"Idleness is emptiness; the tree in which the sap is stagnant, remains fruitless."

Hosea Ballou See all quotes by Hosea Ballou →

React to this quote

More by Hosea Ballou

“Humanity, in the aggregate, is progressing, and philanthropy looks forward hopefully.”

“As "unkindness has no remedy at law," let its avoidance be with you a point of honor.”

“There is one inevitable criterion of judgment touching religious faith in doctrinal matters. Can you reduce it to practice? If not, have none of it.”

“God's glowing covenant.”

“Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within the hearsay of little children tends towards the formation of character.”

“If our Creator has so bountifully provided for our existence here, which is but momentary, and for our temporal wants, which will soon be forgotten, how much more must He have done for our enjoyment in the everlasting world?”

Resonant Thoughts

"Proposition 13. The straight line subtending the portion intercepted within the earth's shadow of the circumference of the circle in which the extremities of the diameter of the circle dividing the da…"

— Aristarchus of Samos

Mathematics-309–-229

#nature

"In our attitude towards the war, which under the new government of Lvov and Co. unquestionably remains on Russia’s part a predatory imperialist war owing to the capitalist nature of that government, n…"

— Vladimir Lenin

Politics1870–1924

#nature

"It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the d…"

— Charles Darwin

Science1758–1778

#nature

"Amazingly, we take for granted that instinct for survival, fear of death, must separate us from the happiness of pure and uninterpreted experience, in which body, mind, and nature are the same. And th…"

— Peter Matthiessen

Literature1927–2014

#nature