Leisure Quotes - Page 26

And this activity alone would seem to be loved for its own sake; for nothing arises from it apart from the contemplating, while from practical activities we gain more or less apart from the action. And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.

Aristotle

War, Philosophy, May

Aristotle, Aeterna Press (2015). “Nicomachean Ethics”, p.209, Aeterna Press

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To understand the works of celebrated authors, to comprehend their systems, and retain their reasonings, is a task more than equal to common intellects; and he is by no means to be accounted useless or idle, who has stored his mind with acquired knowledge, and can detail it occasionally to others who have less leisure or weaker abilities.

Samuel Johnson

Knowledge, Mean, Mind

Samuel Johnson (1810). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An essay on his life and genius”, p.199

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What have we got here in America that we believe we cannot live without? We have the most varied and imaginative bathrooms in the world, we have kitchens with the most gimmicks, we have houses with every possible electrical gadget to save ourselves all kinds of trouble - all so that we can have leisure. Leisure, leisure, leisure! So that we don't go mad in the leisure, we have color TV. So that there will never, never, be a moment of silence, we have radio and Muzak. We can't stand silence, because silence includes thinking. And if we thought, we would have to face ourselves.

Agnes de Mille

Believe, Thinking, Color

Agnes De Mille (1980). “America dances”, Macmillan Pub Co

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He carried a pipe in his left hand, and as he examined Will at his leisure, he exhaled sending a cloud of sweet-smelling, cough-induced smoke. 'Finally broke down and admitted you're in love with me, have you?'He inquired of Will. 'I do enjoy these suprise midnight declarations.' He leaned against the doorway and waved a languid ringed hand. "Go along, have at it.

Cassandra Clare

Sweet, Clouds, Hands

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Great sorrows have no leisure to complain:
Least ills vent forth, great griefs within remain.

William Goffe

Grief, Sorrow, Complaining

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We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties.

C. S. Lewis

Real, Reading, Lust

C. S. Lewis (2002). “Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories”, p.30, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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Only if the third necessary thing could be given us. Number one, as I said: quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two.

Ray Bradbury

Two, Numbers, Quality

Ray Bradbury (1951). “Fahrenheit 451: A Novel”, Simon and Schuster

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If I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Spring, Water, Three

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For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.

George Orwell

Running, Ignorance, Thinking

George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.282, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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But more classrooms and more teachers are not enough. We must seek an educational system which grows in excellence as it grows in size. This means better training for our teachers. It means preparing youth to enjoy their hours of leisure as well as their hours of labor. It means exploring new techniques of teaching, to find new ways to stimulate the love of learning and the capacity for creation.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Education, Teacher, Teaching

The Great Society, delivered 22 May 1964, Ann Arbor, MI

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If only I had thought of a Kodak! I could have flashed that glimpse of the Under-world in a second, and examined it at leisure.

H. G. Wells

Glimpse, World, Kodak

H.G. Wells (2014). “The Time Machine”, p.97, Diderot Publishing

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Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality. We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labour, and my leisure too, For his civility. We passed the school where children played, Their lessons scarcely done; We passed the fields of gazing grain, We passed the setting sun. We paused before a house that seemed A swelling of the ground; The roof was scarcely visible, The cornice but a mound. Since then 'tis centuries; but each Feels shorter than the day I first surmised the horses' heads Were toward eternity.

Emily Dickinson

Horse, Children, School

'Because I could not stop for Death' (c.1863)

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Above a certain level of income, the relative value of material consumption vis-a-vis leisure time is diminished, so earning a higher income at the cost of working longer hours may reduce the quality of your life. More importantly, the fact that the citizens of a country work longer than others in comparable countries does not necessarily mean that they like working longer hours. They may be compelled to work long hours, even if they actually want to take longer holidays.

Ha-Joon Chang

Country, Holiday, Mean

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Not evil. Moronic, which isn't quite the same thing. Evil presupposes a moral decision, intention, and some forethought. A moron or a lout, however, doesn't stop to think or reason. He acts on instinct, like a stable animal, convinced he's doing good, that he's always right, and sanctimoniously proud to go around f***ing up ... anyone he perceives to be different from himself, be it because of skin color, creed, language, nationality, or ... leisure habits. What the world needs is more thoroughly evil people and fewer borderline pigheads.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Animal, Thinking, Skin Color

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I have now seen sucrose beaches and water a very bright blue. I have seen an all-red leisure suit with flared lapels. I have smelled suntan lotion spread over 2,100 pounds of hot flesh. I have been addressed as "Mon" in three different nations. I have seen 500 upscale Americans dance the Electric Slide. I have seen sunsets that looked computer-enhanced. I have (very briefly) joined a conga line.

David Foster Wallace

Beach, Sunset, Blue

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In modern society most of us don't want to be in touch with ourselves; we want to be in touch with other things like religion, sports, politics, a book - we want to forget ourselves. Anytime we have leisure, we want to invite something else to enter us, opening ourselves to the television and telling the television to come and colonize us.

Nhat Hanh

Sports, Book, Television

Thich Nhat Hanh (2008). “Being Peace”, p.99, ReadHowYouWant.com

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We are perpetually moralists, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon matter are voluntary, and at leisure.

Samuel Johnson

Intellectual, Perception, Matter

'The Lives of the English Poets' (1779-81) 'Milton'

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To teach is to learn twice. About all some parents accomplish in life is to send a child to Harvard. The purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place to spend one's leisure.

Joseph Joubert

Education, Children, Parent

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My objection to war was not that I had to kill somebody or be killed senselessly, that hardly mattered. What I objected to was to be denied the right to sit in a small room and starve and drink cheap wine and go crazy in my own way and at my own leisure.

Charles Bukowski

Crazy, War, Wine

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Life was not to be sitting in hot amorphic leisure in my backyard idly writing or not writing, as the spirit moved me. It was, instead, running madly, in a crowded schedule, in a squirrel cage of busy people. Working, living, dancing, dreaming, talking, kissing- singing, laughing, learning.

Sylvia Plath

Running, Dream, Writing

Sylvia Plath (2007). “The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath”, p.118, Anchor

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Curiosity, or the love of knowledge, has a very limited influence, and requires youth, leisure education, genius and example to make it govern any person

David Hume

Curiosity, Example, Genius

David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.642, Delphi Classics

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Now musing o'er the changing scene Farmers behind the tavern screen Collect; with elbows idly press'd On hob, reclines the corner's guest, Reading the news to mark again The bankrupt lists or price of grain. Puffing the while his red-tipt pipe He dreams o'er troubles nearly ripe, Yet, winter's leisure to regale, Hopes better times, and sips his ale.

John Clare

Dream, Reading, Winter

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Light sufferings give us leisure to complain.

John Dryden

Light, Giving, Suffering

John Dryden, Joseph Warton, John Warton (1811). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden: Containing Original Poems, Tales, and Translations”, p.124

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Why seek to embarrass [the artist] with vanities foreign to his quietness? Know you not that certain sciences require the whole man, leaving no part of him at leisure for your trifles?

Leonardo da Vinci

Artist, Men, Vanity

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Guests are the delight of leisure, and the solace of ennui.

Agnes Repplier

Guests, Delight, Hospitality

Agnes Repplier (1894). “In the Dozy Hours, and Other Papers”

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