87 Quotes to Help You Take Control and Fight Laziness

Chances are, if you’re reading these laziness quotes, you may be looking for a little motivation to help get you started.

Or maybe you are trying to help someone else fight their own laziness.

Laziness can get in the way of our success, like a wheel stuck in the mud.

Can laziness ever be useful?

Some people believe that a healthy degree of laziness can lead us to innovation, inspiring us to create a new method of getting things done.

That only works if your laziness hasn’t completely taken over, and you still want to reach your goals.

Explore the laziness quotes below and see how you can harness the power of laziness for good, without letting it take control of your life.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Check out more inspirational quotes on our motivational quotes category page.

Quotes About Laziness and Making Excuses

1. “You will find that the more successful the individual, the less inclined he is to make excuses.” – David Joseph Schwartz

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2. “No one ever excused his way to success.” – Dave Del Dotto

3. “Maturity is when you stop complaining and making excuses in your life; you realize everything that happens in life is a result of the previous choice you’ve made and start making new choices to change your life.” – Roy T. Bennett 

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4. “Excuses destroy success every time.” – Jon Taffer

5. “You can have excuses or you can have success; you can’t have both.” – Jen Sincero

6. “Uncomplicate it. Don’t make excuses. Some of life’s biggest heartaches come from missed opportunities and lame excuses. Don’t miss out on what could be the best chapter in your life because you’re too busy rereading the last one.” – Kandi Steiner

7. “You can have the results you want, or you can have excuses. You can’t have both.” – Clyde Lee Dennis

8. “Success is not as easy as winners make it look nor as hard as losers make it sound.” – Orrin Woodward

9. “I attribute my success to this:—I never gave or took an excuse.” – Florence Nightingale

10. “Essentially there are two actions in life: Performance and excuses. Make a decision as to which he will accept from yourself.” – Steven Brown

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of excuses quotes about the power of sticking to your word.

11. “Someone may have all the technical knowledge, scientific intellect and business know-how but when he- she decides to choose laziness, excuses, procrastination, complaining and other bad attitudes, his- her relevance is meaningless.” – Israelmore Ayivor

12. “When you are willing to replace mundane excuses with hard work and your laziness with determination, nothing can prevent you from succeeding.” – Prem Jagyasi

13. “Successful people don’t use the obstacles of time, education, and money as excuses…they use them as leverage to get help.” – Richie Norton

14. “It is easier to move from failure to success than from excuses to success.” – John C. Maxwell

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Laziness Quotes About Time

15. “Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” – Harvey Mackay

16. “The trouble is, you think you have time.” – Buddha

17. “There’s only one thing more precious than our time and that’s who we spend it on.” – Leo Christopher

18. “You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” – Charles Brixton

19. “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” – Leo Tolstoy

20. “If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” – Bruce Lee

21. “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn

22. “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” – William Penn

23. “The way we spend our time defines who we are.” – Jonathan Estrin

24. “Time slips away like grains of sand never to return again.” – Robin Sharma

25. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs

26. “We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.” – Nelson Mandela

27. “Time is a created thing. To say, ‘I don’t have time,’ is to say, ‘I don’t want to.’” – Lao Tzu

28. “Better three hours too soon than one minute too late.” – William Shakespeare

29. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” – Andy Warhol

30. “There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.” – Bill Watterson

Laziness Quotes About Procrastination

31. “Procrastination is my sin. It brings me naught but sorrow. I know that I should stop it. In fact, I will–tomorrow” – Gloria Pitzer

32. “Procrastination is not Laziness”, I tell him. “It is fear. Call it by its right name, and forgive yourself.” – Julia Cameron

33. “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.” – Mark Twain

34. “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” – Marthe Troly-Curtin

35. “You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin

36. “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” – Pablo Picasso

37. “Procrastinate now, don’t put it off.” – Ellen DeGeneres

38. “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.” – Margaret Mitchell

39. “Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” – Charles Dickens

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of procrastination quotes that will help you steal your time back.

40. “It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.” – Leonardo da Vinci

41. “If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.” – Rita Mae Brown

42. “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” – Abraham Lincoln

43. “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb

44. “Someday is not a day of the week.” – Janet Dailey

45. “Life always begins with one step outside of your comfort zone.” – Shannon L. Alder

46. “Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow.” – Steven Wright

47. “My mother always told me I wouldn’t amount to anything because I procrastinate. I said, ‘Just wait.” – Judy Tenuta

Laziness Quotes About its Dangers

48. “Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.” – Tchaikovsky

49. “Stay away from lazy parasites, who perch on you just to satisfy their needs, they do not come to alleviate your burdens, hence, their mission is to distract, detract and extract, and make you live in abject poverty.” – Michael Bassey Johnson

50. “Folks who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do.” – Elbert Hubbard

51. “Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy; and he that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.” – Benjamin Franklin

52. “We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas A. Edison

Quotes About the Benefits of Laziness

53. “Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.” – Robert Heinlein

54. “I don’t think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.” – Agatha Christie

55. “Laziness is the first step towards efficiency.” – Patrick Bennett

56. “Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away.” – Paul Terry

57. “I’ve heard that hard work never killed anyone, but I say why take the chance?” – Ronald Reagan

58. “If you are choosing laziness, excuses and other bad habits to your goal, then your relevance is meaningless.” – Santosh Kumar

59. “Now I’m a pretty lazy person and am prepared to work quite hard in order to avoid work.” – Martin Fowler

60. “I’m not only lazy myself but I inspire laziness in others.” – Marty Rubin

More laziness quotes and sayings

61. “Laziness will stop your progress in your spiritual practice.” – Renuka Singh

62. “The lazy will always attribute genius to some ‘inspiration’ that comes for mere waiting.” – Will Durant

63. “Laziness is when you accede to the misconception that work is unnecessary.” – Innocent Mwatsikesimbe

64. “Laziness builds walls and fences that keep the mind under control.” – Auliq Ice

65. “Laziness is always your fault. It is the sign that a man has persevered in uselessness for too long.” – Idries Shah

66. Lazy people live lonely lives.” – Habeeb Akande

67. “His was not a lazy trustfulness that hoped, and did no more.” – Charles Dickens

Thought-provoking laziness quotes to reflect on

68. “Lazy, begets poverty, every time!” ― Mark Dawson

69. “Technology never makes someone lazy. It sometimes reveals someone’s laziness.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

70. “Luck never brings luxury to the lazy.” ― Amit Kalantri

71. “Physical laziness is bad but intellectual laziness is intolerable.” ― Wayne Gerard Trotman

72. “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.” ― Benjamin Franklin

73. “With work misery is relieved, with laziness misery is multiplied.” ― Abhijit Naskar

74. “I was trained to turn loneliness into laziness.” ― Bill Callahan

75. “Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.” ―  Anne Frank

76. “Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.” ― Jules Renard

77. “Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” ― Philip Stanhope

Laziness Quotes To Discourage

78. “Not doing things you can do is the whole point of laziness. Not doing something you can’t do is just sensible.” ― Sarah Rees Brennan

79. “My ambition is handicapped by laziness.” ― Charles Bukowski

80. “The only time a lazy man ever succeeds is when he tries to do nothing.” ― Evan Esar

81. “There’s an awful lot of inactive kindness which is nothing but laziness, not wanting any trouble, confusion, or effort.” ― John Steinbeck

82. “I’m like the laziest person who ever lived. It’s amazing to me that I even sit up.” ― Fran Lebowitz

83. “You make name for yourself when you overcome pain, weakness, laziness and ignorance.” ― Sunday Adelaja

84. “I’m not going to say it’s laziness, but I’m not a grand creator of new characters.” ― Lore Segal

85. “The lazy man claims he is too heavy for light work and too light for heavy work.” ― Evan Esar

86. “My weak spot is laziness. Oh, I have a lot of weak spots: cookies, croissants.” ― Anthony Hopkins

87. “Laziness works. And the simple way to incorporate its health benefits into your life is simply to take a nap.” ― Tom Hodgkinson

What can you do to make laziness work for you?

Always keep your objectives in mind.

Everyone experiences a lapse in motivation from time to time, but knowing your goals and keeping them in sight is key to fighting laziness.

Write your goals on a whiteboard or your mirror, change your desktop or phone background to depict your objective, or pin up a photo that reminds you of what you want to achieve.

Never let laziness eat up a whole day.

Make sure you accomplish something each day, even if it’s only a tiny step toward your goal.

That way, laziness can’t take control.

It can only give you a little rest while you make steady progress toward success.

What’s your biggest takeaway from these laziness quotes and sayings?

Do you have any other helpful quotes to add?

Let us know in the comment section below.