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Virtue and Vice
1,271. Diligence; Laziness
"Indolence is therefore one of the vices from which those whom it
once infects are seldom reformed. Every other species of luxury
operates upon some appetite that is quickly satiated, and
requires some concurrence of art or accident which every place
will not supply; but the desire of ease acts equally at all
hours, and the longer it is indulged is the more increased. To
do nothing is in every man's power; we can never want an
opportunity of omitting duties. The lapse to indolence is soft
and imperceptible, because it is only a mere cessation of
activity; but the return to diligence is difficult, because it
implies a change from rest to motion, from privation to
reality."
Johnson: Rambler #155 (September 10, 1751)
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