Labour may be a burden and a chastisement, but it is also an honour and a glory. Without it, nothing can be accomplished.

He who labours not, cannot enjoy the reward of labour.

The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.

It is idleness that is the curse of man - not labour. Idleness eats the heart out of men as of nations, and consumes them as rust does iron.

Idleness of the mind is much worse than that of the body: wit, without employment, is a disease - the rust of the soul, a plague, a hell itself.