Idleness Quotes

269 Idleness quotes by 179 unique authors

I learned...that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all… — Brenda Ueland
Be not solitary, be not idle — Robert Burton
Idleness for me is not a giving up on life but a spirited grabbing hold of it. — Tom Hodgkinson
Extreme busyness is a symptom of deficient vitality, and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity. — Robert Louis Stevenson
The art of living is the art of bringing dreams and reality together. — Tom Hodgkinson
Pride, anger, gluttony, and idleness are sometimes conquered, but the conversion of a malicious and envious mind is a kind of miracle. — Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
Of all our faults, the one that we excuse most easily is idleness. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle. — Samuel Johnson
I feel the terror of idleness, like a red thirst. Death isn't just an idea. — Mary Oliver
Reading in bed is a self-centered act, immobile, free from ordinary social conventions, invisible to the world, and one that, because it takes place between… — Alberto Manguel
Instead of idleness, vanity, or an intellect formed by the spoon-feeding of others, my girls have acquired energy, industry, and independence. — Geraldine Brooks
But then the pastors and men of God can only be human,--cannot altogether be men of God; and so they have oppressed us, and burned… — Anthony Trollope
Bourgeois society ought long ago to have gone to the dogs through sheer idleness; for those of its members who work, acquire nothing, and those… — Karl Marx
I've always said that idleness dulls the spirit. We have to keep the brain busy, or at least the hands if we don't have a… — Carlos Ruiz Zafon
For his part, Blind Seer had no difficulty accepting idleness. A wolf proverb stated: “Hunt when hungry, sleep when not, for hunger always returns. — Jane Lindskold
That the Devil finds work for idle hands to do is probably true. But there is a profound difference between leisure and idleness. — Henry Ford
At first, when an idea, a poem, or the desire to write takes hold of you, work is a pleasure, a delight, and your enthusiasm… — Natalie Clifford Barney
People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day. — A A Milne
He knew now that it was his own will to happiness which must make the next move. But if he was to do so, he… — Albert Camus
No: I am not tired. I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely." ~ Sherlock Holmes — Arthur Conan Doyle
Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we… — William Shakespeare
I suppose the secret of his success is in his tremendous idleness which almost approaches the supernatural. — Lawrence Durrell
Slavery...dishonors labor. It introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind and benumbs… — Alexis de Tocqueville
Years passed; and he endured the idleness of his intelligence and the inertia of his heart. — Gustave Flaubert
We do not admire, we hardly excuse, the fanatic who wrecks this world for love of the other. But what are we to say of… — Gilbert K. Chesterton

Who Wrote These Idleness Quotes

179 authors contributed a total of 269 Idleness Quotes, led by these top contributors: