“There is, however, nothing wanting to the idleness of a philosopher but a better name, and that meditation, conversation, and reading should be called “work.””
Il ne manque cependant à l'oisiveté du sage qu'un meilleur nom, et que méditer, parler, lire, et être tranquille s'appelât travailler.
Aphorism 12
Les Caractères (1688), Du mérite personnel
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Jean de La Bruyère65
17th-century French writer and philosopher 1645–1696Related quotes
“Other people’s tragedies should not be the subject of idle conversation.”
Kate DiCamillo book Because of Winn-Dixie
Source: Because of Winn-Dixie
Šantidéva (685–763) 8th-century Indian Buddhist monk and scholar
§ 5.45
Bodhicaryavatara, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life
“One should work to his last breath. Idleness should always be avoided.”
Haidakhan Babaji teacher in northern India
Karma yoga
Source: The Teachings of Babaji, 25 December 1981
W. Douglas P. Hill (1884–1962) British Indologist
Source: The Bhagavadgītā (1973), p. 169–70. (12.)
Josef Pieper (1904–1997) German philosopher
Source: Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948), Leisure, the Basis of Culture, p. 27
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
“One should have bigger & better conversions everyday, like a mechanized phoenix.”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist
21.495
"Quotes", Notebooks