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Leisure Quotes

Browse 752 quotes about Leisure.

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Leisure Quotes

“Once efficiency is universally accepted as a rule, it becomes an inner compulsion and weighs like a sense of sin, simply because no one can ever be efficient enough, just as no one can ever be virtuous enough. And this new sense of sin only contributes further to the enervation of leisure, for the rich as well as the poor. The difficulty of carrying on a leisure-oriented tradition of culture in a work-oriented society is enough in itself to keep the present crisis in our culture unresolved.”

WellsEnoughCultureSinPoorRichTraditionDifficultyCrisisAcceptedEfficientLeisureVirtuousEfficiencyCompulsionCarrying On
Author:Clement Greenberg
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“The fundamental fact in the lives of the poor in most parts of America is that the wages of common labor are far below the benefits of AFDC, Medicaid, food stamps, public housing, public defenders, leisure time and all the other goods and services of the welfare state.”

StatesFactsAmericaPoorCommonBenefitsLaborFundamentalsWelfareGoodsLeisureWagesStampsHousingDefendersWelfare StateGoods And ServicesLeisure TimeFood StampsMedicaidPublic Housing
Author:George Gilder
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“Love can't flourish in a "society" based on money and meaningless work, but rather requires complete economic, as well as personal, freedom, leisure time and the opportunity to engage in intensely absorbing, emotionally satisfying activities which, when shared with those you respect, lead to deep friendship, but which our "society" provides practically no opportunity to engage in.”

WellsOpportunityEconomicActivityOur SocietySatisfyingMeaninglessLeisureAbsorbingPersonal FreedomLeisure TimeDeep Friendship
Author:Valerie Solanas
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“I attacked those Western playwrights who use their influence and affluence to preach to the world the nihilistic doctrine that life is pointless and irrationally destructive, and that there is nothing we can do about it. Until everyone is fed, clothed, housed and taught, until human beings have equal leisure to contemplate the overwhelming fact of mortality, we should not (I argued) indulge in the luxury of "privileged despair."”

WorldShouldHumansFactsUseLife IsCan DoHuman BeingsInfluenceTaughtEqualDespairWesternDoctrineLuxuryDestructiveFedsMortalityOverwhelmingLeisureContemplatingPrivilegedIndulgePlaywrightPointlessIndulge InAffluence
Author:Kenneth Tynan
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“The institution of a leisure class has emerged gradually during the transition from primitive savagery to barbarism; or more precisely, during the transition from a peaceable to a consistently warlike habit of life.”

ClassHabitInstitutionsTransitionLeisurePrimitiveConsistentlyBarbarismSavagery
Book:THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS: An Economic Study of American Institutions and a Social Critique of Conspicuous Consumption: Development of Institutions That Shape Society and Influence the Livelihood of Citizens: Based on Sociological & Economical Theories of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Adam Smith and Herbert Spencer
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“No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure. If he entrusts the details and smaller matters to subordinates constant errors will occur. I prefer to supervise the whole operations of the government myself rather than entrust the public business to subordinates, and this makes my duties very great.”

IfsMatterWholeGovernmentPresidentDutyConstantErrorsDetailsOperationsLeisureSubordinates
Book:The diary of James K. Polk during his presidency, 1845 to 1849, now first printed from the original manuscript in the collections of the Chicago historical society; Volume 4
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“Now the code of life of the High Middle Ages said something entirely opposite to this: that it was precisely lack of leisure, an inability to be at leisure, that went together with idleness; that the restlessness of work-for-work's sake arose from nothing other than idleness. There is a curious connection in the fact that the restlessness of a self-destructive work-fanatacism should take its rise from the absence of a will to accomplish something.”

ShouldSaidSelfFactsAgeTogetherMiddleConnectionsOppositesSakeAccomplishAbsenceCuriousCodeDestructiveLeisureInabilityIdlenessMiddle AgesRestlessnessSelf Destructive
Author:Josef Pieper
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“Coca-Cola remains emblematic of the best and worst of America and Western civilization. The history of Coca-Cola is the often funny story of a group of men obsessed with putting a trivial soft drink "within an arm's reach of desire." But at the same time, it is a microcosm of American history. Coca-Cola grew up with the country, shaping and shaped by the times. The drink not only helped to alter consumption patterns, but attitudes toward leisure, work, advertising, sex, family life, and patriotism.”

