A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

All WORK and no play makes Jack a dull boy

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  1659 J. HOWELL Proverbs (English) 12 All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy. 1825 M. EDGEWORTH Harry &Lucy Concluded II. 155 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy. 1859 S. SMILES Self-Help xi. ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’; but all play and no work makes him something greatly worse. 1898 C. G. ROBERTSON Voces Academicae I. i. ‘Is that why you give garden parties yourself, eh?.. all work and no play makes Jill a very —’.. ‘Plain girl. She is that already.’ 1979 R. MUTCH Gemstone xi. ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,’ he observed, pouring the champagne into a glass. 2001 Washington Post 4 Oct. C13 (Jeff MacNelly’s Shoe comic strip) ’What about your homework?’ ‘Later. All work and no Playstation makes Jack a dull boy.’ "recreation; work
  

WORK expands so as to fill the time available
Commonly known as ‘Parkinson’s Law’, after Professor C. Northcote Parkinson, who first propounded it.

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  1955 C. N. PARKINSON in Economist 19 Nov. 635 It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. 1972 M. ARGYLE Social Psychology of Work viii. ‘Parkinson’s Law’ is that ‘work expands so as to fill the time available’. 1976 Scotsman 25 Nov. 14 Though there are fewer Bills than usual, MPs, being well known as exemplars of Parkinson’s law, can be relied on to stretch their work to fill all the time available and more. "efficiency and inefficiency; work
  

It is not WORK that kills, but worry

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  1879 D. M. MULOCK Young Mrs. Jardine III. ix. Working..all day, writing..at night.. Roderick had yet.. never spent a happier three months.. for it is not work that kills, but ‘worry’. 1909 British Weekly 8 July 333 It is worry that kills, they say, and not work. .. The canker of care seems to eat the life away. 1930[?] S. K. HOCKING Mystery Man vi. 42 ‘Please don’t talk about bother,’ she said gently and sincerely. ‘Naturally we’ve been worried and anxious.’ ‘Oh, but you shouldn’t worry,’ and he grinned again. ‘It’s worry that kills, so I’ve been told.’ ■ stress; work