Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Inactivity
The Commons, faithful to their system, remained in a wise and masterly inactivity.
Sir James Mackintosh.—Defence of the French Revolution, Sect. I. Page 23.
With skilled negligence.
Vaughan.—To St. Mary Magdalene, Line 19.
The frivolous work of polished idleness.
Mackintosh.—Dissert. on Ethical Philosophy. (Remarks on Thomas Brown.)
Disciplined inaction.
Mackintosh.—Causes of the Revolution of 1688, Chap. VII.
Or doing nothing with a deal of skill.
Cowper.—Table Talk, Line 194.
Pangs without birth, and fruitless industry.
Dryden.—Mac Flecknoe, Line 148.
To fight and terrify them if they made slow haste.
Holland’s Livy.—Page 922.