The lazier a man is, the more he plans to do tomorrow.
—Norwegian Proverb
A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
There are men here and there to whom the whole of life is like an after-dinner hour with a cigar; easy, pleasant, empty, perhaps enlivened by some fable of strife to be forgotten—before the end is told—even if there happens to be any end to it.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
My passions are all asleep from my having slumbered till nearly eleven and weakened the animal fiber all over me to a delightful sensation about three degrees on this sight of faintness—if I had teeth of pearl and the breath of lilies I should call it languor—but as I am I must call it laziness. In this state of effeminacy the fibers of the brain are relaxed in common with the rest of the body, and to such a happy degree that pleasure has no show of enticement and pain no unbearable frown. Neither poetry, nor ambition, nor love have any alertness of countenance as they pass by me.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy.—He that rises late must trot all day, and hall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
We make a pretext of difficulty to excuse our sloth.
—Quintilian (c.35–c.100 CE) Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic
You must avoid sloth, that wicked siren.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
‘Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain, you have waked me too soon, I must slumber again.
—Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English Hymn writer
Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
We seldom call anybody lazy, but such as we reckon inferior to us, and of whom we expect some service.
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) Anglo-Dutch Philosopher, Satirist
By doing nothing we learn to do ill.
—Common Proverb
Loafing needs no explanation and is its own excuse.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
Nothing ages like laziness.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
If ever this free people—if this government itself is ever utterly demoralized, it will come from this incessant human wriggle and struggle for office, which is but a way to live without work.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Perhaps man is the only being that can properly be called idle.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good.
—Thomas a Kempis (1379–1471) German Religious Priest, Writer
A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he starts out, have condemned himself to second-rate thoughts, and to second-rate friends
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
It is not the hours we put in on the job, it is what we put into the hours that counts.
—Sidney Madwed (1926–2013) American Poet, Author
There is nothing worse than an idle hour, with no occupation offering. People who have many such hours are simply animals waiting docilely for death. We all come to that state soon or late. It is the curse of senility.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
Laziness is the one common deficiency in mankind that blocks the establishment of a perfect world in which everyone leads a happy life.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
Efficiency is intelligent laziness.
—Anonymous
Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort, and like them, are often successfully cured by remedies in themselves very nauseous and unpalatable.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.
—Ulysses S. Grant (1822–85) American Civil War General, Head of State
To try and to fail, is not laziness
—African Proverb
That man is idle who can do something better.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Laziness is a secret ingredient that goes into failure. But it’s only kept a secret from the person who fails.
—Robert Half
Expect poison from standing water.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker