[1] In Past and Present (1843), he wrote: Labour is Life: from the inmost heart of the Worker rises his god-given Force, the sacred celestial Life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God; from his inmost heart awakens him to all nobleness,—to all knowledge, 'self-knowledge' and much else, so soon as Work fitly begins.
[2]Incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden made restoring "the dignity of work" a central tenet of his 2020 campaign and administration.
[3][4] Social reformers such as Basava and his contemporary Sharanas, as well as Mahatma Gandhi, were prominent advocates of the dignity of labour.
[5] The dignity of labour is one of the major themes in Christian ethics,[6] and as such, it is upheld by the Anglican Communion,[7] in Catholic social teaching, in Methodist principles,[8] and in Reformed theology.
[10] In his 2021 book The Tyranny of Merit, philosopher Michael Sandel says that a spiritual revolution that celebrates the dignity of labour rather than meritocracy is the way to rectify the loss of faith in institutions evidenced in populism.