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Tho' we earn our bread, Tom,
By the dirty pen,
What we can we will be,
Honest Englishmen.
Do the work that's nearest
Though it's dull at whiles,
Helping, when we meet them,
Lame dogs over stiles.

— Charles Kingsley Letter. To Thomas Hughes (1856)

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More quotes by Charles Kingsley

There is a great deal of human nature in man.

This is eternal life; a life of everlasting love, showing itself in everlasting good works; and whosoever lives that life, he lives the life of God, and hath eternal life.

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them, all day long:
And so make life, death, and that vast for-ever
One grand, sweet song.

Andromeda and Other Poems (1858)

May God keep our hearts pure from that selfishness which is the root of all sin.

I believe not only in "special providences," but in the whole universe as one infinite complexity of "special providences."

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

James Howell English Proverbs (1659)

When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.

Robert Frost A Boy's Will (1913)

In a society such as ours, it is almost impossible for a person to be responsible.

Jacques Ellul The Betrayal by Technology (1993)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Kingsley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.