Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Henry David Thoreau

Quote by Henry David Thoreau

“The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure. There will be a wide margin for relaxation to his day. He is only earnest to secure the kernels of time, and does not exaggerate the value of the husk. Why should the hen set all day? She can lay but one egg, and besides she will not have picked up materials for a new one. Those who work much do not work hard.”

Quote by Henry David Thoreau

Book:The Journal, 1837-1861
Create image

Work

The Journal, 1837-1861

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Henry David Thoreau. more

You May Also Like

“[W]e still have not been able to give work its true content. We have not been able to link the worker with the object of his labor; and at the same time, imbue the worker with a consciousness of the importance of that creative act that he performs every day. The worker and the machine, the worker and the object to which he applies his labor-these are still different and antagonistic things. And that has to be changed, because new generations must be formed whose main interest is work and who know how to find in work a permanent and constantly changing source of fresh excitement. They need to make work something cre­ative, something new.”

WorkSocialismCommunism
Author:Che Guevara
Create image

“For most of human history, the only instrument needed to induce employees to complete their duties energetically and adroitly was the whip. But the rules of employment had to be rewritten with the emergence of tasks whose adequate performance required their protagonists to be a significant degree content, rather than simply terrified or resigned. Once it became evident that someone who was expected to remove brain tumours, draw up binding legal documents or sell condominiums with convincing energy could not profitably be sullen or resentful, morose or angry, the mental well-being of employees commenced to be a supreme object of managerial concern.”

WorkProfitWell BeingWork Life BalanceEmployeesBusiness Intelligence
Book:The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
Create image