There is one piece of advice, in a life of study, which I think no one will object to; and that is, every now and then to be completely idle - to do nothing at all. - Sydney Smith
It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man. - Benjamin Franklin
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
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
Busy hands achieve more than idle tongues. - Matshona Dhliwayo
Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action. - Mahatma Gandhi
We do not know today whether we are busy or idle. In times when we thought ourselves indolent we have discovered afterward that much was accomplished and much was begun in us. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Never be entirely idle; but either be reading, or writing, or praying or meditating or endeavoring something for the public good. - Thomas a Kempis
Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult. - Samuel Johnson
If you are idle, be not solitary. If you are solitary, be not idle. - Samuel Johnson
Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving. - William Shakespeare
The mind never sleeps. Though the body can be idle, there shall always be something for the mind to do! Do something with your mind then! - Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
It is better to have a fair intellect that is well used, than a powerful one that is idle. - Bryant McGill
She knew all the indices to the idle lonely, never bought a small tube of toothpaste, never dropped a magazine in her shopping card. - Joan Didion
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent. - Samuel Johnson
The idle mind knows not what it wants. - Ennius
So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination... And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do not bring forth in the agitation. - Michel de Montaigne
All the buildings of justice will remain idle on the day when all men have high conscience! - Mehmet Murat ildan
Moments without you made me realize How Idle I am in my life - Seema Gupta
My parents and grandparents did not tolerate idle thoughts or behavior. If the action did not have a purpose or lead you in a positive direction, their feeling was why bother? This is how I was built. This is why I refuse to fail. - Carlos Wallace
The extremity of her sensitivityimpressed a richly idle princely family,of her discomfort, bothered as she had to beby the absurd softness of the ample beddings,not to mention the pillow piles aggravatingher much lamented acrophobic dis-ease.[from the poem, ] Joseph Stanton - Princess and the Pea
Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar's idle times. When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men's transcripts of their readings. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Gossip is an idle talk that makes you look worse than the person you are talking about, and people tend to have more confidence in the person you talked about when they get tired of your gossip. Speak with love and kindness or don't speak at all. - Uzoma Nnadi
The color of the flower has faded, while I lost myself in idle thought in this long rain / 花の色は うつりにけりな いたづらに わが身世にふる ながめせし間に - Ono No Komachi
It is no idle phrase that man was made in God's image. There is something worth saving in the worst of us, and out of this something a new man may be fashioned. - Philip José Farmer
A fool mistakes meekness for weakness and a quiet tongue for an idle mind. - R.A. Mathis
#3532. The law neither does nor requires idle acts.
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labour and there is invisible labour. - Victor Hugo
Time is just going on and on .But I still here Idle just Waiting for someone and nothing else - Amardeep Singh
Rather do what is nothing in the purpose than to be idle, that the devil may find thee doing. The bird that sits is easily shot when the fliers escape the fowler. Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and is the self-made sepulcher of a living man. - Francis Quarles
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
Was that his name? I never had a chance to ask. He was too intent upon tearing out my throat for us to engage in idle chitchat. - John Connolly
Nobody does nothing. Everybody does something, sometimes nothing is something in the idle man's world. - Michael Bassey Johnson
The easiest way to avoid doing any quality work is to either idle time on unnecessary debate only or create ruckus jointly in the house. - Anuj Somany
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
All [zoos] actually offer to the public in return for the taxes spent upon them is a form of idle and witless amusement, compared to which a visit to a penitentiary, or even to a State legislature in session, is informing, stimulating and ennobling. - H. L. Mencken
I belong to an ancient, idle, wild, and useless tribe... I am a storyteller.
To be idle requires a strong sense of personal identity. - Robert Louis Stevenson
The quest for philosophy's beginning is idle, for everywhere in all beginnings we find only the crude, the unformed, the empty, and the ugly. What matters in all things is the higher levels. - Friedrich Nietzsche
To do great work one must be very idle as well as very industrious. - Samuel Butler
Even when someone battles hard, there is an equal portion for one who lingers behind, and in the same honor are held both the coward and the brave man; the idle man and he who has done much meet death alike. - Homer
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle. - Samuel Johnson
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.
An idle mind doesn't do justice to its potential - Essa Alam
The day is short, the labor vast, the toilers idle, the reward great, and the Master urgent. - Tarphon
Sick I am of idle words, past all reconciling, Words that weary and perplex and pander and conceal, Wake the sounds that cannot lie, for all their sweet beguiling; The language one need fathom not, but only hear and feel. - George Du Maurier
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor. - Victor Hugo
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 - Anonymous
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 the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream - Virginia Woolf
The body is poisoned through the mouth, even so is the heart through the ear ... And even if we do mean no harm, the Evil One means a great deal, and he will use those idle words as a sharp weapon against some neighbor's heart. - Francis de Sales
Success has no idle hands; affords no legs at rest. - Johnnie Dent Jr.
He that is busy is tempted by but one devil; he that is idle, by a legion. - Thomas Fuller
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depths of some devine despairRise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy autumn fields, And thinking of the days that are no more. - Alfred Tennyson
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. Sleep with your head at the foot of the bed? Fine. Samuel Johnson said, All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle. - Gretchen Rubin
Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears. - Barbara Johnson