Most people die at the last minute; others twenty years beforehand, some even earlier. They are the wretched of the earth. РLouis C̩line, Voyage au bout du monde, 1932

There was George, throwing away in hideous sloth the inestimable gift of time; his valuable life, every second of which he would have to account for hereafter, passing away from him, unused…. sprawling there, sunk in soul-clogging oblivion. – Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), 1889

There are a million ways to lose a work day, but not even a single way to get one back. – Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister