Return
Home
The
Credits
The
Cast
Act
1
Act
2
Act
3
The
Reviews
     
 

WORK
WORKINGMAN (THE)
WORKING WOMEN --- WORLD

.
.
.

WORK

[QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS]

see:

ACTION

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

BIG BUSINESS

BUREAUCRACY

BUSY

CAPITALISM

COMMITTEES

DILIGENCE

EFFORT

EMPLOYMENT

JOBS

LABOR UNIONS

MANUAL LABOR

OCCUPATIONS

PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS

RETIREMENT

TASK

UNEMPLOYMENT

WAGES

WOMEN'S LIB


I don't want to achieve immortality through my work;
I want to achieve immortality through not dying.
--Woody Allen [Allen Stewart Konigsberg] (1935— )
American actor, screenwriter, and director.
Quoted in Eric Lax _Woody Allen and His Comedy_ [1975]

They only ask for a fair day's wages for a fair day's work.
--Thomas Attwood
Speech in the House of Commons [14 June 1839].

All happiness depends on courage and work.
I have had many periods of wretchedness, but
with energy and above all with illusions, I
pulled through them all.
--Honorι de Balzac (1799—1850)
French journalist and writer.

Nothing is really work unless you would
rather be doing something else.
--attributed to Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860—1937)
Scottish writer and dramatist.

-

I sometimes fancy that I enjoy ploughing and mowing
more when other people are engaged in them than if
I were working myself. Sweat away, my hearties, I
say; I am in the shade of this tree watching you, and
enjoying the scene amazingly.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister;
[brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.]


It is not work that kills men, it is worry. Work is healthy, you
can hardly put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is
rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the
machinery, but the friction.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister; brother of
Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.
In Henry Ward Beecher and Edna Dean Proctor, _Life Thoughts:
Gathered From the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher_ [1858].

-

Anyone can do any amount of work, provided
it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing.
--Robert Benchley (1889—1945)
American humorist and newspaper columnist.
"How to Get Things Done" _Chicago Tribune_ [1930]

Auctioneer, n. The man who proclaims with a hammer
that he has picked a pocket with his tongue.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906]
(Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.)

I once asked a distinguished artist what place he gave to
labor in art. 'Labor,' he in effect said, 'is the beginning,
the middle, and the end of art.' Turning then to another
— 'And you,' I inquired, 'what do you consider as the
great force in art?' 'Love,' he replied. In their two
answers I found but one truth.
--Christian Nestell Bovee (1820—1904)
American writer.
_Intuitions and Summaries of Thought_, vol 2, p. 5 [2 vols., 1862]

Sweat is the cologne of accomplishment.
--Heywood Hale Broun (1918—2001)
American sportswriter and sports commentator; son of Heywood Broun.
Comment on CBS-TV [21 July 1973], as quoted in
Julia Vitullo-Martin & J. Robert Moskin (eds.)
_The Executive's Book of Quotations_ [1993].

These unhappy wretches scarce ever see the light
of the sun; they are buried in the bowels of the earth;
there they work at a severe and dismal task, without
the least prospect of being delivered from it; they
subsist upon the coarsest and worst sort of fare; they
have their health miserably impaired, and their lives
cut short, by being perpetually confined in the close
vapour of those malignant minerals.
--Edmund Burke (1729—1797)
Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters.
_A Vindication of Natural Society_ [1753]
(On the coal miners during the Industrial Revolution.)

Put his shoulder to the wheel.
--Robert Burton (1577—1640)
English scholar, cleric, and author.
_The Anatomy of Melacholy_, pt. II, sect. I [1621—1651]

Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or
pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a
portrait of himself.
--Samuel Butler (1835—1902)
English novelist, essayist, and critic.
_The Way of All Flesh_ [1903], ch. 14

Such hath it been—shall be—beneath the sun
The many still must labour for the one.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
"The Corsair, A Tale", canto I, st. 8 [1814]

The man who works and is not bored is never old.
--Pablo Casals (1876—1973)
Spanish-born cellist and conductor.
In J. Lloyd Webber (ed.) _Song of the Birds_ [1985].

-

Which I have earned with the
sweat of my brows.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605—1615]
Pt. 1 [1605], bk. 1, ch. 4.


Diligence is the mother of good fortune.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605—1615]
Pt. 2 [1615], bk. 3, ch. 38.

-

Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well.
--Lord Chesterfield [Philip Dormer Stanhope] (1694—1773)
British writer and politician.
Letter to His Son [10 March 1746].

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they
create wealth, but because they create character.
--Calvin Coolidge (1872—1933)
American Republican statesman and President [1923—1929].
_Foundations of the Republic_ [1926]

My life is one demd horrid grind!
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_Nicholas Nickleby [1839]

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine
percent perspiration.
--Thomas Alva Edison (1847—1931)
American inventor.
Quoted in "Washington Post" [10 May 1915].

By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may
eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours
a day.
--attributed to Robert Frost (1874—1963)
American poet.

Men for the sake of getting a living
forget to live.
--[Sarah] Margaret Fuller (1810—1850)
American critic, teacher, and woman of letters.
_Summer on the Lakes_ [1844], ch. 7

Over the centuries those who have been blessed with
wealth have developed many remarkably ingenious and
persuasive justifications of their good fortune. The instinct
of the liberal is to look at these explanations with a rather
unyielding eye. Yet in this case the facts are inescapable.
It is the increase in output in recent years, not the
redistribution of income, which has brought the greatest
material increase, the well-being of the average man.
And, however suspiciously, the liberal has come to accept
the fact.
--John Kenneth Galbraith (1908—2006)
American economist.
_The Affluent Society_ [1958], pp. 96-97

There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and
those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there
is less competition there.
--attributed to Indira Gandhi (1917—1984)
Prime Minister of India [1966—1977] and [1980—1984].
She was assasinated by Sikh extremists.

Ask her to wait a moment — I am almost done.
--Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777—1855)
German mathematician and scientist.
(Working, and informed that his wife is dying.)

Those who think must govern those that toil.
--Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774)
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.
_The Traveller_ [1764]

Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you
occasionally find men who disgrace labor.
--Ulysses S. Grant (1822—1885)
American Unionist general and 18th President of the United States [1869—1877].
Speech at Midland International Arbitration Union, Birmingham, England [1877].

I have long been of the opinion that if work were
such a splendid thing the rich would have kept more
of it for themselves.
--Bruce Grocott (1940— )
British politician.
In "Observer" [22 May 1988].

Haste makes waste.
--John Heywood (1497—1580)
English playwright.
_Dialogue of Proverbs_ [1546]

-

If you want work well done, select a
busy man — the other kind has no time.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who
died in the sinking of the "Lusitania."
_The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard_, comp., Elbert Hubbard II [1927]


One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No
machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who
died in the sinking of the "Lusitania."
"The Philistine" magazine, published [1895—1915],
v. 18, no. 1 [December 1903]

-

[H]appiness ... does not depend on the condition of life in
which chance has placed [us], but is always the result of a
good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom
in all just pursuits.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
_Notes on the State of Virginia_, Query XIV [1781-83]

-

I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
You cannot give me too much work; to accumulate work has
almost become a passion with me; my study is so full of it now,
that there is hardly an inch of room for any more. And I am
careful of my work, too. Why, some of the work that I have
by me now has been in my possession for years and years,
and there isn't a finger-mark on it. I take a great pride in my
work; I take it down now and then and dust it. No man keeps
his work in a better state of preservation than I do.
--Jerome K Jerome (1859—1927)
English novelist and playwright.
_Three Men in a Boat_ [1889], ch.15


It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly
unless one has plenty of work to do.
--Jerome K. Jerome (1859—1927)
English novelist and playwright.
"Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" [1886]

-

Anonymous diplomat: How many persons work at the Vatican?
Pope John (with a wink): Oh, no more than half of them!
--Pope John XXIII (1881—1963)
261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
Quoted in Henri Fesquet _Wit and Wisdom of Good Pope John_ [1964].

-

The gloomy and the resentful are always found among
those who have nothing to do or who do nothing.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
1 Sept. 1759 issue of _The Idler_ (essays in the newspaper "The Universal Chronicle").


Employment, sir, and hardships, prevent melancholy.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ "20 September 1777" [1791]

-

We are challenged on every hand to work untiringly to achieve excellence
in our lifework. Not all men are called to specialized or professional jobs;
even fewer rise to the heights of genius in the arts and sciences; many
are called to be laborers in factories, fields and streets. But no work is
insignificant. All labor that uplifts should be undertaken with painstaking
excellence. If a man is called to be a street sweeper he should sweep
streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music,
or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all
the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say "Here lived a great
street sweeper who did his job well."
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.
Sermon at New Covenant Baptist Church, Chicago, Ill. [9 April 1967].

I never made a dime talking.
--Sebastian Spering Kresge (1867—1966)
American entrepreneur, founder of the S. S. Kresge Company.
Entire speech at the dedication of Kresge Hall at the Harvard
Graduate School of Business Administration in 1953.

If work was a good thing the rich would
have it all and not let you do it.
--Elmore Leonard (b. 1925)
American novelist.
_Split Images_, ch I [1981]

My father taught me to work, but not to love
it. I never did like to work, and I don't deny
it. I'd rather read, tell stories, crack jokes,
talk, laugh — anything but work.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.
--attributed to Vince Lombardi, Leroy "Satchel" Paige,
Vidal Sassoon, and anon.

-

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 (1807—1882)
American poet.
"The Village Blacksmith" 2, [1839]


It takes less time to do a thing right than
it does to explain why you did it wrong.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.


The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
_The Ladder of Saint Augustine_, st. 10 [1858]

-

In any given group, the most will do
the least and the least the most.
--Merle P. Martin
"The Instant Analyst" [1975]

They talk of the dignity of work. Bosh. The dignity is in leisure.
--Herman Melville (1819—1891)
American novelist and poet.
_Redburn: His First Voyage_ [1849]

It is known that the bad workmen who form the majority
of the operatives in many branches of industry are decidedly
of the opinion that bad workmen ought to receive the same
wages as good, and that no one ought to be allowed, through
piecework or otherwise, to earn by superior skill or industry
more than others can without it.
--John Stuart Mill (1806—1873)
English philosopher and social reformer.
_On Liberty_ [1859], ch. 4

[Groucho Marx speaking:]
I worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.
--"Monkey Business" [1931 film]
Screenplay by Will B. Johnstone and S.J. Perelman.

America has entered the age of the contingent or temporary worker,
of the consultant and subcontractor, of the just-in-time work force —
fluid, flexible, disposable. This is the future. Its message is this:
You are on your own. For good (sometimes) and ill (often), the
workers of the future will constantly have to sell their skills, invent
new relationships with employers who must, themselves, change
and adapt constantly in order to survive in a ruthless global market.
This is the new metaphysics of work. Companies are portable,
workers are throwaway.
--Lance Morrow (1939— )
"The Tempting of America" _Time_ [29 March 1993]

I would live all my life in
nonchalance and insouciance
Were it not for making a living,
which is rather a nouciance.
--Ogden Nash (1902—1971)
American writer of humorous poetry.
"Introspective Reflection"

A life spent in constant labor is a life wasted, save a man
be such a fool as to regard a fulsome obituary notice as
ample reward.
--George Jean Nathan (1882—1958)
American drama critic and editor.

Be true to your word and your work and your friend.
--John Boyle O'Reilly (1844—1890)
Irish-born poet and journalist.
"Rules of the Road" in _The Life of John Boyle
O’Reilly_ by James Jeffrey Roche [1891].

Take the sum of human achievement in action, in science, in art,
in literature — subtract the work of the men above forty, and
while we should miss great treasures, even priceless treasures,
we would practically be where we are today. [...] The effective,
moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages
of twenty-five and forty.
--Sir William Osler (1849—1919)
Canadian-born physician.
Address at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. [22 February 1905].

[On being informed that editor Harold Ross had called
her on her honeymoon demanding a belated article:]
Tell him I've been too fucking busy — or vice versa.
--Dorothy Parker (1893—1967)
American critic and humorist.
Quoted in John Keats _You Might As Well Live:
The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker_ [1970].

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its
completion. General recognition of this fact is shown
in the proverbial phrase 'It is the busiest man who
has time to spare.'
--C. Northcote Parkinson (1909—1993)
English writer.
_Parkinson's Law, or the Pursuit of Progress_ [1958], ch. 1

No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne;
no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.
--William Penn (1644—1718)
Quaker leader and advocate of religious freedom who oversaw
the founding of the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as
a refuge for Quakers and other religious minorities of Europe.
"No Cross, No Crown" [1669 pamphlet]

-

In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to
Rise to His Level of Incompetence.
--Laurence J. Peter (1919—1990)
Canadian teacher and author.
_The Peter Principle_ [1969], ch. 1


Work is accomplished by those employees who have
not yet reached their level of incompetence.
--Laurence J. Peter (1919—1990)
Canadian teacher and author.
_The Peter Principle_, ch. I [1969]

-

"Wanted: Young, skinny, wirey fellows not over 18. Must
be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans
preferred. Wages $25 per week."
--Pony Express Advertisement [1860]

It's true hard work never killed anybody,
but I figure why take the chance?
--Ronald Reagan (1911—2004)
American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor.
Interview, in "Guardian" [31 March 1987].

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.
--John Ruskin (1819—1900)
English art and social critic.

One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown
is the belief that one's work is terribly important. If I were
a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient
who considered his work important.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell: 1914—1944_ [1968], v. II, ch. 5

I admire men of character and I judge character not
by how men deal with their superiors, but mostly how
they deal with their subordinates. And that, to me,
is where you find out what the character of a man is.
--H. Norman Schwarzkopf, III (1934— )
American general who commanded the U.S. forces in the Gulf War of 1991.
_Journal-World_ [27 March 1991]

"Men Wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold,
long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return
doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success."
--Ernest Shackleton (1874—1922)
British Antarctic explorer who attempted
to reach the South Pole.
Newspaper announcement before his Endurance Expedition.

-

Take care to do what you like or you
will be forced to like what you do.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]
In Joan Lunden _Wake-Up Calls_, p. 31 [2000].


The secret of being miserable is to have leisure
to bother about whether you are happy or not.
The cure for it is occupation.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]
_Treatise on Parents and Children_ [1914] "Children's Happiness"

-

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to
arrive, and the true success is to labor.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894)
Scottish essayist, poet, and novelist.
_Virginibus Puerisque_ "El Dorado" [1881]

The men who start out with the notion that the
world owes them a living generally find that the
world pays its debt in the penitentiary or the
poorhouse.
--William Graham Sumner (1840—1910)
American sociologist and economist.
_Earth Hunger and Other Essays_ [1913]

The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer,
narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic — in short,
the closest thing to a genuine panacea — known to
medical science, is work.
--Thomas Szasz (1920— )
American psychiatrist.

So many worlds, so much to do,
So little done, such things to be.
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809—1892)
English poet.
"In Memoriam A. H. H." [1850]

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go,
I owe my soul to the company sto'.
--Merle Travis (1917—1983)
American country singer and songwriter.
"Sixteen Tons" [1947 song]

I do not like work even when another performs it.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Europe and Elsewhere_ [1901] "The Lost Napoleon"

Work keeps at bay three great evils:
boredom, vice, and need.
--Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.
_Candide_ [1759] tr. Richard Aldington [1929]

Few things help an individual more than to place
responsibility upon him and to let him know that
you trust him.
--Booker T. Washington (1856—1915)
African-American educator.
_Up From Slavery_ [1901], ch. XI "Making Their Beds..."

It's only work if somebody makes you do it.
--Bill Watterson (1958— )
American comics writer.
_Calvin and Hobbes: The Revenge of the Baby-Sat_ [1991]

Wealth is not acquired, as many persons suppose, by fortunate
speculations and splendid enterprises, but by the daily practice
of industry, frugality, and economy. He who relies upon these
means will rarely be found destitute, and he who relies upon
any other will generally become bankrupt.
--Francis Wayland, D.D. (1796—1865)
Baptist minister, President of Brown University,
professor of moral philosophy, and author.
In "The Saturday Magazine" [1 September 1838].

Commuter — one who spends his life
In riding to and from his wife;
A man who shaves and takes a train,
And then rides back to shave again.
--E.B. [Elwyn Brooks] White (1899—1985)
American essayist and literary stylist.
"The Commuter", l. 1 [1982]

-

We live in the age of the overworked and the under-educated;
the age in which people are so industrious that they become
absolutely stupid.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
"The Critic as Artist," _Intentions_ [1891]


The best way to appreciate your job is
to imagine yourself without one.
--attributed to Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.

-

One man's wage rise is another man's price increase.
--Sir Harold Wilson (1916—1995)
English politician who was prime minister of the
United Kingdom [1964-1970] & [1974-1976].
In "Observer" [11 January 1970].

Hard work pays off in the future.
Laziness pays off now.
--Steven Wright (1955— )
American writer and actor.

The artist is nothing without the gift,
but the gift is nothing without work.
--Emile Zola (1840—1902)
French novelist and critic.
In Stephen P. Kelner
_Motivate Your Writing!_, p. 153 [2005].

-

A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who
works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a
man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart
is an artist.
anon., quoted in _Salesmanship: The Standard Course of the
United Y.M.C.A. Schools_, vol. 4 [1920], lesson 16, part II, ch. I.

-

33% - Percentage of executives who said someone's
style of dress at work 'significantly influences his or her
chances of being promoted.

60% - Percentage who said 'somewhat.'

--Office Team,
in _Las Vegas Business Press_ [12 February 2007]

-

----

A union shop steward is addressing a union meeting:

"Comrades. We have agreed on a new deal with the
management. We will no longer work four days a
week."

"Hooray!", goes the crowd.

"We will finish work at 4 PM, not 5 PM."

"Hooray!", goes the crowd, again.

"We will start work at 10 AM, not 9 AM."

"Hooray!"

"We have a 150% pay rise."

"Hooray!"

"We will only work on Wednesdays."

Silence...then a voice from the back asks,
"Every Wednesday?"

-----

amanuensis (noun)
A secretary or manuscript copyist.
Related: clerk, writer

desultory [DES-uhl-tor-ee], adjective:
1. Jumping or passing from one thing or subject to another
without order or rational connection; disconnected; aimless.
2. By the way; as a digression; not connected with the subject.
3. Coming disconnectedly or occurring haphazardly; random.
4. Disappointing in performance or progress.

emolument [ih-MOL-yuh-muhnt], noun:
The wages or perquisites arising from office,
employment, or labor; gain; compensation.
Synonyms: profit, remuneration, salary, stipend.

factotum [fak-TOH-tuhm], noun:
A person employed to do all kinds of work or business.

malinger [muh-LING-guhr], intransitive verb:
To feign or exaggerate illness or inability in order to avoid duty or work.

moil [MOIL], intransitive verb:
1. To work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge.
2. To churn or swirl about continuously.
noun:
1. Toil; hard work; drudgery.
2. Confusion; turmoil.
Ex.: "Why should he toil and moil, and be at so much trouble to pick
himself up out the mud, when, in a little while hence, the strong arm
of his Uncle will raise and support him?
--Nathaniel Hawthorne,
_The Scarlet Letter_

perquisite (noun) ['pκr-kwκ-zit]
A benefit or emolument beyond a regular salary;
a tip; a privilege of rank or office.
(aka: perk)

sedulous (adj.) ['se-jκ-lκs] (US) or British ['se-dyu-lκs]
Diligent, assiduous, zealous; applying oneself unflaggingly to a task.

sinecure [SY-nih-kyur; SIN-ih-], noun:
An office or position that requires or involves
little or no responsibility, work, or active service.

travail [truh-VAYL; TRAV-ayl], noun:
1. Painful or arduous work; severe toil or exertion.
2. Agony; anguish.
3. The labor of childbirth.
4. To work very hard; to toil.

vindemiate (verb) [vin-'dem-i-yeyt]
To vintage (gather) grapes or pick other fruit.
A fruit gatherer is a vindemiator and the activity
is vindemiation.

vocation (noun) [vo-'key-shκn]
A profession, a job for which one
is qualified or suited, a calling.




WORKINGMAN (THE)

.
.

see "WORK" (above)


It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority
of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as
much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy.
When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved,
the prospect is not cheerful.
--W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973)
English-born poet and man of letters.
_A Certain World_ [1970] "Work, Labor, and Play"

I am a friend of the workingman, and I
would rather be his friend than be one.
--Clarence Darrow (1857—1938)
American lawyer.
Attributed in Clifton Fadiman _The American Treasury: 1455-1955_ [1955].

