Maxim 54.

Of all our passions, laziness is the most unacknowledged.  It is both the most eager and the most malignant motive of all, though its violence cannot be felt and the damage it causes is profoundly hidden.  If we carefully consider its power, however, we will be forced to admit that, in all our endeavours, indolence reveals itself to be the master of our feelings, our concerns and our pleasures.  It is the barnacle which can slow the sleekest ship, the doldrum more dangerous to great undertakings than the shallowest reef or the largest storm.  The respite offered by laziness is a secret charm of the mind that can suddenly stop the most ardent pursuits and betray the most deeply-sworn vows.  To give, in the end, the truest idea of this passion, it might be said that laziness inspires a vision of bliss in the soul, consoling it for all its losses and furnishing all the goods it has never obtained.

from Maxims of La Rocefoucauld
Editions Garnier

Englishing de la Rochefoucauld (Laziness)