60 quotes found
“Nine-tenths of the miseries and vices of mankind proceed from idleness.”
“Even if a farmer intends to loaf he gets up in time to get an early start.”
“Did nothing in particular and did it very well.”
“If a soldier or labourer complains of the hardship of his lot set him to do nothing.”
“I suppose the secret of his success is in his tremendous idleness which almost approaches the supernatural.”
“It’s how I fill the time when nothing’s happening. Thinking too much, flirting with melancholy.”
“A conclusion I’ve come to at the Idler is that it starts with retreating from work but it’s really about making work into something that isn’t drudgery and slavery, and then work and life can becom...”
“I didn’t want to give up my job and join the ranks of the Doing Fuck All brigade no matter how much money I had in the bank.”
“A physician can sometimes bury the scythe of death but he has no power over the sand in the hourglass.”
“There is less leisure now than in the Middle Ages when one third of the year consisted of holidays and festivals.”
“Any fool can be fussy and rid himself of energy all over the place but a man has to have something in him before he can settle down to do nothing.”
“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.”
“Of all our faults the one that we excuse most easily is idleness.”
“Idleness like kisses to be sweet must be stolen.”
“Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest without passion without business without entertainment without care. It is then that he recognizes that he is empty insufficient dependent in...”
“How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterward.”
“Some people have a perfect genius for doing nothing and doing it assiduously.”
“He is not only idle who does nothing but he is idle who might be better employed.”
