Work Balance Quotes & Sayings

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

There is no work-life balance. We have one life. What's most important is that you be awake for it. — Janice Marturano

Instead of this fruitless debate about having it all, men and women should focus on what make us happy. Instead of comparing our lives with people we don't know who are making sacrifices we don't see, we should try to find the right balance between home and work life. — LZ Granderson

My parents showed me by example that they could balance their work and family lives. — Ben Marcus

It's rare to find women who have that balance between work and life, who are really psyched for another woman's success. — Dana Fox

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

When I came into the league in '85, the regimen for working out was just basic, and as I got older it became more about the core and keeping your body in balance. — Andre Reed

No work-family balance will ever fully take hold if the social conditions that might make it possible - men who are willing to share parenting and housework, communities that value work in the home as highly as work on the job, and policymakers and elected officials who are prepared to demand family-friendly reforms - remain out of reach. — Arlie Russell Hochschild

A properly designed tax system can strike a balance between helping the poor and, at the same time, giving people the incentive to work. — Eric Maskin

We developed a philosophical credo and applied it consistently. We accept that morality, power, and consensus are the underpinnings for any society and work to maintain all three in balance. Trust and mutual respect are, in a way, the mortar that hold the other three together. — L.E. Modesitt Jr.

I like sports, and swimming is my favorite. Doing physical exercises keeps one fit and healthy and helps one work more efficiently. I think we all need to strike a balance between work and relaxation. This can keep us energetic and help us do our job better. — Xi Jinping

The president - every president - works for us. We don't work for him. We sometimes lose track of this, or rather get the balance wrong. Respect is due and must be palpable, but now and then you have to press, to either force them to be forthcoming or force them to reveal that they won't be. — Peggy Noonan

Every day we see allurements of one kind or another that tell us what we have is not enough. Someone or something is forever telling us we need to be more handsome or more wealthy, more applauded or more admired than we see ourselves as being. We are told we haven't collected enough possessions or gone to enough fun places. We are bombarded with the message that on the world's scale of things we have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Some days it is if we have been locked in a cubicle of a great and spacious building where the only thing on the TV is a never-ending soap opera entitled Vain Imaginations. But God does not work this way. — Jeffrey R. Holland

Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Everyone has to work where he is able to maximize what he has been given to the fullest. — Sunday Adelaja

Here at work, obviously, I make the most money of anyone on the show, so I try to be the first one here and the last one to leave. I have the crummiest office. I try to balance things out, spread it around. — Jay Leno

Balance is a tricky thing. I love my work and that helps. And I work a lot. So I spend a fair amount of time trying to make sure I'm taking time off, exercising, meditating and things like that. I also have a powerful support team (including my partner, Kelley) to keep me grounded. I don't always feel like I have the balance I want, but I have awareness about it, which I think is key. — Steven C. Harper

We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity. Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.
Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm. If we strive to be happy by filling all the silences of life with sound, productive by turning all life's leisure into work, and real by turning all our being into doing, we will only succeed in producing a hell on earth. — Thomas Merton

Don't work too hard. Try to maintain balance. Don't make work your whole life. — Bronnie Ware

I constantly work at maintaining balance. For me, my family comes first. If my family is taken care of, then everything else usually falls into place. — Faith Hill

I just want to make sure I have a sense of balance between work and life, because work is my life and the lines can get really blurry. — Drew Barrymore

I think sometimes I get carried away, like I'm speaking to an imaginary audience rather than just trying to figure something out for myself. Ideally, I try to balance that - that I'm asking these questions of myself, how does this work, why does this happen, what's going on here. — David Byrne

Get up and move at work today! Don't spend the whole day on your butt. Take a walk. Get some exercise. Play a game. Move! — Alexander Kjerulf

Getting married has certainly made a massive difference to my own life. So I am committed to giving support for family finances and having the right policies for work-life balance that make it easier for couples to have a rich family life. — Gordon Brown

