Thomas Merton Quotes

Idle minds are the devil's research-and-development department.

Killing time is not an easy job.

I will read anything rather than work.

Boredom is... a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

My theory is 98 percent of all human endeavor is killing time.

The best way to fill time is to waste it.

People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.

Mostly, I just waste my time.

I'm one of those people who doesn't understand how it was that I went to bed at 3 o'clock in the morning or what I was doing. Like, I looked at 'Bon Appetit' magazine for three hours for things I'm never going to cook. Or I'm just on Pinterest for no logical reason.

Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.

Remove the temptation of idleness and Cupid's bow is useless.

A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do.

There is no kind of idleness by which we are so easily seduced as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business.

There is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do. Wasting time is merely an occupation then, and a most exhausting one.

Killing time is the chief end of our society.

Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all virtues. Be active in business, that temptation may miss her aim; the bird that sits is easily shot.

The idle man is the devil's cushion.

The Internet is a perfect diversion from learning... it opens many doors that lead to empty rooms.

Idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry. He that neglects his known duty and real employment naturally endeavours to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does any thing but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favour.

That's the rational premise behind my spending hours of billable time adjusting my Facebook preferences. The real reason, of course, for all this stuff, is that it provides a way to blow off work you should be doing, while creating the illusion that you are achieving something.

Human beings are amazing at finding ways to waste their own time.

I love to work, although sometimes I can spend whole days doing nothing more than picking the lint off the carpet and talking to my mother on the phone.

Flee idleness... for no one is more exposed to such temptations than he who has nothing to do.

One of the best ways of avoiding necessary and even urgent tasks is to seem to be busily employed on things that are already done.

The Devil often finds work for them who find none for themselves.