Quotes on Idleness

Upon this subject, the habits of our whole species fall into three great classes--useful labour, useless labour and idleness. Of these the first only is meritorious; and to it all the products of labour rightfully belong; but the two latter, while they exist, are heavy pensioners upon the first, robbing it of a large portion of it's just rights. The only remedy for this is to, as far as possible, drive useless labour and idleness out of existence.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night.

Trace Science, then, with Modesty thy guide,_x000D_ _x000D_ First strip off all her equipage of Pride,_x000D_ _x000D_ Deduct what is but Vanity or Dress,_x000D_ _x000D_ Or Learning's Luxury or idleness,_x000D_ _x000D_ Or tricks, to show the stretch of the human brain_x000D_ _x000D_ Mere curious pleasure or ingenious pain.

Let us be grateful to Adam: he cut us out of the blessing of idleness and won for us the curse of labor.

Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes it.

Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and governments.

Idleness, pleasure, what abysses! To do nothing is a dreary course to take, be sure of it. To live idle upon the substance of society! To be useless, that is to say, noxious! This leads straight to the lowest depth of misery.

Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work.

Idleness, we are accustomed to say, is the root of all evil. To prevent this evil, work is recommended.... Idleness as such is by no means a root of evil; on the contrary, it is truly a divine life, if one is not bored.

...and gradually his face assumed the expressions which are so often found among rich people - the expressions of discontent, of sickliness, of displeasure, of idleness, of lovelessness. Slowly the soul sickness of the rich crept over him.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Life does not agree with philosophy: There is no happiness that is not idleness, and only what is useless is pleasurable.

Nine-tenths of the miseries and vices of mankind proceed from idleness.

People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.

Everyone should be taught the nobility of labor, the heroism and splendor of honest effort. As long as it is considered disgraceful to labor, or aristocratic not to labor, the world will be filled with idleness and crime, and with every possible moral deformity.

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness - to save oneself trouble.

To be idle requires a strong sense of personal identity.

Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright.

Boredom is a certain sign that we are allowing our faculties to rust in idleness.