For my peculiar face, I look best when I look as though I'm not wearing make-up.
Lauren BacallRead
I find that through the sad times, work is what made my continuing, not breaking down, possible. In work, I was always someone else and I subconsciously reveled in that.
Interpretation
Work can provide a sense of purpose and distraction during difficult times.
This quote by Lauren Bacall illustrates how engaging in work can serve as a lifeline during periods of sadness or hardship. By immersing herself in her professional endeavors, she found a way to not only cope with her feelings but also to redefine herself through her work, suggesting that there is strength and resilience in focusing on one's responsibilities and passions during tough times.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming adversity, one could quote Lauren Bacall to emphasize the importance of work in maintaining purpose.
For my peculiar face, I look best when I look as though I'm not wearing make-up.
I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.
I was this kid, and I was scared to death of all these pros around me... My head would shake, and my hands would shake, and I discovered if I kept my head down and looked up, my head would not shake, so I started to do that when I could, when it was appropriate in a scene.
When everything happens to you when you're so young, you're very lucky, but by the same token, you're never going to have that same feeling again. The first time anything happens to you - your first love, your first success - the second one is never the same.
I wasn't brought up as a society girl to go to balls and be a debutante and marry the social set and money and go to parties. No one in my family lived like that. And I never wanted to live like that. I was brought up to believe in work. I always wanted a career. Always.
Well, the people I've known I must say are extraordinary. When I think about some of them, I can't believe that I knew them all. And I think the reason I knew most of them at the beginning was because they were of Bogie's generation, 25 years my senior, not mine. But they were the most talented people of all.
Work is what structures adults' lives: it gives us purpose, focus, a set of responsibilities, and an identity. So when people are not participating in the labour market, all sorts of other things often start to go wrong.
A day's work is a day's work, neither more nor less, and the man or woman who does it needs a day's sustenance, a night's repose and due leisure, whether they be painter or ploughman.
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.
I cannot face with comfort the idea of life without work; work and the free play of the imagination are for me the same thing, I take no pleasure in anything else.
I'm not interested in doing work that doesn't captivate me.
Finding the right work is like discovering your own soul in the world.
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