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In Praise of IdlenessBook

by Bertrand Russell

Who uses, recommends or left In Praise of Idleness, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

1 person

Paul Millerd
Writer and former management consultant; author of The Pathless Path and Good Work, about leaving conventional career tracks.
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A collection of timeless essays from philosopher Bertrand Russell, including his famous 'In Praise of Idleness' which challenges our obsession with work and argues that leisure time, properly used, is essential for a fulfilling life and a better society.

His standing "Liked The Pathless Path? Read These" recommendations page, each book carrying his own one-line verdict. The page is undated and evergreen; dated to retrieval on 2026-09-04 because the site publishes no date and the Internet Archive was offline when checked.

2025-03-21·pathlesspath.com ↗

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.

What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:

Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.