Work Life Quotes

“If you give your work life, your work will give you life. Vies-versa”

— Maria Renteria

“I had witnessed first-hand that once I changed my vision of who I was in my career, my actions and behaviors in my work life changed immediately, permanently. Conversely, other times when I just tried to modify what I was doing daily in my behavior (follow up more on calls, be more organized, etc.), those changes were fleeting and I ended up right back where I started. The bottom line is this-we act in ways that support our true image of who we are. We do it without effort or struggle; we simple are that person.”

— David Clark

“My father thought I would lead a simple life; that I was bright but unambitious, complacant with whatever work life threw at me.
My father, as usual, was wrong.”

— Samantha Shannon

“First Globals are ready to go anywhere, experience everything, and work and live in exotic places, and for them, family life takes priority over work life and a flexible, diverse, collaborative, fun learning environment is key.”

— Susan Scott

“When you're twenty-three and you fall in love, you tend to think that love will supersede any problems. But no matter how much you love somebody, no matter how desperately you want a relationship to work, life can act as an oxidizer and corrode it to pieces.”

— Tiffanie DeBartolo

“Find your passion is in life, and do what you can to integrate that into your work life. That's not to say you won't have occasional frustrations in your job - that just goes with the territory - but at least you'll feel better inside, and that, over time, will mean more to you than you might think.”

— Edward Whitacre, Jr.

“The number of stressors has multiplied exponentially: traffic, money, success, work/life balance, the economy, the environment, parenting, family conflict, relationships, disease. As the nature of human life has become far more complicated, our ancient stress response hasn't been able to keep up.”

— Andrew J. Bernstein

“The surface of American life looks smooth, prosperous, peaceful. But underneath, fault-line shifts in family and work life have led us into what some have called 'advanced insecurity.'”

— Arlie Russell Hochschild

“Work-life balance for founders doesn't look like work-life balance for everyone else. Starting a company isn't a nine-to-six job - or a nine-to-nine job, or a nine-to-midnight job.”

— Kathryn Minshew

“Most weeks, I work 100-plus hours on TheMuse.com. There are definitions of 'work-life balance' that would say I have none.”

— Kathryn Minshew

“There is no greater feeling than hanging out with my dogs, or just walking around the land with our horses. My rescue ranch is is where I feel the most at peace and where I'm reminded of the simple things in life and let the chaos of my crazy work life fade away.”

— Kelly Clarkson

“Tennis is all about mental toughness, and you have to keep your head in the game. I make time to relax away from competition pressures, travel and intense training schedules to make sure I'm looking after myself. Taking time out with family and friends helps to maintain the work-life balance everyone needs.”

— Samantha Stosur

“I know you're always supposed to want more of everything. But in truth, I'm having a nice ebb and flow of being in my daughter's life every day and getting to keep my work life alive. I'm not nominated for ten thousand everythings every minute, but I am acting and telling stories I love.”

— Helen Hunt

“I like work/life separation, not work/life balance. What I mean by that is, if I'm on, I want to be on and maximally productive. If I'm off, I don't want to think about work. When people strive for work/life balance, they end up blending them. That's how you end up checking email all day Saturday.”

— Timothy Ferriss

“In a broken marriage, it can be challenging and tough to get that work/life balance. I love performing but I also love being a mum, and I hate having to choose between them.”

— Toni Braxton

“I think it's very helpful having Twitter and all that. I mainly talk about work on Twitter. I keep my personal life separate from my work life, but I think it helps because everybody's on the Internet now - everybody has Facebook; everybody has Twitter.”

— Taylor Spreitler

“Having the balance of a work life and a family life has been so good for me.”

— Nelly Furtado

“Don't have work-life balance - at least in the sense of trying to escape from work so you can have a life. Work should be fun - so make work enjoyable and satisfying for everyone - among other reasons because it pays off.”

— Don Tapscott

“I feel like, in general in my work life, my main goal has been to just be in a situation where I'm not bored with my job. That's been the entire principle. Got my wish.”

— Ira Glass

“So there's no such thing as work-life balance. There's work, and there's life, and there's no balance.”

— Sheryl Sandberg

“I don't believe that you have a work life and a home life. I believe that you have one life, and either it's working or it isn't working.”

— Srikumar Rao

“The notion of having work-life harmony in a highly competitive economy is a first-class topic.”

— Satya Nadella

“The phrase 'work/life balance' encapsulates a depressing outlook.”

— Tom Hodgkinson

“I, Alex Cross do solemnly promise-to all those present at this birthday party- to do my best to balance my life at home with my work,life,and not to go over to the dark side ever again.”

— James Patterson

“Professor Rosalind Chait Barnett of Brandeis University did a comprehensive review of studies on work-life balance and found that women who participate in multiple roles 36 actually have lower levels of anxiety and higher levels of mental well-being. Employed women reap rewards including greater financial security, more stable marriages, better health, and, in general, 37 increased life satisfaction.”

— Sheryl Sandberg

“Imagine working 20% smarter instead of 20% longer ... Work-life balance and startup success at any stage aren't mutually exclusive. There are enough hours in the day to be effective and present.”

— David Cummings

“Work-life balance, work-life effectiveness, personal and professional satisfaction-or whatever you choose to call it-is not an entitlement or benefit. Your company cannot give it to you. You have to create it for yourself. You are personally responsible for living the best life you can.”

— Matthew Kelly

“One of the obstacles to recognizing chronic mistreatment in relationships is that most abusive men simply don't seem like abusers. They have many good qualities, including times of kindness, warmth, and humor, especially in the early period of a relationship. An abuser's friends may think the world of him. He may have a successful work life and have no problems with drugs or alcohol. He may simply not fit anyone's image of a cruel or intimidating person. So when a woman feels her relationship spinning out of control, it is unlikely to occur to her that her partner is an abuser.”

— Lundy Bancroft

“Work-life balance is one of the biggest misconceptions people have,”

— Robert Herjavec

“It makes it really hard to just go to a dinner party because, in my work life, I'm surrounded by the funniest people, ever. I'm really spoiled. I laugh a lot, in my day.”

— Jenna Fischer

“But the majority of mothers work - and are responsible for taking care of the kids and home. And more fathers are spending more time doing child care and housework, and still working long hours. That work-life conflict is weighing on everybody.”

— Brigid Schulte

“No senior politician can expect to have work-life balance. I'm afraid there are some jobs for which work-life balance inevitably goes out the window. If you want work-life balance you just have to accept that you can't be a senior member of a government, or for that matter a senior member of an opposition.”

— Tony Abbott

“I think that women no longer have to set up a boundary between work life and home life. One of the hallmarks of my thinking is that I bring a lot of my personal life into my work. That's a huge advantage I have over men, who may feel they have to separate the two.”

— Charlene Li

“The phrase "work-life balance" tells us that people think that work is the opposite of life. We should be talking about life-life balance.”

— Patrick Dixon

“Wrestling with work-life balance is a luxury when working to support a family is a necessity rather than a choice. I think that focus is only partially a result of these tough economic times. I think it also reflects a bit of "having it all fatigue": women are worn out from feeling the pressure to excel at work, and be the perfect mom at home.”

— Willow Bay

“I think for all the women who are working parents it's difficult to balance your work-life and your home-life. You make obvious sacrifices because you really just want to be with your family.”

— Kate Hudson

“I think it will help people have a better work-life balance, that's really important - that's the centre ground for me, it's the issues people care about in their lives.”

— David Cameron

“My work life makes much less sense now than 20 years ago. It's Humpty-Dumpty-like in a way; I can't put the pieces back together.”

— Kiki Smith

“Your job, work, life assignment must be the spark that fuels your fire. It must be a passion that you pursue. You must want it enough to do it for free. You must be willing to stick with it, taking the ups and downs, giving it all that you are for as long as you can! You've got to taste it, smell it, know it whether you are awake or asleep. If you do not have a lustful passion for your work, you really need to find something else to do.”

— Iyanla Vanzant

“Work-life balance was a mistake from the start. Because we don't really want balance. We want satisfaction.”

— Matthew Kelly

“So every time you think about your work-life balance issue, remember what your boss is thinking about - and that's winning. Your needs may get heard - and even successfully resolved - but not if the boss's needs aren't met as well.”

— Jack Welch

“Not surprisingly, work-life moaners tend to be a phenomenon of below-average performers.”

— Jack Welch

“There's no work-life balance without making decisions and without courage.”

— Michael Hyatt

“Framing the issue of work-life balance - as if the two were dramatically opposed - practically ensures work will lose out. Who would ever choose work over life?”

— Sheryl Sandberg

“I've been to Japan but I've never been to China, I'd love to go to China. I don't know, I like to go to places that are remote. So, I think I'd like to do that more. And just sort of also explore not having a structured work life someday, to have more free time to sort of see what happens.”

— Ben Stiller

“I definitely divide my life into decades. Almost every ten years, something in my work life has changed. My twenties were my journalistic phase, then there was my screenwriting phase, then I became a director, then I started doing some plays ...”

— Nora Ephron

“I'm not really managing the work-life balance, I'm just accepting that the work increases and the ordinary life has to decrease when you're the prime minister.”

— Tony Abbott

“The story I have told throughout my work life I could not have told as well without Clarence.”

— Bruce Springsteen

“It's up to you to carve out your place, to know when to change course, and to keep yourself engaged and productive during a work life that may span some 50 years.”

— Peter Drucker

“Step by step, you make your way forward. That's why practices such as daily writing exercises or keeping a daily blog can be so helpful. You see yourself do the work, which shows you that you can do the work. Progress is reassuring and inspiring; panic and then despair set in when you find yourself getting nothing done day after day. One of the painful ironies of work life is that the anxiety of procrastination often makes people even less likely to buckle down in the future.”

— Gretchen Rubin