36 Tom Hodgkinson Quotes for You to Enjoy

Tom Hodgkinson

British Writer

Born: 1968

Life Me People Time Work You

Related authors: Alan Moore Arthur Conan Doyle J. B. Priestley James Herriot Jane Austen Lawrence Durrell Mary Wollstonecraft Norman Douglas

Being lazy does not mean that you do not create. In fact, lying around doing nothing is an important, nay crucial, part of the creative process. It is meaningless bustle that actually gets in the way of productivity. All we are really saying is, give peace a chance. Tom Hodgkinson

Saying You Creative Peace Creative Process Important Nothing Lying Way Give Fact Crucial Lazy Part Around Does Doing Gets Being In Fact Process Mean Being Lazy Create Meaningless Really Productivity Nay Bustle Actually Chance

Festivals are fun for kids, fun for parents and offer a welcome break from the stresses of the nuclear family. The sheer quantities of people make life easier: loads of adults for the adults to talk to and loads of kids for the kids to play with. Tom Hodgkinson

The reason laziness is rarely pushed as a lifestyle option is down to one simple reason: money. There are fortunes to be made out of active lifestyles. Gyms charge fees. But no one is going to make money out of sleep. It is free. Tom Hodgkinson

I could happily lean on a gate all the livelong day, chatting to passers-by about the wind and the rain. I do a lot of gate-leaning while I am supposed to be gardening; instead of hoeing, I lean on the gate, stare at the vegetable beds and ponder. Tom Hodgkinson

Surely, anyway, a working day of eight or nine hours which is not split by a nap is simply too much for a human being to take, day in, day out, and particularly so in hot weather. Tom Hodgkinson

Day Human Being Too Much Weather Too Nine Out Take Split Simply Hot Day-Out Hours Particularly Nap Surely Human Being Eight Anyway Which Much Working Working Day

Now I'm no biologist, but it seems to make a lot of sense that slow lives, as well as being enjoyable, are long lives. One only has to think of the example of the tortoise for proof of this theory from the animal world. Tom Hodgkinson

If you look at the literature of the 19th century, you get things like Kafka and Dostoevsky, who basically write about feeling bored and alienated. That's because we lost contact with the important things in life like work that you enjoy, or the garden, nature, your family and friends. Tom Hodgkinson

Life Work Family Nature You Garden Feeling Important Important Things Lost Enjoy Alienated Bored About Write Contact Like Look Because Friends Family And Friends Get Literature Century Kafka Your Who Things Basically

Idleness allows you to turn a situation from boredom to pleasure. Tom Hodgkinson

You Situation Pleasure Boredom Idleness Turn

You can become very serious as a parent. That's got to be fought against. Tom Hodgkinson

You Become Parent Got Very Against Serious Fought

I seethe at the humiliation of airport security checks. Tom Hodgkinson

Humiliation Airport Security Checks

To me there is no more depressing sight than a five-year-old staring at a screen, unsmiling, mouse in hand. Besides whatever dreadful things this prolonged exposure to screens is doing to their brains, computer games tend to be solitary affairs, and produce little laughter. Tom Hodgkinson

Me Laughter Whatever Sight Prolonged Solitary Dreadful Besides More Tend Computer Doing Affairs Hand Brains Five-Year-Old Than Mouse Screen Screens Little Depressing Produce Games Exposure Staring Things

Facebook is not ideologically neutral. In fact, it emerges from a very particular world view which we can trace back to Hobbes. I discovered this by examining the profile of Zuckerberg's fellow board members who, unlike him, are a very interesting bunch and, I suspect, the real power behind the poster boy. Tom Hodgkinson

Facebook World Power Back Unlike Members Poster Poster Boy Examining Emerges Fact Neutral Particular Fellow Trace Him Boy Real Discovered Very Bunch Real Power Suspect Hobbes Behind In Fact Which Board Interesting View Who Profile World View

It's pretty obvious that Western lifestyles which rely on gigantic amounts of electricity use up far more resources than a subsistence-based life. A little more poverty would be a good thing. Tom Hodgkinson

Life Good Poverty Resources Gigantic Would Would-Be Pretty More Rely Good Thing Lifestyles Obvious Western Up Than Which Little Far Use Electricity Thing Amount

Faffing, of course, does not fit the programme. We are supposed to be busy, productive citizens. Tom Hodgkinson

Busy Citizens Supposed Course Does Fit Productive Programme

Embrace the faff. Stare out of the window. Bend paperclips. Stand in the middle of the room trying to remember what you came downstairs for. Pace. Drum your fingertips. Move papers around. Hum. Look at the garden. Tom Hodgkinson

Faffing is completely harmless, whereas its opposite - dynamic, purposeful activity - is often very harmful. Faffers do not tend to kill people or make them work 12-hour days or sell them shoddy merchandise or lend them vast sums of money that they cannot pay back. Tom Hodgkinson

Work People Money Pay Harmful Harmless Back Sums Purposeful Tend Vast Merchandise Days Make Opposite Sell Very Shoddy Often Whereas Cannot Dynamic Lend Them Activity

I've given up email. Well, almost. At the weekend I set up one of those auto-reply messages, informing my correspondents that I would no longer be checking my emails, and that instead they might like to call or write, as we used to in the olden days. Tom Hodgkinson

Deleting 200 spams a day is a drag. And I was checking my email constantly, rather than getting on with my real work, which is reading and writing. Email was becoming a distraction, a burden rather than a liberation. Tom Hodgkinson

Work Day Writing Burden Reading Email Liberation Distraction Constantly Rather Checking Becoming Real Than Getting Real Work Which Drag

We have to wonder whether digital technology, rather than making it easier to communicate, is actually doing the opposite. We now sit alone at a keyboard, firing off zeros and ones into the ether. Offices are silent. Tom Hodgkinson

In this age of getting what you want and getting it now, the simple pleasure of browsing is often forgotten. Tom Hodgkinson

You Age Simple Pleasure Getting Often Forgotten Want Now

The terrible thing about the Internet and Amazon is that they take the magic and happy chaos out of book shopping. The Internet might give you what you want, but it won't give you what you need. Tom Hodgkinson

You Happy Book Shopping Internet Chaos Out Magic About Give Take Terrible Terrible Thing Amazon Want Might Thing Need

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