Gerald Brenan Quotes

Some are "industrious," and appear to love labor for its own sake, or perhaps because it keeps them out of worse mischief; to suchI have at present nothing to say. Those who would not know what to do with more leisure than they now enjoy, I might advise to work twice as hard as they do,--work till they pay for themselves, and get their free papers.

Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness.

I think being idle is quite hard for me to do.

I think the man who eats the bread of idleness is under a certain obligation to speak well of labor.

Idlers cannot even find time to be idle, or the industrious to be at leisure. We must always be doing or suffering

We seldom enjoy leisure we haven't earned.

Am I a slacker? I can be a slacker. When I was in college, most people got summer jobs for college or did research during college. I went home and watched TV the whole day for three months; it was really awesome.

As to that leisure evening of life, I must say that I do not want it. I can conceive of no contentment of which toil is not to be the immediate parent.

I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on the beach?

The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.

I'm not a fan of idleness, except in small doses.

I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.

I don't know the difference between working and not working.

If I'm not working, I don't know what to do.

They talk of the dignity of work. The dignity is in leisure.

Surely man was not created to be an idle fellow; he was not set in this universal orchard to stand still as a tree.

I just enjoy both working and not working.

Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.

I don't think I am a workaholic. I prefer to keep busy. It is better than the alternative.

He who is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer

I'm a big fan of not working.

I definitely like not working sometimes. It's so fun. I just love sleeping in. In America, everyone is driven to succeed and wake up and do something. But I don't care. I want to sleep in. I want to relax. I don't want to have to get up every day.

When I do have spare time to write, I'm tempted to spend it napping.

I like to be productive - it's very hard for me to go on vacation because I just feel like I'm losing time.

I suppose that there is no point wasting time being lazy, though of course indolence in a divine way, actually has its advantages.