No one needs a vacation more than the person who just had one.
—Unknown
Leisure is the mother of philosophy.
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
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
What is without periods of rest will not endure.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
If you rest, you rust.
—Helen Hayes (1900–93) American Actor, Philanthropist
Leisure is a beautiful garment, but it will not do for constant wear.
—Unknown
How many inner resources one needs to tolerate a life of leisure without fatigue.
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972) American Playwright, Poet, Novelist
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
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
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
The basis on which good repute in any highly organized industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good name, are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods
—Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) American Economist, Social Critic
When a habit begins to cost money, it’s called a hobby.
—Yiddish Proverb
Rest breeds rust.
—German Proverb
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
A hobby is hard work you wouldn’t do for a living.
—Unknown
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
A man can never be idle with safety and advantage until he has been so trained by work that he makes his freedom from times and tasks more fruitful than his toil has been.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846–1916) American Essayist, Editor
If you are losing your leisure, look out! You are losing your soul.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Leisure can be both a problem and a solution.
—Nathaniel LeTonnerre
Cultivated leisure is the aim of man.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Play is the exultation of the possible.
—Martin Buber (1878–1965) Austrian Jewish Theologian, Philosopher, Novelist
Rest is the sweet sauce of labor.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
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
No rest is worth anything except the rest that is earned.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
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
Absence of occupation is not rest; a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Leisure only means a chance to do other jobs that demand attention.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
You cannot give an instance of any man who is permitted to lay out his own time, contriving not to have tedious hours.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
There is room enough in human life to crowd almost every art and science in it. If we pass “no day without a line”—visit no place without the company of a book—we may with ease fill libraries, or empty them of their contents. The more we do, the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
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
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
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
Days of respite are golden days.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Many concerns now make part or the whole of their dividends from by-products that formerly went to waste. How do we, as individuals, utilize our principal by-product? Our principal by-product is, of course, our leisure time. Many years of observation forces the conclusion that a man’s success or failure in life is determined as much by how he acts during his leisure as by how he acts during his work hours. Tell me how a young man spends his evenings and I will tell you how he is likely to spend the latter part of his life.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
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
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
For too much rest becomes a pain.
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet
The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the time supposed to benefit him really only stupefies him.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
He that will make a good use of any part of his life must allow a large part of it to recreation.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
How beautiful is it to do nothing, and then rest afterward.
—Common Proverb
Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
Leisure: A fancy word for people who don’t want to admit they’re bored.
—Gene Perret
Spare minutes are the Gold-dust of time; the portions of life most fruitful in good and evil; the gaps through which temptations enter.
—Unknown
He has hard work who has nothing to do.
—Common Proverb
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