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“the man who strives to be better”
The comparison values active moral improvement above craving public praise, locating greater life in the direction of one’s striving rather than external applause.
Source note: Unspoken Sermons; Project Gutenberg #9057. The short excerpt comes from a longer explicitly theological hierarchy of forms of life and must be read in that religious setting.
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“The worth of work with the hands”
Washington opens the book by treating manual work as capable of contributing to education, dignity and practical development rather than merely supplying labor.
Source note: Working With the Hands, Chapter I, opening sentence; Project Gutenberg #64504. This deliberately short excerpt is presented with its educational context.
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“Get work, get work; Be sure ’tis better than what you work to get.”
Voice: Fictional narrator · Aurora Leigh
The verse novel distinguishes the formative value of doing worthwhile work from the external reward a person hopes the work will produce.
Source note: Aurora Leigh, Book III; Project Gutenberg #56621. This is dialogue and argument within a verse novel, not a universal rule that work should override health, rest or other obligations.
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“There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice.”
Progress requires giving up competing habits or comforts so that effort can stay directed toward the chosen end.
Source note: As a Man Thinketh, chapter “The Thought-Factor in Achievement.”
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“My race will succeed in proportion as it learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner.”
Distinctive success can come from doing ordinary work unusually well, emphasizing thoroughness and indispensable usefulness rather than status.
Source note: Up from Slavery, Chapter XVI, “Europe,” Project Gutenberg #2376. While discussing Henry O. Tanner and recognition for excellent work, Washington restates his Tuskegee principle that advancement depends on doing useful work so thoroughly that its value becomes difficult to ignore.
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“An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not.”
Thoreau defines useful activity independently of external payment, arguing that a person committed to meaningful work continues to exercise ability even when the community does not reward it.
Source note: Life Without Principle, The Atlantic Monthly, 1863; represented Wikisource text. The line follows Thoreau’s claim that a community cannot buy a wise person away from work that genuinely occupies him.