C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Vocation
’Tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation.
He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor.
Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important, in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.
One must espouse some pursuit, taking it kindly at heart and with enthusiasm.
Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I; every man to his business.
A vocation is born to us all; happily most of us meet promptly our twin,—occupation.
When we have learned to offer up every duty connected with our situation in life as a sacrifice to God, a settled employment becomes just a settled habit of prayer.
The highest excellence is seldom attained in more than one vocation. The roads leading to distinction in separate pursuits diverge, and the nearer we approach the one, the farther we recede from the other.
Of all paths a man could strike into, there is, at any given moment, a best path for every man,—a thing which, here and now, it were of all things wisest for him to do; which, could he but be led or driven to do, he were then doing like a man, as we phrase it. His success, in such a case, were complete, his felicity a maximum.
Never let your love for your profession overshadow your religious feeling. Depend on it that religion will strengthen, not weaken, your energies, and will not only make you a better sailor, but a superior man. Professional studies are not to be neglected; but, on the other hand, take care how you fall into the common error of believing they are the remedy for all the ills of life.