Samuel Smiles：Thrift, Excerpt 127

The working classes very much under-estimate themselves. Though they receive salaries or wages beyond the average earnings of professional men, yet many of them have no other thought than that of living in mean houses, and spending their surplus time and money in drink. They seem wanting in respect for themselves as well as for their class. They encourage the notion that there is something degrading in labour,--than which nothing can be more false. Labour of all kinds is dignifying and honourable; it is the idler, above all others, who is undignified and dishonourable.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
Locator：Excerpt 127 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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