We cannot help ourselves.We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us.You are forced on exertion.You have always a profession, pursuits, business of some sort or other, to take you back into the world immediately, and continual occupation and change soon weaken impressions.

-Austen,Jane
  Of the difference between women and men. Persuasion, ch.23.

Imaginethepositionofthemodernarchitect.Picturethe young fellow to be put into a 'profession' because trade is considered beneath him (another antiquarian prejudice).The young fellow hasn't exactly got a legal mind, like father; he's not much good at essays, so he can't write; he faints at the sight of blood so can't be a doctor. What isthere for him to do? Architecture of course.

-Betjeman, SirJohn
  First and Last Loves.

For my religion, though there be several circumstances that might persuade the world I have none at allöas the general scandal of my profession, the natural course of my studies, the indifferency of my behaviour and discourse in matters of religion, neither violently defending one, nor with that common ardour and contention opposing anotheröyet in despite hereof I dare without usurpation assume the honourable style of a Christian.

-Browne, SirThomas
^5  Religio Medici (published1643), pt.1, section1.

All the learn'd are cowards by profession.

-Dryden,John
  All for Love, or The World Well Lost, act 5.

To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession.

-Graves, Robert von Ranke
  Response to a questionnaire from the editor of Horizon.

We musn't complaintoomuch of being comediansöit's anhonourableprofession.Ifonly we could be good ones the world might gain at least a sense of style.

-Greene, (Henry) Graham
  The Comedians, pt.2, ch.5.

My profession†consists of bringing truths nearer to the point where they explode. 396

-Henze, Hans Werner
  Music and Politics.

Composing is not a profession. It is a maniaöa harmless madness.

-Honegger, Arthur
I Am a Composer.

   You can't adopt politics as a profession and hope to remain honest.

-Howe, Louis McHenry
  Speech, Columbia University,17  Jan.

In order to imbue civilization with sound principles and enliven it with the spirit of the gospel, it is not enough to be illumined with the gift of faith and enkindled with the desire of forwarding a good cause. For this end it is necessary to take an active part in the various organizationsand influencethemfromwithin. And since our present age is one of outstanding scientific and technical progress and excellence, one will not be able to enter these organizations and work effectively from within unless he is scientifically competent, technically capableand skilled in the practice of his own profession.

-PopeJohn XXIII originally Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli
  Pacem in Terris,10  Apr.

   It iswonderful, when a calculation ismade, how littlethe mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Remark, 6  Apr. Collected in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.2.

I read somewhere that machinery isgoing to take the place of every profession. Oh my dear that's something you'll never have to worry about.

-Marion, Frances originally Frances Marion Owens
  Dialogue between  Jean Harlow and Marie Dressler in Dinner At Eight (with Herman Mankiewicz).

La chose la plus importante a'   toute la vie est le choix du me¤  tier: le hasard en dispose. The most important thing in life is to choose a profession: chance arranges for that.

-Pascal, Blaise
c.1654^1662  Pense¤  es, pt.2, no.97.

Stage-plays†are sinfull, heathenish, lewd, ungodly Spectacles and most pernicious Corruptions, condemned in all ages as intolerable Mischiefes to Churches, to Republickes, to the manners, mindes and soules of men. And that the Profession of Play-poets, of Stage-players; together with the penning, acting and frequenting of Stage-plays are unlawfull, infamous and misbeseeming Christians.

-Prynne,William
  Histrio Mastix:The Players' Scourge, orActors' Tragedie.

Being a hero is about the shortest-lived profession on earth.

-Rogers,Will
Quoted in'A RogersThesaurus' in The Saturday Review, 25 Aug 1962. Another form of the quote appeared in a syndicated newspaper article,15 Feb1925:'Heroing is one of the shortest- lived professions there is'.

Medicine is a noble profession but a damn bad business.

-Rolleston, Humphrey
  Quoted in Who SaidWhatWhen (1988).

Optimistic lies have such immense therapeutic value that a doctor who cannot tell them convincingly has mistaken his profession.

-Shaw, George Bernard
  Misalliance, preface.

The professionof book writing makeshorseracing seem like a solid, stable business.

-Steinbeck,John Ernest
  In Newsweek, 24 Dec.

   Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

-Stevenson, Robert Louis
  Familiar Studies of Men and Books,'Yoshida-Torajiro'.

   Is it not singular how some men continue to obtain the reputation of popular authorship without adding a word to the literature of their country worthy of note?† To puff and to get one's self puffed have become different branches of a new profession.

-Trollope, Anthony
  TheWayWe Live Now, ch.1.