The rhythm of the weekend, with its birth, its planned gaieties, and its announced end, followed the rhythm of life and was a substitute for it.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
You can go to doctors until the last cow has been placed in its shed. You can journey the earth in search of peace of mind. You can experiment with a dozen theories, hoping for a relief from worries, or the problems which beset you, but unless you learn to relax you will end up disappointed. Tension is a killer! Just relax and note the immediate effect. One of peace and ease of mind. One in which every organ of the body joins. In relaxation there is unity of mind, body and spirit.
—George Matthew Adams (1878–1962) American Columnist, Journalist
Rest breeds rust.
—German Proverb
All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Rest, rest, shall I have not all eternity to rest.
—Antoine Arnauld (1612–94) French Philosopher, Lawyer, Mathematician, Theologian
A hobby is hard work you wouldn’t do for a living.
—Unknown
Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
If you rest, you rust.
—Helen Hayes (1900–93) American Actor, Philanthropist
Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness. It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs when we let our minds rest on a rosebud, a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall.
—Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) American Catholic Religious Leader, Theologian
Your hair may be brushed, but your mind’s untidy. You’ve had about seven hours of sleep since Friday. No wonder you feel that lost sensation. You’re sunk from a riot of relaxation.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
No rest is worth anything except the rest that is earned.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Leisure is gone; gone where the spinning wheels are gone, and the pack-horses, and the slow wagons, and the peddlers who brought bargains to the door on sunny afternoons.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
It should be noted that children’s games are not merely games. One should regard them as their most serious activities.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Leisure is pain; take off our chariot wheels and how heavily we drag the load of life.—It is our curse, like that of Cain; it makes us wander earth around to fly that tyrant, thought.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
Days of respite are golden days.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
It is most important that we should keep in this country a certain leisured class. I am of the opinion of the ancient Jewish book which says “there is no wisdom without leisure.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
It is necessary to relax your muscles when you can. Relaxing your brain is fatal.
—Stirling Moss (1929–2020) English Motor-Racing Driver, Broadcaster
He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
He has hard work who has nothing to do.
—Common Proverb
To be at ease is better than to be at business. Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he has who has nothing else.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose Writer
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The man who works 52 weeks in the year does not do his best in any one week of the year, Daniel Guggenheim, onetime head of the greatest smelting and mining family in America, impressed upon me. Real recreation quickens aspiration. The true purpose of recreation is not merely to amuse, not merely to afford pleasure, not merely to kill time, but to increase our fitness, enhance our usefulness, spur achievement.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
Leisure only means a chance to do other jobs that demand attention.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars. What are threescore years and ten hurriedly and coarsely lived to moments of divine leisure in which your life is coincident with the life of the universe?
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure; and since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour. Leisure is time for doing something useful, and this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never, for a life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
What is without periods of rest will not endure.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
One non-revolutionary weekend is infinitely more bloody than a month of permanent revolution.
—Unknown
And this activity alone would seem to be loved for its own sake; for nothing arises from it apart from the contemplating, while from practical activities we gain more or less apart from the action. And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Play is the exultation of the possible.
—Martin Buber (1878–1965) Austrian Jewish Theologian, Philosopher, Novelist
Put off thy cares with thy clothes; so shall thy rest strengthen thy labor; and and so shall thy labor sweeten thy rest.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
Leisure can be both a problem and a solution.
—Nathaniel LeTonnerre
Absence of occupation is not rest; a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Leisure is the mother of philosophy.
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
What the banker sighs for, the meanest clown may have-leisure and a quiet mind.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Cultivated leisure is the aim of man.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Leisure is a beautiful garment, but it will not do for constant wear.
—Unknown
Let the world have whatever sports and recreations please them best, provided they be followed with discretion.
—Richard Burton (1925–84) Welsh Actor
If you are losing your leisure, look out! You are losing your soul.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
How beautiful is it to do nothing, and then rest afterward.
—Common Proverb
In this theater of man’s life, it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers-on.
—Pythagoras (570–495 BCE) Greek Philosopher
Leisure: A fancy word for people who don’t want to admit they’re bored.
—Gene Perret
They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.
—Herman Melville (1819–91) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist, Poet
How many inner resources one needs to tolerate a life of leisure without fatigue.
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972) American Playwright, Poet, Novelist
Leisure may be defined as free activity, labor as compulsory activity. Leisure does what it likes, labor does what it must, the compulsion being that of Nature, which in these latitudes leaves men no choice between labor and starvation.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Our nature consist in motion; complete rest is death.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect