Learn the lesson that, if you are to do the work of a prophet, what you need is not a scepter but a hoe.

– Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)

Work is part of a full life and can be a means of self-expression. When done with others, it fosters community. It provides the necessities of living.

The cares and pleasures of this life choke and destroy the seed of the kingdom, and quite hinder all progress in the hidden and divine life.

– William Penn,
No Cross, No Crown, 1682