Doublereed Archive - Posting 000012.txt from 2003/09

From: Oboeeee@-----.com
Subj: [DR-L] Quote of the Day
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 20:00:00 -0400

"Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally

interested in the job which society pays him to do; what from the point of
view
of society is necessary labor is from his point of view voluntary play.
Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job
itself,
but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does
not,
for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job
;
a gardener or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk a laborer."

-W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (1907=E2=80=931973) Anglo-American poet
=E2=80=9CWork, Labor, and Play,=E2=80=9D A Certain World: A Commonplace Boo
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