
Letter 15 (October 20, 1837).
Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman (1837)
Source: Wilfrid Cumbermede
Letter 15 (October 20, 1837).
Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman (1837)
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 172.
“Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.”
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 311.
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), History
Context: The difference between men is in their principle of association. Some men classify objects by color and size and other accidents of appearance; others by intrinsic likeness, or by the relation of cause and effect. The progress of the intellect is to the clearer vision of causes, which neglects surface differences. To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine. For the eye is fastened on the life, and slights the circumstance. Every chemical substance, every plant, every animal in its growth, teaches the unity of cause, the variety of appearance.
The Canton, Ohio Speech, Anti-War Speech (1918)
Context: They are continually talking about your patriotic duty. It is not their but your patriotic duty that they are concerned about. There is a decided difference. Their patriotic duty never takes them to the firing line or chucks them into the trenches.
And now among other things they are urging you to "cultivate" war gardens, while at the same time a government war report just issued shows that practically 52 percent of the arable, tillable soil is held out of use by the landlords, speculators and profiteers. They themselves do not cultivate the soil. Nor do they allow others to cultivate it. They keep it idle to enrich themselves, to pocket the millions of dollars of unearned increment.
“One should work to his last breath. Idleness should always be avoided.”
Karma yoga
Source: The Teachings of Babaji, 25 December 1981
“An ignorant person will always overdo a thing or neglect it totally.”
Nahj al-Balagha
“To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious.”
Further Extracts from the Note-Books of Samuel Butler http://books.google.com/books?id=zltaAAAAMAAJ&q="To+do+great+work+a+man+must+be+very+idle+as+well+as+very+industrious"&pg=PA262#v=onepage, compiled and edited by A.T. Bartholomew (1934), p. 262