Other related topics at: Virtue and Vice 11. Procrastination; Wealth "...But I go on as I formerly did, designing to be some time or other both rich and wise; and yet cultivate neither mind nor fortune. Do you take notice of my example, and learn the danger of delay. When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am." Boswell: Life Link 791. Old Age; Procrastination; Time "So far are we generally from thinking what we often say of the shortness of life, that at the time when it is necessarily shortest we form projects which we delay to execute, indulge such expectations as nothing but a long train of events can gratify, and suffer those passions to gain upon us which are only excusable in the prime of life." Johnson: Rambler #71 (November 20, 1750) Link 793. Effort; Procrastination; Time "Not only in the slumber of sloth, but in the dissipation of ill directed industry, is the shortness of life generally forgotten. As some men lose their hours in laziness, because they suppose that there is time enough for the reparation of neglect; others busy themselves in providing that no length of life may want employment; and it often happens that sluggishness and activity are equally surprised by the last summons, and perish not more differently from each other, than the fowl that received the shot in her flight, from her that is killed upon the bush." Johnson: Rambler #71 (November 20, 1750) Link 796. Mortality; Procrastination; Time "As he that lives longest lives but a little while, every man may be certain that he has no time to waste. The duties of life are commensurate to its duration, and every day brings its task, which, if neglected, is doubled on the morrow. But he that has already trifled away those months and years, in which he should have laboured, must remember that he has now only a part of that which the whole is little; and that, since the few moments remaining are to be considered as the last days of Heaven, not one is to be lost." Johnson: Rambler #71 (November 20, 1750) Link 1,185. Procrastination "The folly of allowing ourselves to delay what we know cannot be finally escaped is one of the general weaknesses which, in spite of the instruction of moralists, and the remonstrances of reason, prevail to a greater or less degree in every mind." Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751) Link 1,186. Procrastination "When ... any sharp pain is to be suffered, or any formidable danger to be incurred, we can scarcely exempt ourselves wholly from the seducements of imagination; we readily believe that another day will bring some support or advantage which we now want; and are easily persuaded, that the moment of necessity, which we desire never to arrive, is at a great distance from us." Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751) Link 1,187. Procrastination; Resolutions "Life is languished away in the gloom of anxiety, and consumed in collecting resolutions which the next morning dissipates; in forming purposes which we scarcely hope to keep, and reconciling ourselves to our own cowardice by excuses which, while we admit them, we know to be absurd." Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751) Link 1,188. Idleness; Procrastination "We every day see the progress of life retarded by the vis inertiae, the mere repugnance to motion, and find multitudes repining at the want of that which nothing but idleness hinders them from enjoying." Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751) Link 1,189. Fear; Procrastination "Laziness is commonly associated with timidity. Either fear originally prohibits endeavours by infusing despair of success; or the frequent failure of irresolute struggles, and the constant desire of avoiding labour, impress by degrees false terrors on the mind." Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751) Link 1,196. Diligence; Procrastination "The certainty that life cannot be long, and the probability that it will be much shorter than nature allows, ought to awaken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to perform. It is true, that no diligence can ascertain success; death may intercept the swiftest career; but he who is cut off in the execution of an honest undertaking has at least the honour of falling in his rank, and has fought the battle, though he missed the victory." Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751) Link 1,591. Life; Procrastination "We see every day the unexpected death of our friends and our enemies, we see new graves hourly opened for men older and younger than our selves, for the cautious and the careless, the dissolute and the temperate, for men who like us were providing to enjoy or improve hours now irreversibly cut off: we see all this, and yet, instead of living, let year glide after year in preparations to live." Johnson: Adventurer #108 (November 17, 1753) Link 1,592. Procrastination "The common neglect of the present hour is more shameful and criminal, as no man is betrayed to it by errour, but admits it by negligence." Johnson: Adventurer #108 (November 17, 1753) Link 1,702. Procrastination "Every man has something to do which he neglects; every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat." Johnson: Idler #43 (February 10, 1759) Link 1,792. Procrastination "You would not deny me a place among the most faithful votaries of idleness, if you knew how often I have recollected my engagement, and contented myself to delay the performance for some reason which I durst not examine because I knew it to be false; how often I have sitten down to write, and rejoiced at interruption; and how often I have praised the dignity of resolution, determined at night to write in the morning, and deferred it in the morning to the quiet hours of the night." Johnson: Idler #83 (November 17, 1759), from "Robin Spritely," a fictional correspondent. Link 1,846. Procrastination "What may be done at all times with equal propriety, is deferred from day to day." Johnson: Idler #94 (February 2, 1760) Link