Quotations about:
    vocation

The sailor tells of stormy gales, of oxen talks the farmer,
The soldier counts his wounds, of sheep the shepherd prates away;
I sing of hours in rosy bowers, of dalliance with my charmer:
We all have here our proper sphere — his part let each one play.

[Navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator,
Enumerat miles vulnera, pastor oves.
Nos contra angusto versantes proelia lecto:
Qua pote quisque, in ea conterat arte diem.]

Propertius (50–16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]

Elegies, Book 2, Elegy 1, l. 43ff (2.1.43–46) [tr. Cranstoun (1875)]
    (Source)

(Source (Latin)). Other translations:

Let shepherd, soldier, sailor, swain, combine,
To tell of wars or tempests, sheep and kine.
Mine is a narrower field, a humbler fray,
Each to his trade: so runs the world away.
[tr. Moore (1870)]

The sailor talks of storms, the farmer of bulls, the soldier counts his wounds, the shepherd his sheep. We, on the other hand, tell of those whose field of battles is the narrow couch. Let each one spend his time on the art in which he is skilled.
[tr. Gantillon (1884)]

The seaman's story is of tempest, the ploughman's of his team of bulls; the soldier tells his wounds, the shepherd his tale of sheep: we have to do instead with such as wage their warfare in a narrower battlefield. Let every man spend his days at the trade he is best able to practise!
[tr. Phillimore (1906)]

The sailor talks of winds, the ploughman of oxen, the soldier counts o'er his wounds, the shepherd his sheep, while we for our part tell of lovers' wars upon a narrow couch! Let each man pass his days in that wherein his skill is greatest.
[tr. Butler (Loeb) (1912)]

Sailor, of winds; a plowman, concerning his oxen;
Soldier, the enumeration of wounds; the sheep-feeder, of ewes;
We, in our narrow bed, turning aside from battles:
Each man where he can, wearing out the day in his manner.
[tr. Pound (1919), 5.2]

As sailors talk of wind and wave and sky,
so each man has his sphere — the soldier’s, warfare;
the ploughman’s, oxen; and the shepherd’s, sheep.
I am no less an expert on my subject:
the love that binds us, waking or asleep.
[tr. Carrier (1963)]

The sailor tells of winds; the ploughman of oxen;
The soldier counts his wounds, the shepherd his sheep.
My theme is battles played out in a narrow bed.
And so let each man pass his days
At the task he knows.
[tr. Musker (1972)]

The sailor tells of winds, the ploughman of oxen; the soldier counts his wounds, the shepherd his sheep; I for my part wage wars within the narrow confines of a bed: let everyone spend his life in the trade he practises best.
[tr. Goold (Loeb) (1990)]

The sailor talks of squalls, the ploughman of his oxen;
The soldier counts his wounds, the shepherd sheep:
But we engage in battles on a narrow bed.
We should all rub along in our own way.
[tr. Lee (1992)]

The sailor talks of breezes: the ploughman, of oxen: the soldier counts wounds, the shepherd counts his sheep: I in my turn count sinuous flailings in narrowest beds: let every man spend the day where he can, in his art.
[tr. Kline (2001)]

The sailor talks of winds, the ploughman oxen, soldier
of his wounds, and herdsman sheep.
I tell of battles on our narrow bed: let each
wear out the day as best he may.
[tr. Holcombe (2009)]