There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.

The line argues that dignity in work is not determined by the task’s social status but by the worker’s mindset. “Menial” is shifted from describing labor to describing an attitude—resentment, laziness, or contempt—suggesting that any honest job can be done with self-respect and excellence. The aphorism functions as a moral corrective to status anxiety: it challenges hierarchies that shame service work and insists that character is revealed in how one approaches necessary tasks. In a broader civic sense, it supports an ethic of responsibility and pride in contribution, implying that societies depend on people who treat all work as worthy of care.