Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment

Sourced to Taleb’s aphorisms Nassim Nicholas Taleb born 1960
Attributed In copyright

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, cited p. 8 (2010)

Last verified 9 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Unconfirmed quote & credit

“Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment” — Attributed to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes (2010), p. 8; original page not inspected.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright. A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Nassim Nicholas Taleb — born 1960. Theme: "Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Source
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, cited p. 8
Evidence
Wikiquote gives the exact sentence and book page; publisher metadata confirms the book, but no original page image was inspected.

Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment. Short excerpt

How we verified this

  • Wikiquote locates this exact saying in the 2010 book, page 8.
  • The publisher confirms the first hardcover’s 2010 date and the mythological framing of the collection. A later expanded paperback is dated 2016; those edition dates are not interchangeable.
  • The catalog does not reproduce the cited page, so this is a sourced attribution rather than a primary-page verification.
In copyright

Only a short excerpt is reproduced; identification and commentary do not grant permission to reuse the complete work.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Context

Why it mattered

The Bed of Procrustes collects brief observations about human freedom, imposed systems and self-deception. Its title invokes the myth of making people fit an inflexible bed. The procrastination line reads resistance through that metaphor; it is an aphorism about constraint, not a comprehensive psychological account of delaying tasks.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Wisdom Freedom Knowledge

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquote: Taleben.wikiquote.org

Transcribes the sayings under The Bed of Procrustes (2010), citing pages 4 and 8 respectively.
Publisher: hardcover editionwww.penguinrandomhouse.com

Confirms the November 2010 hardcover and describes the Procrustes metaphor; catalog description, not proof of either sentence.
Publisher author biographywww.penguinrandomhouse.com

Describes Taleb’s risk-taking background, probability research and Incerto books.
Taleb biographical referenceen.wikipedia.org

Documents his Lebanese-American background and writing on uncertainty; used for biographical context.

The author

About Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

born 1960

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (born 1960) is a Lebanese-American essayist, researcher and former financial trader. His Incerto books examine uncertainty, risk and the gap between formal models and lived experience; The Bed of Procrustes presents related ideas in short aphorisms rather than extended proofs.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Source reference and evidence

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, cited p. 8. 2010.

This verification page

Quotle.info. Who really said 'Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment'? Last verified 9 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/procrastination-is-the-soul-rebelling-against-entrapment/

Something wrong on this page?

Tell us what’s off. A link helps but isn’t required — “this is the wrong person” is a useful report on its own. Nothing here changes the page directly; it goes to our review queue and a human checks it.

Only used to tell you if we act on your report. We never sell or share it.

Copied