James Payn Quotes

I'm not the kind of guy who wants to basically collect money and do nothing.

I always hired widows with children, because they had to work and didn't have any foolishness about them.

I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

I am capable of being idle.

Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more certain than ill temper.

I can be a lazy slob.

I'm barely prolific and incredibly lazy.

My dad is really just lazy. He has nothing, I feel, to offer this world.

Those who do not need to provide or have not built the vehicles of their own sustenance can afford to be less hardworking and driven than those who carry the burden of necessity.

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

I think the man who eats the bread of idleness is under a certain obligation to speak well of labor.

I never work just to work. It's some combination of laziness and self-respect.

The idle always have a mind to do something.

I have no desire to put my feet up. Why would I?

I work like a dog when I have to, but when I'm not working, I get terribly lazy and could sit around all day.

When I don't feel like working, I don't.

I understand the dignity that comes from work and caring for one's family.

I can get lazy. I don't think I'm a very driven person. When I have work, I work very hard. But when I don't work, I really don't do anything. I could easily just fade away.

I suppose that there is no point wasting time being lazy, though of course indolence in a divine way, actually has its advantages.

I'm pretty lazy. My wife always says, "you're the laziest, most successful Olympian I've ever seen." How does that make sense? Honestly, if I have downtime, I'm really, really good at not doing anything.

Division of labor is a justification for sloth.

Am I a slacker? I can be a slacker. When I was in college, most people got summer jobs for college or did research during college. I went home and watched TV the whole day for three months; it was really awesome.

There's nothing new about anti-work philosophy. History is dotted with individuals and groups who decided that laziness was next to godliness and work was a waste of time.

The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.

It wasn't poverty that drove me on.