Procrastination quotes

Past and Present, Book III, Chapter XII, “Reward,” printed page 251 in Thomas Carlyle’s Collected Works, Library Edition, Vol. XIII (London: Chapman and Hall), Project Gutenberg #26159. Carlyle says one shall “work while it is called Today” immediately before “For the Night cometh, wherein no man can work,” retaining the biblical allusion and nineteenth-century religious exhortation rather than reframing it as productivity science.

Poor Richard’s Almanack.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter IX; Basore translation, in Seneca’s attack on indefinite delay and preparation for a future life.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter IX; Seneca describes people who stay busy preparing for a future life.

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 1, “On Saving Time,” Richard M. Gummere translation. The line follows Seneca’s advice to hold every hour and precedes his claim that nothing is truly ours except time.

Richard II, Act V, Scene V in the represented 1921 Yale edition. Richard's 'I wasted time, and now doth time waste me' occurs in the prison soliloquy as he compares broken musical time with his ruined political life. The First Folio facsimile numbers the corresponding prison scene differently, so the Yale route is used to preserve this collection's modern scene numbering.

On the Shortness of Life, Chapter IX; sentence in Seneca’s criticism of distant plans that steal the present.

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 63, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).

“Proverbs of Hell.”

David Copperfield; Mr. Micawber’s advice.

The Mastery of Destiny, “Training of the Will,” rule four; Wikisource 1909 text. It is practical self-discipline advice in Allen’s period framework.

The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On Being Idle”; the line follows the suggestion to stop talking and have a smoke.

The Way to Wealth; a Poor Richard maxim on delay and useful employment of time.

Meditations, Book IV, section 17, in George Long’s translation.

Three Men in a Boat, Chapter XV; the narrator defends himself while arguing about how the rowing work should be divided.

The Idler, No. 88; this clause comes from Johnson’s reflection on private ambitions that remain unfinished while days and years pass.

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 101.

On the Shortness of Life, chapter IX.

The Innocents Abroad (1869), Chapter XXVIII. In the same closing Rome passage Twain says he has drifted for a hundred manuscript pages without knowing where to commence, turning the abundance of material into a joke about structure and authorship. Verified against the scan-backed 1869 first edition.

Three Men in a Boat, Chapter XV; this follows the narrator’s claim that work fascinates him because he can look at it for hours.