Top Sloth Quotes By Stoics, Christians, and Contemporary Wise Philosophers

Diligence overcomes difficulties; sloth makes them.

– Benjamin Franklin

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.

– Jules Renard

Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright.

– Benjamin Franklin

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.

– Quintilian

From exertion come wisdom and purity; from sloth ignorance and sensuality.

– Henry David Thoreau

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

– Cato the Younger

Nothing irritates me more than chronic laziness in others. Mind you, it’s only mental sloth I object to. Physical sloth can be heavenly.

– Elizabeth Hurley

There are times when one is tempted to say that the great, sprawling, lethargic sin of Sloth is the oldest and greatest of the sins and the parent of all the rest.

– Dorothy L. Sayers

Prosperity engenders sloth.

– Livy

A sluggish, dawdling, and dilatory man may have spasms of activity, but he never acts continuously and consecutively with energetic quickness.

– George Stillman Hillard

Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it.

– Francois de La Rochefoucauld

To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affection; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar.

– Francis Bacon

I am overcome by my own amazing sloth…Can you please forgive me and believe that it is really because I want to do something well that I don’t do it at all?

– Elizabeth Bishop

The sloth lives his life upside down. He is perfectly comfortable that way. If the blood rushes to his head, nothing happens because there is nothing to work on.

– Will Cuppy

You need not be proud of me…. I’m only being active till you can be again–it isn’t such a great desire on my part to serve theworld and I’ll fall back into habits of sloth quite easily!

– Eleanor Roosevelt

The very soul of the slothful does effectually but lie drowsing in his body, and the whole man is totally given up to his senses.

– Roger L’Estrange

Sloth is the fastest-growing lifestyle movement in the world, and that’s because it is completely doable. If you embrace sloth, it’s the last thing you’ll ever have to do again.

– Wendy Wasserstein

Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. The elephant hauls himself from the mud. In the same way drag yourself out of your sloth.

– Gautama Buddha

As for hearing, the sloth is not so much deaf as uninterested in sound.

– Yann Martel

Sloth is the tempter that beguiles and expels from paradise.

– Amos Bronson Alcott

Don’t yield to that alluring witch, laziness, or else be prepared to surrender all that you have won in your better moments.

– Horace

The slothful are always ready to engage in idle talk of what will be done tomorrow, and every day after.

– John Lyly

Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not to suffer.

– Niccolo Machiavelli

The monster is never just there where we think he is. What is truly monstrous is our cowardice and sloth.

– Henry David Thoreau

Strength and growth only come through continuous effort and struggle.

– Napoleon Hill

Pleasure consumes us. Work strengthens us. Let us choose.

– Charles Baudelaire

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

– Theodore Roosevelt

This is the real secret of life— to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it’s play.

– Alan Watts

I don’t pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.

– Theodore Roosevelt

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

– William James

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

– Proverbs 13:4

The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

– Proverbs 20:4

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

– Proverbs 12:24

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

– Colossians 3:23

The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

– Proverbs 21:25

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!

– Proverbs 22:13

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.

– Proverbs 19:24

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

– 1 Timothy 5:8

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

– James 2:26

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

– Marcus Aurelius

Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor does the body.

– Seneca

The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths.

– Epictetus

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

– Seneca

If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.

– Musonius Rufus

Others have been in poor health from overindulgence and high living, before exile has provided strength, forcing them to live a more vigorous life.

– Musonius Rufus

The first step: Don’t be anxious…The second step: Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being…Then do it, without hesitation.

– Marcus Aurelius

This is the mark of perfection of character – to spend each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, laziness, or any pretending.

– Marcus Aurelius

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

– Epictetus