Many Victorians saw [leisure time] chiefly as an escape from work, or as a means of working better. But others went further, suggesting that what we do with our free time gives texture, shape, and meaning to our lives. "It is in pleasure that a man really lives," said Agnes Repplier, and American essayist. "It is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self."

This note was recorded by Brittany Ancell from page 217 of In Praise of Slowness.