A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune’s inequality exhibits under this sun.

The eye sees what it brings the power to see.

Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.

Naturally, there are times when every woman likes to be flattered… to feel she is the most important thing in someone’s world. Only a man can paint this picture.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Everything the working class has been told to do, the rich do not do. That is my message.

Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.

The world, we are told, was made especially for man – a presumption not supported by all the facts. A numerous class of men are painfully astonished whenever they find anything, living or dead, in all God’s universe, which they cannot eat or render in some way what they call useful to themselves.

I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.

The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world.

Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.

There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.

Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than find as quickly as possible someone to worship.

One of the most basic factors in sports is that winning becomes a habit, and losing is the same way. When failure starts to feel normal in your life or your work or even your darkest vices, you won’t have to go looking for trouble, because trouble will find you. Count on it.

Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!

The biggest and most deadly ‚tax‘ rate on the poor comes from a loss of various welfare state benefits – food stamps, housing subsidies and the like – if their income goes up.

Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

One knew in advance that life in New York would not be easy, but there were cheap rents in cold-water lofts without heat, and the excitement of being here made up for those hardships. I didn’t move to New York to make a fortune.

It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.

A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.

The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.

Whatever fortune has raised to a height, she has raised only to cast it down.

Oh my God – this is scary and sad all at the same time. I literally dream about buying my own groceries. Swear to God. Because it is something that is real and normal.

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

An important priority for me is a business must get their own house in order. Be or become an agent of positive change in your own enterprise and adopt responsible practices to eliminate the risks that often lie at the root of inequality and poverty.

Imagine a political system so radical as to promise to move more of the poorest 20% of the population into the richest 20% than remain in the poorest bracket within the decade? You don’t need to imagine it. It’s called the United States of America.

How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.

Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.

Like my friend Warren Buffett, I feel particularly lucky to do something every day that I love to do. He calls it ‚tap-dancing to work.‘

The answer to the problem of inequality is for the people who are fortunate enough to either have been gifted or deserved more to do everything they can to make the communities around them as strong as they possibly can.

Men cannot not live by exchanging articles, but producing them. They live by work not trade.

Freedom is a man’s natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law.

When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.

There is plenty of building material and more than enough manpower to make a decent home for every Cuban. But if we continue to wait for the golden calf, a thousand years will have gone by, and the problem will remain the same.

The gods‘ service is tolerable, man’s intolerable.

When rich people fight wars with one another, poor people are the ones to die.

I only live in my music, and I have scarcely begun one thing when I start on another. As I am now working, I am often engaged on three or four things at the same time.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.

You will never fulfill your destiny doing work you despise.

People who don’t like my work say that the connections seem too arbitrary. But that’s how life is.

A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him; wherever he goes.

Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God.

Money is kind of a base subject. Like water, food, air and housing, it affects everything yet for some reason the world of academics thinks it’s a subject below their social standing.

Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.

It is pretty ironic that the so-called ‚least advanced‘ people are the ones taking the lead in trying to protect all of us, while the richest and most powerful among us are the ones who are trying to drive the society to destruction.

Work is that which you dislike doing but perform for the sake of external rewards. At school, this takes the form of grades. In society, it means money, status, privilege.

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

You know, my Grandpop Finnegan used to have an expression: he used to say, ‚Joey, the guy in Olyphant’s out of work, it’s an economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law’s out of work, it’s a recession. When you’re out of work, it’s a depression.‘

A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.

Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing… you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn’t affect two-thirds of the people of the world.

If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.

I cannot possibly believe that I have it made while so many black brothers and sisters are hungry, inadequately housed, insufficiently clothed, denied their dignity as they live in slums or barely exist on welfare.

I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad and to travel for it too!

Yes, we’ve still got more work to do. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who has not yet felt the progress of these past seven and a half years.

I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.