Idleness is emptiness; the tree in which the sap is stagnant, remains fruitless.
—Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) American Theologian
Idleness is the gate of all harms. — An idle man is like a house that hath no walls; the devils may enter on every side.
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) English Poet, Philosopher, Diplomat, Bureaucrat
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
Employment, which Galen calls “nature’s physician,” is so essential to human happiness that indolence is justly considered as the mother of misery.
—Richard Burton (1925–84) Welsh Actor
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
Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness with others.
—Samuel Butler
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
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
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Few women and fewer men have enough character to be idle.
—E. V. Lucas (1868–1938) English Author, Historian
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.
Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.
Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness — the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy. — He that rises late must trot all day, and hall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
Sluggish idleness–the nurse of sin.
—Edmund Spenser (1552–99) English Poet
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
The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest, for he has not earned it.
—John Lubbock (1834–1913) English Politician, Biologist
I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Idleness is many gathered miseries in one name.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
There is really nothing left to a genuine idle man, who possesses any considerable degree of vital power, but sin.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
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
In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
—Thurgood Marshall (1908–93) American Jurist
A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
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
If idleness do not produce vice or malevolence, it commonly produces melancholy.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.
—Hesiod (f.700 BCE) Greek Poet
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
It has been said that idleness is the parent of mischief—which is very true; but mischief itself is merely an attempt to escape from the dreary vacuum of idleness.
—George Borrow (1803–81) English Writer, Traveler
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
His labour is a chant,
His idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee’s experience
Of clovers and of noon.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
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 (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Idleness is sweet, and its consequences are cruel.
—John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) Sixth President of the USA
Absence of occupation is not rest; a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Idleness is the key of beggary, and the root of all evil.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
He doth all things with sadness and with peevishness, slackness and excusation, with idleness and without good will.
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) English Poet, Philosopher, Diplomat, Bureaucrat
When the woman slumbers, the workbasket falls to the ground.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Too much idleness, I have observed, fills up a man’s time much more completely, and leaves him less his own master, than any sort of employment whatsoever.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman