The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

Every quotation a nineteenth-century speaker or writer might want, grouped under its subject, with the author, the date and the source given as exactly as Hoyt could manage.

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Work: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

When Adam dolve, and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? Lines used by JOHN BALL in Wat Tyler's Rebellion. By the way, The works of women are symbolical. We sew, sew, prick our fingers, dull our sight, Producing what? A pair of slippers, sir, To put on when you're weary-or a stool To tumble over and vex you *** curse that stool! Or else at best, a cushion where you lean And sleep, and dream of something we are not, But would be for your sake. Alas, alas! This hurts most, this * * * that, after all, we are paid The worth of our work, perhaps. C.— E. B. BROWNING — Aurora Leigh. Bk. I. L. 465.
Free men freely work: Whoever fears God, fears to sit at ease.— E. B. BROWNING — Aurora Leigh. Bk. VIII. L. 784.
Get leave to work In this world,-'tis the best you get at all.— E. B. BROWNING — Aurora Leigh. Bk. III. L. 164.
Let no one till his death Be called unhappy. Measure not the work Until the day's out and the labour done.— E. B. BROWNING — Aurora Leigh. Bk. V. L. 78.
And still be doing, never done.— BUTLER — Hudibras. Pt. I. Canto I. L. 204.
All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble; work is alone noble.— CARLYLE — Past and Present. Bk. III. Ch. IV.
Genuine Work alone, what thou workest faithfully, that is eternal, as the Almighty Founder and World-Builder himself.— CARLYLE — Past and Present. Bk. II. Ch. XVII.
With hand on the spade and heart in the sky Dress the ground and till it; Turn in the little seed, brown and dry, Turn out the golden millet. Work, and your house shall be duly fed : Work, and rest shall be won; I hold that a man had better be dead Than alive when his work is done.— ALICE CARY — Work.
Each natural agent works but to this end,- To render that it works on like itself.— GEORGE CHAPMAN — Bussy D' Ambois. Act III. Sc. 1.
Nowher so besy a man as he ther was, And yet he semed bisier than he was.— CHAUCER — Canterbury Tales. Prologue. L. 321.
All Nature seems at work, slugs leave their lair- The bees are stirring-birds are on the wing- And Winter, slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! And I the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.— COLERIDGE — Work without Hope. St. 1.
Too busy with the crowded hour to fear to live or die.— EMERSON — Quatrains. Nature.
How bething the, gentliman, How Adam dalf, and Eve span. 0. MS. of the Fifteenth Century. British Museum. Plough deep while sluggards sleep.— BENJ. FRANKLIN — Poor Richard.
Preface to 1758. In every rank, or great or small, 'Tis industry supports us all.— GAY — Man, Cat, Dog, and Fly. L. 63.
He that well his warke beginneth The rather a good ende he winneth.— GOWER — Confessio Amantis.
Joy to the Toiler! -him that tills The fields with Plenty crowned; Him with the woodman's axe that thrills The wilderness profound. S.— BENJAMIN HATHAWAY — Songs of the
Toiler. Chase brave employments with a naked sword Throughout the world.— HERBERT — The Church Porch. St. 15.
The fiction pleased; our generous train complies, Nor fraud mistrusts in virtue's fair disguise. The work she plyed, but, studious of delay, Each following night reversed the toils of day.— HOMER — Odyssey. Bk. XXIV. L. 164. Pope's trans.
For men must work and women must weep, And the sooner it's over the sooner to sleep, And good-bye to the bar and its moaning.— CHAS. KINGSLEY — Three Fishers.
Who first invented work, and bound the free And holyday-rejoicing spirit down * * * To that dry drudgery at the desk's dead wood? wood? * * * Sabbathless Satan!— CHARLES LAMB — Work,
Never idle a moment, but thrifty and thoughtful of others.— LONGFELLOW — Courtship of Miles Standish. Pt. VIII. L. 46.
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!— LOWELL — A Glance Behind the Curtain. L. 202.
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. OWEN MEREDITH (Lord Lytton)- Epilogue. Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. L. 618.
The work under our labour grows Luxurious by restraint.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. IX. L. 208.
Nothing is impossible to industry. PERIANDER of Corinth. Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.— PLUTARCH — Life of Pericles.
Work first, and then rest.— RUSKIN — Seven Lamps of Architecture.
The Lamp of Beauty. Hard toil can roughen form and face, And want can quench the eye's bright grace. ScoTT-Marmion. Canto I. St. 28. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? where go you With bats and clubs? The matter? speak, I pray you.— Shakespeare — Coriolanus. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 55.
Why, universal plodding poisons up The nimble spirits in the arteries, As motion and long-during action tires The sinewy vigour of the traveller. Sc.— Shakespeare — Love's Labour's Lost. Act IV. L. 305.
How many a rustic Milton has passed by, Stifling the speechless longings of his heart, In unremitting drudgery and care! How many a vulgar Cato has compelled His energies, no longer tameless then, To mould a pin, or fabricate a nail!— SHELLEY — Queen Mab. Pt. V. St. 9.
In books, or work, or healthful play.— ISAAC WATTS — Divine Songs. XX.
WORLD (THE). Thine to work as well as pray, Clearing thorny wrongs away; Plucking up the weeds of sin, Letting heaven's warm sunshine in.— WHITTIER — The Curse of the Charter- Breakers. St. 21.
WORLD (THE). The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.— ADDISON — Cato. Act V. Sc. 1.
This restless world Is full of chances, which by habit's power To learn to bear is easier than to shun.— JOHN ARMSTRONG — Art of Preserving Health. Bk. II. L. 453.
Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be born, With nowhere yet to rest my head, Like these, on earth I wait forlorn.— MATTHEW ARNOLD — Stanzas from the
Grande Chartreuse. Earth took her shining station as a star, In Heaven's dark hall, high up the crowd of worlds.— BAILEY — Festus. Sc. The Centre.
I take the world to be but as a stage, Where net-maskt men doo play their personage. S.— DU BARTAS — Divine Weekes and Workes.
Dialogue Between Heraclitus and Democritus, He sees that this great roundabout, The world, with all its motley rout, Church, army, physic, law, Its customs and its businesses, Is no concern at all of his, And says-what says he?-Caw.— VINCENT BOURNE — The Jackdaw.
Cowper's trans. In this bad, twisted, topsy-turvy world, Where all the heaviest wrongs get uppermost.— E. B. BROWNING — Aurora Leigh. Bk. V. L. 981.
The wide world is all before us- But a world without a friend.— BURNS — Strathallan's Lament.
Well, well, the world must turn upon its axis, And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails, And live and die, make love and pay our taxes, And as the veering winds shift, shift our sails.— BYRON- — Don Juan. Canto II. St. 4.
Such is the world. Understand it, despise it, love it; cheerfully hold on thy way through it, with thy eye on highest loadstars!— CARLYLE — Essays. Count Cagliostro.
Last lines. WORLD (THE). The true Sovereign of the world, who moulds the world like soft wax, according to his pleasure, is he who lovingly sees into the world.— CARLYLE — Essays. Death of Goethe.
It is a shining glass, which a breath may destroy, and which a breath has produced.— DE CAUX — Comparing the world to his
hour-glass. Such stuff the world is made of.— COWPER — Hope. L. 211.
And for the few that only lend their ear, That few is all the world.— SAMUEL DANIEL — Musophilus. St. 97.
I am a citizen of the world.— DIOGENES LAERTIUS
The world is a wheel, and it will all come round right.— BENJ. DISRAELI — Endymion. Ch. LXX.
The world's an inn, and death the journey's end. (— DRYDEN — Palamon and Arcite. Bk. III. L. 887.
Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!— GOLDSMITH — The Traveller. L. 50.
Earth is but the frozen echo of the silent voice of God.— HAGEMAN — Silence.
The world's a theatre, the earth a stage, Which God and nature do with actors fill.— HEYWOOD — Dramatic Works. Vol. I.
The Author to His Book. Prefix to Apology for Actors. There are two worlds; the world that we can measure with line and rule, and the world that we feel with our hearts and imaginations.— LEIGH HUNT — Men, Women, and Books.
