"God really does take our work seriously: It is wrong, it is a sin, to accept or remain in a position that you know is a mismatch for you. Perhaps that's a form of sin you've never considered - the sin of staying in the wrong job. But God did not place you on the earth to waste away your years in labor that does not employ his design or purpose for your life, no matter how much you may be getting paid for it."

10 likes

Source: Death of a Salesman at Fifty: An Interview with Arthur Miller. Interview With Colby H. Kullman, quod.lib.umich.edu. 1998.

About the author

Arthur Miller

Playwright, Essayist

Arthur Miller was an influential American playwright known for works like 'Death of a Salesman' that explore themes of truth and human struggle.

All quotes by Arthur Miller →

Same author

More quotes by Arthur Miller

See all →
Arthur Miller Playwright, Essayist

"If a person measures his spiritual fulfillment in terms of cosmic visions, surpassing peace of mind, or ecstasy, then he is not likely to know much spiritual fulfillment. If, however, he measures it in terms of enjoying a sunrise, being warmed by a child's smile, or being able to help someone have a better day, then he is likely to know much spiritual fulfillment."

Read quote
Arthur Miller Playwright, Essayist

"The problem was to sustain at any cost the feeling you had in the theater that you were watching a real person, yes, but an intense condensation of his experience, not simply a realistic series of episodes."

Read quote
Arthur Miller Playwright, Essayist

"I’m a writer, and everything I write is both a confession and a struggle to understand things about myself and this world in which I live. This is what everyone’s work should be-whether you dance or paint or sing. It is a confession, a baring of your soul, your faults, those things you simply cannot or will not understand or accept. You stumble forward, confused, and you share. If you’re lucky, you learn something."

Read quote
Arthur Miller Playwright, Essayist

"We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!"

Read quote