“The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.”
Opening lines, Ch. 1, "The River Bank"
The Wind in the Willows (1908)
Context: The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.
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Kenneth Grahame 83
British novelist 1859–1932Related quotes
“Apologizing is like spring cleaning.”
Source: Ida B. . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World

“All but blind
In his chambered hole
Gropes for worms
The four-clawed Mole.”
All But Blind.

Speaking during the 1971 World Series, as quoted in The Chicago Tribune by Bob Markus, reprinted in I'll Play These: From Ecstacy to Angst, A Sports Writer’s Journey https://books.google.com/books?id=sdzKAmeIoE8C&pg=PA219 (2011), p. 219
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

Thomas Hood, Craniology, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 597.
20th century

Cited by * 2020-01-24
Trump Is Inciting a Coronavirus Culture War to Save Himself
Adam Serwer
The Atlantic
2020s, 2020, January
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/trump-is-the-chinese-governments-most-useful-idiot/608638/