Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The hardest work is to go idle
—Yiddish Proverb
He is not only idle who does nothing, but he is idle who might be better employed.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Ten thousand harms more than the ills we knew, our idleness doth hatch.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market, 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 (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
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 the fliers escape the fowler.—Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and is the self-made sepulcher of a living man.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
Idleness is many gathered miseries in one name.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Every man is, or hopes to be, an idler.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Men who have attained things worth having in this world have worked while others idled, have persevered when others gave up in despair, have practiced early in life the valuable habits of self-denial, industry, and singleness of purpose. As a result, they enjoy in later life the success so often erroneously attributed to good luck.
—Grenville Kleiser (1868–1935) Canadian Author
Be not solitary, be not idle
—Robert Burton (1577–1640) English Scholar, Clergyman
Idleness is emptiness; the tree in which the sap is stagnant, remains fruitless.
—Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) American Theologian
An idle life always produces varied inclinations.
—Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) (39–65 CE) Roman Statesman, Latin Poet
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 (1709–84) British Essayist
The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
In travelling I shape myself betimes to idleness And take fools’ pleasure
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Millions are idle, but it’s comforting to know that most of them have jobs.
—Unknown
Idleness is the only refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
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 (1613–80) French Writer
Idleness is the burial of a living man.
—Jeremy Taylor
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
Idleness is an appendix to nobility.
—Robert Burton (1577–1640) English Scholar, Clergyman
There is one piece of advice, in a life of study, which I think no one will object to: and that is, every now and then to be completely idle, to do nothing at all.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
In such a world as ours the idle man is not so much a biped as a bivalve; and the wealth which breeds idleness, of which the English peerage is an example, and of which we are beginning to abound in specimens in this country, is only a sort of human oyster bed, where heirs and heiresses are planted, to spend a contemptible life of slothfulness in growing plump and succulent for the grave-worms’ banquet.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
The insupportable labor of doing nothing.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
Sometimes I think that idlers seem to be a special class for whom nothing can be planned, plead as one will with them—their only contribution to the human family is to warm a seat at the common table.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Worse than idle is compassion if it ends in tears and sighs.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
The busy man is troubled with but one devil; the idle man by a thousand.
—Spanish Proverb
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
Idleness is an inlet to disorder, and makes way for licentiousness.—People who have nothing to do are quickly tired of their own company.
—Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) Anglican Church Historian, Clergyman
Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all virtues
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
There is nothing worse than an idle hour, with no occupation offering. People who have many such hours are simply animals waiting docilely for death. We all come to that state soon or late. It is the curse of senility.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Nine-tenths of the miseries and vices of mankind proceed from idleness.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
Absence of occupation is not rest; a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
The idle man stands outside of God’s plan, outside of the ordained scheme of things; and the truest self-respect, the noblest independence, and the most genuine dignity, are not to be found there.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
Idleness is more an infirmity of the mind than of the body.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
—Thurgood Marshall (1908–93) American Jurist
The clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
Life is mostly froth and bubble. Two things stand like stone: Dodging duty at the double, leaving work alone.
—Unknown
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 (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
Idleness is the key of beggary, and the root of all evil.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
Idleness is the badge of the gentry, the bane of body and mind, the nurse of naughtiness, the stepmother of discipline, the chief author of all mischief, one of the seven deadly sins, the cushion upon which the devil chiefly reposes, and a great cause not only of melancholy, but of many other diseases; for the mind is naturally active, and, if it is not occupied about some honest business, it rushes into mischief or sinks into melancholy.
—Robert Burton (1577–1640) English Scholar, Clergyman
They that do nothing are in the readiest way to do that which is worse than nothing.
—Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann (1728–1795) Swiss Philosophical Writer, Naturalist, Physician
Common experience shows how much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men will march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse an unpopular cause.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
The hardest work of all is to do nothing.
—Common Proverb
It is not the hours we put in on the job, it is what we put into the hours that counts.
—Sidney Madwed (1926–2013) American Poet, Author
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Much bending breaks the bow; much unbending the mind.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher