“Life is short and a man should take pride in his work, even if his work makes him feel like a total loser”

“And so take away his work, which was his life [. . .] and all his glory and his great deeds? Make a child and a dotard of him? Keep him to myself at that cost? Make him so mine that he was no longer his?”

“For the pride of trace and trail was his, and sick unto death, he could not bear that another dog should do his work.”

“It is a strange experience for a man of pride and feeling to know that his interests are in the control of strangers who don’t like or understand him.”

“A man should not measure his success in life by the type of work he does, or by the medals he has won, but by the impact he has had on those around him, especially his family.”-Salvador Ortiz to his son Lazaro”

“Everyone should get dirt on his hands each day. Doctors, intellectuals. Politicians, most of all. How can we presume to uplift the life of the working man, if we don't respect his work?”