Imagination, devotion, perseverance, together with divine grace, will assure your success. Knowing that material & spiritual progress are essential to man, we must ceaselessly work for the equal attainment of both. It is only when a people strike an even balance between scientific progress & spiritual & moral advancement that it can be said to possess a wholly perfect and complete personality and not a lopsided one. — Haile Selassie

My role models are Madhuri Dixit and Kajol. Both actresses have done a wide variety of roles. That is something I wish to do. On the other hand, I also want to be like a Hugh Jackman or an Angelina Jolie because of the lives they have outside movies. Because of the kind of balance they strike between their work and life outside of it. — Tena Desae

The Sorting Hat is notorious for refusing to admit it has made a mistake in its sorting of a student. On those occasions when Slytherins behave altruistically or selflessly, when Ravenclaws flunk all their exams, when Hufflepuffs prove lazy yet academically gifted and when Gryffindors exhibit cowardice, the Hat steadfastly backs its original decision. On balance, however, the Hat has made remarkably few errors of judgement over the many centuries it has been at work. — J.K. Rowling

Our lives are a mixture of different roles. Most of us are doing the best we can to find whatever the right balance is ... For me, that balance is family, work, and service. — Hillary Clinton

BEANNACHT For Josie On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble, may the clay dance to balance you. And when your eyes freeze behind the gray window and the ghost of loss gets in to you, may a flock of colors, indigo, red, green and azure blue come to awaken in you a meadow of delight. When the canvas frays in the curach of thought and a stain of ocean blackens beneath you, may there come across the waters a path of yellow moonlight to bring you safely home. May the nourishment of the earth be yours, may the clarity of light be yours, may the fluency of the ocean be yours, may the protection of the ancestors be yours. And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you, an invisible cloak to mind your life. — John O'Donohue

Life balance is a myth. It's an illusion and the very pursuit of it is driving us crazy. For me it's about proportion - it's really a work hard/play hard equation. — Danielle LaPorte

I don't personally see my work as being dark. What interests me is a balance between light and dark. — Carter Burwell

Dogs have found themselves in an odd predicament by living with humans. In the wild, dogs don't need humans to achieve balance. They have a pack leader, work for food and travel with the pack. When we bring them into our world, we need to help them achieve balance by fulfilling their needs as nature intended. This takes exercise and discipline before affection, and always maintaining your calm, assertive pack leadership. — Cesar Millan

Startups are not the best choice for work-life balance, and that's sort of just the sad reality. — Sam Altman

You sell your own wares,then.Are you clever at it?"
Shelby lifted her wine. "I like to think so." Tossing her hangs out of her eyes, she turned to Alan. "Would you say I was clever at it, Senator?"
"Amazingly so," he returned. "For someone without any sense of organization, you manage to work at your craft,run a shop,and live precisely as you choose."
"I like odd compliments," Shelby decided after a moment. "Alan's accustomed to a more structured routine. He'd never run out of gas in the freeway."
"I like odd insults," Alan murmured into his wine.
"Makes a good balance. — Nora Roberts

If I had a long-term partner, I don't think I'd be an actor. It'd be too much of a strain; you have to work too hard to balance that life with a family and a mortgage and all that stuff - it would be too much. — Rory McCann

Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress: Working hard for something we love is called passion. — Simon Sinek

Don't you understand? There has to be a balance. A man can't be without power - it doesn't work like that. What was I going to do, write little books behind hers like a fucking echo? I needed something big. And this is big. Books on this thing will write themselves. — Lily King

What has helped me prevent injuries is being connected and having my body aligned. Every morning, I roll out and then work on my core and my balance. — Julia Mancuso

I'm a woman trying to balance family, work and friends like so many others out there. — Gisele Bundchen

The American business man cannot consider his work done when he views the income balance in black at the end of an accounting period. It is necessary for him to trace the social incidence of the figures that appear in his statement and prove to the general public that his management has not only been profitable in the accounting sense but salutary in terms of popular benefits. — Colby Mitchell Chester

