I live an idle burden to the ground.

I live an idle burden to the ground.

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

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

Were't not affection chains thy tender days
To the sweet glances of thy honored love,
I rather read more

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.

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.

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

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

For idleness is an appendix to nobility.

For idleness is an appendix to nobility.

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!

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.

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.]