For idleness is an appendix to nobility.

For idleness is an appendix to nobility.

Thou seest how sloth wastes the sluggish body, as water is
corrupted unless it moves.
[Lat., Cernis ut read more

Thou seest how sloth wastes the sluggish body, as water is
corrupted unless it moves.
[Lat., Cernis ut ignavum corrumpant otia corpus
Ut capiant vitium ni moveantur aquae.]

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!

Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace

Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention -- invention . . . arises directly from idleness, possibly also read more

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention -- invention . . . arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.

Thus idly busy rolls their world away.

Thus idly busy rolls their world away.

A nation rushing hastily too and fro, busily employed in idleness.

A nation rushing hastily too and fro, busily employed in idleness.

You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by. Yes, but some of them are golden only read more

You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by. Yes, but some of them are golden only because we let them slip.

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.