“ He said it made him feel that life was not an idle dream to be gaped and yawned through, but a noble task, full of duty and stern work. ”
 Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (1889). copy citation

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“I lived with a man once who used to make me mad that way. He would loll on the sofa and watch me doing things by the hour together, following me round the room with his eyes, wherever I went. He said it did him real good to look on at me, messing about. He said it made him feel that life was not an idle dream to be gaped and yawned through, but a noble task, full of duty and stern work. He said he often wondered now how he could have gone on before he met me, never having anybody to look at while they worked.
Now, I'm not like that. I can't sit still and see another man slaving and working.” source

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