Work Quotes - 4

Work

Return to Main Margie's Messages Home Page (Full List of Topics)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Quotes About Work

God gives every bird its food, but he does not throw it into its nest.


"One of the greatest favors parents can do for their children is to teach them to work. Much has been said over the years about children and monthly allowances, and opinions and recommendations vary greatly. 

I'm from the "old school." I believe that children should earn their money needs through service and appropriate chores.  I think it is unfortunate for a child to grow up in a home where the seed is planted in the child's mind that there is a family money tree that automatically drops "green stuff" once a week or once a month.

Marvin J. Ashton  -  July 1975 Ensign  "One For the Money"


"If you do the best you can, you will find, nine times out of ten, that you have done as well as or better than anyone else. "  

William Feather


"The work will wait while you show the child a rainbow, but the rainbow won't wait while you do the work."

Patricia Clifford


"Hands that work are more blessed than Lips that pray"

Howard W. Hunter


"All growth depends upon activity.  There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.  Work is not a curse; it is the prerogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of civilization."

Calvin Coolidge


"Always do your best.  What you plant now, you will harvest later."

Og Mandino


"One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks."

Malcom S. Forbes


"The Lord is not so concerned about what we study or what profession we follow as long as it is an honest living."

Eldred G. Smith  (Ensign, May 1978,  page 29)


"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it.  Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it--but all that had gone before."

Jacob Riis


"You'll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind."

Irish proverb


"I would respectfully urge you to live by the fundamental principles of work, thrift, and self-reliance, and to teach your children by your example.  It was never intended in God's divine plan that man should live off the labor of someone else.  Live within your own earnings.  Put a portion of those earnings regularly into savings.  Avoid unnecessary debt.  Be wise by not trying to expand too rapidly.  Learn to manage well what you have before you think of expanding further."

President Ezra Taft Benson, Benson, 1988, p.  262


"The way to get to the top is to get off your bottom."

Dr. Eugene Swearingen, God's Little Devotional for Graduates, p. 36


"Hard work spotlights the character of people:  some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."

Sam Ewing


"Inspiration without perspiration is usually sterile."


"Therefore, be smart.  The Lord has blessed each of you with greater capacity than you realize. Your I.Q. may not be the highest in the world.  So what?  Our jails are filled with clever men who were anything but smart.  I have concluded that the work of the world is not done by intellectual geniuses.  It is done by men of ordinary capacity who use their abilities in an extraordinary manner.  As a member of this church you have the obligation to seek learning and to improve your skills.

"It matters not whether you choose to be merchant, teacher, carpenter, plumber, mechanic, doctor, or to follow any other honorable vocation.  The important thing is that you qualify to be useful workers in society.  It is so easy and so tragic to become a drifter, a drop-out. 

It is so challenging and so satisfying to be a producer.  In so doing, you will bless not only your own lives and the lives of those you serve, but you will also bring honor to and respect for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  For your identity as a Mormon will be recognized and the image of the Church will be improved by reason of the opinion which others have of you as you serve them.  You cannot afford ever to do cheap or shoddy work. You bear the priesthood of God."

Gordon B. Hinckley, "Watch the Switches in Your Life," Ensign, Jan. 1973, 91 - Oct. 1972 Gen. Conf. Priesthood Mtg.


"Don't tell me how hard you work.   Tell me how much you get done."

James Ling 


"One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community. "

Albert Einstein


"Idleness is the mother of all vices."

Russian proverb


"Pray for a good harvest------but keep plowing"


"Though I murmured as a young man at times with chores, I have acquired in the space of this passage of time a hardened view of the spiritual necessity of work.  Even if work were not an economic necessity, it is a spiritual necessity. 

If I have any concern about your generation, speaking collectively, it is that a few of our wonderful youth and young adults in the Church are unstretched--they have almost a free pass.  Perks are provided, including cars complete with fuel and insurance--all paid for by parents who sometimes listen in vain for a few courteous and appreciative words. 

What is thus taken for granted, however innocently, tends to underwrite selfishness and a sense of entitlement.  Selfishness and a sense of entitlement don't need any transfusions in our society today. 

I know that having said those things to you now, and having spoken plainly, there are some here who have worked exceedingly hard and need no comment from me on that score. As I look at the rising generation, the gospel of work, which is part of the fullness of the gospel, will need more attention, not less."

Neal A. Maxwell,  BYU Dev.  -  January 12, 1999 - "Sharing Insights From My Life"


"You don't run twenty-six miles at five minutes a mile on good looks and a secret recipe."

Frank Shorter


"Don't duck the most difficult problems.  That just insures that the hardest part will be left when you're most tired.  Get the big one done - it's downhill from then on."

Norman Vincent Peale


"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

Thomas Edison


"Too much idleness, I have observed, fills up a man's time much more completely, and leaves him less his own master, than any sort of employment whatsoever."

Edmund Burke


"Even if work were not an economic necessity, it is a spiritual necessity."

Elder Neal A. Maxwell  -  "Insights from My Life"  -  Ensign, Aug. 2000, 7


"Instead of thinking about where you are, think about where you want to be.  It takes twenty years of hard work to become an overnight success."

Diana Rankin


Don't condescend to unskilled labor. Try it for half a day first.

(Justin) Brooks Atkinson (1894-1984) American theater critic for "New York Tmes"


"The happy people are those who are producing something; the bored people are those who are consuming much and producing nothing."

William Ralph Inge


"The vision must be followed by the venture.  It is not enough to stare up the steps--We must step up the stairs."

Vance Havner