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“we have suffered our purposes to sleep till the time of action is past”
Johnson describes procrastination as allowing intended work to remain dormant until the opportunity to act has disappeared.
Source note: The Idler, No. 88; this clause comes from Johnson’s reflection on private ambitions that remain unfinished while days and years pass.
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“Life is a search after power.”
Emerson treats living as an active search for capacity and agency, so growth involves finding and using the powers that let a person act effectively.
Source note: The Conduct of Life, essay on Power; the sentence opens Emerson’s discussion of power as a recurring practical concern in human life.
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“Here is my work, here or nowhere.”
Carlyle’s imagined capable leader locates responsibility in the actual sphere available to him rather than waiting for a more convenient setting in which to act.
Source note: Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. IV “The New Downing Street”; Project Gutenberg #1140. The sentence occurs inside Carlyle’s controversial political argument about leadership; this collection uses it for work/responsibility while retaining that historical context.
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“Without life there can be no action”
The excerpt connects finite existence with agency: action, pursuit and intention require continued life, which helps explain why future time matters to an active person.
Source note: The Round Table, No. 1, “On the Love of Life,” January 15, 1815. The phrase occurs inside Hazlitt’s broader argument that passions and projects strengthen attachment to life.
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“Audacity augments courage; hesitation, fear.”
The maxim contrasts forward movement with hesitation, arguing that bold action can enlarge courage while delay can give fear more room to grow.
Source note: The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 63, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).
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“Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him!”
Delay is personified as a thief because it quietly removes time that cannot later be recovered.
Source note: David Copperfield; Mr. Micawber’s advice.