T. L. Haines and L. W. Yaggy

“ That man that waits for an opportunity to do much at once, may breathe out his life in idle wishes, and finally regret his useless intentions and barren zeal - a young man idle, an old man needy. Idleness travels very leisurely along, and poverty soon overtakes her - to be idle is to be poor. It is said that pride and poverty are inconsistent companions, but when idleness unites them the depth of wretchedness is complete. ”

“ Many moralists have remarked that pride has, of all human vices, the widest dominion, appears in the greatest multiplicity of forms, and lies hid under the greatest variety of disguises - of which disguises, like the moon's veils of brightness, are both its luster and its shade, and betray it to others though they hide it from themselves. ”

“ Idleness is a silent and peaceful quality that neither raises envy by ostentation nor hatred by opposition. There are some that profess idleness in its full dignity; they boast because they do nothing, and thank their stars that they have nothing to do - who sleep every night until they cannot sleep any longer, and then rise only that exercise may enable them to sleep again ”

“ These are the true and open votaries of idleness, who exist in a state of unruffled stupified laziness, forgetting and forgotten, who have long ceased to live, and at whose death the survivors can only say that they have ceased to breathe. ”

“ Such a person is an annoyance - he is of no use to anybody - he is an intruder in the busy thoroughfare of everyday life - he is of no advantage; he annoys busy men - he makes them unhappy; he may have no income to support his idleness, or he may sponge on good-natured friends, but in either case he is despised; he is a criminal prodigal, and a prolific author of want and shame; he is a confused workshop for the devil to tinker in, and no good can ever be expected from him ”

“ The great mass of thieves, paupers and criminals have come to what they are by being brought up to do nothing useful. Laziness grows on people; it begins in a cob-web and ends in iron chains. If you will be nothing, just wait to be somebody. ”

“ Idleness is an ingredient in the upper current, which was scarcely known, and never countenanced, in the good old linsey woolsey, tow and linen, mush and milk, pork and potato times of the pilgrim fathers, and revolutionary patriots. We now have those among us, who would rather go hungry and be in rags, than go to work. ”

“ Many an idle knave, by means of a fine coat, a lily hand, and a graceful bow, has been received into the polite circles of society with eclat, and walked, rough-shod, over a worthy young mechanic or farmer, who had too much good sense to make a dash, or imitate the monkey shines of an itinerant dandy. A fine dress, in the eyes of some, covers more sins than charity.
If thus the young man wishes to be nobody, his way is easy. He need only go to the drinking saloon to spend his leisure time ”

“ When we notice that a man can be a professional loafer, a successful idler, with less capital, less brains, than are required to succeed in any other profession, we cannot blame him so much after all, for those are things that the idler is generally destitute of ”

“ We also have a numerous train of gentlemen idlers, who pass down the stream of life at the expense of their fellow passengers. They live well, and dress well, as long as possible, by borrowing and sponging, and then take to gambling, swindling, stealing, robbing ”