Work--Leisure--Fatigue

There are excesses of leisure as well as of work. Some overwork, some underwork, and some seemingly work hard at not working at all. To become too leisure-minded could be in itself an unfortunate excess. Of the languid or leisurely sort of excess, some competent professional sources have this to say:

“Fatigue has become the socially acceptable excuse for not doing things…. Imaginary fatigue, to avoid work…is a common ailment….” “Actually, [many of] these…are not tired at all. They are just bored. Rest is not the proper treatment; brisk exercise may be of much more value. Above all, they need a revival of true interest in life through purposeful activity….”

“Labor is life,” said Carlyle. “It is wholesome to the body and good for the mind.” “Labor is one of the great elements of society,” said Daniel Webster. “Labor⎯intelligent, manly, independent, thinking and acting for itself, earning its own wages,…educating childhood, maintaining worship…and helping to uphold the great fabric of the state.” “Without labor nothing prospers,” said Sophocles. “The labor and sweat of our brows is so far from being a curse, that without it our very bread would not be so great a blessing. If it were not for labor, men could neither eat so much, nor relish so pleasantly, nor sleep so soundly, nor be so healthful.”

“None so little enjoy themselves,” said John Jay, “and are such burdens to themselves, as those who have nothing to do. Only the active have the true relish of life.” “In short, I am convinced both by faith and experience,” said Henry David Thoreau, “that to maintain one’s self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely.” “The greatest asset of any nation is the spirit of its people, and the greatest danger that can menace any nation is the breakdown of that spirit⎯the will to win and the courage to work.”