Happy Labor Day: The Best Movie Quotes About Hard Work

“A job is not just a job. It's who you are."

Photo: Universal Pictures

“They say the number one killer of old people is retirement. People got 'em a job to do, they tend to live a little longer so they can do it.”

Photo: Miramax

Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.

Bob Porter: Don't... don't care?

Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? And here's something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.

Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?

Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.

Bob Slydell: Eight?

Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

Photo: 20th Century Fox

"I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables—slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war . . . our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."

Photo: Fox 2000 Pictures

"The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind."

Photo: 20th Century Fox

“24 hours a day, seven days a week. No job is too big, no fee is too large."

Photo: Columbia Pictures

“I love the smell of commerce in the morning.”

Photo: View Askew Productions

"Carpe Diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."

Photo: Touchstone Pictures

"A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized." -Fred Allen

Photo: Ivan Nikolov/WENN.com