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Idleness Quotes

Browse 458 quotes about Idleness.

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Idleness Quotes

“What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? (Just to give you an idea, Proust's reply was 'To be separated from Mama.') I think that the lowest depth of misery ought to be distinguished from the highest pitch of anguish. In the lower depths come enforced idleness, sexual boredom, and/or impotence. At the highest pitch, the death of a friend or even the fear of the death of a child.”

ChildrenDeathSexFearFriendsMiseryMothersAnguishIdlenessImpotenceProustProust Questionnaire
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“If [a man] spent his money, say, in giving parties for his friends, they (we may hope) would get pleasure, and so would all those upon whom he spent money, such as the butcher, the baker, and the bootlegger. But if he spends it (let us say) upon laying down rails for surface cars in some place where surface cars turn out not to be wanted, he has diverted a mass of labor into channels where it gives pleasure to no one. Nevertheless, when he becomes poor through failure of his investment he will be regarded as a victim of undeserved misfortune, whereas the gay spendthrift, who has spent his money philanthropically, will be despised as a fool and a frivolous person.”

ValuesFriendshipPleasureMoneyLeisureIdleness
Book:In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays
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“If you wait for the mango fruits to fall, you'd be wasting your time while others are learning how to climb the tree”

LifeFactsWisdomTruthActionMotivationTimeFallOpportunityWaitingInspiringBusinessPracticeLearningTreeReadyHard WorkIndustryActivityWasteIndependenceFruitFood For ThoughtSelfishWinnerSelfishnessEnterpriseLazyParadoxYieldLazinessFreeIdleIdlenessFatigueFactBeginningReadinessStartDoHardworkUpMotionAgilityMaximAttemptClimbBallgameMangoOn TopFree Gift
Book:The Book of Maxims, Poems and Anecdotes
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“Ivanov: I am a bad, pathetic and worthless individual. One needs to be pathetic, too, worn out and drained by drink, like Pasha, to be still fond of me and to respect me. My God, how I despise myself! I so deeply loathe my voice, my walk, my hands, these clothes, my thoughts. Well, isn't that funny, isn't that shocking? Less than a year ago I was healthy and strong, I was cheerful, tireless, passionate, I worked with these very hands, I could speak to move even Philistines to tears, I could cry when I saw grief, I became indignant when I encountered evil. I knew inspiration, I knew the charm and poetry of quiet nights when from dusk to dawn you sit at your desk or indulge you mind with dreams. I believed, I looked into the future as into the eyes of my own mother... And now, my God, I am exhausted, I do not believe, I spend my days and nights in idleness.”

DespairIdlenessPathetic
Book:Ivanov
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“My greatest urge in life is to do nothing. It's not even an absence of motivation, a lack, for I do have a strong urge: to do nothing. To down tools, to stop. Except I know that if I do that I will fall into despair, and I know that it is worth doing anything in one's power to avoid depression because from there, from being depressed, it is only an imperceptible step to despair: the last refuge of the ego.”

PhilosophyMotivationActivityDespairDepressionIdleness
Book:Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling With D.H. Lawrence
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“I have often wondered whether especially those days when we are forced to remain idle are not precisely the days spend in the most profound activity. Whether our actions themselves, even if they do not take place until later, are nothing more than the last reverberations of a vast movement that occurs within us during idle days. In any case, it is very important to be idle with confidence, with devotion, possibly even with joy. The days when even our hands do not stir are so exceptionally quiet that it is hardly possible to raise them without hearing a whole lot.”

LifeWorkStillnessIdleness
Book:Letters on Life
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“Work was intended not to give a man a reason to live, but rather to give him a means to live.”

LifeReasonPurposeHumanityPeaceWorkMoneyBusinessAttitudeResponsibilityDesignFoodHard WorkAmbitionLivingEthicsResourcesLaborSlaveryBillsBusyLifestyleVanityMaking MoneyEnjoymentPeace Of MindJobVacationLazinessWork EthicCareerRelaxationVocationIdlenessWorkingHustleIntentMeansHustlerSlothfulnessMoney MakingMake A LivingEnjoyment Of LifeHard Labor
Book:Healology
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“When I'm working I'm wishing I was doing nothing and when I'm doing nothing I'm wondering if I should be working. I hurry through what I've got to do and then, when I've got nothing to do, I keep glancing at the clock, wishing it was time to go out. Then, when I'm out, I'm wondering how long it will be before I'm back home.”

