On this Labor Day, I wanted to reflect on some of those before us (and some still with us) who take an insightful, witty, and ingenious look at labor. 

“My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.”

~ Indira Gandhi, Third Prime Minister of India

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“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”

~ Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States

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“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement

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“Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold.  But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.”

~Douglas Pagels, Author of 100 Things to Always Remember.

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“If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend.”

~Doug Larson, syndicated columnist

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“Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day.  It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken.”

~Bill Dodds, contemporary novelist

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“When people ask me, ‘Why can’t labor organize the way it did in the thirties?’ the answer is simple: everything we did then is now illegal.”

~Thomas Geoghegan, American author and labor attorney.