Laziness Does Not Exist Quotes

“We live in a world where hard work is rewarded and having needs and limitations is seen as a source of shame. It's no wonder so many of us are constantly overexerting ourselves, saying yes out of fear of how we'll be perceived for saying no.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“The Laziness Lie is a deep-seated, culturally held belief system that leads many of us to believe the following: Deep down I’m lazy and worthless. I must work incredibly hard, all the time, to overcome my inner laziness. My worth is earned through my productivity. Work is the center of life. Anyone who isn’t accomplished and driven is immoral.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“The Laziness Lie has three main tenets. They are: Your worth is your productivity. You cannot trust your own feelings and limits. There is always more you could be doing.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“When you lose power over your own life, you don’t have much reason to stay energized and motivated.15 So, you protect yourself emotionally by checking out and giving up.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“If you're entitled to moments of rest, of imperfection, of laziness and sloth, then so are homeless people, and people with depression, and people who are addicted to drugs. If your life has value no matter how productive you are, so does every other human life.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Work is the center of life. Anyone who isn’t accomplished and driven is immoral. The Laziness Lie is the source of the guilty feeling that we are not “doing enough”; it’s also the force that compels us to work ourselves to sickness.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“I found that by advocating for our right to be “lazy,” we can carve out space in our lives for play, relaxation, and recovery. I also discovered the immense relief that comes when we cease tying our self-image to how many items we check off our to-do lists.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Wasting time" is a basic human need.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“I know a lot of people like me. People who work overtime, never turning down additional work for fear of disappointing their boss. They're available to friends and loved ones twenty-four seven, providing an unending stream of support and advice. They care about dozens and dozens of social issues yet always feel guilty about not doing "enough" to address them, because there simply aren't enough hours in the day. These types of people often try to cram every waking moment with activity. After a long day at work, they try to teach themselves Spanish on the Duolingo app on their phone, for example, or they try to learn how to code in Python on sites like Code Academy.

People like this -- people like me -- are doing everything society has taught us we have to do if we want to be virtuous and deserving of respect. We're committed employees, passionate activists, considerate friends, and perpetual students. We worry about the future. We plan ahead. We try to reduce our anxiety by controlling the things we can control -- and we push ourselves to work very, very hard.

Most of us spend the majority of our days feeling tired, overwhelmed, and disappointed in ourselves, certain we've come up short. No matter how much we've accomplished or how hard we've worked, we never believe we've done enough to feel satisfied or at peace. We never think we deserve a break. Through all the burnouts, stress-related illnesses, and sleep-deprived weeks we endure, we remain convinced that having limitations makes us "lazy" -- and that laziness is always a bad thing.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“If someone's behavior makes no sense to us, passing judgment on it feels very natural.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“For many of us, our first instinct is generally to blame a person for their own misfortune, especially if we can pin that misfortune on laziness.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Lots of people have been taught to see homeless folks as the epitome of laziness, and to believe that laziness is the root cause of homeless people's suffering. This tendency to blame people for their own pain is comforting, in a twisted way; it allows us to close up our hearts and ignore the suffering of others. This same tendency also keeps us running endlessly on the hamster wheel of hyperproductivity.

When we view homeless, unemployed, or impoverished people as victims of their own "laziness," our motivations to work backbreakingly hard gets stronger than ever. The fear of ending up homeless morphs into the fear of not working hard enough, which in turn makes life an endless slog of pushing ourselves past the brink and judging anyone who doesn't do the same. Lacking compassion for a struggling group of people actually makes it harder for us to be gentle with ourselves.

