Labour

Famous quotes containing the word labour:

    Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. The power of invention has been conferred by nature upon few, and the labour of learning those sciences which may, by mere labour, be obtained, is too great to be willingly endured; but every man can exert some judgment as he has upon the works of others; and he whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of critic.
    Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)

    Painting consumes labour not disproportionate to its effect; but a fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.
    Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)

    Through throats where many rivers meet, the curlews cry,
    Under the conceiving moon, on the high chalk hill,
    And there this night I walk in the white giant’s thigh
    Where barrren as boulders women lie longing still
    To labour and love though they lay down long ago.
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)