laziness

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

It's true, thought Des Esseintes, pursuing his original line of reasoning: most of the time Nature is incapable of producing such twisted, unhealthy species unaided. She provides the basic material, the seed and the soil, the nourishing matrix and the elements of the plant, which man then raises, models, paints and sculpts in his own way. In a few years, man can achieve what Nature, in her laziness, fails to produce over centuries.

Efficiency is intelligent laziness.

If one is too lazy to think, too vain to do a thing badly, too cowardly to admit it, one will never attain wisdom.

It is the individual's task to differentiate himself from all the others and stand on his own feet. All collective identities . . . interfere with the fulfillment of this task. Such collective identities are crutches for the lame, shields for the timid, beds for the lazy, nurseries for the irresponsible. . . .

The Tempter masters the lazy and irresolute man who dwells on the attractive side of things, ungoverned in his senses, and unrestrained in his food, like the wind overcomes a rotten tree. But the Tempter cannot master a man who dwells on the distasteful side of things, self-controlled in his senses, moderate in eating, resolute and full of faith, like the wind cannot move a mountain crag.

I like the word 'indolence'. It makes my laziness seem classy.

Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.

Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.

The man who is clever and industrious is suited to high staff appointments; use can be made of a man who is stupid and lazy; the man who is clever and lazy is suited for the highest command, he has the nerve to deal with all situations; but the man who is stupid and industrious is a danger and must be dismissed immediately.