Creator: Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, historian, and satirist
Context: The book “Past and Present” by Carlyle contains the following passage which metaphorically contrasts a swamp and a meadow. Emphasis added:[1] 1843, Past and Present by Thomas Carlyle, Chapter 11: Labour, Quote Page 169 and 170, Chapman and Hall, London, England. (HathiTrust Full View) link
Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life-purpose; he has found it, and will follow it! How, as a free-flowing channel, dug and torn by noble force through the sour mud-swamp of one’s existence, like an ever-deepening river there, it runs and flows; — draining-off the sour festering water, gradually from the root of the remotest grass-blade; making, instead of pestilential swamp, a green fruitful meadow with its clear-flowing stream.
Related Article: Get your happiness out of your work or you’ll never know what happiness is.—Elbert Hubbard