2 September—Talk about Labor Day. Talk about labor. Mothers really know what labor is. Fathers have the pleasure, mothers have the pain.

Moving on, then, in observance of Labor Day our senior fluff writer has diligently labored to compile some pithy inspirational, anti-inspirational, and purely observational quotations relevant to the celebration:

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“Work is living death.” (G.I. Hope-Knott)

“Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” (Helen Keller)

“It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.” (Harry S. Truman)

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” (Colin Powell)

“All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.” (Calvin Coolidge)

“Working hard is very important. You’re not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard.” (George Lucas)

“A rich daddy doesn’t hurt.” (Anonymous)

“Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy.” (Robert Hall)

“It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.” (Benjamin Franklin)

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is hard work.” (Stephen King)

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” (David Brinkley)

“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” (Dwight D. Eisenhower)

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” (Dwight D. Eisenhower)

“Treat employees like partners, and they act like partners.” (Fred Allen)

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” (Mark Twain)

“A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” (Arnold Glasow)

“Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.” (Margaret Thatcher)

“One man’s wage increase is another man’s price increase.” (Harold Wilson)

“We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.” (Milton Friedman)

“Synergy—the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously.” (Mark Twain)

“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” (Albert Einstein)

“The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.” (J. Paul Getty)

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” (Abraham Lincoln)

“Employees aren’t just workers, they’re the backbone of business and that makes them more important than the boss any day of the week. Good Employees equal Good Business.” (Kilroy J. Oldster)

“Nobody ever drowned in his own sweat.” (Ann Landers)

“The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.” (Jonas Salk)

“The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.” (Harry Golden)

“Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.” (Ray Kroc)

“Work is much more fun than fun.” (Noel Coward)

“When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.” (Henry J. Kaiser)

“Don’t stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed.” (George Burns)

“Honor lies in honest toil.” (Grover Cleveland)

“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.” (Arnold Toynbee)

“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.” (Vincent Van Gogh)

“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” (Theodore Roosevelt)

“If you spend enough time planning, you never actually have to do anything.” (Garfield)

“A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job.” (Michael Larsen)

“If you don’t want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work.” (Ogden Nash)

“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” (Vince Lombardi)

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.” (Samuel Goldwyn)

“By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.” (Robert Frost)

“Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.” (Stephen Hawking)

“He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest.” (Dylan Thomas)

“Work is love made visible.” (Khalil Gibran)

“It’s not about money or connection—it’s the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone.” (Mark Cuban)

“Work is a four-letter word.” (Francis X. Crement)