"I was obliged to be industrious; whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well."

Hat tip Elaine Butler.

"Ich habe fleißig seyn müssen; wer eben so fleißig ist, der wird es eben so weit bringen können."

     Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), as channeled by Johann Nikolaus Forkel (1749-1818), Ueber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke. Für patriotische Verehrer echter musikalischer Kunst (Leipzig:  Hoffmeister und Kuehnel, 1802), 45 (chap. 8).  Another translation:

"I was made to work; if you are equally industrious you will be equally successful."

I've seen also

"I had to be industrious. . . ."

Super oblata, Third Sunday of Advent

Diocesi di Novara

"May the sacrifice of our worship, Lord, we pray, be offered to you unceasingly, to complete what was begun in sacred mystery and powerfully accomplish for us your saving work.  Through."

"Devotionis nostrae tibi, Domine, quaesumus, hostia iugiter immolentur, quae et sacri peragat instituta mysterii et salutare tuum nobis potenter operetur.  Per."

"Devotionis nostrae tibi, quaesumus, domine, hostia iugiter immolentur, quae et sacri peragat instituta mysterii et salutare tuum nobis potenter operetur.  Per."

May the sacrifice of our devotion/consecration—which both accomplishes the aims of/instructions (words of institution) governing the sacred mystery, and powerfully effects for us your salvation—O Lord, we pray, be offered to you unceasingly.

     Super oblata, Third Sunday of Advent, Roman Missal.  =Corpus orationum 2221, a prayer already present (but with—as here—potentur rather than mirabiliter) in the Leonine or Veronese sacramentary, and, according to the 1956 edition of the latter edited by Mohlberg, dated by the scholars to between 432/481 and 557/560 (or slightly after 560), depending (group numbers 23, 25, 51, 68 and 77 from p. LXIX).  Devotio can mean a devoting or consecrating, a self-sacrifice or offering, and instituta, purposes, intentions, designs, and/or plans, but also the regulations, ordinances, institutions, and/or instructions designed to ensure their accomplishment.  For some recent additional thoughts, see also Fr. Z.