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Indolence Quotes

Browse 163 quotes about Indolence.

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Indolence Quotes

“I was young at Myna, that first time. When had the change come? He had retreated to here, to Collegium, to spin his awkward webs of intrigue and to lecture at the College. Then, years on, the call had come for action. He had gone to that chest in which he stored his youth and found that, like some armour long unworn, it had rusted away. He tried to tell himself that this was not like the grumbling of any other man who finds the prime of his life behind him. I need my youth and strength now, as never before. A shame that one could no husband time until one needed it. All his thoughts rang hollow. He was past his best and that was the thorn that would not be plucked from his side. He was no different from any tradesman or scholar who, during a life of indolence, pauses partway up the stairs to think, This was not so hard, yesterday.”

AgeYouthAgingIndolenceLost YouthStenwold MakerCollegiumThorn In Side
Book:Dragonfly Falling
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“For any recipe writer, the mark of success isn't teaching people how to cook well, it's showing them how to think well about food, of which 90 per cent is just about having the confidence to disagree. Margaret got into the history of things, explaining that flummery-- a jellied fruit cream-- used to be set with the shavings of the horn of a young deer, and then was made using the gelatinous powers of simmered calves' foot, and then with isinglass-- a collagen derived from the swim bladder of a fish. In the end, she gave you a more down-to-earth raspberry syllabub recipe with Sauternes, rosewater and cream. Margaret could give a detailed appraisal of tinned foods or she could convince you-- like she convinced me-- that a cheese soufflé isn't just a reasonable proposition but in fact an easy midweek lunch. 'Why should people enjoy cooking?' Margaret would say, because she knew it was her job to put forward a case.”

WriterFood WritingIndolenceDiscerning
Book:All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now
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“I saw myself as reviving a certain mode of life, a mode that had been almost lost: the contemplative life of the country gentleman, in harmony with his status and history. In Renaissance times they had called it sprezzatura. The idea was to do whatever one did with grace, to imbue one’s every action with beauty, while at the same time making it look quite effortless. Thus, if one were to work at, say, law, one should raise it to the level of an art; if one were to laze, then one must laze beautifully. This, they said, was the true meaning of being an aristocrat.”

ArtLife QuotesWealthLazyIndolenceAristocratSprezzatura
Author:Paul Murray
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“My problem isn’t death but old age. I fret about my lack of balance, my buckling knee, my difficulty standing up and sitting down. Yesterday I fell asleep in an armchair. I never fall asleep in a chair. Indolence overcomes me every day. I sit daydreaming about what I might do next: putting on a sweater or eating a piece of pie or calling my daughter. Sometimes I break through my daydream to stand up. At Christmas or birthday, I no longer want objects, even books. I want things I can eat, cheddar or Stilton, my daughter’s chili, and replacements for worn-out khakis, T-shirts, socks, and underwear.”

ChallengesAgingOld AgeSleepingIndolenceSeniorsSenior CitizensPhysical Ailments
Book:Essays After Eighty
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“To the casual observer it may have looked like I was living a life of indolence, compared to the noisy industry with which the city to the north was ripping itself to pieces. It was true that, after a brief but regrettable entanglement with Higher Learning, I had fairly much confined my activities to the house and its environs. The simple fact of it was that I was happy there, and as I didn’t have any skills to speak of, or gifts to impart, I didn’t see why I ought to burden the world with my presence. It was not true, however, to say that I did nothing.”

LazyWealthyPrivilegedIndolenceInsulated
Author:Paul Murray
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“The town of L— represented the earth, with its sorrows and its graves left behind, yet not out of sight, nor wholly forgotten. The ocean, in everlasting but gentle agitation, and brooded over by a dove-like calm, might not unfitly typify the mind and the mood which then swayed it. For it seemed to me as if then first I stood at a distance, and aloof from the uproar of life; as if the tumult, the fever, and the strife, were suspended; a respite granted from the secret burthens of the heart; a sabbath of repose; a resting from human labours. Here were the hopes which blossom in the paths of life, reconciled with the peace which is in the grave; motions of the intellect as unwearied as the heavens, yet for all anxieties a halcyon calm: a tranquility that seemed no product of inertia, but as if resulting from mighty and equal antagonisms; infinite activities, infinite repose.”

IndolenceReconciliation Of Opposites
Book:Confessions of an English Opium Eater
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“There are two main human sins from which all the others derive: impatience and indolence. It was because of impatience that they were expelled from Paradise; it is because of indolence that they do not return. Yet perhaps there is only one major sin: impatience. Because of impatience they were expelled, because of impatience they do not return.”

HumansTwoSinReturnMajorsParadiseImpatienceIndolence
Book:The Blue Octavo Notebooks
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“He who saddens at thought of idleness cannot be idle, / And he's awake who thinks himself asleep.”

ThinkingAwakeIdleIdlenessIndolence
Book:John Keats - The Man Behind The Lyrics: Life, letters, and literary remains: Complete Letters and Two Extensive Biographies of one of the most beloved English Romantic poets
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“A man governs himself by the dictates of virtue and good sense, who acts without zeal or passion in points that are of no consequence; but when the whole community is shaken, and the safety of the public endangered, the appearance of a philosophical or an affected indolence must arise either from stupidity or perfidiousness.”

MenWholePassionCommunityVirtueConsequencePhilosophicalSafetyAppearanceStupidityAriseAffectedZealGood SenseIndolence
Book:The Works of [the Right Honourable] Joseph Addison: The Spectator, no. 483-600. The Guardian. The lover. The present state of the war. The late trial and cenviction of Count Tariff. The Whig-examiner. The Freeholder, no. 1-30
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“Somewhere in the wide range of activity between the hard physical effort of wading for long hours against a swift current in a rocky stream, casting steadily, and the indolence of lying quietly in the sun waiting for a bobber to go under there is a type of angling to suit everyone's mood and everyone's pocketbook. Fishing is fishing wherever it is found... Angling's problems are never solved.”

LongHardProblemLyingFoundWaitingHoursEffortSunSeaTypeActivityRiversFishesCurrentsWideMoodBoatSuitsRangeStreamsLakesFishingCastingIndolenceAnglingLong HoursPocketbooks
Book:The compleat Lee Wulff: a treasury of Lee Wulff's greatest angling adventures
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“A giant as we hoped, in truth, a dwarf; A barrel of slop that shines on Lethe's wharf', Which at first seemed a vessel with sweet wine For thirsty lips. So down the swift decline You went through sloven spirit, craven heart And cynic indolence. And here the art Of molding clay has caught you for the nonce And made your shame our shame ~ Your head in bronze!”

FirstsHeartArtMadeSpiritAtheismSweetShameWineShiningLipsCaughtGiantsDeclineClayVesselBarrelsThirstyDwarfsIndolenceCynicDwarvesBronzeShine OnMoldingLetheSweet Wine
Author:Edgar Lee Masters
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“Unless we realize our sins enough to call them by name, it is hardly worth while to say anything about them at all. When we pray for forgiveness, let us say, "my temper," or "untruthfulness," or "pride," "my selfishness, my cowardice, indolence, jealousy, revenge, impurity." To recognize our sins, we must look them in the face and call them by their right names, however hard. Honesty in confession calls for definiteness in confession.”

LooksHardEnoughFacesNamesRealizingSinHonestyPridePrayingRevengeSelfishnessTemperCowardiceConfessionSay AnythingIndolenceImpurityUntruthfulness
Book:Thoughts for Every-day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock
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“Many a good intention dies from inattention. If, through carelessness or indolence, or selfishness, a good intention is not put into effect, we have lost an opportunity, demoralized ourselves, and stolen from the pile of possible good. To be born and not fed, is to perish. To launch a ship and neglect it is to lose it. To have a talent and bury it, is to be a "wicked and slothful servant." For in the end we shall be judged, not alone by what we have done, but by what we could have done.”

IfsEndsDoneDiesOpportunityLostBornLosesEffectsTalentIntentionShipsSelfishnessServantWickedFedsNeglectJudgedStolenNot AloneGood IntentionsIndolenceCarelessnessInattentionDemoralized
Book:Thoughts for Every-day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock
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