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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• Idleness is a mother. She has a son, robbery, and a daughter, hunger.

  Victor Hugo

  Daughter, Mother, Son

  Victor Hugo (1994). “Les Miserables Volume Two”, p.669, Wordsworth Editions

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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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• Idleness is the heaviest of all oppressions.

  Victor Hugo

  Wisdom, Oppression

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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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• 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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• 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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• It is because artists do not practise, patrons do not patronize, crowds do not assemble to reverently worship the great work of Doing Nothing, that the world has lost its philosophy and even failed to invent a new religion.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Philosophy, Artist, World

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• The bees can abide no drones amongst them; but as soon as they begin to be idle, they kill them.

  Plato

  Drones, Bees, Idle

  Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (1967). “Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study”

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• Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.

  Hesiod

  Disgrace

  Hesiod, Thomas Alan Sinclair (1966). “Works and Days”, p.29, Georg Olms Verlag

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

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Laziness, Idle

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

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• Convent - a place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Retirement, Women, Judging

  Ambrose Bierce (1906). “The Cynic's Word Book”, p.57, Lulu.com

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• If you are idle, you are on the road to ruin; and there are few stopping-places upon it. It is rather a precipice than a road

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Stopping, Laziness, Ruins

  Henry Ward Beecher (1850). “Industry and idleness: with causes of dishonesty : to which are appended six warnings”, p.33

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• We are lazier in our minds than in our bodies.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Mind, Body

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• Research ! A mere excuse for idleness; it has never achieved, and will never achieve any results of the slightest value.

  Benjamin Jowett

  Science, Achievement, Experience

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• From its very inaction, idleness ultimately becomes the most active cause of evil; as a palsy is more to be dreaded than a fever. The Turks have a proverb which says that the devil tempts all other men, but that idle men tempt the devil.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Evil, Temptation

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.47

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• Remove idleness from the world and soon the arts of Cupid would perish.

  Francois Rabelais

  Art, World, Cupid

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• Idleness and timidity often despair without being overcome, and forbear attempts for fear of being defeated; and we may promote the invigoration of faint endeavors, by showing what has already been performed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Despair, Overcoming, May

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.133

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• As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Peace, War, Purpose

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

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• Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Educational, Keys, Sloth

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.249

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  A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  George Bernard Shaw (2015). “The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Lectures, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more”, p.2451, e-artnow

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• Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

  Will Rogers

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  "The Graduation Speech I'd Give, if Anyone Asked" by Karina Bland, www.azcentral.com. June 03, 2015.

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