“ For man was born to move and act, and idleness is an unpardonable crime, because it is an injury to the State. ”
Anatole France, Thaïs (1890). copy citation
Author | Anatole France |
---|---|
Source | Thaïs |
Topic | idleness crime |
Date | 1890 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by Robert B. Douglas |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2078/2078-h/2078-h.htm |
Context
“Moreover, this kind of existence is not so extraordinary as it appears to you, Lucius. I may remind you that the gymnosophists of India can remain motionless, not merely for a year, but during twenty, thirty, or forty years.”
“By Jupiter!” cried Cotta, “that is a strange madness. For man was born to move and act, and idleness is an unpardonable crime, because it is an injury to the State. I do not know of any religion in which such an objectionable practice is permitted, though it possibly may be in some of the Asiatic creeds. When I was Governor of Syria, I found phalli erected in the porches at the city of Hera.”
source