Toiling Quotes

• The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Inspirational, Success, Perseverance

  'The Ladder of Saint Augustine' (1850)

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  The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

  John Ruskin

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawn on you.

  Phillips Brooks

  Life, Dawn, Tasks

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• Lay down the axe; fling by the spade;
  Leave in its track the toiling plough;
  The rifle and the bayonet-blade
  For arms like yours were fitter now;
  And let the hands that ply the pen
  Quit the light task, and learn to wield
  The horseman's crooked brand, and rein
  The charger on the battle-field.

  William C. Bryant

  War, Light, Hands

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• I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

  Winston Churchill

  Determination, Military, War

  Speech in House of Commons, 13 May 1940

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• To every toiling, heavy-laden sinner, Jesus says, Come to me and rest. But there are many toiling, heavy-laden believers, too. For them this same invitation is meant. Note well the words of Jesus, if you are heavy-laden with your service, and do not mistake it. It is not, Go, labor on, as perhaps you imagine. On the contrary, it is stop, turn back, Come to me and rest. Never, never did Christ send a heavy laden one to work; never, never did He send a hungry one, a weary one, a sick or sorrowing one, away on any service. For such the Bible only says, Come, come, come.

  Hudson Taylor

  Jesus, Mistake, Sick

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• The life of woman is full of woe,
  Toiling on and on and on,
  With breaking heart, and tearful eyes,
  The secret longings that arise,
  Which this world never satisfies!
  Some more, some less, but of the whole
  Not one quite happy, no, not one!

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Sad, Women, Heart

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867). “The Poetical Works of H. W. Longfellow. Complete Edition”, p.156

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  Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!

  William Shakespeare

  Halloween, Memorable, Play

  'Macbeth' (1606) act 4, sc. 1, l. 4

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• Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.

  Emily Dickinson

  Good Luck, Gambling, Toil

  Emily Dickinson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Emily Dickinson (Illustrated)”, p.1630, Delphi Classics

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• It is a time when one’s spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death. It is a time when one is filled with vague longings; when one dreams of flight to peaceful islands in the remote solitudes of the sea, or folds his hands and says, What is the use of struggling, and toiling and worrying any more? let us give it all up.

  Mark Twain

  Dream, Struggle, Past

  Mark Twain, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays”, p.1257, GENERAL PRESS

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• The professional dedicates himself to mastering technique not because he believes technique is a substitute for inspiration but because he wants to be in possession of the full arsenal of skills when inspiration does come.  The professional is sly.  He knows that by toiling beside the front door of technique, he leaves room for genius to enter by the back.

  Steven Pressfield

  Inspiration, Believe, Skills

  Steven Pressfield (2002). “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles”, p.84, Black Irish Entertainment LLC

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• The intelligentsia ...was kept busy embroidering white stitches on the philosophical and ecclesiastical vestments of the bourgeoisie - that old and filthy fabric besmeared with the blood of toiling masses.

  Maxim Gorky

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Blood

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• My imagination would never have served me as it has, but for the habit of commonplace, humble, patient, daily, toiling, drudging attention

  Charles Dickens

  Humble, Science, Imagination

  Charles Dickens, Georgina Hogarth, Mamie Dickens, Laurence Hutton, Richard Herne Shepherd (1908). “Letters and Speeches”

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• I'm fascinated by the period that goes from the Industrial Revolution to right after World War II. There's something about that period that's epic and tragic. There's a point after the industrial period where it seems like humanity's finally going to make it right. There were advances in medicine and technology and education. People are going to be able to live longer lives; literacy is starting to spread. It seemed like finally, after centuries of toiling and misery, that humanity was going to get to a better stage. And then what happens is precisely the contrary. Humanity betrays itself.

  Carlos Ruiz Zafon

  War, Epic, Technology

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• We shook hands. For a moment our eyes met - which I found surprisingly destabilizing. Then we pulled back and there was a mement of what seemed like mutual appraisal. For me, it was like being at a regatta, sizing up the competition on the dock before climbing into the shells. Could I take him? ... He could inflict serious damage. I sensed that. But he would be unfamiliar with rowers - men used to toiling backwards, blindly, trained, most of all, to endure.

  Stefan Kieszling

  Eye, Men, Climbing

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• And thus ever by day and night, under the sun and under the stars, climbing the dusty hills and toiling along the weary plains, journeying by land and journeying by sea, coming and going so strangely, to meet and to act and react on one another, move all we restless travellers through the pilgrimage of life.

  Charles Dickens

  Stars, Moving, Night

  Charles Dickens (2014). “Little Dorrit: Extended Annotated & Illustrated Edition”, p.75, Jazzybee Verlag

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• On eyes that watch as well as eyes that weep
  Descends the solemn mystery of sleep,
  Toiling and climbing to the very close,
  The weary Body, longing for repose,
  On the gained level of the day's ascent,
  Halts for the night and pitches there its tent.

  Abraham Coles

  Sleep, Eye, Night

  Abraham Coles (1866). “The Microcosm: A Poem, Read Before the Medical Society of New Jersey at Its Centenary Anniversary: with the Address Delivered as President, Jan. 24, 1866”, p.48

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• At Christmas A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year; He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here; Then he's thinking more of others than he's thought the months before, And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for. He is less a selfish creature than at any other time; When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime.

  Edgar Guest

  Christmas, Laughter, Children

  Edgar Albert Guest, “At Christmas”

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• I reached this level by sheer dint of hard work, toiling away at scores of tricks and experiments. I used to play with the ball from dawn till dusk and just kept practising. If I wasn't playing matches, it was trying out one on one or two against two with a tennis ball. Then I used to try aiming at certain targets. That's the only way to learn. And if I missed the target, I kept trying until I scored

  Zinedine Zidane

  Hard Work, Two, Play

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• When we have discovered a continent, or crossed a chain of mountains, it is only to find another ocean or another plain upon the further side. . . . O toiling hands of mortals! O wearied feet, travelling ye know not whither! Soon, soon, it seems to you, you must come forth on some conspicuous hilltop, and but a little way further, against the setting sun, descry the spires of El Dorado. Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Travel, Ocean, Feet

  'Virginibus Puerisque' (1881) 'El Dorado'

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• Still stands the forest primeval; but far away from its shadow, Side by side, in their nameless graves, the lovers are sleeping.Under the humble walls of the little catholic churchyard,In the heart of the city, they lie, unknown and unnoticed;Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them,Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at rest and forever,Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer are busy,Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased from their labors,Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed their journey!

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Wall, Lying, Heart

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1861). “The poetical works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, including his translations and notes”, p.40

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• The growth of New England was a result of the aggregate efforts of a busy multitude, each in his narrow circle toiling for himself, to gather competence or wealth. The expansion of New France was the achievement of a gigantic ambition striving to grasp a continent. It was a vain attempt.

  Francis Parkman

  Ambition, Circles, Achievement

  Francis Parkman (1871). “Pioneers of France in the New World”, p.10

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• I say: liberate yourself as far as you can, and you have done your part; for it is not given to every one to break through all limits, or, more expressively, not to everyone is that a limit which is a limit for the rest. Consequently, do not tire yourself with toiling at the limits of others; enough if you tear down yours. He who overturns one of his limits may have shown others the way and the means; the overturning of their limits remains their affair.

  Max Stirner

  Mean, Break Through, Tears

  "The Ego and Its Own (1844)". Book by Max Stirner, translated by Benjamin Tucker, New York edition, p. 187, 1907.

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• In my long, long years toiling around the publishing industry, I've found that women simply don't stick to the writing with the same fervor that men do.

  Jim Goad

  Writing, Men, Years

  Source: love-and-pop.com

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• This Great God, Like a mammy bending over her baby, Kneeled down in the dust Toiling over a lump of clay Till He shaped it in His own image.

  James Weldon Johnson

  Baby, Dust, Clay

  James Weldon Johnson (2000). “Complete Poems”, p.17, Penguin

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