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?

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.

Thus idly busy rolls their world away.

Thus idly busy rolls their world away.

Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and governments.

Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and governments.

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!

Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness - the read more

Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness - the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.

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.

I was raised to feel that doing nothing was a sin. I had to
learn to do nothing.

I was raised to feel that doing nothing was a sin. I had to
learn to do nothing.

An idler is a watch that wants both hands;
As useless if it goes as when it stands.

An idler is a watch that wants both hands;
As useless if it goes as when it stands.