If a soldier or labourer complains of the hardship of his lot, set him to do nothing.
– Blaise Pascal
He is not only idle who does nothing, but he is idle who might be better employed.
– Socrates
A man’s real worth is determined by what he does when he has nothing to do.
– Megiddo Message
I was raised to feel that doing nothing was a sin. I had to learn to do nothing.
– Jenny Joseph
Valor, gradually overpowered by the delicious poison of sloth, grows torpid.
– Caius Silius
Even if a farmer intends to loaf, he gets up in time to get an early start.
– Edgar Watson Howe
As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.
– Samuel Johnson
Some people have a perfect genius for doing nothing, and doing it assiduously.
– Thomas Haliburton
I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely.
– Sherlock Holmes
The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest, for he has not earned it.
– John Lubbock
What heart can think, or tongue express, The harm that groweth of idleness?
– John Heywood
Nine tenths of the miseries and vices of mankind proceed from idleness.
– Thomas Carlyle
Keep doing some kind of work, that the devil may always find you employed.
– St. Jerome
Idleness is the only refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools.
– Lord Chesterfield
Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.
– Benjamin Franklin
All man’s troubles come from not knowing how to sit still in one room.
– Blaise Pascal
Of all our faults, the one that we excuse most easily is idleness.
– La Rochefoucauld
A nation rushing hastily too and fro, busily employed in idleness.
– Phaedrus
Hunger is not the worst feature of unemployment; idleness is.
– William E. Barrett
How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.
– Spanish Proverb