quotations about haste
Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry.
JOHN WESLEY
letter to a member of the Society, December 10, 1777
Nay, but make haste; the better foot before.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King John
Haste makes work which caution prevents.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
Of all ridiculous things the most ridiculous seems to me, to be busy -- to be a man who is brisk about his food and his work. Therefore, whenever I see a fly settling, in the decisive moment, on the nose of such a person of affairs; or if he is spattered with mud from a carriage which drives past him in still greater haste; or the drawbridge opens up before him; or a tile falls down and knocks him dead, then I laugh heartily.
SOREN KIERKEGAARD
Selections from the writings of Kierkegaard
Haste maketh waste.
JOHN HEYWOOD
Proverbs
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say "It lightens."
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
This is what happens when you hurry through a maze; the faster you go, the worse you are entangled.
SENECA THE YOUNGER
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium
Lightning shall be slow to my hasting.
E. R. EDDISON
The Worm Ouroboros
Precipitate haste leads to injustice.
EURIPIDES
attributed, Day's Collacon
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
MAX EHRMANN
"Desiderata"
haste usually goes hand in hand with folly.
THUCYDIDES
History of the Peloponnesian War
My mistake has too often been that of too much haste. But it is not the people's way to hurry, nor is it God's way either. Hurry means worry, and worry effectually drives the peace of God from the heart.
JAMES O. FRASER
attributed, Behind the Ranges: The Life-changing Story of J.O. Fraser
Wisely, and slow; they stumble that run fast.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
The more haste, ever the worst speed.
CHARLES CHURCHILL
The Ghost
Parcel out your life wisely, not confusedly in the rush of events, but with foresight and judgment.
BALTASAR GRACIAN
Oraculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia
Hasty counsels are followed by repentance.
LABERIUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Haste and rashness are storms and tempest, breaking and wreaking business; but nimbleness is a full, fair wind, blowing it with speed to the haven.
THOMAS FULLER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Hastiness is improvident and blind.
LIVY
attributed, Day's Collacon
Hurry slowly.
AUGUSTUS
attributed, "Divus Augustus", Lives of the Caesars
The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.
ANONYMOUS