S.I.T.

In no particular hurry.

Society ofIdleThinkers

Good company. Wandering minds.

A little time for curiosity, conversation
and the pleasure of an unhurried thought.

Take a little time
The fine art of staying a little longer.

The pleasure of a pause

In praise
of idle.

There is something to be said for a thought with nowhere urgent to be.

A pause. A little meander. The pleasure of noticing what usually passes by. A mind given room to wander might find itself somewhere rather interesting.

“Idle” leaves a little space: to wonder, to linger, to let a conversation find its own way.

Curiosity is very good company.

A cabinet of curious company

Wandering minds,
the world over.

Across centuries and continents, people have found room for wandering, observation and curiosity. A few reading companions for an idle afternoon.

  1. China fourth century BCE

    Zhuangzi

    Playful parables, shifting perspectives and “free and easy wandering”. A mind that keeps the familiar wonderfully unsettled.

    Wander into the Zhuangzi

  2. Japan around the year 1000

    Sei Shōnagon

    In The Pillow Book, observations, lists and passing impressions turn life at the Heian court into something worth looking at closely.

    Look into The Pillow Book

  3. North Africa fourteenth century

    Ibn Khaldun

    A retreat from public life gave this thinker from Tunis time to gather his ideas into the Muqaddimah. Sometimes a little distance opens up a wider view.

    Read about the retreat

  4. Mexico seventeenth century

    Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

    A poet and scholar with an appetite for knowledge that reached far beyond poetry. She defended women’s opportunity to study.

    Discover Sor Juana (in Spanish)

  5. Bengal nineteenth–twentieth centuries

    Rabindranath Tagore

    Birds, leaves, water and a moment at the window. The brief poems of Stray Birds offer a lovely excuse to pause and pay attention.

    Spend a moment with Stray Birds

  6. England the Victorian years

    Jerome K. Jerome

    Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow finds humour in everyday life, including the art of being idle. Rather appropriate company for this particular shelf.

    Read an idle fellow

Chosen for their curiosity, their observations, or the room they made for reflection.

The world can wait
a moment.