#idleness

Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good. ↗

— Soren Kierkegaard

#evil #far #good #idleness #only

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

#idle-minds #idleness #suspicion #business

Boredom was at the root of Lazare's unhappiness, an oppressive, unremitting boredom, exuding from everything like the muddy water of a poisoned spring. He was bored with leisure, with work, with himself even more than with others. Meanwhile he blamed his own idleness for it, he ended by being ashamed of it. ↗

— Émile Zola

#idleness #zola #life

If you think of something, do it. Plenty of people often think, “I’d like to do this, or that. ↗

— Lydia Davis

#depression #idleness #self-sabotage #terror #writer-s-block

Idleness does drive me crazy, but I'd rather read or write than do anything just to work. A kind of respect has been instilled in me for acting: I love it too much to ever have a bad relationship with it. ↗

— Karen Allen

#anything #bad #been #crazy #does

Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes. ↗

— Miguel de Cervantes

#best #brought #diligence #fortune #goal

Idleness is to the human mind like rust to iron. ↗

— Ezra Cornell

#human mind #idleness #iron #like #mind

Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds. ↗

— Lord Chesterfield

#minds #only #refuge #weak #weak minds

It wounds a man less to confess that he has failed in any pursuit through idleness, neglect, the love of pleasure, etc., etc., which are his own faults, than through incapacity and unfitness, which are the faults of his nature. ↗

— Lord Melbourne

#confess #etc #failed #faults #his

Idleness is the stupidity of the body, and stupidity is the idleness of the mind. ↗

— Johann G. Seume

#idleness #mind #stupidity