quotes about Toil
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Chicken fizz! O Lord, protect all of us who toil in the vineyards of experimental chemistry!
-- Alan BradleySource : Alan Bradley (2016). “The Flavia de Luce Series 7-Book Bundle”, p.240, Delacorte Press
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Our work, abiding, shall bring to us the endless glory with which God at last overpays the toils, even as now He overanswers the poor prayers of His laboring servants.
-- Alexander MacLaren -
Where grows?--where grows it not? If vain our toil, We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.
-- Alexander Pope -
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For when success a lover's toil attends,Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends
-- Alexander Pope -
The less we show our love to a woman, Or please her less, and neglect our duty, The more we trap and ruin her surely In the flattering toils of philandery.
-- Alexander PushkinSource : "Eugene Onegin". Book by Alexander Pushkin, 1833.
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O Athenians, what toil do I undergo to please you!
-- Alexander the Great -
All things have rest: why should we toil alone, We only toil, who are the first of things.
-- Alfred the Great -
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Withhold no part of the precious truth, but speak what you know and declare what you have seen. Do not allow the toil or darkness or possible unbelief of your friends to dissuade you. Let us rise and march to the place of duty, and there declare what great things God has shown to our soul.
-- Alistair Begg -
The more opportunities there are in a Society for some persons to live upon the toil of others, and the less those others may enjoy the fruits of their work themselves, the more is diligence killed, the former become insolent, the latter despairing, and both negligent.
-- Anders ChydeniusSource : "The National Gain" by Anders Chydenius, (§20), 1765.
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Business or toil is merely utilitarian. It is necessary but does not enrich or ennoble a human life.
-- Aristotle -
If they do not share equally enjoyments and toils, those who labor much and get little will necessarily complain of those who labor little and receive or consume much. But indeed there is always a difficulty in men living together and having all human relations in common, but especially in their having common property.
-- Aristotle -
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Alone each heart must cover up its dead; Alone, through bitter toil, achieve its rest.
-- Bayard TaylorSource : Bayard Taylor (1866). “The Poems”, p.28
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How fair is a garden amid the toils and passions of existence.
-- Benjamin Disraeli -
Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.
-- Benjamin Franklin -
See how the skilful lover spreads his toils.
-- Benjamin StillingfleetSource : Benjamin Stillingfleet (1811). “Literary Life and Select Works of Benjamin Stillingfleet: Several of which Have Never Before Been Published ...”
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The method of "postulating" what we want has many advantages; they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil.
-- Bertrand Russell -
I love not knowing what's going to happen next. With work, you never know. You rehearse and strive and get it right sometimes, and still you never know. Some people are like that with their marriages. They work and strive and labour and toil at them. God, what a bore! What an unromantic bore!
-- Celia ImrieSource : Interview with Sally Vincent, www.theguardian.com. March 18, 2005.
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Let us celebrate the soil. Most men toil that they may own a piece of it; they measure their success in life by their ability to buy it.
-- Charles Dudley Warner -
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I toiled after it, sir, as some men toil after virtue.
-- Charles Lamb -
Dr Parr...asked him, how he had acquired his power of smoking at such a rate? Lamb replied, 'I toiled after it, sir, as some men toil after virtue.'
-- Charles Lamb -
But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits, will not desist from the search after truth, till they get the demonstration from the Scriptures themselves.
-- Clement of Alexandria -
Literature is a toil and a snare, a curse that bites deep.
-- D. H. Lawrence -
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Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil.
-- Democritus -
We are with you in this work. Workingmen must form a party of their own, take charge of the government, dispose gilded fraud, and put honest toil in power.
-- Denis Kearney -
Tis toil's reward, that sweetens industry, As love inspires with strength the enraptur'd thrush.
-- Ebenezer Elliott -
Let a nation's fervent thanks make some amends for the toils and sufferings of those who survive.
-- Edward Everett -
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You shall not pile, with servile toil, Your monuments upon my breast, Nor yet within the common soil Lay down the wreck of power to rest . . .
-- Edward EverettSource : "The Dirge of Alaric, the Visigoth". The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, Volume V, No. 25, January-June 1823.
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You shall not pile, with servile toil, Your monuments upon my breast, Nor yet within the common soil Lay down the wreck of power to rest, Where man can boast that he has trod On him that was "the scourge of God."
-- Edward Everett Hale -
Ability for stupendous toil is lodged in every human spirit, a grand gift from the God of nature; but only the persevering worker knows what this latent power is able to achieve.
-- Elias Lyman MagoonSource : Elias Lyman Magoon (1849). “Proverbs for the people: or, Illustrations of practical godliness drawn from the Book of wisdom”, p.182
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Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.
