“I have about two hundred francs in my pocket.”

Original: J’ai d’ailleurs déjà environ 200 francs en poche. — The mundane detail offers a glimpse of the practical, money-conscious voice of the adult Rimbaud. · Letter to his family from Aden, 22 September 1880 (French)

• Money
• Travel
• Work

“The thing is very easy.”

Original: La chose est très facile. — Rimbaud’s confidence in the feasibility of his plans contrasts with the uncertainty surrounding his later life. · Letter to his family from Aden, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Confidence
• Opportunity
• Work

“It is a very good business.”

Original: C’est une très bonne affaire. — The brisk commercial phrase reveals the practical, entrepreneurial voice of Rimbaud’s later correspondence. · Letter to his family from Aden, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Commerce
• Opportunity
• Work

“I could then finish this work and afterwards work at the expense of the Geographical Society.”

Original: Je pourrai achever cet ouvrage et travailler ensuite aux frais de la Société de Géographie. — Rimbaud hopes that geographical research will provide the means for further exploration. · Letter to Ernest Delahaye, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Discovery
• Travel
• Work

“I need instruments for making maps, and I intend to buy them.”

Original: Il me manque des instruments pour la confection des cartes, et je me propose de les acheter. — The remark illustrates Rimbaud’s practical, methodical interest in exploration and cartography. · Letter to Ernest Delahaye, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Discovery
• Knowledge
• Work

“I have explored these regions and spent a year there, employed by a French commercial house.”

Original: Je suis resté un an dans ces contrées, en emploi dans une maison de commerce française. — Rimbaud describes his African experience in the practical language of work and exploration rather than literary adventure. · Letter to Ernest Delahaye, 18 January 1882 (French)

• Discovery
• Travel
• Work

“I am always in the same house, under the same conditions; only, I work much more and spend almost everything.”

Original: Je suis toujours dans la même maison, aux mêmes conditions; seulement, je travaille bien plus et je dépense presque tout. — The practical complaint reveals the exhausting economic reality behind Rimbaud’s life as a merchant. · Letter from Aden, 1880s (French)

• Exile
• Money
• Work

“May the day come when I can escape slavery and have enough income to do only as much, and only what, I please.”

Original: Ah! qu’il arrive, le jour où je pourrai sortir de l’esclavage et avoir des rentes assez pour ne faire qu’autant et que ce qu’il me plaira! — Financial independence represents freedom from exhausting labour and the power to choose how to live. · Letter from Aden, 29 May 1884 (French)

• Freedom
• Money
• Work

“With my savings I could rest a little after long suffering; yet I cannot stay a day without working, nor can I enjoy my earnings.”

Original: Avec mes économies, je pourrais me reposer un peu après de longues souffrances; et non seulement je ne puis rester un jour sans travail, mais je ne puis jouir de mon gain. — Rimbaud describes the restless relationship between labour, money and the inability to enjoy what he has earned. · Letter from Aden, 1884 (French)

• Money
• Rest
• Work

“I am not here to be happy.”

Original: Je ne suis pas venu ici pour être heureux. — The statement reflects Rimbaud’s austere view of expatriate life as work and survival rather than pleasure. · Letter to his family from Aden, 1880s (French)

• Acceptance
• Travel
• Work

“I have a horror of all professions.”

Original: J’ai horreur de tous les métiers. — Rimbaud rejects conventional occupation as an imposed social structure rather than a meaningful vocation. · A Season in Hell, Bad Blood, 1873 (French)

• Freedom
• Occupation
• Work

“I am working to make myself a seer.”

Original: Je travaille à me rendre Voyant. — Rimbaud presents poetic transformation as something requiring effort rather than simply inspiration. · Letter to Georges Izambard, 13 May 1871 (French)

• Poetry
• Vision
• Work

“I shall be a worker… working now, never, never; I am on strike.”

Original: Je serai un travailleur… travailler maintenant, jamais, jamais; je suis en grève. — Rimbaud turns the language of labour and revolt against conventional poetic and social expectations. · Letter to Georges Izambard, 13 May 1871 (French)

• Freedom
• Rebellion
• Work

“Of all acts, the most complete is that of building.”

Original: De tous les actes, le plus complet est celui de construire. — Building unites thought, labour, imagination and material action in a single creative act. · Eupalinos ou l'Architecte (French)

• Achievement
• Creation
• Work

“A competent man is a man who makes mistakes according to the rules.”

Original: Un homme compétent est un homme qui se trompe selon les règles. — A dry distinction between genuine competence and the illusion of being infallible. · Mauvaises pensées et autres (French)

• Competence
• Error
• Work

“You can do it by the aid of the Spirit, but you must be satisfied to work slowly.”

Balancing spiritual faith with patience and effort · Essay, The Sowing of the Seed

• Faith
• Patience
• Work

“Good sense, thrift and industry must aid his mental assertion of wealth.”

Arguing that practical effort must accompany optimistic thinking · Essay, Self-Conquest

• Prudence
• Wealth
• Work

“All that our dearest hopes desire will come to us, if we believe in ourselves as rightful heirs to Divine Opulence, and work and think always on those lines.”

Linking hope with self-belief and sustained effort · Essay, Optimism

• Confidence
• Hope
• Work

“Be the very best, in whatever line of employment you enter.”

A straightforward injunction towards excellence in one's chosen work · A Woman of the World

• Achievement
• Standards
• Work

“No matter how you might concentrate and apply yourself, you could never be a great poet, a great artist, or a great musician.”

Acknowledging that determination cannot entirely substitute for specialised creative talent · A Woman of the World

• Art
• Talent
• Work

“And the happiness of the work, once we begin it, is beyond the power of description.”

Finding fulfilment in the process of personal growth itself · Essay, The Heart of the New Thought

• Growth
• Happiness
• Work

“All preparation is drudgery.”

A concise recognition of the laborious groundwork behind achievement · Essay, The Heart of the New Thought

• Achievement
• Preparation
• Work

“It is dull, slow, hard work, especially the preparation.”

A blunt acknowledgement that worthwhile development requires unglamorous preparation · Essay, The Heart of the New Thought

• Perseverance
• Preparation
• Work

“Character Building must be done alone, and by yourself. The ground must be cleansed of debris, and the structure must be erected stone by stone.”

Presenting self-development as patient, personal labour · Essay, The Heart of the New Thought

• Character
• Perseverance
• Work