Patience is passive, resignation is active.

-Fitzgerald, Penelope Mary
  Innocence.

In order to imbue civilization with sound principles and enliven it with the spirit of the gospel, it is not enough to be illumined with the gift of faith and enkindled with the desire of forwarding a good cause. For this end it is necessary to take an active part in the various organizationsand influencethemfromwithin. And since our present age is one of outstanding scientific and technical progress and excellence, one will not be able to enter these organizations and work effectively from within unless he is scientifically competent, technically capableand skilled in the practice of his own profession.

-PopeJohn XXIII originally Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli
  Pacem in Terris,10  Apr.

But reading is not idleness†it is the passive, receptive side of civilization without which the active and creative world would be meaningless. It is the immortal spirit of the dead realised within the bodies of the living. It is sacramental.

-Spender, Sir Stephen Harold
  Journal entry, 4 Jan.