Talk:Refusal of work

Quotes requiring editorial work

These quotes were moved from "Anti-work"

• The idea of the "job" as the answer to all woes, individual and social, is one of the most pernicious myths of modern society.
  • How to be Idle, Tom Hodgkinson (2005)

• It has become an article of the creed of modern morality that all labour is good in itself; a convenient belief to those who live on the wealth of others
  • Useful Work vs Useless Toil, William Morris (1885)

• If work were so pleasant, the rich would keep it for themselves
  • Mark Twain

• Freedom begins where work ends
  • Work and the Free Society, Anarchist Federation UK Pamphlet

• What is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so.
  • In Praise of Idleness, Bertrand Russell (1932)

• Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for the others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish for ever.
  • In Praise of Idleness, Bertrand Russell, (1932)

• Can one live without working? We can only live without working.
  • In Conversation with Raoul Vaneigem, The Idler 34 (2004)

• "Arbeit macht frei" is a German phrase meaning "work brings freedom" or "work shall set you free/will free you" or "work liberates" and, literally in English, "work makes (one) free". The slogan is known for being placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps.

• Like Christ, the doleful personification of ancient slavery, the men, the women and the children of the proletariat have been climbing painfully for a century up the hard Calvary of pain; for a century compulsory toil has broken their bones, bruised their flesh, tortured their nerves; for a century hunger has torn their entrails and their brains. 0 Laziness, have pity on our long misery! O Laziness, mother of the arts and noble virtues, be thou the balm of human anguish!
  • The Right to be Lazy, Paul Lafargue (1883)

• No one should ever work. Workers of the world... relax!
  • The Abolition of Work, Bob Black (1985)

• Ali G: "unemployment is wicked because you get money for doin' nothing" Tony Benn: "What do you mean? This idea that you're unemployed because you're lazy is rubbish." Ali G: "Me ain't saying that it's cause you lazy, me saying you wanna chill, whatever, y'know?"
  • Ali G interview with Tony Benn

• I find even the thought of work unbearable. Masters and workers both are peasants. There's no difference between a hand holding a pen and a hand pushing a plow. An age of hands!- I'll have no part in it.
  • Bad Blood, Arthur Rimbaud (A Season in Hell, 1873)