Top 100 Something Doing Nothing Quotes
#1. Doing something costs something. Doing nothing costs something. And, quite often, doing nothing costs a lot more!
Ben Feldman
#2. I was in the projects dreaming about doing music and now I've done music. When I had nothing to when I had something I still have this driving force that's fueling me every day and that's making ideas reality ...
Will.i.am
#3. The cost of doing something would be terrific; the cost of doing nothing even greater.
Diane Chamberlain
#4. It ain't bragging if you've done it. There's nothing wrong with being proud of doing something well. In fact, if you intend to do something creative for a living, it's absolutely essential.
[check for wording] Proper pride says, "I'm good at this." Improper pride says, "I'm better than you.
James A. Owen
#5. In a critical sense, doing nothing can mean doing something. Inaction can be action and embracing this paradox can save your life.
Ben Sherwood
#6. It is good to know something of the customs of different people in order to judge more soundly of our own, and so that we might not think that all that which is contrary to our own ways be ridiculous and contrary to reason, as those who have seen nothing have the habit of doing.
Rene Descartes
#7. Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
J.M. Barrie
#8. I'm not sure what we're doing, to be perfectly honest
but nothing's on fire anymore. And I feel like maybe we've solved something. Even though this is probably just a new problem.
Rainbow Rowell
#9. There is nothing more marvelous than doing something you love to do and getting paid for it. It ceases to become work, money, and effort; and it becomes fun, your expression of the joy of life.
Stuart Wilde
#10. This has nothing to do with taking on roles," I argue back. "It's about showing your appreciation for someone and doing something for them they're always doing for you. Giving some of that good back.
J. Daniels
#11. Kids are always infatuated with the action in martial arts films. Let me tell you, there is nothing better for kids than the arts. That is what kept me straight and decent. I always had a place to go. That was the dojo. I always had something to look forward to doing.
Thomas Ian Griffith
#12. Doing nothing can be as rewarding as doing something. And doing very little can be as productive, in a creative sense, as doing a lot.
Fennel Hudson
#13. Thomas! What are you doing!" and I gestured, "I thought this was Nothing," covering myself with one of my daybooks ,and she said, "It's Something!
Jonathan Safran Foer
#14. The media no longer ask those who know something to share that knowledge with the public. Instead they ask those who know nothing to represent the ignorance of the public and, in so doing, to legitimate it.
Serge Daney
#15. Alone, even doing nothing, you do not waste your time. You do, almost always, in company. No encounter with yourself can be altogether sterile: Something necessarily emerges, even if only the hope of some day meeting yourself again.
Emil Cioran
#16. in business doing nothing is often the hardest thing. (And not just in business. Harold Macmillan, prime minister during the Cuban missile crisis, mused then 'on the frightful desire to do something, with the knowledge that not to do anything was prob. the right answer'.)
Simon Kuper
#17. I've never been comfortable with the idea of using family and friends in stories. Which is why it takes me longer than something else. Because you make them up out of nothing. Doing that is harder.
Edward P. Jones
#18. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.
Austin Kleon
#19. Politics is a lot like sex - if you want something, you have to ask for it, if they're not doing it right you've got to speak up and show them and if you still don't get what you want, then there is nothing wrong with doing it yourself.
Jennifer Beals
#20. I need to be doing something, because doing nothing is just as harmful as facing danger head-on.
David Levithan
#21. I do worry that it's impossible to write something original, that there's nothing that a human hasn't already thought of. But I can put it out of my mind and get on with what I'm doing.
Arthur Phillips
#22. We can't stay here. When I am faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, I will always choose to act.
Andy Andrews
#23. Like many of you, I was concerned about going out into the world and doing something bigger than myself. Until someone smarter than myself made me realize that there is nothing bigger than myself.
Jim Carrey
#24. Who can reckon up the loss of moral power that arises from the constant impression that nothing is worth doing in itself, but only as a preparation for something else, which in turn is only a getting ready for some genuinely serious end beyond?
John Dewey
#25. Nothing ever works out when you are at the whims of others. It doesn't matter if you are an entrepreneur or an employee. Once someone is bribing you to do something (a salary is a form of bribery if you are only doing the work for the money and not for the meaning) then you become a prisoner.
James Altucher
#26. The difficulty of always feeling that you ought to be doing something is that you tend to undervalue the times when you're apparently doing nothing, and those are very important times.
Brian Eno
#27. Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.
Denis Waitley
#28. Few can be induced to labor exclusively for posterity; and none will do it enthusiastically. Posterity has done nothing for us; and theorize on it as we may, practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are made to think we are at the same time doing something for ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln
#29. But as long as you think, "I am doing this," or "I have to do this," or "I must attain something special," you are actually not doing anything ... when you do not try to do anything special, then you do something. When there is no gaining idea in what you do, then you do something.
Shunryu Suzuki
#30. Don't mistake activity for achievement. To produce results, tasks must be well organized and properly executed; otherwise, it's no different from children running around the playground - everybody is doing something, but nothing is being done; lots of activity, no achievement.
John Wooden
#32. Nothing is more terrifying to me, really, than the status quo. I'll make mistakes before I keep doing something the same way.