Antinomy, that is, the existence of two laws or tendencies which are opposed to each other, is possible, not only with two different things, but with one and the same thing. Considered in their thesis, that is, in the law or tendency which created them, all the economical categories are rational, - competition, monopoly, the balance of trade, and property, as well as the division of labor, machinery, taxation, and credit. But, like communism and population, all these categories are antinomical; all are opposed, not only to each other, but to themselves. All is opposition, and disorder is born of this system of opposition. Hence, the sub-title of the work, - "Philosophy of Misery." No category can be suppressed; the opposition, antinomy, or contre-tendance, which exists in each of them, cannot be suppressed. — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

You have to learn to balance work, family, a personal life; it is a part of life. — Juanes

In order to find balance, I feel very strongly about two things in particular in terms of routine. Work out, and eat well. — Kamala Harris

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

I find it satisfying and intellectually stimulating to work with the intensity, brevity, balance and word play of the short story. — Annie Proulx

Some guys don't have to work out as hard as other guys do, but if you balance all that together then your longevity is definitely going to be greater. So, I would tell my 20-year-old self not to over-train. — Andre Reed

Such is the endless dilemma of dialect. Not every reader will ever agree with the way that I handle it, no matter how hard I work to keep everything readable. But again it's that balance I have to maintain between keeping it easy and keeping it real, and I know that I'll never please everyone. — Susanna Kearsley

Everything is about balance. You can't work, work, work, work without any play. — Janelle Monae

My exercise varies from yoga to Pilates. The yoga provides me with achieving my balance and mental relaxation, whereas the Pilates allow me to work my inner core through stretching and keeping my muscles toned. — Erin Heatherton

The good news is that women's roles have changed so dramatically over the past three decades that women now expect to have careers, balance work and family, express their individual autonomy. — Michael Kimmel

You were not born to make only a living but to live life. — Lailah Gifty Akita

It means a lot to me that people appreciate what I do. That's why I give a lot of importance to my fans and I like to maintain a certain proximity to them. I already feel very thankful that people enjoy my work so much, and becoming famous is not my ultimate goal. I think it's important to keep a good balance between what I want to do and what people want to hear; otherwise I might fall into the dark side. — Shook

These values are signposts toward another way of living: simplicity of living, as much as possible, to retain a true awareness of life; balance of physical, intellectual, and spiritual life; work without pressure; space for significance and beauty; time for solitude and sharing; closeness to nature to strengthen understanding and faith in the intermittency of life. — Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Work, love and play are the great balance wheels of man's being. — Orison Swett Marden

Balance provides the chance for longevity. You can be a champion at work and at home. — Tony Dungy

We are all trying to balance our careers and children and give as much of ourselves and our time to them. You work and have a husband, and projects, and friends. It is a balancing act. — Kelly Preston

So this talk, or touch if I were there,
Should work its effortless gadgetry of love,
Like Dante's heaven, and melt into the air.

If it doesn't, of course, I've fallen. So much is chance,
So much agility, desire, and feverish care,
As bicyclists and harpsicordists prove

Who only by moving can balance,
Only by balancing move. — Michael Donaghy

Do we work for and pay for all this convenience in order to live our lives, or do we live our lives in order to work for and pay for all this convenience? — Colin Beavan

What if I hadn't worked so hard? What if ... I had actually used ... my position to be a role model for balance? Had I done so intentionally, who's to say that, besides having more time with my family, I wouldn't also have been even more focused at work? More creative? More productive? It took inoperable late stage brain cancer to get me to examine things from this angle. - Eugene O'Kelly, former CEO, KPMG — Brigid Schulte

[Clayton] Christensen had seen dozens of companies falter by going for immediate payoffs rather than long-term growth, and he saw people do the same thing. In three hours at work, you could get something substantial accomplished, and if you failed to accomplish it you felt the pain right away. If you spent three hours at home with your family, it felt like you hadn't done a thing, and if you skipped it nothing happened. So you spent more and more time at the office, on high-margin, quick-yield tasks, and you even believed that you were staying away from home for the sake of your family. He had seen many people tell themselves that they could divide their lives into stages, spending the first part pushing forward their careers, and imagining that at some future point they would spend time with their families
only to find that by then their families were gone. — Larissa MacFarquhar

God and Goddess, I greet you at the start of another day and ask that you send me the best day possible. Help me to feel my best so I might do my best for myself and for others. Send me the strength and energy to do the things I need to do, and the focus and creativity to do them well. Help me to let go of all those things that no longer work for my benefit so I might move in the direction of perfect health and perfect balance. Help the world move in a better direction, and watch over me and those I love. Please send me prosperity and healing, patience and wisdom, serenity and faith. ... So mote it be. — Deborah Blake

Balance is if you try hard, you work hard then the rewards are in balance with what you put in and what is available. — Iain Duncan Smith

If we want the world to change, the healing of culture and greater balance in nature, it has to start inside the human soul. — Michael Meade

It isn't that women are less ambitious, but women want to find a balance between work, love, and family. — Michelle Bachelet

I don't mind talking about my family and how to balance it all. But, in today's world, we should probably be asking both women and men about work and family and how to balance the two. — Kelli O'Hara

What it means: The world focuses on what people look like on the outside. God focuses on what people look like on the inside. Do you put more time and effort into being pretty on the outside or the inside? As you get older, you will meet Christian girls who spend more time trying to find the perfect outfit, get the perfect tan, find the perfect lip gloss, and have the perfect body. While there's nothing wrong with wanting to look pretty, we need to make sure it's in balance. God would rather see us work on becoming drop-dead gorgeous on the inside. You know, the kind of girl who talks to Him on a regular basis (prayer) and reads her Bible. — Vicki Courtney

Usually after I'm done with working, I just come home and play a little game and go to bed. After work, I have a lot time to do a lot of stuff. I think I've got a good balance of work and play. — Benjamin Stockham

I swam very competitively till I was 15, then I swam for fun until I was 18. But athletics remain a very big part of my life. I try to keep that as much in balance with work as I can. — Teddy Sears

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

The re-establishment of an ecological balance depends on the ability of society to counteract the progressive materialization of values. The ecological balance cannot be re-established unless we recognize again that only persons have ends and only persons can work towards them. — Ivan Illich

People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us; and this goes on to the end. And after all, what can we call our own, except energy, strength, and will? If I could give an account of all that I owe to great predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favor. — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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

It's really hard to balance work and being a mother. — Lisa Loeb

Sometimes we just have to suck it up and do what we have to do, until we are able to do what we want to do. — Mark W. Boyer

He did not say so, but the words behind the words told me that he would rather have launched me into a good marriage than watch me row against the tide at my own work. It remains that a woman with an incomplete emotional life has herself to blame, while a man with no time for his heart just needs a wife. — Jeanette Winterson

I think on some level, you do your best things when you're a little off-balance, a little scared. You've got to work from mystery, from wonder, from not knowing. — Willem Dafoe

So I try not to do press and if you can keep the balance of keeping a certain degree of anonymity and do interesting work then you can hope for a degree of career longevity. — Charlie Hunnam

All of us face hard choices in our lives. Some face more than their share. We have to decide how to balance the demands of work and family. Caring for a sick child or an aging parent. Figuring out how to pay for college. Finding a good job, and what to do if you lose it. Whether to get married - or stay married. How to give our kids the opportunities they dream about and deserve. Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become. For leaders and nations, they can mean the difference between war and peace, poverty and prosperity. — Hillary Rodham Clinton

I couldn't stand to be separated with my wife for months. It became quickly apparent to me that I needed to find a balance between my absolute work obsession and a private life that we could share without my disappearing all the time. — David Bowie

I split my commission and personal work about 50 per cent each. It is important to get that balance in life. — Nathan Sawaya

Don't work harder, work happier. — Alexander Kjerulf

Never think that war is a good thing, grandchildren. Though it may be necessary at times to defend our people, war is a sickness that must be cured. War is a time out of balance. When it is truly over, we must work to restore peace and sacred harmony once again. — Joseph Bruchac

I thought 'The Artist' was a perfect way to find a good balance. The artistic challenge is obvious because the film is black-and-white and its silent, but I did my best to make the movie accessible and easy to watch. I really don't want to make elitist movies. I really try hard to work for the audience. Audiences are smart. They get everything. — Michel Hazanavicius

