Human work must be done honourably and thoroughly, because we are now Men; whether we ever expect to be angels, or were ever slugs, being practically no matter.

Production does not consist in things laboriously made, but in things serviceably consumable; and the question for the nation is not how much labour it employs, but how much life it produces.

God intends no man to live in this world without working, but it seems to me no less evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work.

The scholar is early acquainted with every department of the impossible.

The question is not what man can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what he can love, and value, and appreciate.

The man who says to one, go, and he goeth, and to another, come, and he cometh, has, in most cases, more sense of restraint and difficulty than the man who obeys him.

God gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for what He wants us to do; if we either tire ourselves or puzzle ourselves, it is our own fault.