Fiction and Matter of Fact. The Earth goes on the Earth glittering with gold; The Earth goes on the Earth sooner than it wold; The Earth builds on the Earth castles and towers; The Earth says to the Earth, all this is ours. Inscription on the Ruined Gate at Melrose Abbey. It is an ugly world. Offend Good people, how they wrangle, The manners that they never mend, The characters they mangle. They eat, and drink, and scheme, and plod, And go to church on Sunday- And many are afraid of God- And more of Mrs. Grundy.— FREDERICK LOCKER — The Jester's Plea.
WORLD (THE). This world, where much is to be done and little to be known.— SAM'L JOHNSON — Prayers and
Meditations. Against Inquisitive and Perplexing Thoughts. Upon the battle ground of heaven and hell I palsied stand.— MARIE JOSEPHINE — Rosa Mystica.
P. 231. The world goes up and the world goes down, And the sunshine follows the rain; And yesterday's sneer and yesterday's frown Can never come over again, Sweet wife. No, never come over again.— CHARLES KINGSLEY — Dolcino to
Margaret. If all the world must see the world As the world the world hath seen, Then it were better for the world That the world had never been.— LELAND — The World and the World.
One day with life and heart, Is more than time enough to find a world.— LOWELL — Columbus. Last lines.
The world in all doth but two nations bear, The good, the bad, and these mixed everywhere.— S. MARVELL — The Loyal Scot.
The world's a stage on which all parts are played.— THOS. MIDDLETON — A Game of Chess. Act V. Sc. II.
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot Which men call Earth.— MILTON — Comus. L. 5.
A boundless continent, Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of night Starless expos'd.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. III. L. 423.
Brightest seraph, tell In which of all these shining orbs hath man His fixed seat, or fixed seat hath none, But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. III. L. 667.
Hanging in a golden chain This pendent world.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. II. L. 1,051.
The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. XII. L. 646,
WORLD (THE). It is a very good world to live in, To lend, or to spend, or to give in; But to beg, or to borrow, or to get a man's own, It's the very worst world that ever was known. Attributed to EARL OF ROCHESTER. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players.— Shakespeare — As You Like It. Act II. Sc. 7. L. 139.
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! C.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 133.
I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano: A stage where every man must play a part.— Shakespeare — Merchant of Venice. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 76.
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act I. Sc. 4. L. 79.
The world is grown so bad, That wrens makeprey where eagles dare not perch.— Shakespeare — Richard III. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 70.
This wide and universal theatre Presents more woful pageants than the scene Wherein we play in.— Shakespeare — As You Like It. Act II. Sc. 7. L. 137.
Why, then, the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open.— Shakespeare — Merry Wives of Windsor. Act II. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 2.
The world's great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn.— SHELLEY — Hellas. Last chorus.
O Earth! all bathed with blood and tears, yet never Hast thou ceased putting forth thy fruit and flowers.— MADAME DE STAEL — Corinne. Bk. XIII. Ch. IV. L. E. L.'s
trans. This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.— STERNE — Tristram Shandy. Bk. II. Ch. XII.
There was all the world and his wife.— SWIFT — Polite Conversation.
Dialogue III. So many worlds, so much to do, So little done, such things to be.— TENNYSON — In Memoriam. Pt. LXXIII.
Anchorite, who didst dwell With all the world for cell!— FRANCIS THOMPSON — To the Dead Cardinal of Westminster. St. 5.
Chacun son métier; Les vaches seront bien gardées. Each one to his own trade; then would the cows be well cared for.— FLORIAN — Le Vacher et le Garde-chasse.
Hâtez-vous lentement; et, sans perdre courage, Vingt fois sur le métier remettez votre ouvrage. Hasten slowly, and without losing heart, put your work twenty times upon the anvil.— BOILEAU — L' Art Poétique. I. 171.
Le fruit du travail est le plus doux des plaisirs. The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of pleasures. g. 200. Quanto mas que cada uno es hijo de sus obras. The rather since every man is the son of his own works.— CERVANTES — Don Quixote. I. 4.
WORLD (THE). Le monde est le livre des femmes. The world is woman's book.— ROUSSEAU
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