Idle Quotes

438 Idle quotes by 328 unique authors

Idleness, pleasure, what abysses! To do nothing is a dreary course to take, be sure of it. To live idle upon the substance of society!… — Victor Hugo
Is it thy will, thy image should keep open My heavy eyelids to the weary night? Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken, While… — William Shakespeare
A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation... A book is not only a… — Henry Miller
Useless, idle, exploitative male chauvinist drone! — Sue Limb
By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or… — Virginia Woolf
Say “no” only when it really matters. Wear a bright red shirt with bright orange shorts? Sure. Put water in the toy tea set? Okay.… — Gretchen Rubin
This gave me occasion to observe, that when Men are employ'd they are best contented. For on the Days they work'd they were good-natur'd and… — Benjamin Franklin
Be not solitary, be not idle — Robert Burton
True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, Which is as thin of substance… — William Shakespeare
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depths of some devine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the… — Alfred Lord Tennyson
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle. — Samuel Johnson
[Chess] is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time. — George Bernard Shaw
People say: idle curiosity. The one thing that curiosity cannot be is idle. — Leo Rosten
A creative mess is better than idle tidiness. — Michael J. Fox
Old Flossie settle down on the other side of What-the-Dickens and dragged some handiwork out of a sack. She armed herself with two thorns shaped… — Gregory Maguire
Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions. It is idle, having planted an… — Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Nothing spoils idle pleasure like too much awareness — Jacqueline Carey
I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with… — Yann Martel
It's always the idle habits you acquire which you will regret. Father said that. That Christ was not crucified: he was worn away by a… — William Faulkner
There are moments in life when a man retreats defensively, when he must give ground, when he must surrender less important positions in order to… — Milan Kundera
But the great artists like Michelangelo and Blake and Tolstoi--like Christ whom Blake called an artist because he had one of the most creative imaginations… — Brenda Ueland
I paused for a light at Hamilton and TWlfth and noticed the Nissan was running rough at idle. Two blocks later it backfired and stalled.… — Janet Evanovich
It would have been cruel in Miss Havisham, horribly cruel, to practise on the susceptibility of a poor boy, and to torture me through all… — Charles Dickens
This is a most unfortunate affair, and will probably be much talked of. But we must stem the tide of idle chatter, and pour into… — Seth Grahame-Smith
In a way, her strangeness, her naiveté, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of an idle imagination. Had she… — Toni Morrison

Who Wrote These Idle Quotes

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