benjamin Franklin, 1758

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.

—Henry David Thoreau, 1855

I am a friend of the workingman, and I would rather be his friend than be one.

—Clarence Darrow, 1932
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