Idle Quotes - Page 4

• True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy.

  William Shakespeare

  Dream, Children, Brain

  1595 Mercutio. Romeo andJuliet, act1, sc.4, l.96-8.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We do not know today whether we are busy or idle. In times when we thought ourselves indolent, we have afterwards discovered that much was accomplished, and much was begun in us.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Self Improvement, Today

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.471, Library of America

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It had been held that the economic system, any capitalist system, found its equilibrium at full employment. Left to itself, it was thus that it came to rest. Idle men and idle plant were an aberration, a wholly temporary failing. Keynes showed that the modern economy could as well find its equilibrium with continuing, serious unemployment. Its perfectly normal tendency was to what economists have since come to call an underemployment equilibrium.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Men, Perfectly Normal, Aberration

  John Kenneth Galbraith (2001). “The Essential Galbraith”, p.234, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• A true faith in Jesus Christ will not suffer us to be idle. No, it is an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart, so that it cannot be easy till it is doing something for Jesus Christ.

  George Whitefield

  Faith, God, Christian

  George Whitefield (1771). “The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A...: Containing All His Sermons and Tracts which Have Been Already Published: with a Select Collection of Letters... Also, Some Other Pieces on Important Subjects, Never Before Printed; Prepared by Himself for the Press; to which is Prefixed, an Account of His Life, Compiled from His Orignial Papers and Letters”, p.47

  46 Copy quote

  Show source

• Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented.

  Eric Hoffer

  Tinkering, Matter, Chance

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• God loves an idle rainbow, no less than laboring seas.

  Ralph Hodgson

  Sea, Rainbow, God Love

  Ralph Hodgson, “Reason Has Moons”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, For I am armed so strong in honesty That they pass by me as the idle wind

  William Shakespeare

  Strong, Honesty, Wind

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 4, sc. 3, l. 66

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always in our power. We must snatch the present moment, and employ it well, without too much solicitude for the future, and content ourselves with reflecting that our part is performed. He that waits for an opportunity to do much at once, may breathe out his life in idle wishes, and regret, in the last hour, his useless intentions and barren zeal.

  Samuel Johnson

  Regret, Opportunity, Men

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The slothful are always ready to engage in idle talk of what will be done tomorrow, and every day after.

  John Lyly

  Sloth, Done, Laziness

  4 Copy quote

• Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Sloth, Calling

  Samuel Johnson, Francis Pearson Walesby, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson: Reviews, politica. tracts, and lives of eminent persons”, p.285

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• No matter how much faculty of idle seeing a man has, the step from knowing to doing is rarely taken.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Taken, Men, Knowing

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.353

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is idle to expect any great advancement in science from the superinducing and engrafting of new things upon old. We must begin anew from the very foundations, unless we would revolve for ever in a circle with mean and contemptible progress.

  Francis Bacon

  Mean, Science, Circles

  Francis Bacon, Robert Leslie Ellis, William Rawley (1861). “The philosophical works of Francis Bacon, with prefaces and notes by the late Robert Leslie Ellis, together with English translations of the principal Latin pieces”, p.52

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• But there's not enough time in life to go sit at a party, have a drink, and make idle conversation. There's too many important things to do. Just being together with my husband, spending time alone, which I have very little of.

  Pia Zadora

  Husband, Party, Important

  4 Copy quote

• Jewels, lies, slips of paper, dried flowers, memories of thing long past, useless quotations, idle hands, beads, buttons, and mischief.

  Holly Black

  Memories, Lying, Flower

  Holly Black (2013). “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown”, p.23, Hachette UK

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Evil, Doe

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., Comprehending an Account of His Studies, and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order: A Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition, Never Before Published; the Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain, for Near Half a Century During which He Flourished”, p.412

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I listen to a little Marina & The Diamonds. She has a song called 'Teen Idle' that I really like.

  Lana Del Rey

  Song, Trust No One, Littles

  7 Copy quote

• Do not sit idle, for indeed death is seeking you

  Hasan of Basra

  Death, Wisdom, Islamic

  70 Copy quote

• People count with self-satisfaction the number of times they have recited the name of God on their prayer beads, but they keep no beads for reckoning the number of idle words they speak.

  Al-Ghazali

  Wisdom, Prayer, Islamic

  402 Copy quote

• The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions, for life is a kind of chess.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Games, Chess Game, Mind

  François Danican Philidor, Sir William Jones, Benjamin Franklin (1824). “An Easy Introduction to the Game of Chess: Containing One Hundred Examples of Games and a Great Variety of Critical Situations and Conclusions ; Including the Whole of Philidor's Analysis with Copious Selections from Stamma, the Calabrois, &c”, p.237

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man's home is nature; his purposes and aims are dependent for execution upon natural conditions. Separated from such conditions they become empty dreams and idle indulgences of fancy.

  John Dewey

  Dream, Nature, Home

  John Dewey, Jo Ann Boydston, Sidney Hook (2008). “The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, Volume 9: 1916, Democracy and Education”, p.294, SIU Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If patriotism is good, then Christianity, which gives peace, is an idle dream, and the sooner this teaching is eradicated, the better. But if Christianity really gives peace, and if we really want peace, then patriotism is a leftover from barbarous times, which must not only not be evoked and taught, as we now do, but which must be eradicated by all means of preaching, persuasion, contempt, and ridicule. If Christianity is the truth, and if we wish to live in peace, then we must not only have no sympathy for the power of our country, but must even rejoice in its weakening and contribute to it.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Dream, Country, Teaching

  "Patriotism or Peace" by Leo Tolstoy, 1896.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is...idle to pretend, as many do, that there is no contradiction between religion and science. Science contradicts religion as surely as Judaism contradicts Islam-they are absolutely and irresolvably conflicting views. Unless, that is, science is obliged to change its fundamental nature.

  Bryan Appleyard

  Science, Views, Islam

  9 Copy quote

• If a man devotes himself to art, much evil is avoided that happens otherwise if one is idle.

  Albrecht Durer

  Art, Men, Evil

  70 Copy quote

• For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.

  Khalil Gibran

  Spiritual, Proud, Majesty

  Khalil Gibran (2014). “The Prophet - Der Prophet”, p.42, Lulu.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one's life away.

  Yann Martel

  Dream, Hands, Survival

  Yann Martel, Canongate Books (2007). “Life of Pi (Illustrated): Deluxe Illustrated Edition”, p.178, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  7 Copy quote

  Show source