-- Emily Dickinson -
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Difficulties show men what they are. In case of any difficulty, remember that God has pitted you against a rough antagonist that you may be a conqueror, and this cannot be without toil.
-- Epictetus -
If there are none [gods], All our toil is without meaning.
-- Euripides -
Society thrives on trade simply because trade makes specialization possible, and specialization increases output, and increased output reduces the cost in toil for the satisfactions men live by. That being so, the market place is a most humane institution.
-- Frank ChodorovSource : Frank Chodorov (1959). “The Rise & Fall of Society”, p.56, Ludwig von Mises Institute
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Toil without song is like a weary journey without an end.
-- H. P. Lovecraft -
A man can never be idle with safety and advantage until he has been so trained by work that he makes his freedom from times and tasks more fruitful than his toil has been.
-- Hamilton Wright MabieSource : Hamilton Wright Mabie (1898). “Essays on Work and Culture”
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There is no gilding of setting sun or glamor of poetry to light up the ferocious and endless toil of the farmers' wives.
-- Hamlin GarlandSource : 1899 Boy Life on the Prairie,'Melons and Early Frost'.
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We have castrated society through fear and intimidation. Its manhood exists only in combination with a feminine outward appearance. Being so neutered, the populace has become docile and easily ruled. As all geldings in nature, their thoughts are not involved with the concerns of the future and their posterity, but only with the present toil and the next meal,
-- Harold Wallace Rosenthal -
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There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature.
-- Henry David Thoreau -
Much must he toil who serves the Immortal Gods.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -
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Toil is the lot of all, and bitter woe The fate of many.
-- Homer -
Beware the toils of war ... the mesh of the huge dragnet sweeping up the world.
-- Homer -
Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air, A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread, Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead.
-- Homer -
Too indolent to bear the toil of writing; I mean of writing well; I say nothing about quantity. [Lat., Piger scribendi ferre laborem; Scribendi recte, nam ut multum nil moror.]
-- Horace -
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If ever there was a cause, if ever there can be a cause, worthy to be upheld by all of toil or sacrifice that the human heart can endure, it is the cause of Education.
-- Horace Mann -
The more time, toil, and sacrifice spent by a population in producing medicine as a commodity, the larger will be the by-product, namely, the fallacy that society has a supply of health locked away which can be mined and marketed.
-- Ivan Illich -
But he that sows lies in the end shall not lack of a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed, while others reap and sow in his stead.
-- J. R. R. Tolkien -
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How withered away one can be from a life of unremitting toil.
-- Joanna RussSource : "The Female Man". Book by Joanna Russ (Part 2, Chapter 5, p. 22), February 1975.
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Here below is not the land of happiness: I know it now; it is only the land of toil, and every joy which comes to us is only to strengthen us for some greater labor that is to succeed.
-- Johann Gottlieb Fichte -
Life let us cherish, while yet the taper glows, And the fresh flow'ret pluck ere it close; Why are we fond of toil and care? Why choose the rankling thorn to wear?
-- Johann Martin Usteri -
How happy he whose toil Has o'er his languid pow'rless limbs diffus'd A pleasing lassitude; he not in vain Invokes the gentle Deity of dreams. His pow'rs the most voluptuously dissolve In soft repose; on him the balmy dews Of Sleep with double nutriment descend.
-- John Armstrong -
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Whilst we strive To live most free, we're caught in our own toils.
-- John FordSource : John Ford (1811). “John Ford's Dramatic Works”, p.139
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Extol not riches then, the toil of fools, The wise man's cumbrance, if not snare, more apt To slacken virtue, and abate her edge, Than prompt her to do aught may merit praise.
-- John Milton -
Let us go forth and resolutely dare with sweat of brow to toil our little day.
-- John Milton -
Better to toil blindly, beating every stone in turn for grains of gold, whether they contain any or not, than lie down in apathetic decay.
-- John Muir -
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If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if food, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it: toil is the law.
-- John Ruskin -
You're buying years of work, toil in the sun; you're buying a sorrow that can't talk.
-- John Steinbeck -
Toil, feel, think, hope; you will be sure to dream enough before you die, without arranging for it.
-- John Sterling -
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It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being.
-- John Stuart Mill -
Sweet is the pleasure itself cannot spoil. Is not true leisure one with true toil?
-- John Sullivan Dwight -
You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted, but to see it you have to toil from month to month through its labyrinths.
-- John Wesley PowellSource : John Wesley Powell (2008). “Canyons of the Colorado”, p.397, Cosimo, Inc.
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The inmost significance of the exaggerated value which is set upon hard work appears to be this: man seems to mistrust everything that is effortless; he can only enjoy, with a good conscience, what he has acquired with toil and trouble; he refused to have anything as a gift.
