Nothing is more alien to the present age than idleness. If we think of resting from our labours, it is only in order to return to them. In thinking so highly of work we are aberrant. Few other cultures have ever done so. For nearly all of history and all prehistory, work was an indignity.

As It Is: Sisyphus's Progress (p. 195) - Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002)