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About this quote

What does it mean?
The best reward for good work is the satisfaction of completing it, not external praise or payment.
In plain terms
Doing a good job rewards you itself.
What can you take from it?
Find joy in the work itself.

Where it applies

  • feeling unappreciated
  • seeking motivation
  • evaluating success

Putting it to work

  • focus on process over outcome
  • celebrate small wins

Questions to consider

  • What drives you to work?
  • When do you feel most satisfied?

Another view

Sometimes external rewards like money are necessary for survival.

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

  1. Every man is wanted and no man is wanted much.

    Permalink to quote #155
  2. Good-bye, proud world! I'm going home: Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine.

    Permalink to quote #157
  3. Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses.

    Permalink to quote #154

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