In The Shining, what phrase does Jack Torrance repeat on every page of his manuscript?

In The Shining, Jack Torrance’s manuscript repeatedly says, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

Wendy discovers that Jack has filled hundreds of pages with the same sentence instead of writing the novel he claimed to be preparing. The revelation shows that his apparent productivity is an illusion and confirms that his mental state has deteriorated during the hotel’s isolation.

The saying itself predates the film and is a traditional proverb about balancing labor with recreation. Stanley Kubrick turns that familiar phrase into a visual shock by revealing that the pages contain no meaningful manuscript at all.

The exact wording can vary slightly in quotations because the proverb is commonly written with “makes Jack a dull boy.” The film uses that form repeatedly. In the international version, the repeated sentence was translated into different languages, while the English version displays the phrase in its original wording.