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. 例如：这个区别不同于体力劳动和脑力劳动之间的区别；一个园艺工人或一个补鞋匠可能是工作者，一个银行职员可能是劳作者。
Which a man is can be seen from his attitude toward leisure. To a worker, leisure means simply the hours he needs to relax and rest in order to work efficiently. 一个人属于哪一种可以从他对休闲的态度看出来。对于工作者来说，休闲只是他为了有效地工作而放松和休息的时间，所以他可能少休息而不是多休闲。
He is therefore more likely to take too little leisure than too much; workers die of coronaries and forget their wives' birthdays. 工作者可能致于冠状动脉血栓症，忘记妻子的生日。
To the laborer, on the other hand, leisure means freedom from compulsion, so that it is natural for him to imagine that the fewer hours he has to spend laboring, and the more hours he is free to play, the better. 反之，对于劳作者来说，休闲意味着从强迫中的摆脱，因此他们会很自然地想花在工作上的时间越少，自由自在玩的时间越多就越好。 What percentage of the population in a modern technological society are, like myself, in the fortunate position of being workers? 像我这样，幸运地成为工作者的人现代技术社会里占多大比例呢？
At a guess I would say sixteen per cent, and I do not think that figure is likely to get bigger in the future. 我猜测为60%并且我认为这个数字将来不可能变大。 Technology and the division of labor have done two things: by eliminating in many fields the need for special strength or skill, they have made a very large number of paid occupations which formerly were enjoyable work into boring labor, and by increasing productivity they have reduced the number of necessary laboring hours. 技术和劳动分工已产生了两点影响：通过在许多领域里减少对特殊力量和技巧的需求，它们使大量曾经愉快的有偿劳动变成了使人厌烦的工作，通过提高提高生产率减少了一些必要的劳动时间。
It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. 已经有可能去设想这样一个社会：大多数人，即劳作者，将拥有几乎与早期贵族所享有的一样多的休闲。
