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.

Prefer diligence before idleness, unless you esteem rust above brightness.

It is only a step from boredom to disillusionment, which leads naturally to self-pity, which in turn ends in chaos.

Flee sloth, for the indolence of the soul is the decay of the body.

That destructive siren, sloth, is ever to be avoided.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.

Fix’d like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate and rot.

Society is now one polished horde, Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and the Bored.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use! As tho’ to breathe were life!