David Autor Quotes

If I can't work, I don't know what to do with myself.

When you lose work, the meaning and purpose of life are taken away from you, and isolation can set in.

This crisis of long-term unemployment is having a profoundly damaging impact on the lives of those bearing the brunt of it. We know this thanks to a series of careful studies of the problem conducted in the depths of the 1930s Great Depression.

We don't live by just sleeping and eating. We need pride and dignity in our lives. Work gives you that.

My father used to have an expression. He'd say, 'Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about your place in your community.'

Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.

Working is living to me.

Work is at the core of human dignity.

Work certainly does help fill a void.

A job is something we do to get a paycheck and pay our bills. Jobs are legitimate, at times, but work is why we are here in the universe. Work and calling often go together.

I don't have to work; I need to work.

It's even more of a torture not to work than to work.

A job provides so much more than a paycheck. It provides a sense of dignity and belonging. It gives you the opportunity to learn, grow, and be part of a team - or, in my case, part of a band.

I believe that work is essential to human well-being.

Work is at the heart of human dignity.

I do not believe we can repair the basic fabric of society until people who are willing to work have work. Work organizes life. It gives structure and discipline to life.

Unemployment is rarely considered desirable except by those who have not experienced it.

If I did not have my work, I would not have any life.

Prolonged unemployment is a tragedy of broken lives, broken families, foreclosed homes, and life without health insurance.

I had periods when I was out of work, and I still do - I just don't worry about them as much any more.

Jobs are what give people a sense of fulfillment and self-reliance.

The Depression did more to me than being a little Lebanese kid did.

I think it must be awful not to work. My only point in being idle is to rest so that I can work more... I'm only unhappy when I'm not working.

It's heartbreaking to see so many people trapped in a web of enforced idleness, deep debt, and gnawing self-doubt.

People want the dignity of work.