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Book:Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling With D.H. Lawrence
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“They call it "business" because it does not become successful by a person's "idleness". Go get busy if you want to do business; but be busy for the right reasons!”

InspirationalInspirationMotivationalSuccessMotivationBusinessSuccessfulInspiredBusyFood For ThoughtIsraelmore AyivorLazyLazinessRightIdlePersonIdlenessActBe InspiredDo ItReasonsDo SomethingTake ActionsMake ItGet BusyRight ReasonsBe BusyDo BusinessLazy Drone
Book:The Great Hand Book of Quotes
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“Twice already I have mentioned that strayed chicks fall a prey to "hooligan" cocks. These hang about the rookery often in little bands. At the beginning of the season there are very few of them, but later they increase greatly, do much damage, and cause a great deal of annoyance to the peaceful inhabitants. The few to be found at first probably are cocks who have not succeeded in finding mates, and consequently are "at a loose end." Later on, as their numbers are so greatly increased, they must be widowers, whose mates have lost their lives in one way or another. Many of the colonies, especially those nearer the water, are plagued by little knots of "hooligans," who hang about their outskirts, and should a chick go astray it stands a good chance of losing its life at their hands. The crimes which they commit are such as to find no place in this book, but it is interesting indeed to note that, when nature intends them to find employment, these birds, like men degenerate in idleness.”

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Author:George Levick
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“Her thoughts were silently fixed on the irreparable injury which too early an independence and its consequent habits of idleness, dissipation, and luxury, had made in the mind, the character, the happiness, of a man who, to every advantage of person and talents, united a disposition naturally open and honest, and a feeling, affectionate temper. The world had made him extravagant and vain—Extravagance and vanity had made him cold-hearted and selfish. Vanity, while seeking its own guilty triumph at the expense of another, had involved him in a real attachment, which extravagance, or at least its offspring, necessity, had required to be sacrificed. Each faulty propensity in leading him to evil, had led him likewise to punishment.”

CharacterMoralityPunishmentVanityHabitsIdleness
Book:Sense and Sensibility
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“We are great fools. 'He has spent his life in idleness,' we say, and 'I have done nothing today.' What! have you not lived? That is not only the fundamental, but the most noble of your occupations. 'If I had been put in charge of some great affair, I might have shown what I could do.' Have you been able to reflect on your life and control it? Then you have performed the greatest work of all. To reveal herself and do her work, nature has no need of fortune. She manifests herself equally at all levels, and behind curtains as well as in the open. Our duty is to compose our character, not to compose books, to win not battles and provinces, but order and tranquility in our conduct. Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live properly. All other things -- to reign, to lay up treasure, to build -- are at best but little aids and additions.”

CharacterAmbitionExperienceIdlenessOn Experience
Author:Montaigne
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“There are two types of patience. One is exercised in hard work and the other in idleness. Patience with hard work is the one that moves mountains. Patience in idleness moves nothing, not even cobwebs.”

TwoHardWorkHard WorkExercisePatiencePatientFood For ThoughtIsraelmore AyivorIdleIdlenessBe PatientNothingWork HardOneMoveMove MountainsTake Your Time1CobwebsTypesPatience Moves MountainsDon T Rush2One By OneTwo TypesOne TwoDon T Be In HasteMoutains
Book:The Great Hand Book of Quotes
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“Then turn your eyes back on me, and tell me that Cathy and I are still children to be treated with condescension, and are incapable of understanding adult subjects. We haven't remained idle, twiddling our thumbs while you were off having a good time.”

ChildrenPhilosophyWisdomKidsUnderstandingSubjectsYouthExperienceAbandonedEyesIncapableIdlenessUnderstandThumbsCondescendingCondescensionAwayGood TimeAbandonementAdult Subjects
Book:Flowers in the Attic
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