Use Idleness in a sentence | example usage from the newswires

Editorial »

How to use the word Idleness in a Sentence?

Sample usage from literary quotes and the newswire.

Filter by category:

35 results found

In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. There is no country in the world where so many provisions are established for them; so many hospitals to receive them when they are sick or lame, founded and maintained by voluntary charities; so many alms-houses for the aged of both sexes, together with a solemn general law made by the rich to subject their estates to a heavy tax for the support of the poor. Under all these obligations, are our poor modest, humble, and thankful; and do they use their best endeavours to maintain themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burthen? — On the contrary, I affirm that there is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent. The day you passed that act, you took away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a dependance on somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health, for support in age or sickness. In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder that it has had its effect in the increase of poverty. – Benjamin Franklin	added by Normando 4 years ago
War begets quiet, quiet idleness, idleness disorder, disorder ruin; likewise ruin order, order virtue, virtue glory, and good fortune. – Walter Raleigh	added by anonymous 9 years ago
Idleness is an appendix to nobility. – Robert Burton	added by anonymous 9 years ago
It wounds a man less to confess that he has failed in any pursuit through idleness, neglect, the love of pleasure, etc., etc., which are his own faults, than through incapacity and unfitness, which are the faults of his nature. – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne	added by anonymous 9 years ago
Idleness is many gathered miseries in one name. – Jean Paul	added by anonymous 10 years ago
Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarette. – Colette	added by anonymous 10 years ago
A faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity. – Robert Louis Stevenson	added by anonymous 10 years ago
It is idleness that creates impossibilities; and where people don't care to do anything, they shelter themselves under a permission that it cannot be done. – Robert South	added by anonymous 10 years ago
Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more certain than ill temper. – Hannah More	added by anonymous 10 years ago
His Labor is a Chant -- his Idleness -- a Tune -- oh, for a Bee's experience of Clovers, and of Noon! – Emily Dickinson	added by anonymous 10 years ago
Idleness is a great enemy to mankind. There is no friend like energy, for, if you cultivate that, it will never fail. – Bhartrihari	added by anonymous 12 years ago
Poverty is not dishonourable in itself, but only when it arises from idleness, intemperance, extravagance, and folly. – Plutarch	added by anonymous 12 years ago
Our time is like our money; when we change a guinea the shillings escape as things of small account; when we break a day by idleness in the morning, the rest of the hours lose their importance in our eyes. – Sir Walter Scott	added by anonymous 12 years ago
Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen. – Jerome K. Jerome	added by anonymous 13 years ago
Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness - the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected. – G. Macdonald	added by anonymous 13 years ago
There are pauses amidst study, and even pauses of seeming idleness, in which a process goes on which may be likened to the digestion of food. In those seasons of repose, the powers are gathering their strength for new efforts; as land which lies fallow recovers itself for tillage. – J. W. Alexander	added by anonymous 13 years ago
One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of attention, and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied but to be read. – Johnson	added by anonymous 13 years ago
Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. – Earl of Chesterfield	added by anonymous 13 years ago
Rather do what is nothing in the purpose than to be idle, that the devil may find thee doing. The bird that sits is easily shot when the fliers escape the fowler. Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and is the self-made sepulcher of a living man. – Francis Quarles	added by anonymous 13 years ago
Idleness is an inlet to disorder, and makes way for licentiousness. People who have nothing to do are quickly tired of their own company. – Jeremy Collier	added by anonymous 13 years ago
In idleness there is a perpetual despair. – Thomas Carlyle	added by anonymous 13 years ago
In early childhood you may lay the foundation of poverty or riches, industry of idleness, good or evil, by the habits to which you train your children. Teach them right habits then, and their future life is safe. – Mrs. Sigourney	added by anonymous 13 years ago
It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top. – Virginia Woolf	added by anonymous 13 years ago
Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness; no laziness; no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. – Lord Chesterfield	added by anonymous 13 years ago

Discuss these sample sentences with the community:

0 Comments

Notify me of new comments via email.

Are we missing a good definition for Idleness? Don't keep it to yourself...

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

The Web's Largest Resource for

Definitions & Translations

A Member Of The STANDS4 Network

Free, no signup required:

Add to Chrome

Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

Free, no signup required:

Add to Firefox

Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

Browse Definitions.net

#A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Quiz

Are you a words master?

»

be contingent upon (something that is elided)

A depend

B observe

C conform

D emerge