-

"The Gas Man Cometh"
by Flanders & Swann

'Twas on a Monday morning
The gas man came to call;
The gas tap wouldn't turn — I wasn't getting gas at all.
He tore out all the skirting boards
To try and find the main,
And I had to call a carpenter to put them back again.
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

'Twas on a Tuesday morning
The carpenter came round;
He hammered and he chiselled and he said: 'Look what I've found!
Your joists are full of dry-rot
But I'll put them all to rights'.
Then he nailed right through a cable and out went all the lights.
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

'Twas on a Wednesday morning
The electrician came;
He called me 'Mr. Sanderson', (which isn't quite my name).
He couldn't reach the fuse box
Without standing on the bin
And his foot went through a window — so I called a glazier in.
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

'Twas on a Thursday morning
The glazier came along;
With his blow-torch and his putty and his merry Glazier's song;
He put another pane in —
It took no time at all —
But I had to get a Painter in to come and paint the wall.
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

'Twas on a Friday morning
The Painter made a start;
With undercoats and overcoats he painted every part,
Every nook and every cranny.
But I found when he was gone
He'd painted over the gas tap and I couldn't turn it on!
Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

On Saturday and Sunday they do no work at all:
So 'twas on a Monday morning that the Gas Man came to call!

-

On the whole, with scandalous exceptions, Democracy
has given the ordinary worker more dignity than he
ever had.
--Sinclair Lewis (1885—1951)
American novelist and playwright.
_It Can't Happen Here_ [1935]

^

Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865—1923)
American electrical engineer.

After retiring, Steinmetz was recalled by General
Electric to try to locate a breakdown in a complex
system of machines. The cause of the breakdown
baffled all GE's experts. Steinmetz spent some
time walking around and testing various parts
of the machine complex. Finally, he took out
of his pocket a piece of chalk and marked an
X on a particular part of one machine. The GE
people disassembled the machine, discovering
to their amazement that the defect lay precisely
where Steinmetz's chalk mark was located.

Some days later GE received a bill from Steinmetz
for $10,000. They protested the amount and asked
him to itemize it. He sent back an itemized bill:

Making one chalk mark $1
Knowing where to place it $9,999

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

-

$33,000
Average amount added to their pay the
American worker estimates would make them
happier in their current jobs, according to a
survey by Gallup.
--blurb in _Las Vegas Business Press_ [28 August 2006]



WORKING WOMEN

.
.

see "WORK" (above)


Global capitalism and Marxism share a belief that it
is far better to have women in the marketplace than
at home. The old Marxists — Marx, Engels and the
others — wanted to bring down the traditional family,
and move women out of the home and into the marketplace,
to make them independent of the family. The global
capitalists want the same thing. Women who live at
home are not consuming or producing enough, they
think. Global capitalism seeks to make everyone an
employee, everyone a worker. There is a tremendous
premium on bringing into the marketplace talented
and capable women workers — who are more reliable
in many cases — so that they can boost productivity
and consume more goods.
--Patrick Buchanan (1938— )
American journalist, author, and candidate for U.S. President.

-

Kitty Packard (Jean Harlow): I was reading a book the other day.

Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler): Reading a book?

Kitty: Yes. It's all about civilization or something. A nutty kind of a
book. Do you know that the guy said that machinery is going to take
the place of every profession?

Carlotta: Oh my dear, that's something you need never worry about.

--"Dinner at Eight" [1933]
Screenplay by Frances Marion and Herman Mankiewicz.

-



Click picture to ZOOM
WORLD

.
.

see: "EARTH (THE)"
see: "EVOLUTION"
see: "HUMAN RACE"
see: "LIFE"
see: "MAN"
see: "NATURE"
see: "SOCIETY"
see: "UNIVERSE"


_Stop the World - I Want to Get Off _
--Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley
[Title of 1961 musical.]

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think,
all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all
the friends I want to see. The longer I live the more my mind
dwells upon the beauty and the wonder of the world.
--John Burroughs (1837—1921)
American naturalist and writer.
_The Summit of the Years_ [1913] "Preface"

This world, after all our science and sciences, is still
a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more,
to whosoever will think of it.
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.
_On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History_ [1841]

The world either breaks or hardens the heart.
--Sιbastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort (1741—1794)
French playwright and conversationalist.
Attributed in _A Thousand Flashes of French Wit, Wisdom, and
Wickedness_ [1880], collected and translated by J. De Finod.

