William Shakespeare - Hesiod - William Wordsworth - Artemus Ward - Isaac Watts - Samuel Johnson - The New York Times - Alexander Pope - Lord Chesterfield - Jerome K Jerome - Exodus 5:17&18 - Proverbs - Franz Kafka - Anton Chekhov - Albert Camus - Soren Kierkegaard - Vincent van Gogh - Vladimir Nabokov - Robert Tressell
Why live we idly here? William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixth I ii 13, Rene to Alencon and Charles
I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion. William Shakespeare, II Henry IV I ii 219-221, Sir John to Lord Chief Justice
Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace. Hesiod
Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness. William Wordsworth
I am happiest when I am idle. I could live for months without performing any kind of labour, and at the expiration of that time I should feel fresh and vigorous enough to go right on in the same way for numerous more months. Artemus Ward, Artemus Ward in London
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do. Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
We would all be idle if we could. Samuel Johnson, James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle. ibid.
4,000,000 Idle To Be Hired; Works Plan Bars ‘Charity’. The New York Times 9th November 1933
She marked thee there,
Stretched on the rack of a too easy chair,
And heard thy everlasting yawn confess
The pains and penalties of idleness. Alexander Pope, The Dunciad, 1742
Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds. Lord Chesterfield, 1694-1773
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. Jerome K Jerome, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, 1886
I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. Jerome K Jerome, Three Men in a Boat ch15
But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.
Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks. Exodus 5:17&18
The devil finds work for idle hands to do. Early 18th century proverb
Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues. Franz Kafka
Life does not agree with philosophy: there is no happiness that is not idleness, and only what is useless is pleasurable. Anton Chekhov
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre. Albert Camus
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. Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
There is a great difference between one idler and another idler. There is someone who is an idler out of laziness and lack of character, owing to the baseness of his nature. If you like, you may take me for one of those. Then there is the other kind of idler, the idler despite, who is inwardly consumed by a great longing for action who does nothing because his hands are tied, because he is, so to speak, imprisoned somewhere, because he lacks what he needs to be productive, because disastrous circumstances have brought him forcibly to this end. Such a one does not always know what he can do, but he nevertheless instinctively feels, I am good for something! My existence is not without reason! I know that I could be a quite a different person! How can I be of use, how can I be of service? There is something inside me, but what can it be? He is quite another idler. If you like you may take me for one of those. Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
The day, like the previous days, dragged sluggishly by in a kind of insipid idleness, devoid even of that dreamy expectancy which can make idleness so enchanting. Vladimir Nabokov, Mary
The festival [Easter] was the occasion of much cursing and blaspheming on the part of those whose penniless, poverty-striken condition it helped to aggravate by enforcing unprofitable idleness which they lacked the means to enjoy. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist