The Communistic Societies of the United States (1875)
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) Swedish painter
Quote from: Caspar David Friedrich, by Irma Emmerich; Herman Böhlaus, Weimar, 1964, p. 11; as cited & transl. by Linda Siegel in Caspar David Friedrich and the Age of German Romanticism, Boston Branden Press Publishers, 1978, p. 4
undated
Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese martial artist, writer, artist
Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Wind Book
Context: Some other schools have a liking for extra-long swords. From the point of view of my strategy these must be seen as weak schools. This is because they do not appreciate the principle of cutting the enemy by any means. Their preference is for the extra-long sword and, relying on the virtue of its length, they think to defeat the enemy from a distance.
In this world it is said, "One inch gives the hand advantage", but these are the idle words of one who does not know strategy. It shows the inferior strategy of a weak spirit that men should be dependant on the length of their sword, fighting from a distance without the benefit of strategy.
“Idleness and Pride Tax with a heavier Hand than Kings and Parliaments;”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Letter to Charles Thomson, 11 July 1765; also quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). The last sentence is sometimes misquoted as "If we can get rid of the former, we can get rid of the latter".
Epistles
Context: Idleness and Pride Tax with a heavier Hand than Kings and Parliaments; If we can get rid of the former we may easily bear the Latter.
“Let the man who does not wish to be idle fall in love!”
Qui nolet fieri desidiosus, amet!
Book I; ix, 46
Amores (Love Affairs)
“[watching a character's ridiculous idle animation] "Who—? Nobody—Nobody does that!"”
TotalBiscuit (1984–2018) British game commentator
WTF Is…? series, Guise of the Wolf (January 26, 2014)
“I decided that the devil finds work for idle hands and thanked him for his suggestion.”
Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American speculative fiction writer
Home is the Hangman (1975)
“And threat'ning France, plac'd like a painted Jove,
Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand.”
Annus Mirabilis, Stanza 39.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Charlemagne (748–814) King of the Franks, King of Italy, and Holy Roman Emperor
Quoted in Notker's The Deeds of Charlemagne (translated 2008 by David Ganz)