The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn't half so bad
if it isn't you.
--Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919— )
American Beat poet and publisher.
"Pictures of the Gone World" [1955] in
_A Coney Island of the Mind_ [1958]

But in this world nothing is sure but death and taxes.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
Letter to M. Leroy [1789], as quoted in Kate Louise Roberts
_Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations_, p. 913 [1922].

He who imagines he can do without the world deceives
himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do
without him is under a still greater deception.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims_ [1678]

The new electronic interdependence recreates
the world in the image of a global village.
--H. (Herbert) Marshall McLuhan (1911—1980)
Canadian professor and author.
_The Gutenberg Galaxy_ [1962]

This world is all a fleeting show,
For man's illusion given;
The smiles of joy, the tears of woe,
Deceitful shine, deceitful flow,
There's nothing true but Heaven.
--Thomas Moore (1779—1852)
Irish poet, satirist, composer, and musician.
"This World Is All a Fleeting Show" in _Sacred Songs_ [1816].

Physicists and astronomers see their own implications in the world
being round, but to me it means that only one-third of the world is
asleep at any given time and the other two-thirds is up to something.
--Dean Rusk (1909—1994)
American politician.
Speech to the American Bar Association, Atlanta, Georgia [22 October 1964].

[Talking to his wife:]
The secret of happiness is to face the fact that
the world is horrible, horrible, horrible.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
In Alan Wood _Bertrand Russell, The Passionate Sceptic_ [1957].

-

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;
A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine is a sad one.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_The Merchant of Venice_, I, i [1596—1597]


All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_As You Like It_, II, vii [1599]

& see:

The world’s a stage where God’s omnipotence,
His justice, knowledge, love, and providence
Do act the parts.
--Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas (1544—1590)
French poet.
_La Semaine_ (The First Week) [1578] "First Day"

-

The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist.
--attributed to George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]

The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.
--attributed to Wallace Stevens (1879—1955)
American Modernist poet.

The world is a comedy to those that think,
a tragedy to those that feel.
--Horace Walpole (1717—1797)
English writer and connoisseur.
Letter to Anne, the Countess of Uppur Ossory [16 August 1776].

-

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom, for me and you.
And I think to myself... what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue, and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night.
And I think to myself... what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces, of people going by.
I see friends, shaking hands, saying how do you do
They're really saying, "I love you."

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow;
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself... what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself..... what a wonderful world.

--George D Weiss (1940— ) & Bob Thiele
"What a Wonderful World" [1967 song], popularized
by Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong.


end page



| UGLY - UNICORNS | UNHAPPINESS | UNIONS - USELESS | VACATION - VEGETABLES | VENICE - VICTORY | VIGILANCE - VIRGINITY | VIRTUE - VULGARITY | WAGES - WAR & PEACE | WAR (THE CIVIL) - WAR (THE REVOLUTIONARY) | WAR (THOUGHTS ABOUT) - PAGE 1 (A-M) | WAR (THOUGHTS ABOUT) - PAGE 2 (N-Z) | WAR (VIETNAM - PAGE 1 A-M) | WAR (VIETNAM - PAGE 2 N-Z) | WAR (WORLD WAR I) | WAR (WORLD WAR II) PAGE 1 (A-M) | WAR (WORLD WAR II) PAGE 2 (N-Z) | WASHINGTON (D.C.) - WEAK/WEAKNESS | WEALTH - WEASELS | WEATHER - WELLS (H.G.) | WEST (THE OLD/WILD) - WILDE (OSCAR) | WILL - WINNING | WINTER - WISDOM | WISHING - WIVES | WOMEN - WOMEN'S LIB | WOMEN'S RIGHTS - WORDS | WORK - WORLD | WORLD TRADE CENTER & PENTAGON DISASTER, 11 SEPTEMB | WORRY - WRONG | WRITING | YESTERDAY - ZOOS |
| R | S | T | U - END |
| Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews |
 
     



Copyright © 2012, someworthwhilequotes.com. All rights reserved.