I think all of us are multitasking a little more today than we used to or than we would like to. And I think that the issue of work-life balance is a critical issue for every company around the world. — Irene Rosenfeld

When I was growing up my mom was home. She wanted to go to work, but she waited. She was educated as a teacher. The minute my youngest sister went to school full-time, from first grade, mom went back to work. But she balanced her life. She chose teaching which enabled her to leave at the same time we left, and come home pretty much the same time we came home. She knew how to balance. — Martha Stewart

Those who feel satisfied with their personal lives are more satisfied with their careers and perform better. — Michael Hyatt

If people work together, if they can keep a cooperative spirit and use their ingenuity and balance it all with good humor and good will, then there's nothing to be afraid of. That's the sappy part of it, ... On the other hand, every Halloween for many years when my kids were trick-or-treating I would put on my 'Ghostbusters' jumpsuit with a police flashlight to protect all the kids from ghosts. — Harold Ramis

You may not believe in anything called a work-life balance, but your body certainly does. You need to monitor and nurture your body. — Vivek Wadhwa

The path to happiness at work starts with a simple decision: You must want to be happy. If you don't commit to being happy at work, you won't be. You won't make the choices that make you happy. You won't take the actions needed to get there. You won't change the things that need to change. — Alexander Kjerulf

We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives ... not looking for flaws, but for potential. — Ellen Goodman

I work barefooted on balance plates. I do explosive squats on balance surfaces that your body has to use muscles it's not used to. It's all kinds of exercises that your body isn't really used to, and it tricks your body into getting stronger every time. — Troy Polamalu

Like any working mother, I have to balance and manage my time very carefully. My children and husband come first, of course, then my work. — Andrea Davis Pinkney

I think if you look after yourself on a regular basis, and do the prep beforehand, you don't need to put lots of effort into looking good. It's about finding the right balance - if you have a good diet, drink lots of water, exercise regularly and sleep, you won't look bad on a regular basis. Then you can afford the occasional naughty slip up once in a while, going out and having a delicious glass of wine with friends, having a great laugh and chat then realizing its 2am isn't so bad - you've put in the hard work! — Cat Deeley

Do you know what a balance wheel is?" She shook her head slightly. "There's one in every clock or watch. It rotates back and forth without stopping. It's what makes the ticking sound ... what makes the hands move forward to mark the minutes. Without it, the watch wouldn't work. You're my balance wheel, Poppy." -Harry Rutledge — Lisa Kleypas

I don't personally try to balance my work because I operate under the assumption that anyone reading or watching my stuff isn't having a particularly balanced day anyway. But negative attitudes just amuse me more than positive ones. — Lev Yilmaz

Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people's stuff. — George Carlin

There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life. — Alain De Botton

Nothing, in truth, can ever replace a lost companion. Old comrades cannot be manufactured. There is nothing that can equal the treasure of so many shared memories, so many bad times endured together, so many quarrels, reconciliations, heartfelt impulses. Friendships like that cannot be reconstructed. If you plant an oak, you will hope in vain to sit soon under its shade.
For such is life. We grow rich as we plant through the early years, but then come the years when time undoes our work and cuts down our trees. One by one our comrades deprive us of their shade, and within our mourning we always feel now the secret grief of growing old.
If I search among my memories for those whose taste is lasting, if I write the balance sheet of the moments that truly counted, I surely find those that no fortune could have bought me. You cannot buy the friendship of a companion bound to you forever by ordeals endured together. — Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Europeans have it better than the Americans. The Americans work too hard. The balance is out of whack. Europe's hung onto a little bit more of living a life and then working as well. — Jason Clarke

The challenges that I face today are the same challenges we all face. Trying to balance your life between work, family, loved ones, your husband, your wife - boyfriend or girlfriend. If you have kids - balancing that, balancing your work with the time you spend with your kids. The idea of wanting to be a good parent and then the motivation to be a great parent. Whether you're black, white, any color. Rich, poor, regardless of religion, cousins of culture, we go through those. We have the same challenges. — Dwayne Johnson