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

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

I was raised to feel that doing nothing was a sin. I had to
learn to do nothing.

I was raised to feel that doing nothing was a sin. I had to
learn to do nothing.

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.

Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time,
which every day produces, and which most read more

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time,
which every day produces, and which most men throw away, but
which nevertheless will make at the end of it no small deduction
for the life of man.

Their only labour was to kill the time;
And labour dire it is, and weary woe,
They read more

Their only labour was to kill the time;
And labour dire it is, and weary woe,
They sit, they loll, turn o'er some idle rhyme,
Then, rising sudden, to the glass they go,
Or saunter forth, with tottering steps and slow.

Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.

Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.

What heart can think, or tongue express,
The harm that groweth of idleness?

What heart can think, or tongue express,
The harm that groweth of idleness?

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

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