88 Being Idle Quotes

Following is our list of being idle quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about idle time.

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Famous Being Idle Quotes

Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. — Floyd Dell

They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed. — Socrates

At times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning. — Jenny Holzer

Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre. — Albert Camus

An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands. — William Cowper

Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing. — Lao Tzu

Idleness is the enemy of the soul. — Anselm of Canterbury

Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness. — George Macdonald

Idleness and lack of occupation tend - nay are dragged - towards evil. — Hippocrates

If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle. — Samuel Johnson

It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. — Jerome K. Jerome

Idleness leads to relaxation, sooner or later bringing about ideological and material corruption, accompanied by lack of discipline, anarchy chaos and defeat. — Samora Machel

An idle brain is the devil's workshop. - English Proverbs

An idle brain is the devil's workshop. — English Proverbs

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being - Plato

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being — Plato

Every man is, or hopes to be, an idler. — Samuel Johnson

Short Being Idle Quotes

  • To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle. — Henry David Thoreau
  • Just like an idle software, your brain is less efficient after a long break. — Sam Bankman-Fried
  • I have spent my life laboriously doing nothing. — Hugo Grotius
  • Rest breeds rust. — Proverbs
  • A learned man is an idler who kills time by study. — George Bernard Shaw
  • Idleness, indifference and irresponsibility are healthy responses to absurd work. — Frederick Herzberg
  • On a mission your worst enemy is idle time. — Nipsey Hussle
  • Hunger is not the worst feature of unemployment; idleness is. — William Barrett

Being Idle Image Quotes

Being idle quote I'm not a fan of idleness, except in small doses.
I'm not a fan of idleness, except in small doses.

Idle Time Quotes

People count with self-satisfaction the number of times they have recited the name of God on their prayer beads, but they keep no beads for reckoning the number of idle words they speak. — Al-Ghazali

The way I think I should stay out of trouble is by stayin' busy. With idle time comes a lot of biz, so the more my work load is heavy, I'll have no time to get into any trouble or makin' dis tracks or get into conversation about any other rappers. — Gucci Mane

Idleness is the enemy of the soul; and therefore the brethren ought to be employed in manual labor at certain times, at others, in devout reading. — Benedict of Nursia

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. — Lord Chesterfield

Life is best enjoyed when time periods are evenly divided between labor, sleep, and recreation...all people should spend one-third of their time in recreation which is rebuilding, voluntary activity, never idleness. — Brigham Young

A bed or a chair will trick you if you stay still on them long at a time. They will draw out your strength and leave you weak as water. — Julia Peterkin

Rather, ten times, die in the surf, heralding the way to a new world, than stand idly on the shore. — Florence Nightingale

When I look back at the past and think of all the time I squandered in error and idleness,... then my heart bleeds. Life is a gift... every minute could have been an eternity of happiness! If only youth knew! Now my life will change; now I will be reborn. — Fyodor Dostoevsky

It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing. — Thomas Jefferson

Regret for time wasted can become a power for good in the time that remains, if we will only stop the waste and the idle, useless regretting. — Arthur Brisbane

Sitting Idle Quotes

Give me a flagon of red wine, a book of verses, a loaf of bread, and a little idleness. If with such store I might sit by thy dear side in some lonely place, I should deem myself happier than a king in his kingdom. — Omar Khayyam

Look At The Clock When You Are Sitting idle. But Never Look At The Clock When You Are Working. — Bill Gates

Today, I am an inquisitor. I shall not sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution. — Barbara Jordan

Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Could a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die? Could a fireman sit idle, let men burn and give no hand? Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you damned? — Leonard Ravenhill

It is better to sit alone than in company with the bad, and it is better still to sit with the good than alone. It is better to speak to a seeker of knowledge than to remain silent, but silence is better than idle words. — Muhammad

As a Jew I cannot sit idle while genocidal atrocities continue to unfold in Darfur, Sudan. — Jan Schakowsky

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 acorn in the morning, to expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of the oak. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

It's a matter of ABC: When we encounter ADVERSITY, we react by thinking about it. Our thoughts rapidly congeal into BELIEFS. These beliefs may become so habitual we don't even realize we have them unless we stop to focus on them. And they don't just sit there idly; they have CONSEQUENCES. — Martin Seligman

Do not sit idle, for indeed death is seeking you — Hasan of Basra

People Writing About Being Idle

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson
quotes on writing, life and love

1736 7561
Read quotes by Socrates

Socrates
quotes on love, life and education

449 10345
Read quotes by Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
quotes on art, politics and communism

84 300
Read quotes by Albert Camus

Albert Camus
quotes on love, life and absurdity

975 9693
Read quotes by William Cowper

William Cowper
quotes on love, education and god

341 1462
Read quotes by Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu
quotes on balance, life and leadership

1418 11725

More Being Idle Quotes

My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminuation, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution. It is reason and not passion which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision. — Barbara Jordan

Our youth must be steadfast and take advantage of the benefits of modern civilization. Do not fall prey to idleness for it shall be a curse to you and to succeeding generations. You must set yourselves us as examples of determination and hard work. Plan your time and use both your physical and mental powers purposefully and productively. — Haile Selassie

Sometimes I think that idlers seem to be a special class for whom nothing can be planned, plead as one will with them - their only contribution to the human family is to warm a seat at the common table. — F. Scott Fitzgerald

