The Importance of Being Idle (book)
Encyclopedia
The Importance of Being Idle is a humorous 2000 book by author Stephen Robins subtitled 'A little book of lazy inspiration'. Using an alphabetic subject-list format it presents a collection of essay
-extracts, quotations and journal excerpts from a wide variety of writers and thinkers including Mark Twain
, Bertrand Russell
, Charles Dickens
, and Samuel Johnson
. The book describes itself as 'call to arms for would-be moafers everywhere to turn their hands to absolutely nothing whatever', emphasizing the benefits of giving oneself nothing to do in the modern world of stress and long working hours. In the words of James Thurber
, It is better to have loafed and lost than never to have loafed at all.
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
-extracts, quotations and journal excerpts from a wide variety of writers and thinkers including Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, and Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
. The book describes itself as 'call to arms for would-be moafers everywhere to turn their hands to absolutely nothing whatever', emphasizing the benefits of giving oneself nothing to do in the modern world of stress and long working hours. In the words of James Thurber
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories published in The New Yorker magazine.-Life:...
, It is better to have loafed and lost than never to have loafed at all.