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Thursday, February 13, 2014

Oscar Wilde: Dignity of Work Edition

"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."

"Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing whatever to do."

"I cannot help saying that a great deal of nonsense is being written and talked nowadays about the dignity of manual labour. There is nothing necessarily dignified about manual labour at all, and most of it is absolutely degrading. It is mentally and morally injurious to man to do anything in which he does not find pleasure, and many forms of labour are quite pleasureless activities, and should be regarded as such. To sweep a slushy crossing for eight hours, on a day when the east wind is blowing is a disgusting occupation. To sweep it with mental, moral, or physical dignity seems to me to be impossible. To sweep it with joy would be appalling. Man is made for something better than disturbing dirt. All work of that kind should be done by a machine."

"Cultivated idleness seems to me to be the proper occupation for man."

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Love Oscar Wilde quotes, genius!!! Poor Oscar, we recently found an amazing postcard of him looking so young and dapper! But what a tragic end for such an extraordinary writer. The postcard and more here http://www.normandythenandnow.com/the-importance-of-being-sebastian-in-dieppe/