Twyla Tharp
#33. I don't wanna go on vacation. There's nothing about it that appeals to me. People look forward to doing that; I look forward to getting up every day and doing something.
Gene Simmons
#34. We're generally quite good at doing something, but we're really bad at doing nothing.
John Ortberg
#36. Work is as much a necessity to man as eating and sleeping. Even those who do nothing that can be called work still imagine they are doing something. The world has not a man who is an idler in his own eyes.
Wilhelm Von Humboldt
#37. Essence is something I always enjoy, because I love New Orleans. Since they brought it back to New Orleans, it's a special place to me. We been doing it since the beginning. We did it when it was in Houston, but there's nothing like New Orleans.
Doug E. Fresh
#38. There is a giant gulf between doing something and doing nothing. And someone who makes a lolcat and uploads it - even if only to crack their friends up - has already crossed that chasm to doing something. That's the sea change, and you can see it even with the cute cats.
Clay Shirky
#39. I am certainly not regenerating French art, but am struggling hard to accomplish something on an unlucky piece of paper which has done me no harm at all, and on which, believe me, I am doing nothing that is good ... I hope things will improve eventually; as it is, I am pretty wretched.
Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec
#40. Doing nothing," Inez said, "is a choice in its own way. When you do nothing, you still do something.
Laura Lippman
#41. Well, it's really no use our talking in the way we have been doing if the words we use mean something different to each of us ... and nothing.
Malcolm Bradbury
#42. Sometimes people come out of school right now and they immediately want a job doing something. And there's nothing wrong with just listening and learning and watching.
Alexandra Kotur
#43. So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.
Samuel Johnson
#44. People say nothing can solve the Middle East problem. Not mediation, not arms, not financial aid. I say there is Something. Atheism. Suddenly everyone would be looking at each other thinking, 'What the fuck were we doing? That was insane! Why are we all wearing these ridiculous hats? Were we drunk?
Frankie Boyle
#45. The difference between doing something and doing nothing is everything.
Chrissy Anderson
#46. It went beyond idealism and that ridiculous term "activism," which basically means talking about something but doing nothing ... We made giving exciting.
Bob Geldof
#47. Scaling back the campaign finance reform bill may get more Republicans aboard, but it leaves many of us who have been involved in the reform movement for years in believing that we are doing something and accomplishing nothing.
Robert Torricelli
#48. The whole thing that drew me to doing an animated film is that you're freed from the physical limitations of your physical body. All of a sudden, you get to be something that has nothing to do with the fact that I'm a 6'4, lumbering dude, and that is really exciting.
Jason Segel
#49. You saw a lot of guys, especially in the early '90s, whose acts were a pitch for a sitcom. A lot of them were very funny, but there's nothing worse than watching comedians or musicians who are up there and are doing something they're not interested in.
Patton Oswalt
#50. There's as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something" - Trammell Crow
Clyde Wolpe
#51. If nothing is to be done in the given situation, he must invent plausible reasons for doing nothing; and if something must be done, he must suggest the something. The unpardonable sin is to propose nothing, when action is imperative.
Charles Edward Merriam
#52. I started slow, and eventually I started working out 4 to 5 days a week. We all have to start somewhere, and doing something is better than nothing at all.
Khloe Kardashian
#53. Why did I always need to do something, like referring one person to another, just for the sake of doing something, when sometimes, perhaps, it was better to do nothing?
Will Schwalbe
#54. Thinking is generally thought of as doing nothing in a production-oriented society, and doing nothing is hard to do. It's best done by disguising it as doing something, and the something closest to doing nothing is walking.
Rebecca Solnit
#55. Painting is a magical process that I like, where you conjure something out of nothing; you get a little idea that leads you through ... You can go into a trance while you're doing it, so it's a nice contrast to real life.
Paul McCartney
#56. Doing projects really gives people self-confidence. Nothing is better than taking the pie out of the oven. What it does for you personally, and for your family's idea of you, is something you can't buy.
Martha Stewart
#57. Nothing's work unless you'd rather be doing something else.
John C. Maxwell
#58. Do nothing, and leave nothing undone. ["Doing nothing" is what happens when the doer disappears, it isn't something that one does or chooses not to do.]
Laozi
#59. The word try, means nothing. There's no such thing as trying to do something. The moment you begin a task, you're doing it. So just finish what you're doing.
La Tisha Honor
#60. We all have periods of our life where we're trapped, doing something we hate, and we develop habits that have nothing to do with our long-term goals to fill the downtime.
Felicia Day
#61. We all have to start somewhere, and doing something is better than nothing at all. Start small so you don't get discouraged and give up. Remember it is all about consistency.
Khloe Kardashian
#62. Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, that don't hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous.
Will Rogers
#63. You have something on your neck. What Looks like a bite mark, what were you doing out all night, anyway? Nothing. I went walking in the park. Tried to clear my head. And ran into a vampire What? No! I fell. On your neck?
Cassandra Clare
#64. Not doing anything is doing something and choosing to look away is a passive but no less mortal sin.
Bill Maher
#65. If you are doing nothing, God doesn't need to give you any help in doing nothing. Go out and do something impossible for Jesus, and then God will help you.
