Laziness

Use in the book

The list of lazy heads and bodies divides inactivity among movement, care and attention instead of treating it as one simple condition. Scholarly laziness can mean accepting the first available expression or inheriting another’s terminology until jargon obscures thought. The fragment of laziness awaiting inspiration is suggestive but has no completed judgment beyond its image. The optative wish for active men and peoples adds a counterweight: they should be active in duties and occupations, idle elsewhere. Selective inactivity can therefore be desired even while intellectual negligence is criticized. Leisure is not automatically laziness, nor is constant busyness its guaranteed opposite.

Places to read

1. I, p. 135, entry 4, ¶1Inactivity is distributed among bodily and mental capacities.
2. I, p. 253, entry 2, ¶1Laborious scholars can be lazy about clarity of expression.
3. II, p. 658, entry 10, ¶1Laziness waits for inspiration in an unfinished image.
4. II, p. 766, entry 12, ¶1Activity is wished for duties, idleness for everything else.

Translation in this edition

The English translation distinguishes lazy from idle according to the last passage’s contrast. It keeps the inspiration phrase nominal and the J.-J. reference unexpanded. The separate June annotation does not restore the damaged main date.