Literary notes about livelihood (AI summary)
The word "livelihood" in literature is often employed to encapsulate the means by which individuals secure their everyday existence, while also highlighting the broader social and moral implications of work. In some works, it is depicted as an honest pursuit that dignifies the individual, as when characters express their determination to earn a proper living [1][2], and in other texts, it becomes a symbol of the struggles faced by those burdened with poverty or social displacement [3][4]. The term serves not only as a literal reference to employment or trade, as in discussions of occupational shifts and economic competition [5][6], but also as a metaphor for independence and self-worth, illustrating the delicate balance between survival and personal fulfillment [7][8]. This layered usage of "livelihood" underscores the ongoing literary dialogue about society’s structures, the pursuit of security, and the costs of maintaining one's way of life.
- Every honest man should have his livelihood.
— from Twice-told tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Being an admirable master of the pen, he made a very genteel livelihood by transcribing most authors of note (for printing was not in use).
— from In Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus - God forbid that, in order to provide me with a livelihood further burdens should be imposed upon an impoverished public!”
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol - A man that labour'd in the wood Had lost his honest livelihood; That is to say, His axe was gone astray.
— from Fables of La Fontaine — a New Edition, with Notes by Jean de La Fontaine - The old employments by which we have heretofore gained our livelihood, are gradually, and it may be inevitably, passing into other hands.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass - The conception of competition has had a twofold origin: in the notions ( a ) of the struggle for existence and ( b ) of the struggle for livelihood.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - The prospect of securing the means of livelihood through a permanent position with a fixed salary was an irresistible attraction.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner - The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of a livelihood by a formula more complicated than the problem itself.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
