If one sheep puts its head through the gap the rest will follow.
—Irish Proverb
The affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests, and he who reasons in any one of them, without consulting the rest, is a visionary unsuited to control the business of the world.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist
How beautiful is it to do nothing, and then rest afterward.
—Common Proverb
Rest is a fine medicine. Let your stomachs rest, ye dyspeptics; let your brain rest, you wearied and worried men of business; let your limbs rest, ye children of toil.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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
Never make your appeal to a man’s better nature; he may not have one. Always make your appeal to his self-interest.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
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
To this military attitude of the soul we give the name of Heroism… It is a self-trust which slights the restraints of prudence, in the plenitude of its energy and power to repair the harms it may suffer. The hero is a mind of such balance that no disturbances can shake his will…
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Pursuing success is like chasing the horizon, and failure is an integral part of an interesting life.
—Unknown
Alternate rest and labor long endure.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
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
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
Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.
—Thomas Dekker
The benefits of becoming fluent in a foreign tongue are as underestimated as the difficulty is overestimated. Thousands of theoretical linguists will disagree, but I know from research and personal experimentation with more than a dozen languages that (1) adults can learn languages much faster than children when constant 9-5 work is removed and that (2) it is possible to become conversationally fluent in any language in six months or less. At four hours per day, six months can be whittled down to less than three months.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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, Architect
In every forest, on every farm, in every orchard on earth, it’s what’s under the ground that creates what’s above the ground. That’s why placing your attention on the fruits that you have already grown is futile. You cannot change the fruits that are already hanging on the tree. You can, however, change tomorrow’s fruits. But to do so, you will have to dig below the ground and strengthen the roots.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
The personal power that comes from principle-centered living is the power of a self-aware, knowledgeable, proactive individual, unrestricted by the attitudes, behaviors, and actions of others or by many of the circumstances and environmental influences that limit other people.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
Leisure is the mother of philosophy.
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
Rest, rest, shall I have not all eternity to rest.
—Antoine Arnauld (1612–94) French Philosopher, Lawyer, Mathematician, Theologian
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
No rest is worth anything except the rest that is earned.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Philosopher
No one needs a vacation more than the person who just had one.
—Unknown
He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Absence of occupation is not rest; a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
He has hard work who has nothing to do.
—Common Proverb
When a habit begins to cost money, it’s called a hobby.
—Yiddish Proverb
If you rest, you rust.
—Helen Hayes (1900–93) American Actress, Philanthropist
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
The art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of energy in our great men.
—James Arthur Hadfield (1882–1967) British Psychoanalysts
Leave a Reply