-- Josef PieperSource : Josef Pieper (2015). “Leisure: The Basis of Culture”, p.22, Ignatius Press
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Lord Salisbury constitutes himself the spokesman of a class, of the class to which he himself belongs, who'toil not neither do they spin'.
-- Joseph ChamberlainSource : 1883 Speech, 30 Mar.
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Never give up an old tried friend, who has waded through all manner of toil, for your sake, and throw him away because fools may tell you he has some faults.
-- Joseph Smith, Jr. -
In literature, there are only oxen. The biggest ones are the geniuses-the ones who toil eighteen hours a day without tiring.
-- Jules Renard -
Sanctification is not by surrender, but by divinely enabled toil and effort.
-- Kevin DeYoung -
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The world is like a great empty dream. Why should one toil away one's life?
-- Li Bai -
Since Life is but a Dream, Why toil to no avail?
-- Li BaiSource : "A Homily on Ideals in Life, Uttered in Springtime on Rising from a Drunken Slumber" (ca. 750)
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Toil and pleasure, in their natures opposite, are yet linked together in a kind of necessary connection.
-- Livy -
Toil and pleasure, dissimilar in nature, are nevertheless united by a certain natural bond.
-- Livy -
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The totalitarian toil-state originates in the propertylessness of the majority.
-- Louis O. Kelso -
Some shall reap that never sowAnd some shall toil and not attain.
-- Madison CaweinSource : "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations" Book by John Bartlett, 10th ed., 1919.
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Ah, what a sweetner of toil is love—love to a dear earthly parent, and still more love to Christ. There is no drudgery in the most menial employment where that is the motive power.
-- Martha FinleySource : Martha Finley (1876). “Elsie's Motherhood: A Sequel to "Elsie's Womanhood,"”, p.297
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It is possible for even the smallest of accolades of achievement to be truly worthwhile without tears and toil?
-- Mas Oyama -
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The antidote to frustration is a calm faith, not in your own cleverness, or in hard toil, but in God's guidance.
-- Norman Vincent Peale -
Rest strengthens the body, the mind too is thus supported; but unremitting toil destroys both.
-- Ovid -
though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson -
The change began with John Stuart Mill and the Utopians . When Mill pointed out that economics had no ultimate solution to the problem of distribution , that society might do with the fruits of its toil as it saw fit, he introduced into the mechanical calculus of the market a conflicting calculus of moral judgment.
-- Robert HeilbronerSource : "The Worldly Philosophers". Book by Robert Heilbroner, Chapter XI, Beyond the Economic Revolution, p. 307, 1953.
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When your toil has been a pleasure, you have not earned money merely, but money, health, delight, and moral profit, all in one.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson -
In all my work I like to convey the fact that I like cooks, that it's noble toil and that it is hard.
-- Rocco DiSpiritoSource : "31 More Questions With Tony Bourdain" by Gregory Cartier, www.askmen.com.
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Just as we would have no need of the farmer's labor and toil if we were living amid the delights of paradise, so also we would not require the medical art for relief if we were immune to disease, as was the case, by God's gift, at the time of Creation before the Fall.
-- Saint Basil -
They envy the distinction I have won; let them therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it.
-- Sallust -
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Satan laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.
-- Samuel Chadwick -
Happy are they who freely mingle prayer and toil till God responds to the one and rewards the other.
-- Samuel I. PrimeSource : "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 468, 1895.
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The conditions of conquest are always easy. We have but to toil awhile, endure awhile, believe always, and never turn back
-- Seneca the Elder -
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A socialist is just someone who is unable to get over his or her astonishment that most people who have lived and died have spent lives of wretched, fruitless, unremitting toil.
-- Terry EagletonSource : Terry Eagleton (1991). “Ideology: An Introduction”, p.82, Verso
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Thus must we toil in other men's extremes, That know not how to remedy our own.
-- Thomas KydSource : 'The Spanish Tragedy' (1592) act 3, sc. 6, l. 1
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It is distraction, not meditation, that becomes habitual; interruption, not continuity; spasmodic, not constant toil.
-- Tillie OlsenSource : Tillie Olsen (2014). “Silences”, p.33, The Feminist Press at CUNY
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But our knowledge, the things we learn, can carry on in others after we are gone...The toil of this journey, our journey, is the map for those who will follow.
-- Tony DiTerlizzi -
Recollect that the Almighty, who gave the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit.
-- Walter Scott -
Our works decay and disappear but God gentlest works stay looking down on the ruins we toil to rear.
-- Walter Smith -
Good temper, like a sunny day, sheds a ray of brightness over everything; it is the sweetener of toil and the soother of disquietude!
-- Washington Irving -