Henry David Thoreau Quotes about Hard Work

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I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. All great enterprises are

I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. All great enterprises are self-supporting. The poet, for instance, must sustain his body by his poetry, as a steam planing-mill feeds its boilers with the shavings it makes. You must get your living by loving.

Henry David Thoreau

Life, Hard Work, Men

Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.417, Penguin

The gold-digger is the enemy of the honest laborer, whatever checks and compensations there may be. It is not enough to tell me that you worked hard to get your gold. So does the Devil work hard. The way of transgressors may be hard in many respects.

Henry David Thoreau

Respect, Hard Work, Enemy

Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.413, Simon and Schuster

Those who work much do not work hard.

Henry David Thoreau

Work, Hard Work, Hard

Henry David Thoreau (2011). “The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837-1861”, p.26, New York Review of Books

We are often struck by the force and precision of style to which hard-working men, unpracticed in writing, easily attain when required to make the effort. As if plainness and vigor and sincerity, the ornaments of style, were better learned on the farm and in the workshop than in the schools. The sentences written by such rude hands are nervous and tough, like hardened thongs, the sinews of the deer, or the roots of the pine.

Henry David Thoreau

School, Hard Work, Writing

Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.385, Modern Library