1. The best balance of morale foe employee productivity can be described this way: happy, but with low self-esteem.

Scott Adams (b. 1957) U.S. cartoonist and humorist. The Dilbert Principle (1996)

2. Idleness is only the refugee of weak minds.

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, orator, and letter writer. Letter to his son (July 1749)

3. Dispatch is the soul of business, and nothing contributes more to Dispatch than Method.

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, orator, and letter writer. Letter to his son (February 5, 1750)

4. To obtain the most from a man’s energy it is necessary to increase the effect without increase the fatigue.

AugustinColomb (1736-1806) French scientist. Observations (1791)

5. Producing is more important than possessing.

Simone De Beauvoir (1908-86) French writer. Les Belles Images (1966)

6. Thanks to him, we have increased the productivity of manual work 3% to 4% compounded-which is 50-fold-and on that achievements rests all the prosperity of the modern world.

Peter F. Drucker (b. 1909) U.S. management consultant and academic.Referring to Frederick W. Taylor, who inspired Henry Ford’s mass-production revolution. Quoted in “The Businessman of the Century,” Fortune (November 22, 1999)

7. Because we don’t have as many people pounding out manufactured goods as we once did, many fallaciously conclude our productivity has withered.

Malcolm Forbes (1919-90) U.S. publisher. Forbes (1988)

8. Management productivity is a more appropriate term than labor productivity. Improved productivity means less human sweat, not more.

Henry Ford (1919-87) U.S. automobile manufacturer and C.E.O. of Ford Motor Company. Speech, U.S. News & World Report (March 1959)

9. Production not being the sole end of human existence, the term unproductive does not necessarily imply any stigma.

John Stuart Mill (1806-73) British economist and philosopher. Principles of Political Economy (1848)

10. Creation comes before distribution-or there will be nothing to distribute.

Ayn Rand (1905-82) U.S. writer. The Fountainhead (1943)

11. In an industrial society which confuses work and productivity, the necessity if producing has always been an enemy of the desire to create.

Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934) Belgian philosopher. The Revolution of Everyday Life (1967)