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
The kind of power I’m talking about leaves you free, since you don’t expect the rest of the world to fill you up. It’s not the ability to get someone else to do what you want them to do. It’s the ability to get yourself to do what you want to do.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
If one sheep puts its head through the gap the rest will follow.
—Irish Proverb
Each of us wrestles with the dark giant in our own way.
—Connie Zweig (b.1949) American Author, Psychotherapist
For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.
—Lily Tomlin (b.1939) American Comedy Actress
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
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
Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
—James Allen (1864–1912) British Philosophical Writer
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
Too much rest itself becomes a pain.
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet
I promise to keep on living as though I expected to live forever. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) American Military Leader
Rest breeds rust.
—German Proverb
If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
No rest is worth anything except the rest that is earned.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Philosopher
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.
—Ken Blanchard (b.1939) American Author, Management Expert
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
If you rest, you rust.
—Helen Hayes (1900–93) American Actress, Philanthropist
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
In our play we reveal what kind of people we are.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
Leisure is a beautiful garment, but it will not do for constant wear.
—Unknown
Rest unto our souls!—’tis all we want—the end of all our wishes and pursuits: we seek for it in titles, in riches and pleasures—climb up after it by ambition,—come down again and stoop for it by avarice,—try all extremes; nor is it till after many miserable experiments, that we are convinced, at last, we have been seeking everywhere for it but where there is a prospect of finding it; and that is, within ourselves, in a meek and lowly disposition of heart.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it…that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
If you are losing your leisure, look out! You are losing your soul.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Rest is the sweet sauce of labor.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
To make knowledge productive, we will have to learn to see both forest and tree. We will have to learn to connect.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
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
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
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