If Adam and Eve were not hunter-gatherers, then they were certainly gatherers. But, then, consumer desire, or self-embitterment, or the 'itch,' as Schopenhauer called it, appeared in the shape of the serpent. This capitalistic monster awakens in Adam and Eve the possibility that things could be better. Instantly, they are cast out of the garden and condemned to a life of toil, drudgery, and pain. Wants supplanted needs, and things have been going downhill ever since.

— Tom Hodgkinson

In a world where you are constantly asked to be 'committed,' it is liberating to give yourself the license to be a dilettante. Commit to nothing. Try everything.

— Tom Hodgkinson

Laborsaving devices just make us try to cram more pointless activities into each day, rather than doing the important thing, which is to enjoy our life.

— Tom Hodgkinson

Laziness works. And the simple way to incorporate its health benefits into your life is simply to take a nap.

— Tom Hodgkinson

Life has been reduced to a series of long periods of boredom in the office punctuated by high-octane “experiences” which you can rack up on your list of things to do before you die. That’s not really living: that is slavery with the occasional circus thrown in.

— Tom Hodgkinson

Long weekends at festivals, short weeks at home, all summer long: now that is surely preferable to the immense cost and headache of the nuclear family holiday in the sun?

— Tom Hodgkinson

One of the least arduous but most productive of gardening jobs, the magic of deadheading never fails to delight me. It was a revelation when the principle was explained to me: that flowers are the attempt by the plant to reproduce itself. So if you cut the heads off before the flower turns into seeds, the plant will continue to flower.

— Tom Hodgkinson

Our dreams take us into other worlds, alternative realities that help us make sense of day-to-day realities.

— Tom Hodgkinson

Pain will never leave us. Instead of putting energy into destroying pain, we need to put energy into creating pleasure.

— Tom Hodgkinson

Poetry, being supremely useless, by its very existence represents a protest against the so-called 'real world' of busyness and moneymaking, so we must embrace, salute and support our poets.

— Tom Hodgkinson