Labor Day is celebrated annually on the first Monday of September. The national holiday celebrates and honors American workers who improved the country both socially and economically. Labor Day is on Monday, Sept. 7. Today, the date seems to mark the beginning of mall sales, citywide parades, and the beginning of the football season. Christianity Daily compiled a list of quotes by famous Americans on the cultural significance of Labor Day.

10 Quotes on Labor Day:

1. “Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken.” – Bill Dodds

2. “Work is no disgrace; the disgrace is idleness.” – Greek proverb

3. “Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation.” – Samuel Gompers

4. “No great achievement is possible without persistent work.” – Bertrand Russell

5. “Labor Day is seen as a day of rest for many hardworking Americans.” – James P. Hoffa

6. “There is no substitute for hard work.” – Thomas Edison

7. “A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them.” – Elbert Hubbard

8. “I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.” – John D. Rockefeller

9. “A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity.” – Thomas Jefferson

10. “Without labor nothing prospers.” – Sophocles