A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

IDLENESS is the root of all evil

The idea is attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Cf. early 14th-cent. Fr. oiseuseté atrait
viches, idleness attracts vices; c 1390 CHAUCER Second Nun’s Prologue 1.1 The ministre and
the norice [nurse] unto vices, which that men clepe [call] in Englissh ydlenesse.

1422 J. YONGE in Secreta Secretorum (1898) 158 Idylnysse is the.. rote of vicis.

1538 T. BECON Governance of Virtue B8V Idleness.. is the well-spring and root of all

vice. 1707 G. FARQUHAR Beaux’ Stratagem I. i. Idleness is the Root of all Evil; the

World’s wide enough, let ’em bustle. 1850 DICKENS David Copperfield x. ‘The boy will

be idle there,’ said Miss Murdstone, looking into a pickle-jar, ‘and idleness is the root of

all evil.’ 1874 TROLLOPE Phineas Redux II. xxxvi. I much prefer down-right honest

figures. Two and two make four; idleness is the root of all evil.. and the rest of it. 1966

Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 2 Aug. 22/7 We too can help by our behaviour and our

industry and by working harder and spending less time in idleness. There is a well-known

adage that idleness is the root of all evil. good and evil; idleness

If IFS and ands were pots and pans, there’d be no work for tinkers’ hands

Used as a humorous retort to an over-optimistic conditional expression. ands: the
conjunction and’if’, of which an is a weakened form, is employed irregularly here as a noun to
denote ‘an expression of condition or doubt’.

1850 C. KINGSLEY Alton Locke I. x. ‘If a poor man’s prayer can bring God’s curse

down.’.. ‘If ifs and ans were pots and pans.’ 1886 Notes & Queries 7th Ser. I. 71 There is

also the old doggerel—If ifs and ands Were pots and pans Where would be the work for

Tinkers’ hands? 1981 J. ASHFORD Loss of Culion xvi. As my old aunt used to say, ‘If ifs

and ands were pots and pans, there’d be no work for tinkers’ hands.’ 2002 Washington

Times 14 Aug. B5 A reader signed ‘Desperate in Ohio’ reported that a verse her aunt told

her many years ago was rattling around in her head, but she couldn’t remember the last

line. It went, ‘If “ifs” and “ans” were pots and pans.. ‘ My column yesterday was filled

with letters from readers eager to provide the missing line, ‘..there’d be no work for

tinkers.’ wanting and having

Where IGNORANCE is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise

Now frequently abbreviated to ignorance is bliss.

1742 GRAY Poems (1966) 10 Thought would destroy their paradise. No more; where