Sourced and curated.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

God

Genesis 3:19 · 1405 BC

★ 6.2

Novel · Children's literature · Adventure novel

Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden.

Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer · 1876

★ 5.5

I don't like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself. Your own reality—for yourself, not for others—what no other man can ever know.

Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness · 1899

★ 5.4

As I sit looking out of a window of the building I wish I did not have to write the instruction manual on the uses of a new metal. I look down into the street and see people, each walking with an inner peace, And envy them-they are so far away from me! Not one of them has to worry about getting out this manual on schedule.

John Ashbery

The Instruction Manual · 1956

★ 5.0

Philosophical literature

For it is commonly said: completed labors are pleasant.

Cicero

De Finibus · 45 BC

★ 4.0

Novel · Satire

Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.

Voltaire

Candide · 1759

★ 3.9

Let each man pass his days in that wherein his skill is greatest.

Sextus Propertius

Elegies (Sextus Propertius) · 24 BC

★ 3.8

Autobiography and memoir

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

Booker T. Washington

Up from Slavery · 1900

★ 3.8

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

Ecclesiastes 9:10

931 BC

★ 3.7

All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Proverbs 14:23

686 BC

★ 3.7

Play · Problem play

Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.

William Shakespeare

Troilus and Cressida · 1603

★ 3.7

Novel

To crush, to annihilate a man utterly, to inflict on him the most terrible punishment so that the most ferocious murderer would shudder at it beforehand, one need only give him work of an absolutely, completely useless and irrational character.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

House of the Dead · 1862

★ 3.7

Personal journal

Get up quickly-just switch on the white light of the will.

Susan Sontag

1973

★ 3.7

Novel

The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.

Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day · 1989

★ 3.7

Uh-oh. Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays.

Female Temp

Office Space · 1999

★ 3.7

Children's book · Children's literature

And when they played they really played. And when they worked they really worked.

Dr. Seuss

The King's Stilts · 1939

★ 3.6

The return from your work must be the satisfaction which that work brings you and the world's need of that work. With this, life is heaven, or as near heaven as you can get. Without this-with work which you despise, which bores you, and which the world does not need-this life is hell.

W.E.B. Du Bois

1958

★ 3.6

I wasn't like every other kid, you know, who dreams about being an astronaut, I was always more interested in what bark was made out of on a tree. Richard Gere's a real hero of mine. Sting. Sting would be another person who's a hero. The music he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that. I care desperately about what I do. Do I know what product I'm selling? No. Do I know what I'm doing today? No. But I'm here, and I'm gonna give it my best shot.

Hansel

Zoolander · 2001

★ 3.6

Speech · Commencement address

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years go on.

Steve Jobs

2005

★ 3.6

Biography

Life is much more fun when you have to worry about money coming in.

Pierre Auguste Renoir

★ 3.6

We spend our midday sweat, our midnight oil; We tire the night in thought, the day in toil.

Francis Quarles

1635

★ 3.5

Novel

I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.

Jerome K. Jerome

1889

★ 3.5

Inscription

Work liberates.

Anonymous

1940

★ 3.5

Essay · Newspaper · Economic literature

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

C. Northcote Parkinson

The Economist · 1955

★ 3.5

So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, um, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.

Peter Gibbons

Office Space · 1999

★ 3.5

Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms, and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements!

Peter Gibbons

Office Space · 1999

★ 3.5

Philosophical literature

Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do.

R.G. Collingwood

1924

★ 3.5

One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:6

931 BC

★ 3.0

Autobiography and memoir

When men are employ'd, they are best content'd; for on the days they worked they were good-natur'd and cheerful, and, with the consciousness of having done a good day's work, they spent the evening jollily; but on our idle days they were mutinous and quarrelsome.

Benjamin Franklin

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin · 1790

★ 2.9

Poem · Magazine

His brow is wet with honest sweat, He earns whate'er he can, And looks the whole world in the face, For he owes not any man.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Knickerbocker · 1840

★ 2.7

Essay

Make a fortune; a fortune, if you can, honestly; if not, a fortune by any means.

Horace

21 BC

★ 2.2

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 1:2-3

931 BC

★ 2.1

Letter

Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.

Thomas Jefferson

1792

★ 2.1

Set thy heart upon thy work but never upon its reward. Work not for a reward: but never cease to do thy work. Do thy work in the peace of Yoga and, free from selfish desires, be not moved in success or in failure.

Bhagavad Gita

200 BC

★ 2.0

Play · History (play)

If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work.

William Shakespeare

Henry IV, Part 1 · 1597

★ 2.0