If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he next comes to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.

Thomas De Quincey
About This Quote

This quote about serious consequences of actions is a warning against the potential and very real negative consequences of breaking laws. The word procrastination means delaying, and delaying can cause serious problems. Procrastination is often the result of anxiety, fear, or worry. When we worry or feel anxious we often put things off until we feel better.

Regrets are common when something gets pushed off to the future. If you are finding it difficult to get started with your tasks, try to identify what it is that is causing you to procrastinate.

Source: The Confessions Of An English Opium Eater/The Daughter Of Lebanon

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More Quotes By Thomas De Quincey
  1. If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he next comes to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.

  2. But my way of writing is rather to think aloud, and follow my own humours, than much to consider who is listening to me; and, if I stop to consider what is proper to be said to this or that person, I shall soon come...

  3. Guilt and misery shrink, by a natural instinct, from public notice: they court privacy and solitude: and even in their choice of a grave will sometimes sequester themselves from the general population of the churchyard, as if declining to claim fellowship with the great family...

  4. Here was the secret of happiness, about which philosophers had disputed for so many ages, at once discovered; happiness might now be bought for a penny, and carried in the waistcoat-pocket; portable ecstasies might be had corked up in a pint-bottle; and peace of mind...

  5. Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o'clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.

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