How various his employments whom the world
Calls idle; and who justly in return
Esteems that busy read more

How various his employments whom the world
Calls idle; and who justly in return
Esteems that busy world an idler too!

A man who has no office to go to--I don't care who he is--is a
trial of which you read more

A man who has no office to go to--I don't care who he is--is a
trial of which you can have no conception.

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.
[Lat., Difficultas patrocinia praeteximus segnitiae.]

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.
[Lat., Difficultas patrocinia praeteximus segnitiae.]

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.

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.

I live an idle burden to the ground.

I live an idle burden to the ground.

Thus idly busy rolls their world away.

Thus idly busy rolls their world away.

Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.

Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.

Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen.

Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen.