All poets are idlers, even if all idlers are not poets. Tom Hodgkinson More Quotes by Tom Hodgkinson More Quotes From Tom Hodgkinson The art of living is the art of bringing dreams and reality together. Tom Hodgkinson maturity dream art In a world where you are constantly asked to be 'committed,' it is liberating to give yourself the license to be a dilettante. Commit to nothing. Try everything. Tom Hodgkinson trying giving world Beauty, pleasure, freedom and plenty of sleep: these are the hallmarks of a successful idler's break. Travel should not be hard work. Tom Hodgkinson hard-work successful sleep If you look at the literature of the 19th century, you get things like Kafka and Dostoevsky, who basically write about feeling bored and alienated. That's because we lost contact with the important things in life like work that you enjoy, or the garden, nature, your family and friends. Tom Hodgkinson things-in-life garden writing Pain will never leave us. Instead of putting energy into destroying pain, we need to put energy into creating pleasure. Tom Hodgkinson creating pain energy Being lazy does not mean that you do not create. In fact, lying around doing nothing is an important, nay crucial, part of the creative process. It is meaningless bustle that actually gets in the way of productivity. All we are really saying is, give peace a chance. Tom Hodgkinson giving mean lying I count it as a certainty that in paradise, everyone naps. Tom Hodgkinson paradise naps sleep Part of this individualism is you feel this pressure that you alone have to conquer the world, and if you don't work all the hours God gives then you start feeling really guilty. If you can stop feeling guilty, then I think it's easier to start doing what you want to do. Tom Hodgkinson conquer-the-world giving thinking All of our technology is completely unnecessary to a happy life. Tom Hodgkinson unnecessary technology happy-life I would like to propose slow cycling. Commute by bike. At a stroke, you remove the need for and absurd cost of public transport. Cycling is almost completely free. There is no longer any need for the gym as you get fit by cycling. And you can go at your own pace. Tom Hodgkinson cycling cost needs Little things like making clothes, baking bread, cooking, even useless things like bird-watching, sketching flowers, playing guitar in the home - that sort of time is gone. And the time we have? We're so exhausted, we want to let ourselves get sucked in to the escape world of TV. I'm speaking from experience; I'm not above all this. Tom Hodgkinson guitar flower home What seems extraordinary is that the richest countries in the world, in terms of economic output, are the ones where we work hardest. You would have thought that the end of all this innovation, technological advancement, and financial wizardry should be to create less work, not more of it. Tom Hodgkinson innovation hard-work country Guilt is also a way for us to express to others that we are a person of good conscience. Tom Hodgkinson guilt persons way We think we have to work because the advertising industry has elevated wants into needs. The newspapers and the television batter us incessantly with the latest "must-haves", whether that's shoes, videogames or patio heaters. As a result, mums think they "have" to work at Tesco in order to buy expensive trainers. Tom Hodgkinson shoes order thinking There's nothing new about anti-work philosophy. History is dotted with individuals and groups who decided that laziness was next to godliness and work was a waste of time. Tom Hodgkinson groups laziness philosophy Writing a book is a brilliant thing because once you've finished it, you've done it, and there's the potential for it to go on earning you a living without you doing any more work on it. It's absolutely ideal for an idler. Tom Hodgkinson idlers writing book The idea of a government is to create an ordered, willing work force where there's no trouble. I think idlers are generally seen as potentially dangerous because they're asking questions. Tom Hodgkinson asking-questions government thinking We bore ourselves in order to earn money that we'll later spend on trying to de-bore ourselves Tom Hodgkinson bores trying order In the West, we have become addicted to work. Americans now work the longest hours in the world. And the result is not health, wealth and wisdom, but rather a lot of anxiety, a lot of ill health and a lot of debt. Tom Hodgkinson ill-health debt anxiety There are a lot of little tricks you can do to inject a bit more time into the day. Most important is limiting yourself to a 40 hour week, not working 50 hours or 60 or 70. It's just crazy. It's actually irresponsible to you and irresponsible to your family and friends. Why should your employer's profits be more important than your own family? You're not even going to get any of the profits - all you get is not losing your job. It's a very negative system. Tom Hodgkinson crazy important jobs
