All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is an old proverb that means without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring.

[1] It was newly popularized after the phrase was featured in the 1980 horror film, The Shining.

[2] Though the spirit of the proverb had been expressed previously, the modern saying first appeared in Welsh writer and historian James Howell's Proverbs (1659).

[3][4][5] It has often been included in subsequent collections of proverbs and sayings.

[6] Some writers have added a second part to the proverb, as in Harry and Lucy Concluded (1825) by the Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.