Quotes about Idleness

Idle men tempt the devil to tempt them.

There is no fatigue so wearisome as that which comes from lack of work.

So runs the genealogy of many another sin: idleness is usually the grandfather of the crime, whatever the father might be.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavours, with his utmost care, to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

An idle person is the devil's tennis ball, which he bandies up and down with temptation until at last the ball goes out of play.

Christians must not be slothful. Idleness is the devil's bath; a slothful person becomes a prey to every temptation. Grace, while it cures the heart, does not make the hand lame. He who is called of God, as he works for heaven, so he works in his trade.

Indeed I have always been of the opinion that hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing to do.

It is quite true that I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man usually gives to a friend. Somehow, I had never loved a woman. I suppose I never had time. Perhaps, as Harry says, a really grande passion is the privilege of those who have nothing to do, and that is the use of the idle classes in a country

Twas doing nothing was his curse. Is there a vice can plague us worse?

Toil is man's allotment; toil of brain, or toil of hands, or a grief that's more than either, the grief and sin of idleness.

There is no fatigue so wearisome as that which comes from lack of work.

No country can sustain, in idleness, more than a small percentage of its numbers. The great majority must labor at something productive.