The fool folds his hands and ruins himself.*<\/strong><\/p>\n Such a brief statement, nothing more than just a quick remark nestled among the Ecclesiastical many. It’s such a passive, nonaggressive, \u201cinnocent\u201d act, the folding of the hands, for such devastating results.<\/p>\n The Biblical book of Proverbs has more to say about this, but I looked instead at other authors. I found much on the topic, of idleness and it’s opposite: LIFE!<\/p>\n Here’s one, \u201cIdleness is the enemy of the soul,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>from soulful Saint Benedict back in the sixth century.<\/p>\n Closer to our times but still early language: \u201cDost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.\u201d <\/strong>Ben Franklin.<\/p>\n Or by 1800’s\u00a0journalist and abolitionist Gamaliel Bailey:\u00a0\u201cWe live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on the dial; we should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I love that . . . deeds not years, thoughts not breaths, feelings not figures in the bank balance (okay, I changed his quote for that).<\/p>\n Note there’s no\u201cfolding of the hands\u201d in any of this.<\/p>\n \u201cIdleness is the gate of all harms . . . An idle man is like a house that hath no walls; the devils may enter on every side.\u201d<\/strong> That’s\u00a0Canterbury Tale’s\u00a0Geoffrey Chaucer.<\/p>\n Or from Shakespeare: \u201cTen thousand harms more than the ills we know, our idleness doth hatch.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n And I love this one, a Turkish proverb: \u201cThe devil temps all men, but the idle man tempts the devil.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Whoooooh!<\/p>\n Finally, by 19th-century English dramatist Sir James Matthew Barrie: \u201cThe life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story and writes another; his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he hoped to make it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n That’s inspiring. And haunting.<\/p>\n Excuse me, I’ve got to run. I have much to do. And so do you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ______________________ Next: A Proper Time and Procedure for Everything.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What was that saying about the devil’s workshop? Idle hands? Here are some quotes by very busy people who left words worth pondering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3351"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10755,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3351\/revisions\/10755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n*Ecclesiastes 4:5<\/p>\n