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About this quote

What does it mean?
Humiliation of labor and intelligence are linked; revolution is a rejection of this humiliation.
In plain terms
Respecting work and mind are the same goal; fighting oppression means fighting humiliation.
What can you take from it?
Resist systems that degrade workers and thinkers.

Where it applies

  • labor movements
  • social activism
  • workplace ethics

Putting it to work

  • advocate for fair labor practices
  • respect intellectual work
  • support workers' rights

Questions to consider

  • What forms of humiliation do you reject in your work?
  • How is dignity connected to labor?

Another view

The link between labor and intelligence may not apply universally across all cultures.

More from Albert Camus

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  2. The triumph of the man who kills or tortures is marred by only one shadow: he is unable to feel that he is innocent. Thus, he must create guilt in his victim s…

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  3. The punishment that aims to intimidate an unknown murderer certainly confers a vocation of killer on many another monster about whom there is no doubt.

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