LABOR QUOTES IV
quotations about labor
One of the huge disadvantages of being an American is that most of the hard labor is done for us.
JOSH DAFFERN
"10 Things That Will Ruin Your 2016 If You're Not Careful", Patheos, February 17, 2016
There is no right more universal and more sacred, because lying so near the root of existence, than the right of men to their own labor.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
I would have labor a blessing, as God designed it should be; and not have it made a curse by oppression.
C. E. LESTER
attributed, Day's Collacon
In proportion as labor is divided, arts are perfected.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
Labor is the only wealth of the poor, and the largest hands, those of the poor, hold the least, and have the least to hold; the poor are valuable for their thews and sinews; they have limbs to toil and shoulders to bear burdens, but the oppressor remembers not that they have hearts to feel, or mouths to be fed, or that there is a blood stronger than steam. The black iron is meted out to them, whilst the yellow gold gladdens the better sort.
ACTON
Acton; or, The Circle of Life: A Collection of Thoughts and Observations Designed to Delineate Life, Man, and the World
He who labors diligently need never despair.
MENANDER
attributed, Day's Collacon
The motto marked upon our foreheads, written upon our door-posts, channeled in the earth, and wafted upon the waves, is and must be, "Labor is honorable, and idleness is dishonorable."
T. CARLYLE
attributed, Life's Common Way
Without work men are utterly undone.
NEVIL SHUTE
Ruined City
Before the reward there must be labor. You plant before you harvest. You sow in tears before you reap in joy.
RALPH RANSOM
"Steps on the Stairway"
For Marx, labor is living, the source of life, because human life is the survival of a biological and social subject through the material processes of production.
PHENG CHEAH
What Is a World?
Sulky labor, and the labor of sorrow are little worth: if you could only shed tranquility over the conscience and infuse joy into the soul, you would do more to make the man a thorough worker than if you could lend him the force of Hercules, or the hundred arms of Briareus.
WILBERFORCE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Think about these imprints left by the material processes of work as the evidence of our presence on the earth, and ... think about how contemporary human beings, living in a western urban environment, can relate to the metaphysics of the labor which enables our lives.
JACKIE NICKERSON
"Exhibit: Jackie Nickerson", Crave, March 14, 2016
Apparently your labor is the opposite of your sexuality in California: You can sell it, but you can't give it away for free.
SCOTT SHACKFORD
"California Destroys Winery Over Use of Volunteers", Reason, September 16, 2014
You desire to be learned, wealthy, and great, without labor; it is one of the follies still extant in the world.
G. P. MORRIS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Labor rids us of three great evils--poverty, vice, and boredom.
VOLTAIRE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Sulky labor and the labor of sorrow are little worth. Whatever a man does with a guilty feeling he is apt to do wrong ; and whatever he does with a melancholy feeling he is likely to do by halves.
JAMES HAMILTON
Life in Earnest
Having a place where your labor is valued, your needs are met, and where you have friends shouldn't be as revolutionary as it is.
TANYA
"National Communities Conference Held at Twin Oaks", Mother Earth News, October 5, 2015
Labor is a category unique to capitalism. In capitalism, labor is the touchstone of social life: it is a material property of human actors, bearing physical, nearly tangible qualities. It is also the touchstone, the foundation, of subjectivity and morality. Labor does not occupy such a position outside capitalism.
MARTHA LAMPLAND
The Object of Labor: Commodification in Socialist Hungary
The lot of man is ceaseless labor, Or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder.
T. S. ELIOT
The Rock
The labor unions are group efforts in the direction of democracy. Like the political efforts in the same direction, they become many times stultified and lead up blind alleys. But the effort creates power. While the economic gains are themselves important and are measures of strength, the significance of the labor union is its assertion of the manhood of labor.
HELEN MAROT
American Labor Unions