Nine-tenths of the miseries and vices of mankind proceed from idleness.
Thomas Carlyle
How various his employments whom the world Calls idle; and who justly in return Esteems that busy world an idler too!
William Cowper
The idle man stands outside of God's plan, outside of the ordained scheme of things; and the truest self-respect, the noblest independence, and the most genuine dignity, are not to be found there
Josiah Gilbert Holland
One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of close attention; and the world therefore swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read.
Samuel Johnson
To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches; and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.
Samuel Johnson
Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.
Samuel Johnson
The bees can abide no drones amongst them; but as soon as they begin to be idle, they kill them.
Plato
Thee too, my Paridel! she mark'd thee there, Stretch'd on the rack of a too easy chair, And heard thy everlasting yarn confess The Pains and Penalties of Idleness.
Alexander Pope
Were't not affection chains thy tender days To the sweet glances of thy honored love, I rather would entreat thy company To see the wonders of the world abroad Than, living dully sluggardized at home, Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.
William Shakespeare
Idleness is the key of beggary.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
There is no remedy for time misspent; No healing for the waste of idleness, Whose very languor is a punishment Heavier than active souls can feel or guess.
Sir Aubrey de Vere