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 }}
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.}}