Labor, the exercise of your strength, is a necessary condition of life. A human being can force others to do the things he needs, but he cannot free himself from his body’s need to work. If his work is not going to be useful and rational, then it will be useless and stupid.
Like all other animals, humans are made in such a way that they have to work in order to avoid dying from hunger and cold. And, just as it is for all other animals, this work to feed yourself and to protect yourself from the elements is not suffering but joy. But people have designed their lives in such a way that some of them do not work at all but force others to do their work for them, which makes them bored because they cannot think of anything to do, and they come up with all kinds of stupid and vile things to distract themselves, whereas others have to force themselves to do the work which bores them because they have to work for others instead of themselves.
It is not good for either of them. It is bad for the former, the idle ones, because they ruin their souls in idleness, and it is bad the latter because they exhaust their body through overwork.
But is is nevertheless better for the workers than for the idlers. The soul is more precious than the body.
If the primary thing for you is work, and pay secondary, then your master will be labor and its creator—God. But if work is a secondary for you, and pay primary, then you are slaves to salary and its creator—the devil—and moreover, the lowest and last devil of all.
— John Ruskin
To catch people with his fishing rod, the devil uses a variety of baits. But an idler needs none—he goes for a bare hook.
A European praises the advantage of machine manufacturing to a Chinese man: “It liberates a human being from work.” “But work is a blessing. Liberation from work would be a great misfortune,” replies the Chinese man.
Every manual labor ennobles a human being. To not teach your son manual labor is to prepare him for theft.
— The Talmud
An animal cannot live without exercising its muscles, and neither can a human being.
In order for this exercise to be satisfying and enjoyable, it must be focused on something useful, or, best of all, on serving others. That is the best use of it.
