Work
The delight of creative work lies in self-discovery: you are mining nuggets of power out of your own cosmos, and the find comes as a great and glad surprise. ~Elbert Hubbard


When you work in the right consciousness, when your work becomes organically a part of your whole self, and when you do your work out of that commitment, no matter what other people do, no matter what the compensation may be, doing it for the health of your own soul, then you open the door by which the affluence of the Universe flows forth into your life. ~Eric Butterworth


I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. ~Helen Keller


When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself. ~Shunryu Suzuki


There is no future in any job. The future lies in the person who holds the job. ~George Crane


Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results. ~James Allen


It is not the things that we do which count in the eyes of God, but how much love we put into doing them. ~Mother Theresa


Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul. ~W. Somerset Maugham


Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. ~Sir John Lubbock


There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there. ~Indira Nehru Gandhi


Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed, not by strength, but perseverence. ~Samuel Johnson


When work is a pleasure, life is a joy!
When work is a duty, life is slavery. ~Maxim Gorky


Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent transpiration. ~Thomas Edison


The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. ~Emile Zola


Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. ~Ursula K. LeGuin


Do what you can with what you've got, where you are. ~Theodore Roosevelt


This is the true joy in life
Being used for a purpose
recognized by yourself
as a mighty one;
that being a force of nature
instead of a feverish little cloud
of ailments and grievances,
complaining that the world
will not devote itself
to making you happy.

I am of the opinion
that my life belongs to the whole community
and as long as I live,
it is my privilege to do for it
whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die —
for the harder I work, the more I love.
I rejoice in life for its own sake.
Life is no brief candle to me.
It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got to hold up for the moment
and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible
before handing it on to future generations. ~George Bernard Shaw


One does what one is;
one becomes what one does. ~Robert Musil


Each artist must undertake to invent himself, a lifelong act of creation that constitutes the essential content of the artist's work. The meaning of art in our time flows from this function of self-creation. Art is the laboratory for making new men. ~Harold Rosenberg


Man's task is to make himself a work of art. ~Henry Miller


Learning is not something that requires time out from being engaged in productive activity. To put it simply, learning is the new form of labor. ~S. Zuboff


May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those who work with you and to those who see and receive your work. May your work never weary you, may it release within you well-springs of refreshment, inspiration and excitement. May you be present in what you do. May the day never burden. ~John O'Donohue


To live for results would be to sentence myself to continuous frustration. My only sure reward is in my actions and not from them. ~Hugh Prather


You do not become a "dissident" just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society. ~Václav Havel


I put all my genius into my life;
I put only my talent into my works. ~Oscar Wilde


What would it be like if you lived each day, each breath, as a work of art in progress? Imagine that you are a Masterpiece unfolding, every second of every day, a work of art taking form with every breath. ~Thomas Crum


A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes


An activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better. ~John Updike


The primary reward for human toil is not what you get for it but what you become by it. ~John Ruskin


I have three treasures:
The first is love;
The second is never too much;
The third is never try to be first in the world.
Through love one has courage;
In moderation one has strength;
In never trying to be first
One gives one's talents time to mature. ~from the Tao-Te-Ching