“This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work. I cannot easily buy a blank-book to write thoughts in; they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents. An Irishman, seeing me making a minute in the fields, took it for granted that I was calculating my wages. If a man was tossed out of a window when an infant, and so made a cripple for life, or scared out of his wits by the Indians, it is regretted chiefly because he was thus incapacitated for—business! I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.”
“Confucius say if man want to grow one row of corn, first must shovel one ton of shit.”
“I hate incompetence. I think it’s probably the only thing I do hate. But it didn’t make me want to rule people. Nor to teach them anything. It made me want to do my own work in my own way and let myself be torn to pieces if necessary.”
“You were saved not by work, but for work. Do it till all is done. By your Inventions, Innovations, Initiatives, Improvements, Involvements, Imaginations, Information, Interventions and Inspirations... Go the extra mile and dare to do it.”
“Professor [John] Tyndall once said the finest inspiration he ever received was from an old man who could scarcely read. This man acted as his servant. Each morning the old man would knock on the door of the scientist and call, Arise, Sir: it is near seven o clock and you have great work to do today.”
“Stop sleeping, Get to work! You will have much time to sleep when you die.”
“What we are witnessing is the rise of those forms of popular culture that office workers can produce and consume during the scattered, furtive shards of time they have at their disposal in workplaces where even when there’s nothing for them to do, they still can’t admit it openly.”
“The works which this man leaves behind him occupy a few pages only; their importance is not greatly superior to their extent; and yet his name will shine out with lustre in the history of the sciences. {Cuvier on Joseph Banks}”
“Ephron insisted, It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications. It will not be anything like what you think it will be like, but surprises are good for you. And don t be frightened: you can always change your mind. I know: I ve had four careers and three husbands.”
“Shit jobs tend to be blue collar and pay by the hour, whereas bullshit jobs tend to be white collar and salaried. Those who work shit jobs tend to be the object of indignities; they not only work hard but also are held in low esteem for that very reason. But at least they know they re doing something useful. Those who work bullshit jobs are often surrounded by honor and prestige; they are respected as professionals, well paid, and treated as high achievers - as the sort of people who can be justly proud of what they do. Yet secretly they are aware that they have achieved nothing; they feel they have done nothing to earn the consumer toys with which they fill their lives; they feel it s all based on a lie - as, indeed, it is.”
“You can’t change and be somebody else in the future unless you start becoming a little better at being that future person today.”
“You know how you smack your appliances when they’re broken and it makes them work? I wish you could do that with people.”
“Work will be your mother, she whispered; it will lead you through dark days; it will clear you a level place to rest at last.”
“If you want something, work for it. Prayer is super-fantstic, faith is mwah ! But work is necessary and important. So work for what you want.”
“To create a great work, melt yourself inside your work and disappear! When you create something wonderful, people does not see you, but see only your work!”
“W bezlitośnie powikłanym świecie praca, podobnie jak całe ludzkie życie, rozpada się na szereg zamkniętych epizodów, a szanse na wykonanie jej zgodnie z założonym planem są, podobnie jak w przypadku innych ludzkich działań, nikłe lub wręcz nierealne. Praca przemieściła się ze świata ładotwórstwa i kontrolowanej przyszłości na obszar gry. Działania pracujących osób przypominają coraz bardziej strategię graczy, którzy stawiają sobie umiarkowanie odległe cele i wybiegają myślą nie dalej niż jeden lub dwa posunięcia do przodu.”
“Watanzania wengi hawana mzuka na kazi, ndiyo maana wanashindwa.”