QuoteProject
Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.
Henry David Thoreau
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Choose employees who are passionate about their work rather than those motivated solely by money.

Henry David Thoreau's quote emphasizes the importance of passion and love in one’s work over monetary compensation. It suggests that hiring someone who is driven by a genuine enjoyment and commitment to their job will yield better results and a more fulfilling work environment than simply employing those who are financially motivated.

Themes

WorkPassionMotivationLoveEmployment

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a team meeting to encourage hiring practices that prioritize passion over mere skill.

More from Henry David Thoreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.
Henry David ThoreauRead
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.
Henry David ThoreauRead
As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.
Henry David ThoreauRead
That grand old poem called Winter
Henry David ThoreauRead

Similar quotes

A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it for them rather than for yourself. And so our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests. Thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person.
Timothy KellerRead
Our point of view is, lets not be so elitist that we can't honor good, hard, dignified, ennobling work: people working with their hands, building things, putting up solar panels, weatherizing homes, working on organic agriculture, building wind farms. We don't have robots in society, so somebody has to do that work. Lets make sure that the people who can use that work get a chance to do it. I see that as a first step toward bigger and better things.
Van JonesRead
I like the job. That's what I'll miss the most... I'm not sure anybody ever liked this as much as I've liked it.
William J. ClintonRead
Some 80% of your life is spent working. You want to have fun at home; why shouldn't you have fun at work?
Richard BransonRead
That's the great irony of allowing passionate people to work from home. A manager's natural instinct is to worry that her workers aren't getting enough work done. But the real threat is that they will wind up working too hard. And because the manager isn't sitting across from her worker anymore, she can't look in the person's eyes and see burnout.
Jason FriedRead
Work has never really been work for me. It's been a natural extension of my life.
Angela AhrendtsRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.