I have worked ever since I was 13.

I would say the most satisfying thing actually is watching my three children each pick up on their own interests and work many more hours per week than most people that have jobs at trying to intelligently give away that money in fields that they particularly care about.

The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.

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

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

I think you’re working and learning until you die.

I don’t think about that. I wasn’t a kid growing up saying one day I’ll get an Oscar and make a speech. That wasn’t on my mind. So what I do is the best work I can do.

I focus on my own job.

I still have my unemployment books and I remember when I worked for the sanitation department and the post office.

I like to have fun all the time, even if I’m working.

By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.

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.

Men don’t and can’t live by exchanging articles, but by producing them. They don’t live by trade, but by work. Give up that foolish and vain title of Trades Unions; and take that of laborers Unions.

Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.

As a producer, as a CEO of Hartbeat Productions, I am making deals to put my company in place to win, to put my staff to work so that while all this stuff is going on, they’re in the kitchen cooking. So it’s understanding the longevity of the entertainment business; you get out of it what you put into it.

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

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.

I wish everyone well, but you need to focus on yourself. You need to stop putting your hand out. Everyone wants hand outs. Everyone wants things for free. You’ve got to put in the work. You’ve got to grind. You’ve got go through the struggle, and you’ve got to get it.

I am a grafter.

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.

He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.

Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

We go to school to learn to work hard for money. I write books and create products that teach people how to have money work hard for them.

An employer of mine back in the ’80s was kind enough to take me on after a rough patch, and it made a big difference in my life that I knew I was the sort of person who showed up on time. It’s a basic tell of character.

Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least, for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form.

There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in – that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.

It’s simple: You get a part. You play a part. You play it well. You do your work and you go home. And what is wonderful about movies is that once they’re done, they belong to the people. Once you make it, it’s what they see. That’s where my head is at.

My work is the only ground I’ve ever had to stand on. To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation, but I’m working on the foundation.

You have to stay faithful to what you’re working on.

Your life must be a progression towards ownership – first mentally of your independence, and then physically of your work, owning what you produce.

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

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.

It sounds simple telling people to work hard and never quit, but to really execute and demonstrate those principles takes discipline and faith. Those are the two factors that I believe separate the good from the great, the successes from the failures.

The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too – eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko’s, Fatburger, Subway – I was a sandwich artist – and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.

I worked for Xerox for 4 years and after that I knew I was never going to be a corporate person. It wasn’t my environment.

I have my flaws too, but I am a professional who doesn’t like to miss or lose.

You know, T can stand for anything. T stand for working hard. T stand for loving thy neighbor. T stand for feeding the hungry. T stand for just working, working, working, being happy on the set, you know, lifting everybody’s spirits. T stands for just a nice guy.

I can’t stand directors who try to micro-manage everything. When it happens these days I just walk off set, saying if they don’t like the way I’m doing it they can get someone else.

I like to work and am a focused person.

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.

There are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments and are moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth, but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams.

An honest man’s the noblest work of God.

I think Americans generally are not used to working very hard, in terms of working for the collective. I think in our country we have taken individualism to its farthest reaches, possibly.

Some people feel that the world owes them a living.

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%.

For a long time, I had the idea that I would do a certain amount of work the best I could, and then I would reach a comfort zone, and I wouldn’t be pushed to write more. I would become a different person. It’s a surprise to me that this hasn’t happened. Your body ages, but your mind is the same.

I work hard for the audience. It’s entertainment. I don’t need validation.

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don’t believe too much into inspiration, only I’m waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It’s a little too easy to say that.

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

Whatever work you do, you think are you doing this for the good of the nation? That’s the basic training. The other basic training is discipline. Your life should be disciplined. The other thing they say is what work you get, do it well.

You can live within the institutions and work hard to change them.

You know, from age 17 on, my paycheck was coming from cooking and working in kitchens.

Oh, yes; you Virginians shed barrels of perspiration while standing off at a distance and superintending the work your slaves do for you. It is different with us. Here it is every fellow for himself, or he doesn’t get there.

Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.

We should work with the principle that a work that can be done at a lower level should never be escalated to a higher level.

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

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

In terms of doing work and in terms of learning and evolving as a person, you just grow more when you get more people’s perspectives… I really try and live the mission of the company and… keep everything else in my life extremely simple.

I had never been in charge of anything. I’d always worked for someone. I worked for a furniture warehouse. I did masonry. I always had a boss yelling at me. So I’d never been in charge of an organization.