All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
{{short description|Proverb suggesting that lack of free time encourages lack of spirit}}
File:All work and no play... (8648670619).jpg]]
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is an old proverb that means without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring. It is often shortened to "all work and no play".{{Cite web |title=All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/all-work-and-no-play-makes-jack-a-dull-boy |access-date=2023-11-24 |website=Dictionary.com |language=en}} It was newly popularized after the phrase was featured in the 1980 horror film, The Shining.{{Cite journal |last=Miers |first=Paul |date=1980 |title=The Black Maria Rides Again: Being a Reflection on the Present State of American Film with Special Respect to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2906498 |journal=MLN |volume=95 |issue=5 |pages=1360–1366 |doi=10.2307/2906498 |jstor=2906498 |issn=0026-7910|url-access=subscription }} Also included in Jack Kerouac's prominent work 'Big Sur'.
History
Though the spirit of the proverb had been expressed previously, the modern saying first appeared in writing in Welsh writer and historian James Howell's Proverbs (1659).{{cite book |last1=Howell |first1=James |title=Paroimiographia. Proverbs, or, old Sayed Sawes & Adages in English (or the Saxon Toung) Italian, French and Spanish whereunto the British, for their great antiquity and weight are added |date=1659 |publisher=Samuel Thomson |location=London}} It is found on page 12 of the section titled Proverbs, or Old Sayed-Sawes, and Adages in the English Toung. Howell's Proverbs is bound with Howell's Lexicon Tetraglotton (1660).{{cite book |last1=Howell |first1=James |title=Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish Dictionary |date=1660 |publisher=Samuel Thomson |location=London |quote=: Whereunto is adjoined a large Nomenclature of the proper Terms (in all the four) belonging to several Arts and Sciences, to Recreations, to Professions both Liberal and Mechanick, &c. divided into Fiftie two Sections; with another Volume of the Choicest Proverbs in all the said Toungs, (consisting of divers compleat Tomes) ...}}
{{Citation |title=work, n. |date=2023-03-02 |url=https://oed.com/dictionary/work_n |work=Oxford English Dictionary |access-date=2023-11-24 |edition=3 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/oed/2591891995|url-access=subscription }} It has often been included in subsequent collections of proverbs and sayings.{{cite web |url = http://www.famousquotesandauthors.com/authors/james_howell_quotes.html |title = James Howell Quotes and Quotations |publisher = Famous Quotes and Authors.com |access-date = 2011-01-21| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101215124957/http://famousquotesandauthors.com/authors/james_howell_quotes.html| archive-date= 15 December 2010 | url-status= live}}
Some writers have added a second part to the proverb, as in Harry and Lucy Concluded (1825) by the Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth:
{{cquote|All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,
All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.}}