The rest of us will be painting those picket fences in lieu of idleness.

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" In his popular essay, "In Praise of Idleness, " the 20th century philosopher, Bertrand Russell, lamented modern man's loss of his capacity for play, seeing it as having been erased by the "cult of efficiency.

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Early in the Tour, Wiggins raged about anonymous skeptics on Twitter, chiding them for "bone-idleness, " but later in the race he wrote a piece in The Guardian in which he described his cycling ascension and his rejection of performance-enhancing drugs.

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This idleness feeds the maras: in El Salvador some 800 juveniles languish in jail, more than double the number in 2004.

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Idleness is a threat, however, in an era of performance targets, highly publicised literacy drives and international league tables.

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The good news is that, having largely won the battle against idleness and dependency, America is now in a much better position to attack poverty head on.

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Rejecting idleness, Anixter and his dad launched Anicom in 1993.

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While patience is steadfastness and self-control in the face of provocation and delay, it is definitely not idleness.

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With the idleness known only to childless couples on vacation, we'd squandered humid hours trying out vintage saxophones in the unventilated antique stores of a Hudson River town.

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