Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Manual labor like lifting barley does not require high intelligence.
In plain terms
You do not need brains to do heavy lifting work.
What can you take from it?
Physical labor is accessible regardless of intelligence.

Where it applies

  • workplace
  • social commentary
  • class struggle

Putting it to work

  • respect all work
  • avoid classism
  • recognize effort

Questions to consider

  • How do you view physical vs mental work?
  • Is intelligence needed for all jobs?

Another view

It may undervalue the skill or knowledge in some labor.

More from John Steinbeck

  1. Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.

    Permalink to quote #12
  2. Lennie:We could live offa the fatta the lan'. Ch. 3, p.57

    Permalink to quote #14
  3. If lowborn men could stand up to those born to rule, religion, government, the whole world would fall to pieces...[Merlin replies]...So it would; so it will...…

    Permalink to quote #11

Related quotes

  1. With a long slow stride, limping a little from his blistered feet, Bud walked down Broadway, past empty lots where tin cans glittered among grass and sumach bu…

    John Dos PassosJohn Dos Passos quote #1
  2. The very mudsills of society:. We call them slaves:. But I will not characterize that class at the North with that term; but you have it. It is there, it is ev…

    James Henry HammondJames Henry Hammond quote #1
  3. For my own part, I had rather suffer any inconvenience from having to work occasionally in chambers and kitchen ... than witness the subservience in which the …

    Harriet MartineauHarriet Martineau quote #2