Work and Profession

There is no doubt about it, in the twentieth century if you are to come to be writing really writing you cannot make a living at it no not by writing.

Write out of love; write out of instinct; write out of reason. But always for money.

Write without pay until somebody offers pay; if nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for.

Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency … to get the book written. If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is worth any number of old ladies.

Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance.

American writers drink when they are “blocked” and drunkenness—being a kind of substitute for art—makes the block worse.

Stick to Zen. Fuck the work .

Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.

Without labor nothing prospers.

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

To find fault is easy, to do better may be difficult.

Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.

Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.

The person who has the will to undergo all labor may win any goal.

He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.

To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.

Joint undertakings stand a better chance when they benefit both sides.

Much effort, much prosperity.

Do not plan for ventures before finishing what's at hand.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

The end of labor is to gain leisure.

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.