Idleness Quotes - Page 3

• It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.

  Jerome K. Jerome

  Success, Work, Stress

  Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) "On Being Idle"

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• Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy; and he that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Night, Sloth, Laziness

  Benjamin Franklin (1839). “Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin”, p.6

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• To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Money, Done, Idle

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• Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Inspirational, Motivational, Time

  "Manners and speech or maxims extracted from Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son". Book by Lord Chesterfield, 1884.

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• He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Business, Night, Laziness

  Benjamin Franklin (2004). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.286, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes it.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Work, Lazy

  Benjamin Franklin (1824). “The Works of Benjamin Franklin Consisting of Essays, Humorous, Moral and Literary, with His Life, Written by Himself”, p.244

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• Idle people are often bored and bored people, unless they sleep a lot, are cruel. It is not accident that boredom and cruelty are great preoccupations in our time.

  Renata Adler

  Sleep, Blessing, Boredom

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• All universal moral principles are idle fancies.

  Marquis de Sade

  Principles, Fancy, Moral

  Sade (marquis de), Marquis de Sade (1987). “The 120 days of Sodom and other writings”, Grove Pr

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

  John Bunyan

  Men, Brain, Devil

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• Grief is a species of idleness.

  Samuel Johnson

  Grief, Sorrow, Species

  Letter to Mrs Thrale, 17 March 1773, in R. W. Chapman (ed.) 'The Letters of Samuel Johnson' (1952) vol. 1

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• Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness.

  William Wordsworth

  Sports, Retirement, Golf

  'The Prelude' (1850) bk. 4, l. 376

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• What heart can think, or tongue express, The harm that groweth of idleness?

  John Heywood

  Heart, Thinking, Tongue

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• Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Vacancy, Calm, Gloomy

  Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume I: 1731-1772”, p.238, Princeton University Press

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• An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands.

  William Cowper

  Hands, Watches, Idlers

  William Cowper (1872). “The poetical works of William Cowper: Complete ed., with memoir, explanatory notes etc”, p.208

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• I learned...that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.

  Brenda Ueland

  Inspiration, Creativity, Creating

  Brenda Ueland (2013). “If You Want to Write”, p.37, Simon and Schuster

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• Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Spring, Toil, Ease

  Benjamin Franklin (1820). “Poor Richard; or, The way to wealth”, p.11

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• Busy idleness urges us on.
  [Lat., Strenua nos exercet inertia.]

  Horace

  Busy, Inertia, Urges

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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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• Every man is, or hopes to be, an idler.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Idlers, Every Man

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Adventurer and Idler”, p.152

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• Nine-tenths of the miseries and vices of mankind proceed from idleness.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Vices, Nine, Misery

  Thomas Carlyle (1857). “Life of Friedrich Schiller (1825): Life of John Sterling (1851)”, p.38

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• Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness.

  Samuel Butler

  Work, Men, Sin

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Samuel Butler's notebooks”

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• Idleness and lack of occupation tend - nay are dragged - towards evil.

  Hippocrates

  Evil, Occupation

  Hippocrates, Paul Potter (1984). “Hippocrates”

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• Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Mind, Glitter, Laziness

  'Letters to his Son' (1774) 20 July 1749

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• Other men have acquired fame by industry, but this man by indolence.

  Tacitus

  Men, Fame, Indolence

  "Annales". Book by Tacitus, XVI. 18, AD 117.

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• Extreme busyness is a symptom of deficient vitality, and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Strong, Catholic, Identity

  1881 Virginibus Puerisque,'An Apology for Idlers'.

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