Idle Quotes

438 quotes by 328 authors

The purpose of marriage is not to have pleasure and to be idle, but to procreate and bring up children, to support a household. This,… — Martin Luther
It would be idle to say that we were not, from time to time, aware that a volcano slumbered fitfully beneath us. There were dark… — Mary Virginia Terhune
The wind, as a direct motive power, is wholly inapplicable to a system of machine labour, for during a calm season the whole business of… — William Stanley Jevons
This is the perpetual and pitiful tragedy of the practical man in practical affairs. He always begins with a flourish of contempt for what he… — Gilbert K. Chesterton
Dreaming is a form of action. Idleness is a form of action. The idle man stares at the sky and sees what constitutes our eternal… — Philippe Starck
She believed, and was entitled to believe, I must say, that all human beings were evil by nature, whether tormentors or victims, or idle standers-by.… — Kurt Vonnegut
We Indians are Latin America's moral reserve. We act according to a universal law that consists of three basic principles: do not steal, do not… — Evo Morales
There is no substitute under the heavens for productive labor. It is the process by which dreams become realities. It is the process by which… — Gordon B. Hinckley
Idle hands make fretful minds. — Shelley Shepard Gray
Another hundred years may pass before we understand the true significance of Apollo. Lunar exploration was not the equivalent of an American pyramid, some idle… — Gene Cernan
If, in looking at the lives of princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion, we must perforce depict them as idle, profligate, and criminal, we… — William Makepeace Thackeray
We cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than to not act at all. Because the worth of the… — Nick Cave
Purge your mind of all aimless and idle thoughts, especially those that pry into the affairs of others or wish them ill. — Marcus Aurelius
Why should not we, who have renounced the king's authority, have our national preserves, where no villages need be destroyed, in which the bear and… — Henry David Thoreau
We open our mouths and out flow words whose ancestries we do not even know. We are walking lexicons. In a single sentence of idle… — Penelope Lively
All of our days are numbered. We cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than to not act at… — Nick Cave
I want to know which idea you're going to kill yourself trying to make successful, not which ideas have crossed your idle mind. — Guy Kawasaki
To carry the spirit of peace into war is a weak and cruel policy. When an extreme case calls for that remedy which is in… — Thomas B. Macaulay
And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me.... And as to you corpse, I… — Walt Whitman
There is a working class - strong and happy - among both rich and poor: there is an idle class - weak, wicked, and miserable… — John Ruskin

Who Wrote These Idle Quotes

328 authors contributed a total of 438 Idle Quotes, led by these top contributors: