Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.

The remark argues against structuring life as a split between alienating labor and “real” living reserved for leisure. It urges aligning one’s vocation with intrinsic satisfaction so that work and free time are not moral opposites—duty versus pleasure—but parts of a coherent life. Read in a modern context, it anticipates critiques of industrial and bureaucratic work that treat employment as mere endurance for the sake of consumption or weekend relief. The quote’s force lies in its practical ethic: choose (or reshape) work so it is emotionally sustaining, not simply instrumental, thereby reducing the psychological cost of earning a living.