indolence

If you ask me which is the real hereditary sin of human nature, do you imagine I shall answer pride, or luxury, or ambition, or egotism? No; I shall say indolence. Who conquers indolence will conquer all the rest. Indeed all good principles must stagnate without mental activity.

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

In indolent vacuity of thought.

Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.

There is no moment like the present. The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards; they will be dissipated, lost, and perish in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence.

There came a man in days of old, To hire a piece of land for gold, And urged his suit in accents meek- "One crop alone is all I seek; 'That harvest o'er, my claim I yield, And to its lord resign the field." The owner some misgivings felt, And coldly with the stranger dealt, But found his last objection fail, And honied eloquence prevail, So took the proffered price in hand, And for one crop leased out the land. The wily tenant sneered with pride, And sowed the spot with acorns wide; At first like tiny shoots they grew, Then broad and wide their branches threw, But long before the oaks sublime, Aspiring reached their forest rime, The cheated landlord moldering lay Forgotten with his kindred clay. O ye whose years unfolding fair Are fresh with youth, and free from care, Should vice and indolence desire The garden of your souls to hire, No parleys hold-reject the suit, Nor let one seed the soil pollute. My child their first approach beware, With firmness break the insidious snare, Lest as the acorns grew and throve Into a sun-encircled grove, Thy sins, a dark o'ershadowing tree Shut out the light of Heaven from thee.

Though you may have known clever men who were indolent, you never knew a great man who was so; and when I hear a young man spoken of as giving promise of great genius, the first question I ask about him always is, Does he work?

Pray, Mr. Abernethy, what is a cure for gout? ' was the question of an indolent and luxurious citizen. 'Live upon sixpence a day - and earn it,' was the cogent reply.

The greater part of human misery is caused by indolence.

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.