Idleness Quotes - Page 8

• And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,
  Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Honey, Pairs, Sole

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (2001). “The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge”, p.1033, Princeton University Press

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• Poverty is not dishonorable in itself, but only when it comes from idleness, intemperance, extravagance, and folly.

  Plutarch

  Extravagance, Poverty, Poor

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• Love is the natural occupation of the man of leisure.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Love, Men, Occupation

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• The time's come: there's a terrific thunder-cloud advancing upon us, a mighty storm is coming to freshen us up....It's going to blow away all this idleness and indifference, and prejudice against work....I'm going to work, and in twenty-five or thirty years' time every man and woman will be working.

  Anton Chekhov

  Change, Blow, Men

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• Wine is the source of the greatest evils among communities. It causes diseases, quarrels, seditions, idleness, aversion to labor, and family disorders. . . . It is a species of poison that causes madness. It does not make a man die, but it degrades him into a brute. Men may preserve their health and vigor without wine; with wine they run the risk of ruining their health and losing their morals.

  Francois Fenelon

  Running, Wine, Men

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• Idleness ruins the constitution

  Ovid

  Ruins, Constitution

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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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• Idleness is righteous if it is comfortable. Uncomfortable idleness is sin & sinful waste.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Leisure, Waste, Sin

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, Claire Harman (1994). “The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner”, Virago Pr

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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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• 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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• In the matter of piety, poverty serves us better than wealth, and work better than idleness, especially since wealth becomes an obstacle even for those who do not devote themselves to it.

  Saint John Chrysostom

  Matter, Poverty, Obstacles

  Saint John Chrysostom, Paul William Harkins (1963). “Baptismal Instructions”, p.184, Paulist Press

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• I am deeply moved when I write. I get turned on by it. I've never used any drugs for stimulation. I don't use words loosely. When I'm working and the right word comes, there is an answering resonance within me. There is also a hardness of intention that goes with it. There is no idleness in it.

  Saul Bellow

  Writing, Drug, Use

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• I was never comfortable with the risk of climbing in the Himalayas, or the amount of time in idleness that is involved in the Everest expedition.

  Steve Fossett

  Climbing, Risk, Himalayas

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• When I look back at the past and think of all the time I squandered in error and idleness,... then my heart bleeds. Life is a gift... every minute could have been an eternity of happiness! If only youth knew! Now my life will change; now I will be reborn.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Heart, Past, Thinking

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• To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there's more idleness and abuse of government favors among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged.

  Norman Mailer

  Taken, Government, Judging

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• Taxes are indeed very heavy -
  We are taxed twice as much by our Idleness.
  Three times as much by our Pride.
  And four times as much by our Folly.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Pride, Three, Taxation

  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.248

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• There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in idleness alone there is perpetual despair.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Work, Men, Despair

  Thomas Carlyle (1872). “Past and Present”, p.168

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• Surely nothing is more reproachful to a being endowed with reason, than to resign its powers to the influence of the air, and live in dependence on the weather and the wind, for the only blessings which nature has put into our power, tranquillity and benevolence. To look up to the sky for the nutriment of our bodies, is the condition of nature; to call upon the sun for peace and gaiety, or deprecate the clouds lest sorrow should overwhelm us, is the cowardice of idleness, and the idolatry of folly.

  Samuel Johnson

  Blessing, Clouds, Air

  Samuel Johnson, Peter Martin (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.73, Harvard University Press

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• Dreaming is a form of action. Idleness is a form of action. The idle man stares at the sky and sees what constitutes our eternal ceiling. The sky is one of the things that constructs us, one of our constants. But it is not what people believe. I should like to close this circle by turning over in my bed and scrutinizing the stars.

  Philippe Starck

  Dream, Stars, Believe

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• It is hard to rescue a man from the slough of luxury and idleness combined. If anything can do it, it is a cradle filled annually.

  Anthony Trollope

  Men, Luxury, Cradle

  Anthony Trollope (2016). “Ayala's Angel”, p.523, Jester House Publishing

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• Mrs. Jo did not mean the measles, but that more serious malady called love, which is apt to ravage communities, spring and autumn, when winter gayety and summer idleness produce whole bouquets of engagements, and set young people to pairing off like the birds.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Summer, Spring, Mean

  Louisa May Alcott (2016). “The 'Little Women' Trilogy (Illustrated)”, p.674, ShandonPress

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• This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting. A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Flower, Men, Bird

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Walden; Or, Life in the Woods”, p.73, Courier Corporation

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• I am suggesting that we spend a little less time in idleness, in the fruitless pursuit of watching inane and empty television programs. Time so utilized can be put to better advantage, and the consequences will be wonderful.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Television, Littles, Wonderful

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• I know of nothing that is so degenerating and so dangerous as idleness, for the brain will seek out mischief.

  Francis M. Lyman

  Work, Brain, Dangerous

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