Idleness Quotes - Page 7

• 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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• Work is a dull thing; you cannot get away from that. The only agreeable existence is one of idleness, and that is not, unfortunately, always compatible with continuing to exist at all.

  Rose Macaulay

  Work, Dull, Existence

  Rose Macaulay (1926). “A Casual Commentary”

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• Idleness is the enemy of the soul.

  Anselm of Canterbury

  Soul, Enemy, Manual Labor

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• It is a mistake to imagine, that the violent passions only, such as ambition and love, can triumph over the rest. Idleness, languid as it is, often masters them all; she influences all our designs and actions, and insensibly consumes and destroys both passions and virtues.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Mistake, Passion, Ambition

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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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• 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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• 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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• We cannot afford idleness, waste or inefficiency.

  Eamon de Valera

  Waste, Inefficiency

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• 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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  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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• Inactivity and deprivation of all accustomed stimulus is not rest; it is a preparation for the tomb

  Robertson Davies

  Preparation, Deprivation, Stimulus

  Robertson Davies (2008). “Selected works on the art of writing”, Penguin Group Canada

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• They change their sky, not their mind, who cross the sea. A busy idleness possesses us: we seek a happy life, with ships and carriages: the object of our search is present with us.

  Horace

  Travel, Happy Life, Sea

  "Epistles", I. 11. 27, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 809-11, 1922.

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• The vices of idleness are only to be shaken off by active employment.

  Seneca the Younger

  Vices, Employment, Active

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• Labor is life! 'Tis the still water faileth;
  Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth;
  Keep the watch wound, for the dark rust assaileth.

  Frances Sargent Osgood

  Dark, Water, Watches

  Frances Sargent OSGOOD, Felix Octavius Carr DARLEY (1850). “Poems ... Illustrated by ... Darley, etc”, p.44

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• An idle life always produces varied inclinations.

  Lucan

  Produce, Idle, Inclination

  "Pharsalia", IV. 704 in "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, (pp. 384-385), 1922.

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• Our rulers will best promote the improvement of the nation by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties, by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment, by maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of law, and by observing strict economy in every department of the state. Let the Government do this: the People will assuredly do the rest.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Peace, Government, Law

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• Beauty and art pervade all the business of life like a kindly genius, brightly adorning our surroundings whether interior or exterior, mitigating the seriousness of existence and the complexities of the real life, extinguishing idleness in an entertaining fashion, and, where there is nothing good to be achieved, filling the place of vice better than vice itself.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Fashion, Art, Real

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• The state, by relieving idleness, improvidence, or misconduct from punishment, and depriving abstinence and foresight of the reward, which have been provided for them by nature, may indeed destroy wealth, but most certainly will aggravate poverty.

  Nassau William Senior

  Punishment, Poverty, May

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• Idleness is the beginning of all psychology. What? Could it be that psychology is ? a vice?

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Psychology, Vices

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• Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all virtues. Be active in business, that temptation may miss her aim; the bird that sits is easily shot.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Sea, Bird, Missing

  Benjamin Franklin (2004). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.275, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• ... Oceanic malaise. I never saw anyone reading anything more demanding than a comic book. I never heard any youth express an interest in science or art. No one even talked politics. It was all idleness, and whenever I asked someone a question, no matter how simple, no matter how well the person spoke English, there was always a long pause before I got a reply, and I found these Pacific pauses maddening. And there was giggling but no humor - no wit. It was just foolery.

  Paul Theroux

  Art, Book, Reading

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• Transfer payments discourage the recipients from earning income in the present and from investing in their potential to earn income in the future. People respond to a reduced cost of idleness by choosing to be idle more often.

  Robert Higgs

  People, Income, Cost

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• Provide yourself with such work for your hands as can be done, if possible, both during the day and at night, so that you are not a burden to anyone, and indeed can give to others, as St. Paul the Apostle advises (cf. I Thess. 2:9; Eph. 4:28). In this manner you will overcome the demon of listlessness and drive away all the desires suggested by the enemy; for the demon of listlessness takes advantage of idleness. 'Every idle man is full of desires' (Prov. 13:4 LXX).

  Evagrius Ponticus

  Christian, Night, Men

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• So long as idleness is quite shut out from our lives, all the sins of wantonness, softness, and effeminacy are prevented; and there is but little room for temptation.

  Jeremy Taylor

  Long, Temptation, Littles

  Jeremy Taylor, Charles Page Eden, Reginald Heber, Alexander Taylor (1856). “The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor ...: The rule and exercises of holy living and dying”, p.10

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• Do not be deceived! The busiest people harbor the greatest weariness, their restlessness is weakness--they no longer have the capacity for waiting and idleness.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  People, Waiting, Weakness

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