MenCountryStoriesAmericaDesireSexAttitudeGroupsWorstArmsGrewDrinkCivilizationGrew UpRemainsWesternPatternsAdvertisingObsessedLeisureAmerican HistoryConsumptionFamily LifeWestern CivilizationMicrocosmCoca ColaFunny StorySoft Drinks
Author:Mark Pendergrast
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“The sooner the world solves its economic problems, the sooner its inhabitants can afford leisure and peace and get on with the non-material things that are inherently important: the work of mind and spirit that is gloriously and uniquely human, the work that no machine can ever do.”

WorldMindHumansImportantProblemWisdomSpiritPoliticsEconomyEconomicMaterialsMachinesSolveLiberalismLeisureMaterial ThingsEconomic Problems
Book:Two-factor Theory: the Economics of Reality; how to Turn Eighty Million Workers Into Capitalists on Borrowed Money, and Other Proposals
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“For the rich men without scruple drew the estate into their own hands, excluding the rightful heirs from their succession; and all the wealth being centred upon the few, the generality were poor and miserable. Honourable pursuits, for which there was no longer leisure, were neglected; the state was filled with sordid business, and with hatred and envy of the rich.”

MenStatesHandsPoliticsWealthPoorEconomyRichHatredFilledEnvyPursuitMiserableLiberalismLeisureEstatesNeglectedSuccessionRich ManHeirsGeneralitiesScruples
Book:The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Volume II: (A Modern Library E-Book)
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“Modern technique has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right evenly distributed throughout the community. The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.”

WorldNeedsMadeWisdomPoliticsCommunityClassEconomyModernMoralityLimitsSlaverySlaveTechniqueMade ItLiberalismLeisurePrivilegedModern WorldPrerogative
Book:In Praise of Idleness
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“It should be the privilege of every worker to take advantage of all the improved methods of working that relieve him from the tedium and fatigue of purely mechanical toil, for by this means he gains leisure for the thought necessary to working out his designs, and for the finer touches that the hand alone can give. So long as he remains master of his machinery it will serve him well, and his power of artistic expression will be freed rather than stifled by turning over to it work it is meant to do.”

GivingShouldWellsMeanLongHandsPoliticsEconomyDesignExpressionMastersGainsAdvantageMethodRemainsWorkersPrivilegeWork OutArtisticLiberalismWorking ItLeisureToilMachineryFatigueArtistic ExpressionTedium
Author:Gustav Stickley
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“It is in general true that in order to create works of art one has to have leisure. On the other hand I think that one needs to experience resistance in a practical sense, and even that which is poignant to bring out what makes easy reading for others. Too much deprivation of course, means death.”

ThinkingNeedsMeanArtHandsArtistOrderCoursesReadingEasyToo MuchPracticalsResistanceWorks Of ArtLeisureDeprivationPoignant
Book:The Selected Letters of Marianne Moore
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“From the point of view of the employer, it is in any case simply an item of cost, to be reduced to a minimum if it cannot be eliminated altogether, say, by automation. From the point of view of the workman, it is a "disutility"; to work is to make a sacrifice of one's leisure and comfort, and wages are a kind of compensation for the sacrifice.”

IfsKindViewsCasesSacrificeComfortCostPoint Of ViewLeisureMinimumWagesItemsEmployersCompensationWorkmenAutomationSmall Is Beautiful
Book:SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
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“Leisure, itself the creation of wealth, is incessantly engaged in transmuting wealth into beauty by secreting the surplus energy which flowers in great architecture, great painting and great literature. Only in the atmosphere thus engendered floats that impalpable dust of ideas which is the real culture. A colony of ants or bees will never create a Parthenon.”

IdeasRealCultureLiteratureEnergyWealthCreationPaintingFlowerArchitectureDustAtmosphereEngagedLeisureBeesFloatsAntsColonySurplusIncessantlyGreat LiteratureParthenon
Author:Edith Wharton
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“I could never be in a cult. For starters, they never accessorize properly. David Koresh had no fashion sense, Jim Jones wore leisure suits, and I don't care how charismatic Osama bin Laden was, an AK-47 and an insulin drip do not take the place of drop earrings or a well-placed brooch.”

WellsCareFashionDon't CareSuitsI Don't CareLeisureCultBin LadenOsama Bin LadenCharismaticStartersEarringsInsulinAk 47Brooches
Book:Diary of a Mad Diva
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