“Busy opinion is an idle fool.”

— John Ford (dramatist), 'Tis Pity She's a Whore

Act V, sc. iii.
'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1629-33?)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Busy opinion is an idle fool." by John Ford (dramatist)?

John Ford (dramatist) photo

John Ford (dramatist)33

dramatist 1586–1639

Related quotes

“In idle wishes fools supinely stay;
Be there a will, and wisdom finds a way.”

George Crabbe (1754–1832) English poet, surgeon, and clergyman

The Birth of Flattery, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“4537. The Fool is busy in everyone's Business but his own.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

“Busy old fool, unruly Sophie”

Diana Wynne Jones book Howl's Moving Castle

Source: Howl's Moving Castle

“Even as there is no virtue which is wanting to the busy man, so there is no vice which does not bear the idle company.”

Mateo Alemán book Guzmán de Alfarache

Pt. I, Lib. II, Ch. VI.
Guzmán de Alfarache (1599-1604)

“Pages full of idle words
Penned with hot and bitter tears:
All men call the author fool;
None his secret message hears.”

Cao Xueqin book Dream of the Red Chamber

Source: Dream of the Red Chamber (c. 1760), Chapter 1

“In works of labour or of skill
I would be busy too:
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.”

Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English hymnwriter, theologian and logician

Song 20: "Against Idleness and Mischief".
1710s, Divine Songs Attempted in the Easy Language of Children (1715)

“We have a saying, we travelers: ‘For a man’s business, go to your troupe leader; for a woman’s business, go to Women’s Country. For a fool’s business, go to the warriors.”

Sheri S. Tepper book The Gate to Women's Country

Source: The Gate to Women's Country (1988), Chapter 16 (p. 173)

“How various his employments whom the world
Calls idle, and who justly in return
Esteems that busy world an idler too!”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book III, The Garden, Line 352.

“I've always said that idleness dulls the spirit. We have to keep the brain busy, or at least the hands if we don't have a brain.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Angel's Game

Source: The Angel's Game

“I don't think necessity is the mother of invention — invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

Part III: Growing Up, §II
Source: An Autobiography (1977)

Related topics