Be industrious, let thine eyes be open, lest you become a beggar, for the man that is idle cometh not to honor. — Egyptian Proverbs

You must obey this now for a law, that he that will not work shall not eat (except by sickness he be disabled). For the labors of thirty or forty honest and industrious men shall not be consumed to maintain a hundred and fifty idle loiterers. — John Smith

Remember, grab you're future with both hands and mold it into what you want it to be. It's the determined, who create the life they want, while the idle sit by and watch it fade away into nothingness. The future belongs to the exceptional individuals, who can see the light of the future, at the end of the tunnel. — James D. Watson

It is better wither to be silent, or to say things of more value than silence. Sooner throw a pearl at hazard than an idle or useless word; and do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few. — Pythagoras

If we look on idly, heaven and earth will never be joined. To join heaven and earth, some decisive deed of purity is necessary. To accomplish so resolute an action, you have to stake your life, giving no thought to personal gain or loss. — Yukio Mishima

we must be as satisfied to be powerless, idle and still before God, and dried up and barren when He permits it, as to be full of life, enjoying His presence with ease and devotion. The whole matter of our union with God consists in being content either way. — Jane Frances de Chantal

Give me the boy who rouses when he is praised, who profits when he is encouraged and who cries when he is defeated. Such a boy will be fired by ambition; he will be stung by reproach, and animated by preference; never shall I apprehend any bad consequences from idleness in such a boy. — Quintilian

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 all, because the worth of an idea never becomes apparent until you do it. — Nick Cave

It is not necessary for a man to be actively bad in order to make a failure in life; simple inaction will accomplish it. Nature has everywhere written her protest against idleness; everything which ceases to struggle toward an ideal, the constant effort to get higher and further, which develops manhood and character. — James Terry White

Why do you think the lottery is so popular? Do you think anybody would play if the super payoff was a job on the night shift in a meat-packing plant? People play it so if they win they can be rich and idle. Like I told you years ago - if work is so good, how come they have to pay us to do it? — Mike Royko

Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know. — Charles Kingsley

Why should the wealth of the country be stored in banks and elevators while the idle workman wanders homeless about the streets and the idle loafers who hoard the gold only to spend it on riotous living are rolling about in fine carriages from which they look out on peaceful meetings and call them riots? — Samuel Gompers

The bees can abide no drones amongst them; but as soon as they begin to be idle, they kill them. — Plato

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing. — Thomas Jefferson

Untilled soil, however fertile it may be, will bear thistles and thorns; so it is with man's mind. — Teresa of Avila

A true faith in Jesus Christ will not suffer us to be idle. No, it is an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart, so that it cannot be easy till it is doing something for Jesus Christ. — George Whitefield

Every man must patiently bide his time. He must wait -- not in listless idleness but in constant, steady, cheerful endeavors, always willing and fulfilling and accomplishing his task, that when the occasion comes he may be equal to the occasion. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We will receive not what we idly wish for but what we justly earn. Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service. — Earl Nightingale

You should not have idle hands, you should always be working. All your life. — Ivan Bunin

Today, luxury resides in everything that is becoming rare: communion with nature, silence, meditation, slowness rediscovered, the pleasure of living out of step with others, studious idleness, the enjoyment of the major works of the mind–these are all privileges that cannot be bought because they are literally priceless. — Pascal Bruckner

No man has a right to be idle. Where is it that in such a world as this, that health, and leisure, and affluence may not find some ignorance to instruct, some wrong to redress, some want to supply, some misery to alleviate? — William Wilberforce

Real literature is something much better than a harmless instrument for getting through idle hours. The purpose of great literature is to help us to develop into full human beings. — Russell Kirk

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent. — Buddha

A wise prince then...should never be idle in times of peace but should industriously lay up stores of which to avail himself in times of adversity so that when fortune abandons him he may be prepared to resist her blows. — Niccolo Machiavelli

We will be better men, braver and less idle, if we believe that one must search for the things one does not know, rather than if we believe that it is not possible to find out what we do not know and that we must not look for it. — Plato

But reading is not idleness?it is the passive, receptive side of civilization without which the active and creative world would be meaningless. It is the immortal spirit of the dead realised within the bodies of the living. It is sacramental. — Stephen Spender

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent. — Buddha

Perhaps our originality manifests itself most strikingly in what we do with that which we did not originate. To discover something wholly new can be a matter of chance, of idle tinkering, or even of the chronic dissatisfaction of the untalented. — Eric Hoffer

Work is the best of narcotics, providing the patient be strong enough to take it. I dread idleness as if it were Hell. — Beatrice Webb

The Big Lie makes those who toil appear to be idle, while those who speak into dictaphones appear to be the hard workers. — Rosemary Radford Ruether

Why be thrifty when your old age and health care are provided for, no matter how profligate you act in your youth? Why be prudent when the state insures your bank deposits, replaces your flooded-out house, buys all the wheat you can grow? ... Why be diligent when half of your earnings are taken from you and given to the idle? — David Frum

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday. — Mary Schmich

The time's come: there's a terrific thunder-cloud advancing upon us, a mighty storm is coming to freshen us up....It's going to blow away all this idleness and indifference, and prejudice against work....I'm going to work, and in twenty-five or thirty years' time every man and woman will be working. — Anton Chekhov

As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy. — Samuel Johnson

Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good. — Thomas a Kempis

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