''The Importance of Being Idle: A Little Book of Lazy Inspiration'' is a humorous self-help book by author Stephen Robins. It was published by Prion Books in August 2000 and re-released as a paperback in 2001. 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
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
,
Bertrand Russell,
, and
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
. The book describes itself as 'call to arms for would-be loafers 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".
The
song of the same name by English rock band
Oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.”
The location of oases has been of critical imp ...
is named after the book.
See also
*
Karōshi
References
2000 non-fiction books
Essay collections
Self-help books
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