The Medicine of the Miserable

The hoary fool, who many days
Has struggled with continued sorrow,
Renews his hope, and blindly lays
The desp'rate bet upon to-morrow.

-- Matthew Prior

There is No Such Thing as Human Happiness

When I consider life 'tis all a cheat,

Yet fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit,

Live on, and think to-morrow will repay --

To-morrow's falser than the former day:

Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest

With some new joy, cuts off what we possest.

Strange cozenage! who would live past years again?

Yet all hope pleasure from what yet remain --

And from the dregs of life think to receive

What the first sprightly running could not give.

-- Dryden

You Can Take Your Labor Day and Shove It

[C]ursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life;

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.

-- Genesis 3:17 ff.