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Labor: Quotations from Burning Words
Labor is not, as some have erroneously supposed, a penal clause of the original curse. There was labor, bright, healthful, unfatiguing, in unfallen Paradise. By sin, labor became drudgery - the earth was restrained from her spontaneous fertility, and the strong arm of the husbandman was required, not to develop, but to "subdue" it. But labor in itself is noble, and is necessary for the ripe unfolding of the highest life.— WM. M. PUNSHON
Labor is the true alchemist that beats out in patient transmutation the baser metals into gold.— WM. M. PUNSHON
Nothing is denied to well-directed labor; nothing is ever to be attained without it.— SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
It is intended that we shall accomplish all, through law, that we can accomplish for ourselves. God gives every bird its food, but does not throw it into the nest. He does not unearth the good that the earth contains, but He puts it in our way, and gives us the means of getting it ourselves.— J. G. HOLLAND
Blessed is the man who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. Know thy work, and do it; and work at it Pike Hercules. One monster there is in the world, the idle man.— THOMAS CARLYLE
God does not give excellence to men but as the reward of labor— SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
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.— H. W. BEECHER
Work is God's ordinance as truly as prayer.— GEORGE D. BOARDMAN
The virtues, like the body, become strong more by labor than by nourishment.— JEAN PAUL RICHTER
The more we work the more we need to pray. In this day of activity there is great danger, not of doing too much, but of praying too little for so much work.— ALEXANDER MACLAREN
Jesus aimed to impregnate the natural with the spiritual, and to resolve all our avocations into a heavenly discipline.— BISHOP CLARK
The gospel freely admitted makes a man happy. It gives him peace with God, and makes him happy in God. It gives to industry a noble, contented look which selfish drudgery never wore; and from the moment that a man begins to do to do his work for his Saviour's sake, he feels that the most ordinary employments are full of sweetness and dignity, and that the most difficult are not impossible. And if any of you , my friends, is weary with his work, if dissatisfaction with yourself or sorrow of any kind disheartens you, if at any time you feel the dull paralysis of conscious sin, or the depressing influence of vexing thoughts, look to Jesus, and be happy. Be happy, and your joyful work will prosper well.— WILBERFORCE
Man must work. That is certain as the sun. But he may work grudgingly, or he may work gratefully; he may work as a man, or he may work as a machine. He cannot always choose his work, but he can do it in a generous temper, and with an up-looking heart. There is no work so rude, that he may not exalt it; there is no work so impassive, that he may not breathe a soul into it; there is no work so dull, that he may not enliven it.— HENRY GILES
No man is base who does a true work; for true action is the highest being. No man is miserable that does a true work; for right action is the highest happiness. No man is isolated that does a true work; for useful action is the highest harmony - it is the highest harmony with nature and with souls - it is living association with men - and it is practical fellowship with God. Labor is sweet, for Thou hast toiled,— HENRY GILES
And care is light, for Thou hast cared; Let not our works with self be soiled, Nor in unsimple ways ensnared. Through life's long day and death's dark night, O gentle Jesus! be our light.— F. W. FABER
A man's labors must pass like the sunrises and sunsets of the world. The next thing, not the last, must be his care. -— GEORGE MACDONALD
Labor is a curse until communion with God in it, which is possible through Jesus Christ, makes it a blessing and a joy. Christ, in the sweat of His brow, won our salvation; and our work only becomes great when it is work done in, and for, and by Him.