Quotes

Quotes about Idleness


And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.

William Shakespeare

Idleness is an appendix to nobility.

Robert Burton

Stretch'd on the rack of a too easy chair,
And heard thy everlasting yawn confess
The pains and penalties of idleness.

Alexander Pope

Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments. If we can get rid of the former, we may easily bear the latter.

Benjamin Franklin

The frivolous work of polished idleness.

Sir James Mackintosh

Give me to live with Love alone
And let the world go dine and dress;
For Love hath lowly haunts....
If life's a flower, I choose my own--
'T is "love in Idleness."

Laman Blanchard

She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.

Old Testament

The Ass and the Lapdog A man had an Ass, and a Maltese Lapdog, a very great beauty. The Ass was left in a stable and had plenty of oats and hay to eat, just as any other Ass would. The Lapdog knew many tricks and was a great favorite with his master, who often fondled him and seldom went out to dine without bringing him home some tidbit to eat. The Ass, on the contrary, had much work to do in grinding the corn-mill and in carrying wood from the forest or burdens from the farm. He often lamented his own hard fate and contrasted it with the luxury and idleness of the Lapdog, till at last one day he broke his cords and halter, and galloped into his master's house, kicking up his heels without measure, and frisking and fawning as well as he could. He next tried to jump about his master as he had seen the Lapdog do, but he broke the table and smashed all the dishes upon it to atoms. He then attempted to lick his master, and jumped upon his back. The servants, hearing the strange hubbub and perceiving the danger of their master, quickly relieved him, and drove out the Ass to his stable with kicks and clubs and cuffs. The Ass, as he returned to his stall beaten nearly to death, thus lamented: I have brought it all on myself! Why could I not have been contented to labor with my companions, and not wish to be idle all the day like that useless little Lapdog!

Aesop

The Heifer and the Ox A heifer saw an Ox hard at work harnessed to a plow, and tormented him with reflections on his unhappy fate in being compelled to labor. Shortly afterwards, at the harvest festival, the owner released the Ox from his yoke, but bound the Heifer with cords and led him away to the altar to be slain in honor of the occasion. The Ox saw what was being done, and said with a smile to the Heifer: For this you were allowed to live in idleness, because you were presently to be sacrificed.

Aesop

His labor is a chant, His idleness a tune; Oh, for a bee's experience Of clovers and of noon!

Emily Dickinson

A system support specialist's life is a sorry one. The only advantage he has over ER doctors is that malpractice suits are rare. On the other hand, ER doctors never have to deal with patients installing new versions of their own innards! Dick Maliska Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining. •Jeff Raskin Applying computer technology is simply finding the right wrench to pound in the correct screw. •Anonymous The Programmer's Time-Space Continuum is defined as "Programmers continuously space the time." •Leon Lanthier Computers are useless - they only give you answers. •Pablo Picasso "Paradosfunctionoracle" is the term used by technicians to describe the reason no one knows why your computer won't work. •J. H. Goldfuss No machine will increase the possibilities of life. They only increase the possibilities of idleness. •John Ruskin All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors. •Anonymous Computers can figure out all kinds of problems, except the things in the world that just don't add up. •James Magary Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. •E W Dijkstra Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equpped with 18,000 vaccuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vaccuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 1/2 tons. •Popular Mechanics, 1949 Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done. •Andy Rooney Not even computers will replace committees, because committees buy computers. •Edward Shepherd Mead A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. •John Gall There won't be anything we won't say to people to try and convince them that our way is the way to go. •Bill Gates If you can't make it good, at least make it look good. •Bill Gates Looking at the proliferation of personal web pages on the net, it looks like very soon everyone on earth will have 15 Megabytes of fame. •MG Siriam Surfing on the Internet is like sex; everyone boasts about doing more than they actually do. But in the case of the Internet, it's a lot more. •Tom Fasulo Cyberspace: A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation. •William Gibson URLs are the 800 numbers of the 1990's. •Chris Clark My favorite thing about the Internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps without having to smell them. •Penn Jillett We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. •Robert Wilensky It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that the Internet has evolved into a force strong enough to reflect the greatest hopes and fears of those who use it. After all, it was designed to withstand nuclear war, not just the puny huffs and puffs of politicians and religious fanatics. •Denise Caruso Wow! They've got the internet on computers now! •Homer Simpson Man is a game playing animal and a computer is another way to play games. •Scott Adams I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them. •Isaac Asimov Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idoits. So far, the Universe is winning. •Rich Cook If automobiles had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. •Robert Cringely I try to get people to see what I have... When you run a computer company, you have to get people to buy into your dreams. •Steve Jobs The most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is that if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a little. •Porterfield People who buy Macs are the same people who said BETA is better than VHS 15 years ago. •Anonymous Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand. •Anonymous But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses. •Bruce Leverett Anybody who's studied software engineering knows that a schedule which underestimates the time needed to develop a project actually makes the project take longer.

Jeff Raskin

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover, Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank, Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burrs, Losing both beauty and utility.

William Shakespeare

It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

Virginia Woolf

Golf is a day spent in a round of strenuous idleness.

William Wordsworth

Idleness is emptiness; the tree in which the sap is stagnant, remains fruitless.

Hosea Ballou

In the diligence of his idleness. [Lat., Diligenter per vacuitatem suam.]

Hosea Ballou

For idleness is an appendix to nobility.

Robert Burton

What heart can think, or tongue express, The harm that groweth of idleness?

John Heywood

Busy idleness urges us on. [Lat., Strenua nos exercet inertia.]

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)

The frivolous work of polished idleness. - Sir James Mackintosh,

Sir James Mackintosh

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

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

It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

Virginia Woolf

A nation rushing hastily too and fro, busily employed in idleness.

Sir James M. Phaedrus

Authors | Quotes | Digests | Submit | Interact | Store

Copyright © Classics Network. Contact Us