31 Quotes About Idleness

In today's fast-paced world, idleness is often misunderstood and undervalued. While productivity remains the ultimate goal for many, taking the time to embrace moments of stillness can lead to profound insights and creativity. Throughout history, thinkers and visionaries have recognized the hidden benefits of idleness, using it as a space for contemplation and discovery. In this collection, we've gathered 31 quotes that explore the nuances of idleness—its potential to inspire, motivate, and sometimes provoke. Whether seeking a moment of reflection or a new perspective on resting and recharging, these quotes capture the essence of life's quieter moments. Dive in and let these words challenge your views on idleness, encouraging a healthier balance between activity and rest.

1. “Every little trifle, for some reason, does seem incalculably important today, and when you say of a thing that 'nothing hangs on it,' it sounds like blasphemy. There's never any knowing—(how am I to put it?)—which of our actions, which of our idlenesses won't have things hanging on it for ever.” - E.M. Forster

2. “Idleness, we are accustomed to say, is the root of all evil. To prevent this evil, work is recommended.... 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

3. “Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre.” - Albert Camus

4. “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” - John Lubbock

5. “Idleness for me is not a giving up on life but a spirited grabbing hold of it.” - Tom Hodgkinson

6. “Extreme busyness is a symptom of deficient vitality, and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

7. “A conclusion I’ve come to at the Idler is that it starts with retreating from work but it’s really about making work into something that isn’t drudgery and slavery, and then work and life can become one thing.” - Tom Hodgkinson

8. “The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.” - Samuel Johnson

9. “The art of living is the art of bringing dreams and reality together.” - Tom Hodgkinson

10. “Our dreams take us into other worlds, alternative realities that help us make sense of day-to-day realities.” - Tom Hodgkinson

11. “Inventory:"Four be the things I am wiser to know:Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.Four be the things I'd been better without:Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.Three be the things I shall never attain:Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.Three be the things I shall have till I die:Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.” - Dorothy Parker

12. “If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.” - Samuel Johnson

13. “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

14. “What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? (Just to give you an idea, Proust's reply was 'To be separated from Mama.') I think that the lowest depth of misery ought to be distinguished from the highest pitch of anguish. In the lower depths come enforced idleness, sexual boredom, and/or impotence. At the highest pitch, the death of a friend or even the fear of the death of a child.” - Christopher Hitchens

15. “For his part, Blind Seer had no difficulty accepting idleness. A wolf proverb stated: “Hunt when hungry, sleep when not, for hunger always returns.” - Jane Lindskold

16. “Inaction will cause a man to sink into the slough of despond and vanish without a trace.” - Farley Mowat

17. “He knew now that it was his own will to happiness which must make the next move. But if he was to do so, he realized that he must come to terms with time, that to have time was at once the most magnificent and the most dangerous of experiments. Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre.” - Albert Camus

18. “If you think of something, do it.Plenty of people often think, “I’d like to do this, or that.” - Lydia Davis

19. “I suppose the secret of his success is in his tremendous idleness which almost approaches the supernatural.” - Lawrence Durrell

20. “Everybody seems to think I'm lazyI don't mind, I think they're crazy.Running everywhere at such a speedTill they find there's no need.” - John Lennon

21. “His idleness was his refuge, and in this he was like many others in [occupied] France in that period; laziness became political.” - Iain Pears

22. “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

23. “To do great work one must be very idle as well as very industrious.” - Samuel Butler

24. “Being poor is a mere trifle. It is being known to be poor that is the sting.” - Jerome K. Jerome

25. “If you are foolish enough to be contented, don't show it, but grumble with the rest; and if you can do with a little, ask for a great deal. Because if you don't you won't get any.” - Jerome K. Jerome

26. “Machinery which is not used is not capital.” - Karl Marx

27. “The day, like the previous days, dragged sluggishly by in a kind of insipid idleness, devoid even of that dreamy expectancy which can make idleness so enchanting.” - Vladimir Nabokov

28. “My days were not days of the week, bearing the stamp of any heathen deity, nor were they minced into hours and fretted by the ticking of a clock; for I lived like the Puri Indians, of whom it is said that "for yesterday, today, and tomorrow they have only one word, and they express the variety of meaning by pointing backward for yesterday forward for tomorrow, and overhead for the passing day." This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting.” - Henry David Thoreau

29. “lest the habit of work should be broken, and a taste for idleness acquired” - John Stuart Mill

30. “Ivanov: I am a bad, pathetic and worthless individual. One needs to be pathetic, too, worn out and drained by drink, like Pasha, to be still fond of me and to respect me. My God, how I despise myself! I so deeply loathe my voice, my walk, my hands, these clothes, my thoughts. Well, isn't that funny, isn't that shocking? Less than a year ago I was healthy and strong, I was cheerful, tireless, passionate, I worked with these very hands, I could speak to move even Philistines to tears, I could cry when I saw grief, I became indignant when I encountered evil. I knew inspiration, I knew the charm and poetry of quiet nights when from dusk to dawn you sit at your desk or indulge you mind with dreams. I believed, I looked into the future as into the eyes of my own mother... And now, my God, I am exhausted, I do not believe, I spend my days and nights in idleness.” - Anton Chekhov

31. “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