There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Leisure only means a chance to do other jobs that demand attention.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Leisure time is often filled with other obligations that require our focus.
This quote emphasizes that leisure is not merely a time for relaxation, but often becomes an opportunity to tackle other responsibilities and tasks that we need to manage in our busy lives. It reflects on the modern perception of leisure as time off, suggesting that such time is frequently consumed by other jobs or duties, highlighting the continuous demand for our attention.
Themes
LeisureAttentionResponsibilitiesBusyObligations
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech discussing work-life balance, one might say, 'As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. observed, leisure only means a chance to do other jobs that demand attention.'
More from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
All quotes βOn the whole, I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirms the worth of life as an end in itself, as against the saints who deny it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Why should you row a boat race? Why endure the long months of pain in preparation for a fierce half hour that will leave you all but dead? Does anyone ask the question? Is there anyone who would not go through all the costs, and more, for the moment when anguish breaks into triumph or even for the glory of having nobly lost? Is life less than a boat race? If a man will give the blood in his body to win the one, will he spend all the might of his soul to prevail in the other?
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make facts live.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Beware how you take away hope from another human being.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
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