Niall Ferguson Quotes

The 35-hour week has from the moment of its inception been a massive mistake. We need to return to people the joy of work.

If employees need to stay late in order to curry favor with the boss, what motivation do they have to get work done during normal business hours? After all, they can put in the requisite 'face time' whether they are surfing the Internet or analyzing customer data.

Basically, people in other countries don't want to have to work quite as flat-out as they do in Japan.

In terms of productivity - that is, how much a worker produces in an hour - there's little difference between the U.S., France, and Germany. But since more people work in America, and since they work so many more hours, Americans create more wealth.

I think the time has come when the American people understand that federal employees need to work an 8-hour day just like everybody else.

A man of 25 has before him some 100,000 working hours should he retire at 65. How many of your working hours will be alive with the magnificent force of positive mental attitude? And how many of them will have the life knocked out of them with the stunning blows of negative mental attitude?

Best Buy went and hired a lot of Shanghai staff, but went and westernised them. They only work eight hours a day!

I couldn't understand why my productivity went down when I had deliberately made more time available to write. Then I realized it was because I wasn't flying as much.

I get up at 7:30 and work four hours a day. Nine to twelve in the morning, five to six in the evening. Businessmen would achieve better results if they studied human metabolism. No one works well eight hours a day. No one ought to work more than four hours.

I like to create a community where people want to come and have a good time and do their best work.

We must have modern conditions to meet modern machinery. As labor-saving devices are installed and used for production we must necessarily shorten the number of hours per day, and we are now at the state where we will necessarily have to come to a five day week because, gentlemen, you cannot have prosperity unless you have employment.

To force the capitalists to improve their machines of wood and iron it is necessary to raise wages and diminish the working hours of the machines of flesh and blood

Eight hours daily labor is enough for any human being

The U.K. and the U.S. are quite similar in that they have high-productivity, English-speaking workforces who don't mind working long hours. Working in those countries is not a problem.

I go through periods where I work a great deal at all hours of the day whenever I am around a typewriter, and then I go through spells where I don't do anything. I just sort of have lunch - all day. I never have been able to stick to a schedule. I work when there is something due or when I am really excited about a piece.

I always say, 'Don't retire - inspire.'

At the risk of being glib, I would say if you really want to make America great again, you have to make work cool again.

I have more time to work; I just do. Because once your kids are up and running, that frees you up a good 20, 30, hours a week.

I don't know how anyone could stop working.

After I had written a paper or letter for Bohr, I always had the impression that I had learned something which I could use for my own work. And somehow, I never felt that I had too little time for my own work. I always found time.

In our country, there must be two time zones to save working hours. Why we don't have it, I have been talking about this issue for a long time.

Sure, I'm hyperactive. I make my staff a bit hyper, too, but motivating someone else is what gives me a buzz.

To be in a band with the other founding members that never sleep is inspiring. Questlove put out five books a year and deejays every night and still do the same day job that I do, only with more responsibility. It drives me to find a way to juggle it.

In terms of, like, getting into a mindset, I use music all the time when I'm working.

In running my own company, I was too busy for a while, and I thought, 'Maybe I'll stop dancing for a bit.' It was the worst decision ever. I just lost my creativity and my drive.