Laziness
A lazy man is a workshop for Satan.
Arabian Proverb
A lazy sheep thinks its wool heavy.
A man grows most tired while standing still.
Chinese Proverb
Absence of occupation is not rest.
A mind quite vacant is a mind distress’d.
William Cowper (1731–1800)
Activity is a blessing, laziness wears you out.
Arabian Proverb
An idle brain is the devil’s workshop.
English Proverb
Don’t loaf away your time and depend on the Lord for your daily bread; he isn’t running a bakery.
He slept beneath the moon,
He basked beneath the sun;
He lived a life of going-to-do,
And died with nothing done.
—Epitaph written for himself
James Albery (1838–1889)
He who kills time kills opportunities.
He’s willing to swallow but too lazy to chew.
Russian Proverb
Hunger is a suitable comrade for the work-shy.
Hesiod (Eighth Century b.c.)
Idle hours breed wandering thoughts.
Lucian (c. 125–c. 190)
Idleness is a sort of suicide.
Lord Chesterfield (1694–1773)
Idleness: the devil’s pillow.
Danish Proverb
If I rest, I rust.
Martin Luther (1483–1546)
In idleness there is perpetual despair.
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881 )
Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so inaction saps the vigor of the mind.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
It cost the devil little trouble to catch the lazy man.
German Proverb
It is better to wear out than to rust out.
George Whitefield (1714–1770)
Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
Laziness: resting before you get tired.
Jules Renard (1864–1910)
Men are naturally tempted by the devil, but an idle man tempts the devil.
Spanish Proverb
Our nature lies in movement; absolute rest is death.
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
Satan finds mischief for idle hands to do.
Arabian Proverb
Some people are like blisters—they don’t show up until the work is done.
The Bible doesn’t promise loaves to the loafer.
The hardest work of all is to do nothing.
Jewish Proverb
The lazy man does not, will not, cannot pray, for prayer demands energy.
Edward McKendree Bounds (1835–1913)
The tongue of idle persons is never idle.
The way to be nothing is to do nothing.
Nathaniel Howe (1764–1837)
There are hazards in anything one does, but there are greater hazards in doing nothing.
Shirley Williams (1930– )
Though the fool waits, the day does not.
French Proverb
Too much rest is rust.
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
You can’t get warm on another’s fur coat.
Yiddish Proverb
You cannot get to the top by sitting on your bottom.
You cannot kill time without injury to eternity.
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
