Idleness Quotes

• There is a working class - strong and happy - among both rich and poor: there is an idle class - weak, wicked, and miserable - among both rich and poor.

  John Ruskin

  Strong, Class, Wicked

  John Ruskin (19??). “Ruskin's Works”

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• Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness.

  George MacDonald

  Inspirational, Stress, Meditation Practice

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• Idleness is the parent of psychology.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Parent, Psychology

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• Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Mother, Perseverance, Men

  "Don Quixote de la Mancha". Book by Miguel de Cervantes, part II, book IV, chapter 38., 1605-1615.

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• Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Life, Motivational, Positive

  "Lord Chesterfield's Advice to His Son, on Men and Manners: Or, A New System of Education". Book by Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield, 1815.

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• Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind.

  Henry Ford

  Success, Business, Work

  Henry Ford (1922). “Ford Ideals: Being a Selection from "Mr. Ford's Page" in The Dearborn Independent”

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• Idleness is sweet, and its consequences are cruel.

  John Quincy Adams

  Sweet, Consequence

  "Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations". Book by Suzy Platt, 1992.

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• Never put off till tomorrow what you can do day after tomorrow just as well.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Life, Sarcastic

  "Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, and Essays Vol. 1 1852-1890".

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• I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness - to save oneself trouble.

  Agatha Christie

  Mother, Memorable, Thinking

  Agatha Christie (1990). “An autobiography”

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• Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more certain than ill temper.

  Hannah More

  Children, Men, Roots

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• The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth.

  Oscar Wilde

  Perfection, Laziness, Youth

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.166, Wordsworth Editions

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• Idleness is the sepulchre of a living man.

  J. G. Holland

  Men

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• The frivolous work of polished idleness.

  James Mackintosh

  Work, Polished, Frivolous

  James Mackintosh (1872). “On the Progress of Ethical Philosophy: Chiefly During the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries”, p.232

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• Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Reading, Men, People

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2013). “Emile”, p.340, Courier Corporation

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• We cannot afford idleness, waste or inefficiency.

  Eamon de Valera

  Waste, Inefficiency

  38 Copy quote

• His Labor is a Chant - His Idleness -a Tune - Oh, for a Bee's experience Of Clovers, and of Noon!

  Emily Dickinson

  Experience, Tunes, Noon

  Emily Dickinson, “Like Trains Of Cars On Tracks Of Plush”

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• Idleness does drive me crazy, but I'd rather read or write than do anything just to work. A kind of respect has been instilled in me for acting: I love it too much to ever have a bad relationship with it.

  Karen Allen

  Crazy, Writing, Bad Relationship

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• Rather do what is nothing to the purpose than be idle; that the devil may find thee doing. The bird that sits is easily shot, when fliers scape the fowler. Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and the self-made sepulchre of a living man.

  Francis Quarles

  Men, Self, Sea

  Francis Quarles (1844). “Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles”, p.85

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• A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.

  Victor Hugo

  Education, Business, Men

  Victor Hugo, Charles Edwin Wilbour (1862). “Cosette”, p.134

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• Idleness is the grand Pacific Ocean of life, and in that stagnant abyss the most salutary things produce no good, the most noxious no evil. Vice, indeed, abstractedly considered, may be, and often is engendered in idleness; but the moment it becomes efficiently vice, it must quit its cradle and cease to be idle.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Ocean, Often Is, Evil

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.312

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• Some people have a perfect genius for doing nothing, and doing it assiduously.

  Thomas Chandler Haliburton

  People, Perfect, Genius

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  Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all.

  Sam Ewing

  Motivational, Success, Attitude

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• Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and governments.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Kings, 4th Of July, Pride

  Mark Skousen, Benjamin Franklin (2005). “The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”, p.37, Regnery Publishing

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• It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Done, Laziness, May

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.86, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything.

  Floyd Dell

  Being Free, Laziness, Doing Nothing

  Floyd Dell (1921). “Were You Ever a Child?”

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