Work and Profession

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. ‘Invention’, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

Not what I have, but what I do is my kingdom.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.

The action required to sustain human life is primarily intellectual, everything man needs has to be discovered by his mind and produced by his effort.

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.

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.

Plan your work and work your plan.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Long-range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

By going over your day in imagination before you begin it, you can begin acting successfully at any moment.

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason, mastery demands the whole person. Toscanini demonstrates this in every manifestation of his life.

We have to do the best we are capable of. This is our sacred human responsibility.

I also believe that capitalism or, we should say, the system of free enterprise will prove unable to check unemployment, which will become increasingly chronic because of technological progress, and unable to maintain a healthy balance between production and the purchasing power of the people.

Individual freedom provides a better basis for productive labor than any form of tyranny.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn a living at it. One should earn one’s living by work of which one is sure one is capable. Only when we do not have to be accountable to anyone can we find joy in scientific endeavor.

One forges one’s style on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines.

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.

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

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

Nature is not a temple, but a workshop, and man’s the workman in it.