Reinhard Bonnke
#66. There are many steps on the continuum between controlling something and doing nothing at all.
Orson Scott Card
#67. Now whenever things are so that a lot of people feel they ought to be doing something, the weak, and those who go weak with a lot of complicated thinking, always make for a sort of do-nothing religion, very pious and superior, and submit to persecution and the will of the Lord.
H.G.Wells
#68. If you consider the definition of authenticity, it's saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic.
Lana Del Rey
#70. Yes, they put their babies inside an iron stove full of coals. So, if you see a Russian person doing something crazy, as you sometimes do, remember - they have been doing that shit forever. It's nothing new.
Jesse Ball
#71. Time means nothing.Time is just the way we measure the gaps between not knowing something and knowing it or not doing something and doing it.
Richard Bach
#72. There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.
Peter F. Drucker
#73. It's safer to do nothing and know why you doing it, than to do something and don't know why you do it.
Myles Munroe
#74. Generosity is doing something for someone else expecting nothing in return.
Simon Sinek
#75. A man may well be condemned, not for doing something, but for doing nothing.
William Barclay
#76. Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. - Aristotle
Danielle LaPorte
#77. I pity you who are my companions, because you think that you are doing something when in reality you are doing nothing.
Plato
#78. Nothing much interested me other than playing with language and telling stories and doing something with the wonders of the world around me.
Kate Grenville
#79. Doing nothing sometimes hurts more than doing something. Life doesn't come with a guarantee, which is just as well, because most guarantees are bullshit.
Nora Roberts
#80. What is going to happen in the course of my day that will be an improvement over lying on something very soft, underneath something very warm, wearing only underwear, doing absolutely nothing, all by myself?
Chuck Klosterman
#81. Here is something no real celebrity will ever tell you: film acting is not very fun. Doing the same thing over and over again until, in the director's eyes, you 'get it right' does not allow for very much creative freedom ... In terms of sheer adrenaline, film has absolutely nothing on theater.
Mara Wilson
#82. Happiness is a by-product. It is not a primary product of life. It is a thing which you suddenly realize you have because you're so delighted to be doing something which perhaps has nothing whatever to do with happiness.
Robertson Davies
#83. Sometimes all our plans for life go to shit. You end up doing something you never dreamed of and you know what you do? You make the best out of it you can. Nothing is ever as good or as bad as you think it will be. It's what you make of it.
Nichole Chase
#84. All too often the people of our culture think they're really doing something if they're out there fighting bad things and getting laws passed. Just look at what we've accomplished by outlawing drugs and waging a trillion-dollar War on Drugs! (Nothing!)
Daniel Quinn
#85. We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.
Mother Teresa
#86. Doing nothing can cause as much damage as doing something.
Jenn Bennett
#87. The uneasy expression returned and his mouth twisted scornfully. She waited, certain he was going to say something. Lou'd heard it too many times before: a woman doing a man's work. She'd already decided how she was going to cut him down if he did. Instead, he said nothing.
Danika Stone
#88. If you're aware of injustice, you can either ignore it, say there is nothing you can do about it, complain about it and not do anything, or put your energies into doing something about it.
Ben Cohen
#89. What are the two biggest things online? Selfies and emojis. We're combining them. Instead of sending some character that means nothing with a hat - what if it was your face doing something? Me-moji.
Howie Mandel
#90. I would rather spend my entire life doing nothing than have my name attached to something mediocre.
Lena Dunham
#91. It's you. It's only been you for me. When I came into your life, I might've seemed strong, but I wasn't. I had nothing to lose. When you have nothing to lose, you're capable of doing a lot of damage, but suddenly I had something to lose. You.
Tijan
#92. Wow ... At least I can rest assured that you definitely can't read my mind," I remarked. "Clearly you know nothing about me ... because the surest way to keep me from doing something is to tell me I have no other choice.
M.A. George
#93. Do something,get something. Do nothing,get nothing.
Doing is the beginning of being. Being is the beginning of
achieving. Achieving is the essence of living and
living is the spices of life
Ikechukwu Joseph
#94. As my friend, Herb Gardner, once said about writing, "Don't they realize they're paying us for doing something we'd be thrilled to do for nothing?
David V. Picker
#95. ... there's nothing in the world more fun than doing something you're good at.
Clive Barker
#96. But all is forgotten and I have done nothing, unless what I am doing now is something, and nothing could give me greater satisfaction.
Samuel Beckett
#97. I love casting against type and doing things you wouldn't expect, because I think you get more interesting performances that way. Hollywood loves to pigeonhole people, and there's nothing an actor loves more than to do something different.
David S.Goyer
#98. When I say truth people want to kill me, some people think that this something is a lot of, but this is bullshit without it or with it I don't really see differences. The results from school are like the results of not doing nothing or this is equal??
Deyth Banger
#99. There's nothing like a jolly good disaster to get people to start doing something.
Prince Charles
#100. Jesus, what are you doing to me?" He whispered. "Nothing," I gasped, when his tongue circled my ear. "Baby, if that's nothing, you're gonna kill me when it means something.
C.P. Smith