Fighting the Laziness Lie can't stop at just encouraging people with full-time jobs to relax a bit and take more breaks.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Human beings are interdependent. We need social connections and community in order to thrive, yet many of us live in such deep fear of disappointing other people that we compromise our own values and abandon our well-being in the process. The Laziness Lie actively encourages this painful self-erasure by teaching us that our value is defined by what we can do for other people.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“We have all been lied to about laziness. Our culture has us convinced that success requires nothing more than willpower, that pushing ourselves to the point of collapse is morally superior to taking it easy. We've been taught that any limitation is a sign of laziness, and therefore undeserving of love or comfort.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“The Laziness Lie is a deep-seated, culturally held belief system that leads many of us to believe the following: Deep down I’m lazy and worthless. I must work incredibly hard, all the time, to overcome my inner laziness. My worth is earned through my productivity. Work is the center of life. Anyone who isn’t accomplished and driven is immoral. The Laziness Lie is the source of the guilty feeling that we are not “doing enough”; it’s also the force that compels us to work ourselves to sickness.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Comment culture” has taught us to speak more than we listen, to form an opinion based only on a headline, and to rush into conversations when we lack relevant expertise”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“We’re living in an era of information overload—and the solution is not to learn more but to step back and consume a smaller amount of data in a more meaningful way.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Wasting time” is a basic human need. Once we accept that, we can stop fearing our inner “laziness” and begin to build healthy, happy, well-balanced lives.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“The Laziness Lie encourages you to ignore your body’s warnings, push through discomfort, and ask for as few accommodations as possible. And at the end of all that struggle and self-denial, there’s no reward. You never actually earn the right to take it easy, because the Laziness Lie also teaches you that you can never, ever do enough.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“At some point, even the most voracious of readers needs to pull the plug and stop the constant drip of facts, figures, and meaningless Internet fights.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“When employees are unable to slack off using the Internet, they find other ways to mentally escape. They “waste” time making cups of tea, sharpening pencils, or popping into coworkers’ offices to say hello.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Here are some indications that you may still be associating productivity with goodness:
When you get less done during the day than you anticipated, you feel guilty.
You have trouble enjoying your free time.
You believe you have to "earn" the right to a vacation or break.
You take care of your health only in order to remain productive.
Having nothing to do makes you feel "useless."
You find the idea of growing old or becoming disabled to be incredibly depressing.
When you say no to someone, you feel compelled to say yes to something else to "make up" for it.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“The Laziness Lie is a belief system that says hard work is moraly superior to relaxation, that people who aren't productive have less innate value than productive people. It's an unspoken yet commonly held set of ideas and values. It affects how we work, how we set limits in our relationships, our views on what life is supposed to be about.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Enslavers made it a point to keep enslaved people as busy and exhausted as possible out of fear that idle time would give them the means to revolt or riot.21 Even more disturbing, enslaved people who tried to run away from bondage were seen as mentally ill and suffering from “runaway slave disorder.”22 By not accepting their proper role in society, they were demonstrating that they were broken and disturbed. This worldview became the foundation for American capitalism.23”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Questions to Ask before Trying to “Save” Someone: Can they solve this on their own? Do they want help? Do they want my help? Am I the right person to provide help right now? Can I direct them to seek help from a professional or a close loved one? What are my motives for helping? What will helping cost me?”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“How do we get indoctrinated with the Laziness Lie? For the most part, parents don’t sit their kids down and feed them these principles. Instead, people absorb them through years of observation and pattern recognition.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“When we feel unfocused, tired, and lazy, it’s often because we desperately need some time to rest our bodies and brains. Research has repeatedly shown that a person on the verge of burnout will have trouble staying focused and productive.40 No amount of pressure and stress can magically help a person overcome that lack of focus and motivation. The solution is to cut way back on expectations for a while. Overextended people have to find space in their lives to sleep, power down their stressed-out minds, and recharge their mental and emotional batteries. You can wait until you reach a breaking point like Max and I did, or you can prevent illness and burnout by being gentle with yourself before it’s too late. The Laziness Lie has tried to convince us that our desires for rest and relaxation make us terrible people. It’s made us believe that having no motivation is shameful and must be avoided at all costs. In reality, our feelings of tiredness and idleness can help save us by signaling to us that we’re desperately in need of some downtime. When we stop fearing laziness, we can find time to reflect and recharge, to reconnect with the people and hobbies that we love, and to move through the world at a more intentional, peaceful pace. “Wasting time” is a basic human need. Once we accept that, we can stop fearing our inner “laziness” and begin to build healthy, happy, well-balanced lives.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“One of the major factors that caused the Laziness Lie to spread throughout the United States was the arrival of the Puritans. The Puritans had long believed that if a person was a hard worker, it was a sign that God had chosen them for salvation. Hard work was believed to improve who you were as a person. Conversely, if a person couldn’t focus on the task at hand or couldn’t self-motivate, that was a sign that they had already been damned.15 This meant, of course, that there was no need to feel sympathy for people who struggled or failed to meet their responsibilities. By lacking the drive to succeed, they were displaying to the world that God hadn’t chosen them for Heaven. When the Puritans came to colonial America, their ideas caught on and spread to other, less pious colonists.16 For many reasons, a belief system that judged and punished the “lazy” was about to become very popular—and politically useful. Colonial America relied on the labor of enslaved people and indentured servants.17 It was very important to the colonies’ wealthy and enslaving class that they find a way to motivate enslaved people to work hard, despite the fact that enslaved people had nothing to gain from it.18 One powerful way to do so was through religious teachings and indoctrination. A productivity-obsessed form of Christianity evolved from the older, more Puritanical idea that work improved moral character, and it was pushed on enslaved people. This form of Christianity taught that suffering was morally righteous and that slaves would be rewarded in Heaven for being docile, agreeable, and, most important, diligent.19 On the flip side, if an enslaved person was slothful or “lazy,” there was something fundamentally corrupt and wrong with them.20 Enslavers made it a point to keep enslaved people as busy and exhausted as possible out of fear that idle time would give them the means to revolt or riot.21 Even more disturbing, enslaved people who tried to run away from bondage were seen as mentally ill and suffering from “runaway slave disorder.”22 By not accepting their proper role in society, they were demonstrating that they were broken and disturbed. This worldview became the foundation for American capitalism.23”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“Even if a professor does everything they possibly can to keep the class lively, attentiveness still declines slowly over time.38 When I worked to design my own online classes, I learned that students typically keep their attention fixed on a video for only about six minutes.”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist

“So, when I see that somebody doesn’t care about a particular goal—whether it’s becoming financially independent, finishing a degree, or even voting—I find myself wondering, Why does this activity seem pointless to them? According to James, he and his peers didn’t take classwork seriously because their school was overly strict. That makes complete sense to me. When you feel stuck in a controlling environment where nobody treats you with trust, you’re naturally going to want to rebel against it. Of course it’s hard for a teenager to self-motivate when they’ve had adults telling them what to do and how to do it all their lives!”
― Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist