We are always in these days endeavoring to separate intellect and manual labor; we want one man to be always thinking, and another to be always working, and we call one a gentleman, and the other an operative; whereas the workman ought often to be thinking, and the thinker often to be working, and both should be gentlemen in the best sense. John Ruskin
About This Quote

Thomas Jefferson said this quote is "in many respects applicable to the present condition of the American people." He is suggesting that the future of the country is not in books, but in labor. He was a farmer who spent most of his time working on his farm, but he also learned how to read and write. Jefferson's message suggests that people should do more manual labor and less book reading. This quote shows how important manual labor is for a person's life.

Manual labor makes you strong and produces things for your life. There are many people who want to be a scholar instead of doing manual labor, but they still cannot make a living out of their skills.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams. If you're wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn't love you anymore. - Lady Gaga
  2. Work without love is slavery. - Mother Teresa
  3. There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time. - Coco Chanel
  4. Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live--that productive work is the process by which man's consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one's purpose, of translating an idea... - Ayn Rand
  5. I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do. I am... - Audre Lorde
More Quotes By John Ruskin
  1. It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.
  2. All art is but dirtying the paper delicately.
  3. He who has truth at his heart need never fear the want of persuasion on his tongue.
  4. To speak and act truth with constancy and precision is nearly as difficult, and perhaps as meretorious, as to speak it under intimidation or penalty
  5. For, truly, the man who does not know when to die, does not know how to live.
Related Topics