“Whoever is not in the possession of leisure can hardly be said to possess independence.”

— Herman Melville

Letter to Catherine G. Lansing (5 September 1877), published in The Melville Log : A Documentary Life of Herman Melville, 1819-1891 (1951) by Jay Leyda, Vol. 2, p. 765
Context: Whoever is not in the possession of leisure can hardly be said to possess independence. They talk of the dignity of work. Bosh. True Work is the necessity of poor humanity's earthly condition. The dignity is in leisure. Besides, 99 hundreths of all the work done in the world is either foolish and unnecessary, or harmful and wicked.

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Herman Melville 144

American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet 1818–1891

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“Whoever is not in the possession of leisure can hardly be said to possess independence.”

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Herman Melville 144

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