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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Thomas Carlyle2 quotes
All work, even cotton-spinning, is noble; work is alone noble... a life of ease is not for any man, nor for any god. — Thomas Carlyle · 1843There is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works; in Idleness alone is there perpetual despair. — Thomas Carlyle · 1843Albert Einstein1 quote
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. — Albert Einstein · 1930Artemus Ward1 quote
I am happiest when I am idle. I could live for months without performing any kind of labour, and at the expiration of that time I should feel fresh and vigorous enough to go right on in the same way for numerous more months. — Artemus Ward · 1867Benjamin Franklin1 quote
When men are employ'd, they are best content'd; for on the days they worked they were good-natur'd and cheerful, and, with the consciousness of having done a good day's work, they spent the evening jollily; but on our idle days they were mutinous and quarrelsome. — Benjamin Franklin · 1790George MacDonald1 quote
Work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as sacred idleness. — George MacDonald · 1872Hannah More1 quote
Whether we consider the manual industry of the poor, or the intellectual exertions of the superior classes, we shall find that diligent occupation, if not criminally perverted from its end, is at once the instrument of virtue and the secret of happiness. Man cannot be safely trusted with a life of leisure. — Hannah More · 1813Isaac Watts1 quote
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do. — Isaac Watts · 1715Jerome K. Jerome1 quote
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. — Jerome K. Jerome · 1886Miguel de Cervantes1 quote
Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never led to good intention's goal. — Miguel de Cervantes · 1615Rene Maran1 quote
Life is short. Work is for those who will never be able to understand life. Idleness cannot degrade a man. To the discriminating eye it differs from laziness. — Rene Maran · 1921Samuel Johnson1 quote
We would all be idle if we could. — Samuel Johnson · 1776Soren Kierkegaard1 quote
Idleness as such is by no means a root of evil; on the contrary, it is truly a divine life, if one is not bored. — Soren Kierkegaard · 1843Theodore Roosevelt1 quote
I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1899Walter Lippmann1 quote
Mr. Coolidge's genius for inactivity is developed to a very high point. It is far from being an indolent activity. It is a grim, determined, alert inactivity which keeps Mr. Coolidge occupied constantly. Nobody has ever worked harder at inactivity, with such a force of character, with such unremitting attention to detail, with such conscientious devotion to the task. — Walter Lippmann · 1927William Cowper1 quote
Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd. — William Cowper · 1782