Labor omnia vicit improbus
Close to where I live, there is a building with the Latin inscription omnia vincit labor. On the surface, it doesn’t seem very remarkable: “work conquers all” is something any good Protestant would subscribe to. This phrase, or the more common variant labor omnia vincit, can be found on several buildings and is used as a motto by cities, states, and organizations all over the Latin-influenced parts of the world.
However, there is a somewhat darker meaning hiding underneath the surface. The phrase was taken from Vergil’s Georgica, a long poem (four books) about agriculture, where it concludes a little theodicy section in the first book: a section that explains why the gods allow the world to be as hostile and painful as it is.
[…] Pater ipse colendi haud facilem esse viam voluit, primusque per artem movit agros, curis acuens mortalia corda, nec torpere gravi passus sua regna veterno.
Jupiter1 himself didn’t want people to have an easy life and slack off, so he stirred up the fields, implanting anxieties (cūra) into the human heart.
