I dig old books. ™
Est. 1998
 | ||
Home About Contact Terms Privacy |
Quotations for Screen-Free Week
Some days, we just need to turn the quiet up. ~Dr. SunWolf, @WordWhispers, tweet, 2011, professorsunwolf.com
The only social networking I did this weekend was with my family. I actually let the battery on my laptop completely die. ~Betsy Cañas Garmon, @wildthyme, tweet, 2009, betsygarmon.com
It is a happy talent to know how to play. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1835
Bored with all earthly things am I:
With men-machines that grind
Through long grey hours of misery,
Yet leave no trace behind...
~John Gould Fletcher, "Ennui"
You can always enjoy television if you have a big enough screen: just put the screen in front of your television set. ~20,000 Quips & Quotes, Evan Esar, 1968
unplug iPod
music stops abruptly
cricket song instead
~Dr. SunWolf, @WabiSabiWhisper, tweet, 2009, professorsunwolf.com
The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them. ~Samuel Butler
What we all need is enough vacation every day so that we can face each morning with health sufficient to do our work in gladness. That is to say, we need enough of a play-spell every day to keep us in good physical condition. ~Elbert Hubbard
Everybody in society these days just walks around with their heads down, staring at their phones. Chiropractors must be making a fortune! ~Keith Wynn, 2017
Read instead of watch tv?
Now there's a novel idea!
~Terri Guillemets
A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise...
~A. A. Milne, "Teddy Bear," When We Were Very Young, 1924
I have seen some good things on TV, but watching it now and then is not the same thing as the indiscriminate gluing of the eye to the screen that some people do all day, all night, using up time that goes by and will never come again... I think such addiction to the screen is a crime against life itself... ~Cid Ricketts Sumner, "The spice of life," A View from the Hill, 1957
"Lord!" he said, "when you sell a man a book you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue — you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night — there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean..." ~Christopher Morley, Parnassus on Wheels, 1917
We ought to take outdoor walks, to refresh and raise our spirits by deep breathing in the open air. ~Lucius Annaeus Seneca, "On Tranquillity of Mind"
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931), The Prophet
I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. ~John Muir
You know how men become bone lazy for want of bodily exercise. ~Bernard Shaw
I believe most distempers proceed from too much sitting still. ~Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, letter to daughter Françoise-Marguerite de Sévigné, 1671 August 26th
The best six doctors anywhere—
And no one can deny it—
Are Sunshine, Water, Rest and Air,
Exercise and Diet.
These six will gladly you attend,
If only you are willing,
Your mind they'll cheer,
Your ills they'll mend,
And charge you not one shilling.
~"Doctors Six," c.1921
But lo! men have become the tools of their tools. ~Henry David Thoreau
Cell phone: a private convenience that has become a public nuisance. ~Richard E. Turner (1937–2011), The Grammar Curmudgeon, a.k.a. "The Mudge," "Cell Phone-itis and Other Technological Diseases," 2004
I have two doctors, my left leg and my right. When body and mind are out of gear (and those twin parts of me live at such close quarters that the one always catches melancholy from the other) I know that I have only to call in my doctors and I shall be well again. ~George Macaulay Trevelyan (1876–1962), "Walking," Clio, A Muse, and Other Essays Literary and Pedestrian, 1913
Some things can only be understood when you're in a tree house. With a pile of warm chocolate chip cookies. And a book. ~Dr. SunWolf, @WordWhispers, tweet, 2010, professorsunwolf.com
The problem with putting off things you've always wanted to do is that eventually you run out of always. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
A little fresh air would be good for you just now. The weather is lovely; and a little stroll in the park will bring the colour back to your cheeks. ~J. Palgrave Simpson, For Ever and Never, 1884
The human need to play is a powerful one. ~Leo Buscaglia, Bus 9 to Paradise: A Loving Voyage, 1986
Play is when we are alive all over. We play best out-of-doors. We come out of the house on a bright sunshiny morning, and see the sparkle in the air and feel the cool fresh breeze on our faces; we hear the rustle of the tree-tops and look up to see the little white clouds floating across the bright blue sky; and we feel like running and jumping and skipping and shouting out loud, just because we are so full of life. As we say, "We feel just bubbling over," for the great outdoors has got into our blood. ~Woods Hutchinson, M.D., "The Importance of Play," Building Strong Bodies, 1924
So long as there's a jingle in your head, television isn't free. ~Jason Love, jasonlove.com
But in every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks. ~John Muir, July 1877
Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises, and by eloquence sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetic. ~Samuel Johnson, 1759
People read every thing nowadays, except books. ~Madame Swetchine (1782–1857), translated by Harriet W. Preston, 1869
On even the most stressful days, magic is still sitting quietly in the corner, waiting to be noticed. ~Dr. SunWolf, @wordwhispers, tweet, 2015, professorsunwolf.com
...the strongest friends of the soul – BOOKS... ~Emily Dickinson
...the open air is the only place for real fun. ~Woods Hutchinson, M.D., "The Importance of Play," Building Strong Bodies, 1924
By too much sitting still the body becomes unhealthy; and soon the mind. This is nature's law. She will never see her children wronged. If the mind, which rules the body, ever forgets itself so far as to trample upon its slave, the slave is never generous enough to forgive the injury; but will rise and smite its oppressor. Thus has many a monarch mind been dethroned. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The man who does not relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on. ~Elbert Hubbard, "Richard Wagner," Little Journeys to Homes of Great Musicians, 1901
I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least — and it is commonly more than that — sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements. ~Henry David Thoreau, "Walking"
What humbugs we are, who pretend to live for Beauty, and never see the Dawn! ~Logan Pearsall Smith
If you are losing your leisure, look out, you may be losing your soul. ~Logan Pearsall Smith
To smell a turf of fresh earth is wholesome for the body... ~Thomas Fuller
Have some idea of what you intend to do and be, and go on. ~Charles F. Raymond, "This Banner Year," Just Be Glad, 1907
The surest cure for loneliness, the quickest way to happiness, is found in this, a simple creed: Go serve someone in greater need. ~William Arthur Ward
There are no sounds that can stir the sublime emotions of men's souls like the sighs and whispers of nature. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882
A very strange and solemn feeling came over me as I stood there, with no sound but the rustle of the pines, no one near me, and the sun so glorious, as for me alone. It seemed as if I felt God as I never did before, and I prayed in my heart that I might keep that happy sense of nearness all my life. ~Louisa May Alcott, 1845
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the blue sky, is by no means waste of time. ~John Lubbock, "Recreation," The Use of Life, 1894
It is a long way back, a long way back, to simplicity, back to the vision with the sun shining upon it, back to my simple soul. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "Songs of Longing," At the Roots of Grasses, 1923
That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. ~Henry David Thoreau
The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling. No one is large enough to be split up into many parts; and the sooner a man can stamp this truth upon his mind, the better his chances for being a profitable member of society. ~Orison Swett Marden
We live longer than our forefathers, but we suffer more from a thousand artificial anxieties and cares. They fatigued only the muscles; we exhaust the finer strength of the nerves; and, when we send impatiently to the doctor, it is ten to one but what he finds the acute complaint, which is all that we perceive, connected with some chronic mental irritation, or some unwholesome inveteracy of habit. ~Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, 1854
Home About Contact Terms Privacy | ||
|
published 2002 Oct 19
revised 2008, 2010, 2014, 2021
last saved 2025 Jan 7
www.quotegarden.com/screen-free-week.html