Fan Chengda 范成大
1186 · Suzhou, Southern Song China
By day they go out to weed the fields, by night they twist hemp. The sons and daughters of the village each do their share. The little grandchildren do not yet know how to plough or weave, but in the shade of the mulberry they too are learning to plant melons.
晝出耘田夜績麻，村莊兒女各當家。
童孫未解供耕織，也傍桑陰學種瓜。"Miscellaneous Pleasures of the Fields in the Four Seasons," summer
In the same thread
Voltaire
1759 · Paris, France · Ferney · The words of an old man who farms a small plot with his children
Work keeps three great evils away from us: boredom, vice and want.
le travail éloigne de nous trois grands maux, l'ennui, le vice, et le besoin.
Candide, chapter 30
Jerome K. Jerome
1889 · London, England
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.
Three Men in a Boat, chapter 15
Duauf Tuauf
c. 20th century BC · ancient Egypt · Telling his son why learning to write is better
I have watched the blacksmith at the door of his furnace. His hands are like crocodiles' hide, and he stinketh worse than fishes' eggs."The Teaching of Duauf for His Son Pepi" · in place of the original: the English translation by E. A. Wallis Budge (1914)
Sarojini Naidu
1905 · Hyderabad, India
Lightly, O lightly we bear her along, She sways like a flower in the wind of our song; She skims like a bird on the foam of a stream, She floats like a laugh from the lips of a dream.
"Palanquin Bearers," in The Golden Threshold
Voltaire
1759 · Paris, France · Ferney
"That is well said," replied Candide, "but we must cultivate our garden."
Cela est bien dit, répondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin.
Candide, the last sentence
Kahlil Gibran
1923 · Bsharri, Lebanon · New York, USA
Work is love made visible.The Prophet, "On Work"
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us