Too much time make lady go crazy.

March 15, 2009 3:32 PM

"Time on his hands and himself on his mind". This is a real saying, right?

I was thinking about this saying, but when I tried to google it, I only got unrelated e-books. And the people that I've asked don't know what I'm talking about. I didn't just hallucinate it, did I? Is it perhaps a quote? Or is there something very similar out there and I'm just getting confused?

If it is real, what does it mean? I always thought it meant that if you have too much free time you'll get a bit introspective. But now I'm beginning to wonder about that, too.

posted by Emilyisnow to religion & philosophy (7 comments total)

You may have read this in Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity: "Do you know that expression, 'Time on his hands and himself on his mind'? That's you" (266). However, I do not know if Hornby came up with it or if it is an actual saying.
posted by Houyhnhnm at 4:02 PM on March 15 [3 favorites]

i have not heard this expression
posted by dahliachewswell at 5:35 PM on March 15

I haven't heard it either.
posted by Quietgal at 5:40 PM on March 15

I've heard "time on his hands and mischief on his mind" before but not that. doesn't seem to show up much on google, but a range of clause orders and pronoun choices exist.
posted by corprew at 9:08 PM on March 15

It means when a guy has nothing better to do with his time he gets to fantasizing and that fantasizing usually leads to beating off.
posted by watercarrier at 3:41 AM on March 16

And there are other variations of this:

*Idle hands are the devil's tools*
*The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings*
*Devil finds work for idle hands*

and more.
posted by watercarrier at 3:42 AM on March 16

I've never heard that, but it reminds me of a couple of dysfunctional relatives, living on disability. They have few social relationships for a variety of reasons, including the hours they keep. Their only distraction is TV, of the most negative type. Since they don't work, don't have other meaningful activities, and are living in poverty, all they think about is themselves; all their waking hours (mostly night-time - they sleep all day and get up when everyone else is winding down for the day) are spent in a stream of self-pity about how the world is against them and thinking of excuses to avoid responsibility for their choices. They don't do anything that could better their situations, and do much that worsens them.
posted by onemorething at 4:18 AM on March 16 [1 favorite]