Why do men delight in work? Fundamentally, I suppose, because there is a sense of relief and pleasure in getting something done - a kind of satisfaction not unlike that which a hen enjoys on laying an egg.
Interpretation
Men find joy and satisfaction in completing tasks, similar to the pleasure a hen feels when laying an egg.
In this quote, H. L. Mencken expresses the intrinsic pleasure that individuals experience from accomplishing work. The metaphor of a hen laying an egg highlights the natural satisfaction of creation and productivity, suggesting that work is not just a necessity but also a source of fulfillment and joy.
In practice
During a motivational speech about finding joy in our careers.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Decide what it is you want, write it down, review it constantly, and each day do something that moves you toward those goals.
We've got an engaging, edgy, vibrant, fun product, ... It may or may not work, but we're going to give it our best shot.
The act of facing overwhelming odds produces greatness and beauty.
Our goals should stretch us bit by bit. So often when we think we have encountered a ceiling, it is really a psychological or experiential barrier that we have built ourselves. We built it and we can remove it.
Everybody kept saying I wasn't going to get any fights. And they wouldn't put me on TV and they don't respect women's boxing. But I also turned professional with two Olympic gold medals and that's something that no other American boxer has ever done. With that, I've been getting a lot of respect.
If you don't fail now and again, it's a sign you're playing it safe.
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