To stand up straight and tread the turning mill,To lie flat and know nothing and be still,Are the two trades of man; and which is worseI know not, but I know that both are ill.

COMEDIAN: […] What is it you do for a living?HECKLER: I mind my own business.COMEDIAN: Self-employed, eh? No really, what do you do?HECKLER: I try not to “do.

The rich mind lies in the sun and sleeps, and is Nature.

Even when he played, he made a business of it.

I do not particularly like the word ‘work.’ Human beings are the only animals who have to work, and I think that is the most ridiculous thing in the world. Other animals make their livings...

The dull people decided years and years ago, as everyone knows, that novel-writing was the lowest species of literary exertion, and that novel reading was a dangerous luxury and an utter waste of time.

Wit needs leisure, and certain inequalities of position

What is this life so full of care,We don’t have time to stand and stare.

For a life oriented to leisure is in the end a life oriented to death – the greatest leisure of all.

Play is the creation of value that is not necessary.

Too many vacations that last too long, too many movies, too much TV, too much video game playing—too much undisciplined leisure time in which a person continually takes the course of least resistance gradually wastes...

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...

In my opinion, if 100% of the people were farming it would be ideal. If each person were given one quarter-acre, that is 1 1/4 acres to a family of five, that would be more...

If man is to be liberated to enjoy more leisure, he must also be prepared to enjoy this leisure fully and creatively.

Just as our view of work affects our real experience of it, so too does our view of leisure. If our mindset conceives of free time, hobby time, or family time as non-productive, then we...

In the old days, before I was married, or knew a lot of women, I would just pull down all the shades and go to bed for three or four days. I’d get up to...

Time is a game played beautifully by children.

Business is leisure when you find pleasure in it.

What do dogs do on their day off?; Can’t lie around – that’s their job!

Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure.

Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness.

For moderns – for us – there is something illicit, it seems, about wasted time, the empty hours of contemplation when a thought unfurls, figures of speech budding and blossoming, articulation drifting like spent petals...

I gather,” he added, “that you’ve never had much time to study the classics?””That is so.””Pity. Pity. You’ve missed a lot. Everyone should be made to study the classics, if I had my way.”Poirot shrugged...

Envy, as distasteful as it is, has seeped into my mind on rare occasions, and those I’ve envied, although few in number, have only been those that live a life of leisure with peace of...

The more interesting life becomes, in other words, the more boredom we are doomed to experience.

No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure.

Repose, leisure, peace, belong among the elements of happiness. If we have not escaped from harried rush, from mad pursuit, from unrest, from the necessity of care, we are not happy. And what of contemplation?...

Sunday, the day for the language of leisure.

The quasi-peaceable gentleman of leisure, then, not only consumes of the staff of life beyond the minimum required for subsistence and physical efficiency, but his consumption also undergoes a specialisation as regards the quality of...

If [a man] spent his money, say, in giving parties for his friends, they (we may hope) would get pleasure, and so would all those upon whom he spent money, such as the butcher, the...

I don’t envy “busy.” Busy means having a schedule, not living life. What I really covet is leisure and peace of mind. Those who have both, have it all.

Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy.

They said ‘ski’, but they heard ‘vodka’!

Leisure is only possible when we are at one with ourselves. We tend to overwork as a means of self-escape, as a way of trying to justify our existence.

A plongeur is a slave, and a wasted slave, doing stupid and largely unnecessary work. He is kept at work, ultimately, because of a vague feeling that he would be dangerous if he had leisure....

The ceremonial differentiation of the dietary is best seen in the use of intoxicating beverages and narcotics. If these articles of consumption are costly, they are felt to be noble and honorific. Therefore the base...

Beauty, my first girlfriend said to me, is that inner quality often associated with great amounts of leisure time.

When you like your work every day is a holiday.

To resist the social pressure now put even on one’s leisure time, requires a tougher upbringing and a more obstinate willfulness about going one’s own way, than ever before.

Ingenious philosophers tell you, perhaps, that the great work of the steam-engine is to create leisure for mankind. Do not believe them: it only creates a vacuum for eager thought to rush in. Even idleness...

The vacancy left by absence of worship is filled by mere killing of time and by boredom, which is directly related to inability to enjoy leisure; for one can only be bored if the spiritual...

The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.

Even retirees who like retirement often want to keep active and involved. They want a blend of work and leisure, and that often means owning a manager-run unit.

You are quite fortunate, it is quite a wonderful opportunity, the possession of leisure.

One of the most frequent sins of omission is the failure to get adequate rest.

Some of the most memorable, and least regrettable, nights of my own youth were spent in coon hunting with farmers. There is no denying that these activities contributed to the economy of farm households, but...

There’s so much competition for leisure time, more than ever.

In their view, even leisure time had to be used to the full, so as to extract the maximum of entertainment and relaxation with the minimum of delay.

Western man had relearned-what the rest of the world had never forgotten-that there was nothing sinful in leisure as long as it did not degenerate into mere sloth.

A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between her work and her play; her labor and her leisure; her mind and her body; her education and her recreation. She hardly knows...