To those who visited the old Library of Congress at the Capitol he will always be associated with it — a long, lean figure, in scrupulous frock, erect at a standing desk, and intent upon its littered burden, while the masses of material surged incoherently about him. – Herbert Putnam, of librarian Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1825–1908), 1908, wo

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live! – Henry David Thoreau, journal, 1851 August 19th

Desidiousness. Lat. sitting too much; slothfulness, idleness, carelessness. – A New Dictionary of the English Language by Charles Richardson, 1836

Throughout the illness the most obviously exciting cause of the attacks was posture, stopping over a writing-desk; and he ultimately had to do such work either kneeling or at a standing desk. – Lawson Tait, 1882