转贴 WORK

Work could be among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness

Much work is exceedingly irksome; an excess of work is always very painful

provided work is not excessively in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness

work fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one should do

Work is desirable, first and foremost, as a prevention of boredom, for the boredom that a man feels when he is doing necessary though uninteresing work is as nothing in comparison with the boredom that he feels when he has nothing to do with his days. It makes holiday more delicious when they come

The advantage of most paid work and of some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for ambition. The desire that men feel to increase their income is quite as much as a desire for success as for the extra comforts that a higher income can procure. Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run. And for most man this comes chiefly through their work.

For the great majority housework cannot bring as much satisfaction as work of other kinds brings to men and to professional women

The satisfaction of killing time and of affording some outlet, however modest, for ambition, belongs to most work, and is sufficient to make even a man whose work is dull happier than a man who has no work at all.

When work is interesting, it is capable of giving satisfaction of a far higher order than mere relief from tedium.

Two chief elements make work interesting: first, the exercise of skill; and second, construction

Every man who has acquired some unusual skill enjoys exercising it until it has become a matter of course, or until he can no longer improve himself. All skilled work can be pleasurable, provided the skill required of either variable or capable of indefinite improvement

In construction the initial state of affairs is comparatively haphazard, while the final state of affairs embodies a purpose; in destruction the reverse is the case. The work of construction, when completed is delightful to contemplate, and moreover is never so fully completed that there is nothing further to do about it. Construction is a greater source of happiness than destruction.

The satisfaction to be derived from success in a great constructive enterprise is one of the most massive that life has to offer, although unfortunately in its highest format it is open only to men of exceptional ability

Great artist and great men of science do work which is in itself delightful; while they are doing it, it secures them the respect of those whose respect is worth having, which gives them the most fundamental kind of power, namely, power over men's thoughts and feelings.

One of the causes of unhappiness among intellectuals in the present day is that so many of them, especially those whose skill is literary, fins no opportunity for the independent exercise of their talents

Without self-respect genuine happiness is scarcely possible. And the man who is ashamed of his work can hardly achieve self-respect.

Human being differ profoundly in regard to the tendency to regard their lives as a whole. To some men it is natural to do so, and essential to happiness to be able to do so with some satisfaction. To others life is a series of detached incidents without directed movement and without unity.

The habit of viewing life as a whole is an essential part both of wisdom and of true morality, and is one of the things which ought to be encouraged in education. Consistent purpose is not enough to make life happy, but it is an almost indispensable condition of a happy life.

Consistent purpose embodies itself mainly in work