Toil Quotes - Page 13

• And but two ways are offered to our will, Toil with rare triumph, ease with safe disgrace, The problem still for us and all of human race.

  James Russell Lowell

  Two, Race, Ease

  James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.806, Delphi Classics

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• Business or toil is merely utilitarian. It is necessary but does not enrich or ennoble a human life.

  Aristotle

  Business, Doe, Human Life

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• Let observation with extensive view, Survey mankind from China to Peru; Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, And watch the busy scenes of crowded life.

  Samuel Johnson

  Travel, Views, Watches

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.548

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• 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

  Dream, Sleep, Deities

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• Hard toil can roughen form and face, And want call quench the eye's bright grace.

  Walter Scott

  Work, Eye, Grace

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• But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.

  William Cowper

  Heaven, Lost, Coast

  William Cowper (1822). “The poems of William Cowper”, p.226

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• Toil for the brave! The brave that are no more.

  William Cowper

  Bravery, Brave

  'On the Loss of the Royal George' (written 1782)

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• Where grows?--where grows it not? If vain our toil, We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.

  Alexander Pope

  Agriculture, Soil, Blame

  Alexander Pope (1822). “The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope”, p.244

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• Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise. By mountains pil'd on mountains to the skies? Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.

  Alexander Pope

  Laughter, Ambition, Son

  Alexander Pope, William Warburton (1757). “The Works of Alexander Pope Esq”, p.134

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• Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire
  To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire;
  Blest that abode, where want and pain repair,
  And every stranger finds a ready chair
  Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crown'd,
  Where all the ruddy family around
  Laugh at the jest or pranks, that never fail,
  Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale,
  Or press the bashful stranger to his food,
  And learn the luxury of doing good.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Pain, Simple, Fire

  Oliver Goldsmith (1833). “Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With a New Life of the Author”, p.81

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• Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high,
  Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye,
  Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired,
  Where graybeard mirth and smiling toil retired,
  Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound,
  And news much older than their ale went round.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Lying, Eye, Nuts

  Oliver Goldsmith (1834). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M.B.: With a Biographical Memoir of the Author, Written Expressly for this Edition”, p.100

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• Tis toil's reward, that sweetens industry, As love inspires with strength the enraptur'd thrush.

  Ebenezer Elliott

  Work, Inspire, Rewards

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• Rejoicing not in the many but in the probity of the few, we toil for truth alone.

  William of Conches

  Society, Rejoice, Probity

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• So long as the law considers all these human beings, with beating hearts and living affections, only as so many things belonging to the master - so long as the failure, or misfortune, or imprudence, or death of the kindest owner, may cause them any day to exchange a life of kind protection and indulgence for one of hopeless misery and toil - so long it is impossible to make anything beautiful or desirable in the best-regulated administration of slavery.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Beautiful, Heart, Law

  Harriet Beecher Stowe (2008). “Uncle Tom's Cabin”, p.13, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Teach us, Good Lord, to give and not count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do thy will.

  Ignatius of Loyola

  Fighting, Knowing, Giving

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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

  Faith, Frustration, Calm

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• Much shedding of blood, many great actions, and triumphs, toil and perseverance are the end of all things human.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Perseverance, War, Blood

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• A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fibre of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage... For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Running, Heart, Sacrifice

  Theodore Roosevelt (1926). “The Works of Theodore Roosevelt”

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• Relaxation is a physical and moral necessity. Animals, even to the simplest and dullest, have their games, their sports, their diversions. The toil-worn artisan, stooping and straining over his daily task, which taxes eye and brain and limb, ought to have opportunity and means for an hour or two of relaxation after that task is concluded.

  Horace Greeley

  Sports, Mean, Eye

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• A long-established occupation may form the very foundations of the moral life, that the art with which a man has solaced his toil may be the salvation of his uncertain temperament.

  Jane Addams

  Art, Men, Long

  Jane Addams (1949). “Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes”, p.132, Hayes Barton Press

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• A verse of Scripture in the morning, may become a blessing for all the day. It may sing in the heart as a sweet song, from morning until evening. It may become a liturgy of prayer in which the soul shall voice its deepest needs and hungers-amid toils, struggles, and cares. It may be a guide through perplexing tangles, Gods voice whispering cheer, a comforter breathing peace in sorrow.

  J.R. Miller

  Sweet, Song, Morning

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• The Big Lie makes those who toil appear to be idle, while those who speak into dictaphones appear to be the hard workers.

  Rosemary Radford Ruether

  Lying, Hard Work, Speak

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• Scholars may quote Plato in studies, but the hearts of millions shall quote the Bible at their daily toil, and draw strength from its inspiration, as the meadows draw it from the brook.

  Moncure D. Conway

  Bible, Plato, Inspiration

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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

  Wise, Men, Fool

  John Milton (1853). “The Poetical works”, p.386

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• 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

  Men, Together, Complaining

  Aristotle (2013). “The Essential Aristotle”, p.249, Simon and Schuster

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