Laziness
Overview
Sedentary lifestyle
Sedentary lifestyle is a medical term used to denote a type of lifestyle with no or irregular physical activity. A person who lives a sedentary lifestyle may colloquially be known as a couch potato. It is commonly found in both the developed and developing world...
, slacker
Slacker
The term "slacker" is used to refer to a person who habitually avoids work. Slackers may be regarded as belonging to an antimaterialistic counterculture, though in some cases their behavior may be due to other causes ....
, and bludger
Bludger
Bludger may refer to:*A metal band from Leeds, UK*A type of ball used in the fictional game Quidditch in the fictional Harry Potter universe*A pimp, in 19th century slang*In Australian slang, a lazy person...
.
Despite Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
's discussion of the pleasure principle
Pleasure principle (psychology)
In Freudian psychology, the pleasure principle is the psychoanalytic concept describing people seeking pleasure and avoiding suffering in order to satisfy their biological and psychological needs...
, Leonard Carmichael
Leonard Carmichael
Leonard Carmichael was a U.S. educator and psychologist. Born on November 9, 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he received his B.S. from Tufts University in 1921 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1924...
notes that "laziness is not a word that appears in the table of contents of most technical books on psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
... It is a guilty secret of modern psychology that more is understood about the motivation
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
of thirsty rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s and hungry pecking pigeons as they press levers or hit targets than is known about the way in which poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
s make themselves write poems or scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
s force themselves into the laboratory when the good golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
ing days of spring arrive." A 1931 survey found that high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
students were more likely to attribute their failing performance to laziness, while teachers ranked "lack of ability" as the major cause, with laziness coming in second.
One of the seven deadly sins
Seven deadly sins
The 7 Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of objectionable vices that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin...
in Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
thought is sloth
Sloth (deadly sin)
In the Christian moral tradition, sloth is one of the seven capital sins, often called the seven deadly sins; these sins are called sins because they supposedly destroy the charity in a person's heart and thus may lead to eternal death.-Definition:Sloth is defined as spiritual or emotional...
, which is often defined as spiritual and/or physical apathy
Apathy
Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical or physical life.They may lack a sense of purpose or meaning in...
or laziness.
Quotations
Why pick the fruit from the tree when someone can pick it for you?
Anonymous
Don't yield to that alluring witch, laziness, or else be prepared to surrender all that you have won in your better moments.
Horace, Satires
I like the word 'indolence'. It makes my laziness seem classy.
Bernie Williams
To cease to act is to cease to exist.
Voltaire (attributed)
Laziness lends assistance to fatigue.
Anonymous
Laziness pays off today, work only tomorrow.
Anonymous
A lazy man looks for light employment.
Anonymous
The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest, for he has not earned it.
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury
The lazier a man is, the more he plans to do tomorrow.
Norwegian proverbs
Tomorrow is the only day in the year that appeals to a lazy man.
Jimmy Lyons