Sitting

After they had dined, Mrs. Teachum told them she thought it proper that they should use some exercise in the cooler part of the day, lest, by sitting too much, they should injure their health. – Sarah Fielding (1710–1768), “The Governess, or The Little Female Academy,”

Sich krank essen, trinken, sitzen: to become sick by eating, drinking, sitting too much. – A Complete Practical Grammar of the German Language (c.1805–1828) by Charl

Workers at home who have aching backs and but one writing desk, and that a low one, will find great relief from writing in a standing position (if a recess is out the question), if only for fifteen minutes. My standing desk is a broad mantel shelf. – B.G.A., “Helpful Hints and Suggestions,” in The Writer, August 1887

And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. – Bible, Exodus XXXII

Still, it is customary to keep pupils sitting too long at once. They ought to stand occasionally, or march around the room; and they should be required to exercise a few minutes in the open air, once an hour, at least. – American Annals of Education and Instruction, April 1832

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

I believe most distempers proceed from too much sitting still. РMarie de Rabutin-Chantal, letter to her daughter Fran̤oise-Marguerite de S̩vig

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

Helen started, and said she feared she had been sitting too long idle. – Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849), Helen, 1834

I shall be compelled to buy a standing-desk, which will cost me from two to three dollars, as the older students advise me to have one as necessary to my health. – James Stokes Dickerson, letter to brother, 1842 October 13th

All my books are up, my pictures hung, my standing desk in position, chairs and lounge, et cetera. Everything harmonizes with the fresco. I could not have a pleasanter study. – Edward A. Lawrence, Jr., letter to his mother Margaret Woods Lawrence, 1889 Sept

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

I am writing this at my standing desk, which is against the window. The window offers a pleasant prospect over the lime trees and sun-bathed hills — delightful natural scenery. – Friedrich Nietzsche, letter to sister Elisabeth, 1862, wording slightly altered

Reginald was nearly all day at his office, and half the night at his stand-up desk in his room. – Henry Kingsley, “Reginald Hetherege,” 1874

Sitting is the new smoking. – Health catchphrase, c.2009

Sitting kills, moving heals. – Joan Vernikos, c.2011

[T]hey marched and counter-marched, clapped their hands, stamped hard upon the floor, and performed various evolutions for the purpose of circulating the blood, which by sitting too long is apt to stagnate, and render them, particularly in this climate, dull and sleepy. – Joseph Holt Ingraham, South-West, 1835 [Originally published anonymously, “By a

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