Idle Quotes - Page 9

• The vigorous man industriously striving for the improvement of his condition acts neither more nor less than the lethargic man who sluggishly takes things as they come. For to do nothing and to be idle are also action, they too determine the course of events.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Men, Events, Libertarian

  Ludwig Von Mises (1963). “Human action: a treatise on economics”

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• It is idle to say that nations can struggle to outdo each other in building armaments and never use them. History demonstrates the contrary, and we have but to go back to the last war to see the appalling effect of nations competing in great armaments.

  Frank B. Kellogg

  War, Struggle, Use

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• Starting at age four, my mom decided that she was not going to have an idle child in the house. So I started taking dance lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then I was in acting classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I was also modeling on Saturdays. And that was my childhood.

  Chandra Wilson

  Mom, Friday, Monday

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• There are idle spots on every farm, and every highway is bordered by an idle strip as long as it is; keep cow, plow, and mower out of these idle spots, and the full native flora, plus dozens of interesting stowaways from foreign parts, could be part of the normal environment of every citizen.

  Aldo Leopold

  Nature, Long, Interesting

  Aldo Leopold (1989). “A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There”, p.48, Oxford University Press, USA

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• It is the artist's function not to copy but to synthesise: to eliminate from that gross confusion of actuality which is his raw material whatever is accidental, idle, irrelevant, and select for perpetuation that only which is appropriate and immortal.

  William Ernest Henley

  Artist, Confusion, Raw Materials

  William Ernest Henley (1921). “The Works of William Ernest Henley: Views and reviews”

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• I came from a poor family, so working and going to school at the same time was natural. It taught me multi-tasking, although we didn't call it that back then. I learned I could never be idle, I need to be doing many things at once.

  Alan Dershowitz

  School, Needs, Taught

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• Perhaps man is the only being that can properly be called idle.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Laziness, Idleness

  Samuel Johnson (1826). “The Rambler (1750-'52) a. the Idler (1758-'60)”

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• An idle man's brain is the devil's workshop.

  John Bunyan

  Men, Brain, Devil

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• Raking over the past and sifting its dust is an occupation for the idle or the elderly retired.

  Armand Hammer

  Work, Past, Elderly

  Armand Hammer, Neil Lyndon (1988). “Hammer”, Perigee

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• Edwidge Danticat's prose has a Chekhovian simplicity--an ability to state the most urgent truths in a measured and patiently plain style that gathers a luminous energy as it moves inexorably forward. In this book she makes a strong case that art, for immigrants from countries where human rights and even survival are often in jeopardy, must be a vocation to witness if it is not to be an idle luxury.

  Madison Smartt Bell

  Country, Art, Strong

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• These are questions for action, not speculation, which is idle.

  Noam Chomsky

  Action, Speculation

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• Our unconscious is like a vast subterranean factory with intricate machinery that is never idle, where work goes on day and night from the time we are born until the moment of our death.

  Milton Sapirstein

  Night, Goes On, Moments

  Milton R. Sapirstein (1955). “Paradoxes of Everyday Life: A Psychoanalyst's Interpretations”

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• People who truly have control over time always have some in their pocket to give to someone in need. A sense of priorities drives their use of time and it can shift away from the ordinary work that’s easy to justify, in favor of the more ethereal, deeper things that are harder to justify. They protect their time from trivia and idiocy; these people are time rich. They provide themselves with a surplus of time. They might seem to idle, or relax more often than the rest, but that just might be a sign of their mastery, not their incompetence.

  Scott Berkun

  People, Giving, Priorities

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• Whatever work you undertake to do in your lifetime, it is very important that first you have a passion for it - you know, get excited about it - and second, that you have fun with it. That's important. Otherwise, you see, your work becomes nothing but an idle chore. Then, you hate the life you live.

  Julius Sumner Miller

  Fun, Hate, Passion

  Australian ABC Television show "Why Is It So?", (episode 1), 1963.

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• EVERY intention which does not assert itself by deeds is a vain intention, and the speech which expresses it is idle speech. It is action which proves life and establishes will

  Eliphas Levi

  Doe, Deeds, Speech

  Eliphas Levi (2013). “The Ritual of Transcendental Magic”, p.16, Jazzybee Verlag

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• For Hell and the foul fiend that rules
  God's everlasting fiery jails
  (Devised by rogues, dreaded by fools),
  With his grim, grisly dog that keeps the door,
  Are senseless stories, idle tales,
  Dreams, whimseys, and no more.

  John Wilmot

  Dream, Dog, Doors

  John Wilmot, John Adlard (2002). “The Debt to Pleasure: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, in the Eyes of His Contemporaries and in His Own Poetry and Prose”, p.126, Taylor & Francis

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• Not to be lost in idle admiration is the only sure means of making and preserving happiness.

  Horace

  Mean, Admiration, Lost

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• Leaves are light, and useless, and idle, and wavering, and changeable; they even dance; and yet God in his wisdom has made them a part of oaks. And in so doing he has given us a lesson, not to deny the stout-heartedness within because we see the lightsomeness without.

  Augustus William Hare

  Wise, Light, Useless

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• Lately I've heard rumors that the eagle may be lame. Just because I've been idle, don't mean that I'm tame.

  Waylon Jennings

  Mean, Eagles, Rumor

  Song: The Eagle, Album: The Eagle, 1990

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• Astronomy was born of superstition; eloquence of ambition, hatred, falsehood, and flattery; geometry of avarice; physics of an idle curiosity; and even moral philosophy of human pride. Thus the arts and sciences owe their birth to our vices.

  Jean-Baptiste Rousseau

  Art, Philosophy, Ambition

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• No man is so idle that he cannot rouse himself just enough to get in the way of a busy person.

  Robert Breault

  Men, People, Way

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• I am capable of being idle.

  Alexander McCall Smith

  Capable

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• If I could tell the world just one thing
  It would be that we're all OK
  And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful
  And useless in times like these
  I won't be made useless
  I won't be idle with despair
  I will gather myself around my faith
  For light does the darkness most fear
  
  My hands are small, I know
  But they're not yours, they are my own
  But they're not yours, they are my own
  And I am never broken

  Jewel

  Love, Light, Times Like These

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• Although even when I am being idle I have plenty of food for thought both early and late - thoughts both about and not about art.

  Gustav Klimt

  Art, Late, Plenty

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• If a brain is exercised properly, anyone can grow intelligence, at any age, and potentially by a lot. Or you can just let your brain idle - and watch it slowly, inexorably, go to seed like a sedentary body.

  Michael Merzenich

  Brain, Age, Watches

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