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Virtue and Vice
636. Idleness
"As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate
purpose of the busy."
Johnson: Idler #1 (April 15, 1758)
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933. Effort; Idleness; Relativity
"No man can perform so little as not to have reason to
congratulate himself on his merits, when he beholds the multitude
that live in total idleness, and have never yet endeavoured to be
useful."
Johnson: Rambler #83 (January 1, 1751)
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941. Health; Idleness
"Ease is the utmost that can be hoped
from a sedentary and
unactive habit; ease, a neutral state between pain and pleasure.
The dance of spirits, the bound of vigour, readiness of
enterprise, and defiance of fatigue, are reserved for him that
braces his nerves and hardens his fibres, that keeps his limbs
pliant with motion, and by frequent exposure fortifies his frame
against the common accidents of cold and heat."
Johnson: Rambler #85 (January 8, 1751)
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946. Boredom; Diversion; Idleness;
Time; Wealth
"Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and ... the
unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than
they know how to use. To set himself free from these
incumbrences, one hurries to Newmarket; another travels over
Europe; one pulls down his house and calls architects about him;
another buys a seat in the country, and follows his hounds over
hedges and through rivers; one makes collections of shells; and
another searches the world for tulips and carnations."
Johnson: Idler #30 (November 11, 1758)
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1,126. Idleness
"Idleness predominates in many lives where it is not suspected;
for, being a vice which terminates in itself, it may be enjoyed
without injury to others; and it is therefore not watched like
fraud, which endangers property; or like pride, which naturally
seeks its gratifications in another's inferiority. Idleness is a
silent and peaceful quality, that neither raises envy by
ostentation, nor hatred by opposition; and therefore nobody is
busy to censure or detect it."
Johnson: Idler #31 (November 18, 1752)
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1,127. Idleness
"Nothing is to be expected from the workman whose tools are for
ever to be sought."
Johnson: Idler #31 (November 18, 1752)
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1,188. Idleness;
Procrastination
"We every day see the progress of life retarded by the vis
inertiae, the mere repugnance to motion, and find multitudes
repining at the want of that which nothin but idleness hinders
them from enjoying."
Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751)
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1,191. Idleness
"Among all who sacrifice future advantage to present inclination,
scarcely any gain so little as those that suffer themselves to
freeze in idleness. Others are corrupted by some enjoyment of
more or less power to gratify the passions; but to neglect our
duties merely to avoid the labour of performing them, a labour
which is always punctually rewarded, is surely to sink under weak
temptations."
Johnson: Rambler #134 (June 29, 1751)
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1,216. Idleness; Intimidation
"Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and
intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible
which is only difficult."
Johnson: Boerhaave
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1,320. Idleness
"While a man, infatuated with the promises of greatness, wastes
his hours and days in attendance and solicitation, the honest
opportunities of improving his condition pass by without his
notice; he neglects to cultivate his own barren soil, because he
expects every moment to be placed in regions of spontaneous
fertility, and is seldom roused form his delusion but by the
gripe of distress, which he cannot resist, and the sense of evils
which cannot be remedied."
Johnson: Rambler #163 (October 8, 1751)
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1,642. Idleness; Vanity
"When we analyse the crowd into individuals, it soon appears that
the passions and imaginations of men will not easily suffer them
to be idle: we see things coveted merely because they are rare,
and pursued because they are fugitive; we see men conspire to fix
an arbitrary value on that which is worthless in itself, and then
contend for the possession."
Johnson: Adventurer #128 (January 26, 1754)
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