Samuel Smiles：Thrift, Excerpt 130

Skilled workmen might--and, if they had the will, they would--occupy a social position as high as the educated classes we refer to. What prevents them rising? Merely because they will not use their leisure to cultivate their minds. They have sufficient money; it is culture that they want. They ought to know that the position of men in society does not depend so much upon their earnings, as upon their character and intelligence. And it is because they neglect their abundant opportunities,--because they are thriftless and spend their earnings in animal enjoyments,--because they refuse to cultivate the highest parts of their nature,--that they are excluded, or rather self-excluded, from those social and other privileges in which they are entitled to take part.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
Locator：Excerpt 130 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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