Job is sometimes used instead of thing.
Care and application are necessary. ‥In truth, whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
[1746 Chesterfield Letter 9 Oct. (1932) III. 783]
The elegant female, drooping her ringlets over her water-colours,‥was maintaining the prime truth of woman, the universal mother: that if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
[1910 G. K. Chesterton What's Wrong with World iv. xiv.]
‘If a thing's worth doing at all,’ said the professor‥‘it's worth doing well.’
[1915 H. G. Wells Bealby v.]
‘Things worth doing are worth doing well,’ was the motto at my first school.
[1980 Church Times 22 Feb. 12]
She'd never cared for dripdry, ‥she'd rather see everything starched and crisply ironed. ‘If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well’ was Gracie's motto.
[1992 A. Lambert Rather English Marriage (1993) iii. 62]
Children should learn the value of completing tasks properly. The old saying, ‘A job worth doing is worth doing well,’ holds true.
[2002 Washington Times 11 Mar. B5]
Related to: work
Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.
