85 Work ethic Quotes

Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating.

You must not suppose, because I am a man of letters, that I never tried to earn an honest living.

We can safely abandon the doctrine of the eighties, namely that the rich were not working because they had too little money, the poor because they had much.

You just have to keep trying to do good work, and hope that it leads to more good work. I want to look back on my career and be proud of the work, and be proud that I tried everything. Yes, I want to look back and know that I was terrible at a variety of things.

The only thing I want to do is stuff with people who care about what they're doing. A lot of people, most people who are working, they do it for money. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. It so happens that I made a lot of money already, so I don't have to worry that much about it. I wouldn't fault anybody for doing it for the money, but it doesn't interest me right now.

It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

I worked in Harrods as a sales girl and I was so lazy, I just sat on my arse all day. Now I have huge respect for shop girls. It was boring, so I tried to shoplift things, but we'd always get our bags checked.

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all.

I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.

Genius is a will-o'-the-wisp if it lacks a solid foundation of perseverence and fanatical tenacity. This is the most important thing in all of human life ...

Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the result of hard work.

We're shooting for the title of hardest-working band in america.

Be regular and orderly in your life, that you may be violent and original in your work.

People who refuse to rest honorably on their laurels when they reach 'retirement' age seem very admirable to me.

A professional is a man who can do his job when he doesn't feel like it; an amateur is one who can't when he does feel like it.

Dancing was always part of my culture growing up in Barbados! When I shot my 1st video I worked really hard with my choreographer to perfect the routines!

'Genius' (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all).

'Hard work is damn near as overrated as monogamy.'

The state of mind which enables a man to do work of this kind is akin to that of the religious worshiper or the lover; the daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.

Folks who never do any more than they are paid for will never get paid for any more than they do.

A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities. The readiness to work springs from trivial, questionable motives.

It is not only prayer that gives God glory but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty.

My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that's nice too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about the success.

You must have no dependence on your own genius. If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.

People always tell me, 'Don't work so much', but I can't help it. I feel like all the things I've done are important to get to this adult stage and now I'm getting all these adult offers, so it's working.

'The motivation for me is just the game itself, just playing the game the right way and trying to win, compete every time I step out there on the floor. That's motivation enough for me to go out there and play well.' - Kobe Bryant[2]

When we consider a project, we really study it - not just the surface idea, but everything about it. And when we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right. And we work hard to do the best possible job.

The day of fortune is like a harvest day, We must be busy when the corn is ripe

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Before one is successful that is before any one is ready to pay money for anything you do then you are certain that every word you have written is an important word to have written and that any word you have written is as important as any other word and you keep everything you have written with great care. ~ Ch. 2

Although she had piano and violin lessons at school, Bush is essentially self-taught. I have always been fascinated by the difference of dynamics at work between popular artists and conventionally trained classical musicians, and had a similar experience with the Edge, of U2, when we worked together on the score of a film called Captive. In fact, gifted 'pop' musicians like Bush and U2 are far more demanding of themselves in the studio than classical musicians can afford to be, and will spend days working on a tiny fragment.

[Madonna] worked so hard that it was really very touching. She's a perfectionist and there's never been anyone on the show that wanted to rehearse more than Madonna did. She wanted to rehearse her scenes over and over again.

Michael's a natural. He's a very hard worker and a super performer. But most of all he's a real human being.

Dr. Cuddy: Your reputation won't last if you don't do your job; the clinic is part of your job. I want you to do your job.

She's absolutely gorgeous. Heather and I are having a wonderful time. I could go on for hours and drag the photographs out, but I'd never get back to the studio.

There is absolutely no substitute for hard work.

Russ Feingold is one of our best - he is very smart, very hardworking and very independent. If he irritates some of his colleagues from time to time, I think sometimes all of us do.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds-the man who, against great odds, has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there's nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes. I have carried a dinner pail and worked for day's wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; and all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous. My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the 'boss' is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets 'laid off' nor has to go on a strike for higher wages.

I have had to do most of my choreography. I would say most of it, with help from various choreographers I have worked with

I remember when I was doing a film with Fred Astaire, it was nothing for him to work three or four days on two bars of music. One evening in the dark grey hours of dusk, I was walking across the deserted MGM lot when a small, weary figure with a towel around his neck suddenly appeared out of the giant cube sound stages. It was Fred. He came over to me, threw a heavy arm around my shoulder and said: 'Oh Alan, why doesn't someone tell me I cannot dance?' The tormented illogic of his question made any answer insipid, and all I could do was walk with him in silence

Of all the actors and actresses I've ever worked with, the hardest worker is Fred Astaire. He behaved like he was a young man whose whole destiny depended on being successful in his first film. He rehearses between takes, after takes - there's no limit to his professionalism

How do you think those routines were accomplished? With mirrors?... Well, I thought I knew what concentrated work was before I met Fred, but he's the limit. Never satisified until every detail is right, and he will not compromise. No sir! What's more, if he thinks of something better after you've finished a routine, you do it over

When I Asked God for Favors He Showed Me Opportunities to Work Hard

Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.

Men are not really born either hopelessly idle, or preternaturally industrious. They may move in one direction or the other as will or circumstances dictate, but it is open to any man to work.

My name is Norval; on the Grampian hills My father feeds his flocks; a frugal swain, Whose constant cares were to increase his store, And keep his only son, myself, at home.

Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have is this. When I have a subject in mind. I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it... the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.

I am an organizer, not a union leader. A good organizer has to work hard and long. There are no shortcuts. You just keep talking to people, working with them, sharing, exchanging and they come along.

Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time.

I've worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

A truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil. Contented labor is an element of national prosperity. Ability to work constitutes the capital and the wage of labor the income of a vast number of our population, and this interest should be jealously protected. Our workingmen are not asking unreasonable indulgence, but as intelligent and manly citizens they seek the same consideration which those demand who have other interests at stake. They should receive their full share of the care and attention of those who make and execute the laws, to the end that the wants and needs of the employers and the employed shall alike be subserved and the prosperity of the country, the common heritage of both, be advanced.

Heath Ledger is frighteningly young and frighteningly intelligent. He's a very hard worker, very devoted [and] not a bit spoiled or pretentious.

Genius may conceive but patient labor must consummate.

The man who dreams of artistry, and yet thinks it is necessary for someone else to lick him into shape, is a man whose art is doomed to mediocrity. If you're going to deliver the real goods, you've got to do your own licking into shape. Buck up ! Kick in ! Get onto yourself ! Don't squeal ! Don't tell me, or any other man how good you consider anything you've done, and that you think it is as good as somebody else's. Make your work so damned well better that you won't have time or thought to compare it with another man's mediocrity.

As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

Modern man no longer works at what cannot be abbreviated.

Do it right or don't do it at all. That comes from my mom. If there's something I want to do, I'm one of those people that won't be satisfied until I get it done. If I'm trying to sing something and I can't get it, I'm going to keep at it until I get where I want it.

I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom. Seventy-five of us worked twenty hours every day and slept only four hours - and thrived on it.

Inside that tall, handsome, elegant and eloquent exterior - inside that beat the heart of a fierce, but principled competitor... The last person you wanted to see coming on a story, particularly a big story, was Peter Jennings. : How much did I keep an eye on him? Constantly. All the time. ~ Dan Rather, former CBS anchor