Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time,
which every day produces, and which most read more

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time,
which every day produces, and which most men throw away, but
which nevertheless will make at the end of it no small deduction
for the life of man.

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

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

I live an idle burden to the ground.

I live an idle burden to the ground.

He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.

He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.

Thus idly busy rolls their world away.

Thus idly busy rolls their world away.

Valor, gradually overpowered by the delicious poison of sloth,
grows torpid.
[Lat., Blandoque veneno
Desidiae virtus read more

Valor, gradually overpowered by the delicious poison of sloth,
grows torpid.
[Lat., Blandoque veneno
Desidiae virtus paullatim evicta senescit.]

A man's real worth is determined by what he does when he has nothing to do.

A man's real worth is determined by what he does when he has nothing to do.

Their only labour was to kill the time;
And labour dire it is, and weary woe,
They read more

Their only labour was to kill the time;
And labour dire it is, and weary woe,
They sit, they loll, turn o'er some idle rhyme,
Then, rising sudden, to the glass they go,
Or saunter forth, with tottering steps and slow.

It is not the hours we put in on the job, it is what we put into the hours that read more

It is not the hours we put in on the job, it is what we put into the hours that counts.