Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.

Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in excellence; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves.

I think you get most of the most interesting work done in fields where people don’t think they’re doing art but are merely practicing a craft and working as good craftsmen. Being literate as a writer is good craft, is knowing your job, is knowing how to use your tools properly and not to damage the tools as you use them.

I don’t know about other people, but I love to work.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

I don’t think I’ve met anyone with a stronger work ethic than Ray Charles.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

The best workers, like the happiest livers, look upon their work as a kind of game: the harder they play the more enjoyable it becomes.

To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

We hire people who want to make the best things in the world.

A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living. Today’s military rejects include tomorrow’s hard-core unemployed.

If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating as a ladder, the means by which we are translated?

It is quality rather than quantity that matters.

You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

When Thomas Edison worked late into the night on the electric light, he had to do it by gas lamp or candle. I’m sure it made the work seem that much more urgent.

The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every calling, is diligence.

In the game of cricket, a hero is a person who respects the game and does not corrupt the game. The one who doesn’t or corrupts the game, they are the villain. They should be punished, and they have been punished in the past.

Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part: there all the honor lies.

I have worked ever since I was 13.

Character is power.

I take a lot of pride in the work I do, because people pay to see me. They’ve got to get babysitters, park their car, get popcorn and candy. I’ve got to be conscious of that.

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

One of my proudest moments is I didn’t sell my soul for the sake of popularity.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.

I don’t know the law, the kind of law of quantity and quality, but I think the opportunity of people being able to express themselves and to have the means of production is a great thing. It’s also changing how we’re telling stories.

I’ve got a woman’s ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it.

Our work is never over.

Fires can’t be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so.

For my own part, I would rather excel in knowledge of the highest secrets of philosophy than in arms.

In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad.

I don’t think there is anything wrong in earning money from the sport you love. If you work hard and get benefits from it, there is no harm. The day you feel that you are not working hard and are only looking at the benefits, that’s where the problem is.

In art the best is good enough.

You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

When you stand for something, you’ve got to stand for it all the way, not half way.

If I am a cup maker, I’m interested in making the best cup I possibly can. My effort goes into that cup, not what people think about it.

The quality of research in the U.S. is absolutely the best.

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.

I believe you never get tired by doing work. You get tired when you don’t work. When you clean your house, you don’t get tired; it gives you satisfaction.

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

At least the Pilgrim Fathers used to shoot Indians: the Pilgrim Children merely punch time clocks.

The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.

The more that learn to read the less learn how to make a living. That’s one thing about a little education. It spoils you for actual work. The more you know the more you think somebody owes you a living.

There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey.

There’s no point in saying anything but the truth.

A lot of artists fail when they try to act, and they flop. So when I get into acting, it’s going to be to do it well, something good, something of quality. I want people to say, ‚Wow, that movie‘ – or that show or whatever – ‚turned out really well.‘

This above all; to thine own self be true.

Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.