44 Thought-Provoking Idle Minds Quotes

Have you ever wondered why the idle mind is often referred to as the devil's playground?

The phrase "an idle mind is a devil's workshop" emphasizes the importance of keeping yourself engaged to avoid the inflow of negative thoughts that can harm yourself or others. As a result, people are advised to keep their minds engaged in more constructive things rather than merely sitting idle.

When you don't have much on your plate, you have the luxury of time. It is up to you whether you use it productively or waste time thinking about things that will help no one. An idle mind not only reduces productivity but can also lead to laziness and sloppiness. Engage in physical or mental exercises such as yoga, scrabble or sudoku, meditation, or reading a book to regulate your idle mind. Read the idle minds quotes below for more inspiration.

Idleness can be more of a bane than a boon. To break the lure of inactivity, read some brief but thoughtful quotations on idleness.

"Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's."

- George Carlin.

“Busy mouths grow on idle heads.”

― 'The Success Genome Unravelled: Turning Men from Rot to Rock', Agona Apell.

"An idle mind is a devil's workshop and I am prone to renting out my mind to the first bidder."

- Anurag Shourie.

“Idle hands make fretful minds.”

― 'Grace', Shelley Shepard Gray.

"Idleness is the only refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools."

– Lord Chesterfield.

"To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle."

- Henry David Thoreau.

“An idle mind with enough time on their hands is far worse than a politician.”

― Don Santo.

"People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day."

– A.A. Milne.

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

- Robert Stacy McCain.

"A fool mistakes meekness for weakness and a quiet tongue for an idle mind."

- R.A. Mathis.

"I think maybe it is true that the idle mind is the Devil's workshop."

- Barbara Kingsolver.

"Idleness gives great advantage to the tempter. Standing waters gather filth."

– Matthew Henry.

"The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning."

– Samuel Johnson.

"Sometimes just having an idle mind seems to be the by-default solution."

- Aishwarya Venkatakrishnan.

(Check out some inspiring quotes on idle minds to achieve success and happiness in life.)

Find thought-provoking idle mind quotes below to discover why and how you should keep your mind engaged.

"Leave your bed upon the first desertion of sleep; it being ill for the eyes to read lying, and worse for the mind to be idle; since the head during that laziness is commonly a cage for unclean thoughts."

- Frances Osborne.

"The mind never sleeps. Though the body can be idle, there shall always be something for the mind to do! Do something with your mind then!"

- Ernest Agyemang Yeboah.

"But nerves always festered in the stillness of waiting. Left at idle, the mind could make a coward of even the bravest man."

- D.J. Molles.

“Days spent in idleness and leisure creates empty pages in the anthology of human beings and leaves no indelible mark in the pages of a person’s life story.”

― 'Dead Toad Scrolls', Kilroy J. Oldster.

"Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know."

- Charles Kingsley.

"It is the idle man, not the great worker, who is always complaining that he has no time or opportunity."

- Orison Swett Marden.

"I want to know which idea you're going to kill yourself trying to make successful, not which ideas have crossed your idle mind."

- Guy Kawasaki.

"If I'm alone too long I think too much, and I'm not interested in doing that. That won't lead anywhere good, I'm sure. If I'm busy I tend to stay out of trouble. An idle mind is the devil's playground."

- Lisa Marie Presley.

Check out some famous idle mind quotes below.

"The idea presented itself definitely to his mind that it was in his power to exchange the dreary, artificial, idle, and individualistic life he was leading for this laborious, pure, and socially delightful life."

- Leo Tolstoy.

"The idle mind knows not what it wants."

- Quintus Ennius.

"The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions, for life is a kind of chess."

- Benjamin Franklin.

"A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor."

– Victor Hugo.

"Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals."

– Voltaire.

"Keep doing some kind of work, that the devil may always find you employed."

- St. Jerome.

"Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind."

– Henry Ford.

"Gardens are not made by singing “Oh, how beautiful,” and sitting in the shade."

– Rudyard Kipling.

"Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease."

– Benjamin Franklin.

"Manners are not idle, but the fruit of loyal and of noble mind."

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Get busy living or get busy dying."

– Stephen King.

"It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man."

- Benjamin Franklin.

Read some of the best idle mind quotes below.

"It is the ignorant and childish part of mankind that is the fighting part. Idle and vacant minds want excitement."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Purge your mind of all aimless and idle thoughts, especially those that pry into the affairs of others or wish them ill."

- Marcus Aurelius.

"As to people saying a few idle words about us, we must not mind that, any more than the old church steeple minds the rooks cawing about it."

- George Eliot.

"Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

"Fortunately, the mind is restless; when it uncovers a layer of its own deception, gives up an illusion, exposes a lie, it does not stand idle for long before the collapse of its earlier assumptions."

- Kim Chernin.

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."

– John Lubbock.

“Idleness, we are accustomed to say, is the root of all evil. To prevent this evil, work is recommended... Idleness as such is by no means a root of evil; on the contrary, it is truly a divine life, if one is not bored....”

- 'Either/Or: A Fragment of Life', Soren Kierkegaard.

“So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination... And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do not bring forth in the agitation.”

- Michel de Montaigne.

"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing."

– Thomas Jefferson.

"If a man devotes himself to art, much evil is avoided that happens otherwise if one is idle."

- Albrecht Durer.