David Riesman Quotes

Work isn't meaningful just because you spend your life doing it.

If the work is going well and it's something that has value with some meaning to it, it gives back a lot.

Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.

If their work is satisfying people don't need leisure in the old-fashioned sense. No one ever asks what Newton or Darwin did to relax, or how Bach spent his weekends. At Eden-Olympia work is the ultimate play, and play the ultimate work.

Work hard, play hard.

In the long run, doing work that's important leads to more happiness than doing work that's merely profitable.

To have meaningful work is a tremendous happiness.

It's not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It's whether or not our work fulfills us. Being a teacher is meaningful.

When you're working and making money, that's all good, but there has to be something that provides a substance, I think.

Work gives you meaning. Work turns you into a servant to your family and to your neighbors and to your local community.

There is a huge body of evidence showing that people do better in their work when they know why they're doing it in the first place. They do better when they see what they're doing contributes to something in the world.

I'm so glad that my profession helps me find a balance. I have the luxury to choose between my work and my family. Many women don't. I thank my stars for whatever I have.

Finding meaning in your work is your responsibility. Any job can be better when you actively work to find meaning in the work.

There's a trend for people wanting more meaning in their work and pursuing something in the day-to-day that is valuable rather than working as a means to the end.

I remember once when I was working on a magazine, and one of the male editors was going on a field trip with one of his sons. The office was full of, 'He's such a good dad,' whereas I came in late from a doctor's appointment for one of my children and was asked, 'Where were you? You'll need to make up the time.'

One reason women are left 'holding the baby' is anti-male discrimination in rights of maternity/paternity leave.

As if a man's soul were not too small to begin with, they have dwarfed an narrowed theirs by a life of all work and no play; until here they are at forty, with a listless attention, a mind vacant of all material of amusement, and not one thought to rub against another, while they wait for the train.

I chop and change between what is called 'work' and what is called 'recreation.' There are no discontinuities in my day. I only play tennis with people I find interesting.

Many people are starting to realize that they work a lot and that working on stuff they believe in (and making things happen) is much more satisfying then just getting a paycheck and waiting to get fired (or die).

For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.

What they call "play" (gym, travel, sports) looks like work.

To play so as to be relaxed and refreshed for work is not to play, and no work is well and finely done unless it, too, is a form of play.

All work is empty save when there is love.

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labor a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born.