Character and Conduct – 14 February – Pleasure in Work

JOY or delight in what we are doing is not a mere luxury;  it is a means, a help for the more perfect doing of our work.   Indeed, it may be truly said that no man does any work perfectly who does not enjoy his work.   Joy in one’s work is the consummate tool without which the work may be done indeed, but without which the work will always be done slowly, clumsily, and without its finest perfectness.   Men who do their work without enjoying it are like men carving statues with hatchets.   The statue gets carved perhaps, and is a monument for ever of the dogged perseverance of the artist;  but there is a perpetual waste of toil, and there is no fine result in the end.

PHILLIPS BROOKS

EFFORTS to be permanently useful must be uniformly joyous, – a spirit all sunshine;  graceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright.

CARLYLE

EVERY joy is gain, and gain is gain, however small.

BROWNING

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These quotes are from ‘Character and Conduct’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing the her readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.