Do not hire a man who does your work for…

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

Sourced, Life Without Principle
(1863)

Other Henry David Thoreau Quotes

This world is but canvas to our imaginations. - View Quote Details on This world is but canvas to our imaginations.
Poetry is the mysticism of mankind. - View Quote Details on Poetry is the mysticism of mankind.
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. - View Quote Details on I wish to suggest that a man may be very…
The perception of beauty is a moral test. - View Quote Details on The perception of beauty is a moral test.
To some extent, mythology is only the most ancient history and biography. So far from being false or fabulous in the common sense, it contains only enduring and essential truth, the I and you, the here and there, the now and then, being omitted. Either time or rare wisdom writes it. Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years. The poet is he who can write some pure mythology to-day without the aid of posterity - View Quote Details on To some extent, mythology is only the most ancient history…
As for my own business, even that kind of surveying which I could do with most satisfaction my employers do not want. They would prefer that I should do my work coarsely and not too well, ay, not well enough. When I observe that there are different ways of surveying, my employer commonly asks which will give him the most land, not which is most correct. - View Quote Details on As for my own business, even that kind of surveying…
It would be worthy of the age to print together the collected Scriptures or Sacred Writings of the several nations, the Chinese, the Hindoos, the Persians, the Hebrews, and others, as the Scripture of mankind. The New Testament is still, perhaps, too much on the lips and in the hearts of men to be called a Scripture in this sense. Such a juxtaposition and comparison might help to liberalize the faith of men. This is a work which Time will surely edit, reserved to crown the labors of the printing-press. This would be the Bible, or Book of Books, which let the missionaries carry to the uttermost parts of the earth. - View Quote Details on It would be worthy of the age to print together…
The savage in man is never quite eradicated. - View Quote Details on The savage in man is never quite eradicated.
I hear beyond the range of sound,
I see beyond the range of sight,
New earths and skies and seas around,
And in my day the sun doth pale his light. - View Quote Details on I hear beyond the range of sound,
I see beyond…
Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. - View Quote Details on Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own…