There is no remedy for time misspent;
No healing for the waste of idleness,
Whose very languor read more

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.

That destructive siren, sloth, is ever to be avoided.
[Lat., Vitanda est improba--desidia.]

That destructive siren, sloth, is ever to be avoided.
[Lat., Vitanda est improba--desidia.]

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

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

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!

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.

Thee too, my Paridel! she mark'd thee there,
Stretch'd on the rack of a too easy chair,
read more

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.

Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

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.