Niccolo Machiavelli
Political Philosopher, Historian
"Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not to suffer."
Sloth quotes
Sloth
133 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Benjamin Franklin
Inventor, Statesman, Author
"Diligence overcomes difficulties; sloth makes them."
Charlie Munger
Investor, Businessman
"What do you want to avoid? Such an easy answer: sloth and unreliability. If you're unreliable it doesn't matter what your virtues are. You're going to crater immediately. Doing what you have faithfully engaged to do should be an automatic part of your conduct. You want to avoid sloth and unreliability."
Upton Sinclair
Novelist, Activist
"The supreme crime of the church to-day is that everywhere and in all its operations and influences it is on the side of sloth of mind; that it banishes brains, it sanctifies stupidity, it canonizes incompetence."
May Sarton
Poet
"I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may be sometimes not to expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a journal. A day when one has not pushed oneself to the limit seems a damaged damaging day, a sinful day. Not so! The most valuable thing one can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room."
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Sloth quotes (page 1 of 7)
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"Flee sloth; for the indolence of the soul is the decay of the body."
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"One who does not rouse themself when it is time to rise, who, though capable, is full of sloth, whose will and thought are weak, that lazy and idle person will never find their way to true knowledge."
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"It is the just doom of laziness and gluttony to be inactive without ease and drowsy without tranquility."
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"Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright."
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"If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle."
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"Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy; and he that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him."
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"All the seven deadly sins are peccadilloes but without three of them, Pride, Lust, and Sloth, poetry might never have been born."
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"Thou seest how sloth wastes the sluggish body, as water is corrupted unless it moves."
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"Awake. Be the witness of your thoughts. The elephant hauls himself from the mud. In the same way drag yourself out of your sloth."
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"Sloth and Silence are a Fool's Virtues"
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"My absolute favourite piece of information is the fact that young sloths are so inept that they frequently grab their own arms and legs instead of tree limbs, and fall out of trees."
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"The kindest word to describe my performance in school was Sloth."
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"Lust is inseparably accompanied with the troubling of all order, with impudence, unseemliness, sloth, and dissoluteness."
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"Lethargy, bordering on sloth should remain the cornerstone of an investment style."
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"Benign neglect, bordering on sloth, remains the hallmark of our investment process."
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"Moderation is the feebleness and sloth of the soul, whereas ambition is the warmth and activity of it."
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"An unclean person is universally a slothful one."
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"As a confirmed melancholic, I can testify that the best and maybe only antidote for melancholia is action. However, like most melancholics, I suffer also from sloth."
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"Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all things easy."
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"Lethargy bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investment style. The exception was Wells Fargo, a superbly-managed, high-return banking operation in which we increased our ownership to just under 10%, the most we can own without the approval of the Federal Reserve Board."
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