Samuel Smiles：Thrift, Excerpt 24

Labour is at once a burden, a chastisement, an honour, and a pleasure. It may be identified with poverty, but there is also glory in it. It bears witness, at the same time, to our natural wants and to our manifold needs. What were man, what were life, what were civilization, without labour? All that is great in man comes of labour;--greatness in art, in literature, in science. Knowledge--"the wing wherewith we fly to heaven"--is only acquired through labour. Genius is but a capability of labouring intensely: it is the power of making great and sustained efforts. Labour may be a chastisement, but it is indeed a glorious one. It is worship, duty, praise, and immortality,--for those who labour with the highest aims, and for the purest purposes.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
Locator：Excerpt 24 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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