Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Work is not a curse; it is the prerogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of civilization.

Labor humanizes, exalts.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

When you're home-schooled, you have to have a certain level of work ethic. Otherwise, you don't get anything done.

Give no man sympathy because he has to work - it is his blessing that he can.

Let every man teach his son, teach his daughter, that labor is honorable.

The children are now working as if I did not exist.

Why, man of idleness, labor has rocked you in the cradle, and nourished your pampered life; without it, the woven silk and the wool upon your bank would be in the shepherd's fold. For the meanest thing that ministers to human want, save the air of heaven, man is indebted to toil; and even the air, in God's wise ordination, is breathed with labor.

I don't like the subtle infiltration of 'something for nothing' philosophies into the very hearthstone of the American family. I believe that 'Thou shalt earn the bread by the sweat of thy face' was a benediction and not a penalty. Work is the zest of life; there is joy in its pursuit.

Doing less is not being lazy. Don't give in to a culture that values personal sacrifice over personal productivity.

We have made it our overriding ambition to escape work, and as a consequence have debased work until it is only fit to escape from. We have debased the products of work and have been, in turn, debased by them. (pg. 43, "The Unsettling of America")

For every minute that I spin, there is in me the consciousness that I am adding to the nation's wealth.

Make the work interesting and the discipline will take care of itself.

Instead of idleness, vanity, or an intellect formed by the spoon-feeding of others, my girls have acquired energy, industry, and independence.

The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest, for he has not earned it.

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.

All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble; work is alone noble.

Labour is priceless, not gold.

We must clearly understand that when we give the child freedom and independence, we are giving freedom to a worker already braced for action, who cannot live without working and being active.

People need to learn how to work, learn how to support themselves. I think it's just fine to be eccentric.

The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful.

In times to come people will not judge us by the creed we profess or the label we wear or the slogans we shout, but, by our work, industry, sacrifice, honesty and purity of character.

The mind aware of itself is a pilot... vastly freer than a passenger mind.

Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want.

Pay minimum wage, you get minimum work. Nobody seems to get that.