“Diligence increaseth the fruit of toil. A dilatory man wrestles with losses.”

— Hesiod , book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 412.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Diligence increaseth the fruit of toil. A dilatory man wrestles with losses." by Hesiod?

Hesiod 61

Greek poet

Related quotes

“God created man to enjoy, not destroy, the fruits of the earth and of their own toil.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

1950s, The Chance for Peace (1953)
Context: These proposals spring, without ulterior motive or political passion, from our calm conviction that the hunger for peace is in the hearts of all people -- those of Russia and of China no less than of our own country. They conform to our firm faith that God created man to enjoy, not destroy, the fruits of the earth and of their own toil.

“The more opportunities there are in a Society for some persons to live upon the toil of others, and the less those others may enjoy the fruits of their work themselves, the more is diligence killed, the former become insolent, the latter despairing, and both negligent.”

Anders Chydenius book The National Gain

The National Gain, §20, 1765.

“Toil is the law of life and its best fruit.”

Lewis Morris (poet) (1833–1907) Welsh poet in the English language

The Ode of perfect Years, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Address at the opening of the gubernatorial campaign, New York City (5 October 1898), reported in "The Duties of a Great Nation", Campaigns and Controversies, vol. 14 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, national ed. (1926), chapter 45, p. 291
1890s
Context: Greatness means strife for nation and man alike. A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fibre of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage... We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with a high and resolute courage. For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.

“Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit/Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste/Brought death into the world, and all our woe,/With loss of Eden, till one greater Man/Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,/Sing heavenly muse”

John Milton book Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

“When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins.”

Neal Stephenson book Snow Crash

Source: Snow Crash

“Time, which gnaws and diminisheth all things else, augments and increaseth benefits; because a noble action of liberality, done to a man of reason, doth grow continually by his generous thinking of it and remembering it.”

Francois Rabelais book Gargantua and Pantagruel

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 50 : Gargantua's speech to the vanquished.
Context: Time, which gnaws and diminisheth all things else, augments and increaseth benefits; because a noble action of liberality, done to a man of reason, doth grow continually by his generous thinking of it and remembering it.
Being unwilling therefore any way to degenerate from the hereditary mildness and clemency of my parents, I do now forgive you, deliver you from all fines and imprisonments, fully release you, set you at liberty, and every way make you as frank and free as ever you were before.