When you go for a walk, take seeds with you, poppies, rainbow chard, rocket. Plant them among the weeds in patches of wasteland. See what happens. Tom Hodgkinson More Quotes by Tom Hodgkinson More Quotes From Tom Hodgkinson Often, the things that a lot of work has gone into have been incredibly bad because they're over-worked. Tom Hodgkinson has-beens gone The terrible thing about the internet and Amazon is that they take the magic and happy chaos out of book shopping. The internet might give you what you want, but it won't give you what you need. Tom Hodgkinson shopping giving book Guilt is also a way for us to express to others that we are a person of good conscience. 'I feel really guilty about getting drunk last night,' we say, when in actual fact we feel no guilt whatsoever or, at least, we could choose to feel no guilt. When people say to me, 'I drank too much last night,' I always reply, 'I drank exactly the right amount. Tom Hodgkinson drunk night people In both word and deed, one of the greatest idlers of all time was John Lennon. In his songs we see repeated defences of simply lying around doing nothing. Tom Hodgkinson idlers song lying Self-importance is a trap, because the moment we start to think that we actually matter is the moment when things start to go wrong. The truth is that you are supremely unimportant and nothing matters. All of man's striving is for nothing; all effort is wasted. To realize that everything is meaningless is tremendously liberating, since it then leaves us completely free to create our own lives and ignore the plans that others have for us. Tom Hodgkinson self men thinking One of the least arduous but most productive of gardening jobs, the magic of deadheading never fails to delight me. It was a revelation when the principle was explained to me: that flowers are the attempt by the plant to reproduce itself. So if you cut the heads off before the flower turns into seeds, the plant will continue to flower. Tom Hodgkinson cutting flower jobs We have an idea that if something we're doing isn't actually earning money, or spending it, then it's completely worthless. But if you start to work less, you can actually start to give more to society, but on a local level. Tom Hodgkinson levels giving ideas Alongside my "no email" policy, I resolve to make better use of the wonderful Royal Mail, and send letters and postcards to people. There is a huge pleasure in writing a letter, putting it in an envelope and sticking the stamp on it. And huge pleasure in receiving real letters, too. Tom Hodgkinson real writing people The way to stop feeling guilty is to read stuff - I'm not saying my book, but works by Bertrand Russell or Oscar Wilde, people who weren't losers but who didn't believe in the work ethic, and argued this thing about guilt or wrote philosophy about idleness. Tom Hodgkinson philosophy believe book To me there is no more depressing sight than a five-year-old staring at a screen, unsmiling, mouse in hand. Besides whatever dreadful things this prolonged exposure to screens is doing to their brains, computer games tend to be solitary affairs, and produce little laughter. Tom Hodgkinson depressing laughter sight In this age of getting what you want and getting it now, the simple pleasure of browsing is often forgotten. Tom Hodgkinson getting-what-you-want simple age Facebook is not ideologically neutral. In fact, it emerges from a very particular world view which we can trace back to Hobbes. I discovered this by examining the profile of Zuckerberg's fellow board members who, unlike him, are a very interesting bunch and, I suspect, the real power behind the poster boy. Tom Hodgkinson real views boys I don't put much faith in the political system because it's a question of how are you going to run capitalism, not how are we going to develop a different system to capitalism. Tom Hodgkinson political different running Travelling fills me with dread. Tom Hodgkinson dread Surely, anyway, a working day of eight or nine hours which is not split by a nap is simply too much for a human being to take, day in, day out, and particularly so in hot weather. Tom Hodgkinson eight naps weather Our dreams take us into other worlds, alternative realities that help us make sense of day-to-day realities. Tom Hodgkinson other-worlds dream reality I like the idea of becoming [fairly] good at lots of things rather than very good at just one thing. So it would be nice to be okay at the guitar or at the piano, a reasonable cook, perhaps able to fix your car or do some basic carpentry, and be able to write the odd article. Rather than being super good at one tiny thing, to be kind of average at lots of things. It might mean that you have a more kind of enjoyable, complete life. Tom Hodgkinson nice writing mean A conclusion I’ve come to at the Idler is that it starts with retreating from work but it’s really about making work into something that isn’t drudgery and slavery, and then work and life can become one thing. Tom Hodgkinson idlers work-and-life slavery Labour-saving devices just make us try to cram more pointless activities into each day, rather than doing the important thing, which is to enjoy our life. Tom Hodgkinson each-day important trying Idleness for me is not a giving up on life but a spirited grabbing hold of it. Tom Hodgkinson grabbing spirited giving-up
