Idleness Quotes

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

Idleness Quotes - Page 2