And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame;
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It, for the God of Things as They Are!
And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed—they know the angels are on their side;
They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for them are the Mercies multiplied;
They sit at the Feet, they hear the Word, they see how truly the Promise runs;
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and—the Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!
Who first invented work, and bound the free
And holyday-rejoicing spirit down * * *
To that dry drudgery at the desk's dead wood? * * *
Sabbathless Satan!
The finest eloquence is that which gets things done; the worst is that which delays them.
Unemployment, with its injustice for the man who seeks and thirsts for employment, who begs for labour and cannot get it, and who is punished for failure he is not responsible for by the starvation of his children—that torture is something that private enterprise ought to remedy for its own sake.
Never idle a moment, but thrifty and thoughtful of others.
No man is born into the world whose work
Is not born with him; there is always work.
And tools to work withal, for those who will;
And blessed are the horny hands of toil!
| author = Lowell
| work = A Glance Behind the Curtain. L. 202.
Horny-handed sons of toil.
Popularized by Denis Kearney (Big Denny),
of San Francisco.
Divisum sic breve fiet opus.
Work divided is in that manner shortened.
Why do strong arms fatigue themselves with frivolous dumb-bells? To dig a vineyard is a worthier exercise for men.
God be thank'd that the dead have left still
Good undone for the living to do—
Still some aim for the heart and the will
And the soul of a man to pursue.
Man hath his daily work of body or mind
Appointed.
The work under our labour grows
Luxurious by restraint.
I am of nothing and to nothing tend,
On earth I nothing have and nothing claim,
Man's noblest works must have one common end,
And nothing crown the tablet of his name.
The uselessness of men above sixty years of age and the incalculable benefit it would be in commercial, in political, and in professional life, if as a matter of course, men stopped work at this age.
Study until twenty-five, investigation until forty, profession until sixty, at which age I would have him retired on a double allowance.
Many hands make light work.
Nothing is impossible to industry.
Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.
Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.
When Adam dalfe and Eve spane
So spire if thou may spede,
Where was then the pride of man,
That nowe merres his mede?
How bething the, gentliman,
How Adam dalf, and Eve span.
