I will go further, and say that it is the best preservative against petty anxieties, and the annoyances that arise out of indulged self-love.

Men have thought before now that they could take refuge from trouble and vexation by sheltering themselves as it were in a world of their own.
The experiment has, often been tried, and always with one result.

You cannot escape from anxiety and labour--it is the destiny of humanity....
Those who shirk from facing trouble, find that trouble comes to them.
The indolent may contrive that he shall have less than his share of the world's work to do, but Nature proportioning the instinct to the work, contrives that the little shall be much and hard to him.

The man who has only himself to please finds, sooner or later, and probably sooner than later, that he has got a very hard master; and the excessive weakness which shrinks from responsibility has its own punishment too, for where great interests are excluded little matters become great, and the same wear and tear of mind that might have been at least usefully and healthfully expended on the real business of life is often wasted in petty and imaginary vexations, such as breed and multiply in the unoccupied brain." [138] Even on the lowest ground--that of personal enjoyment--constant useful occupation is necessary.

He who labours not, cannot enjoy the reward of labour.