PROCRASTINATION QUOTES III
quotations about procrastination
For two weeks I have been putting off something of importance that should be done. This is not the exception that proves the rule. It is the rule itself, and I am determined that this rule must be changed. Why didn't I set myself the task yesterday and do it? It isn't a hard thing to do once I start it. It is only the starting that troubles and this has been a trouble of mine for so many years that I am trying to analyze my own failure in the hope that a correct analysis may help somebody else who is troubled in like manner. What I should have done yesterday was easily the most important thing that confronted me and it is just as important today. Therefore, I cannot offer the excuse that something more important intervened. Such an excuse would be unworthy of my desire to be honest with myself. The task was not one that should have been set off for a more opportune time. Yesterday was the ideal time. But I did something else. The fact that I can't find nearly as much fault with myself today for my neglect of yesterday as I would have found with myself a few years ago for a similar neglect is the reason why I am analyzing my condition. I am in danger. I must settle once and for all, upon the reason and make it impossible for similar neglects to occur in the future.
WILLIAM HENRY MCMASTERS
"On Why Not Yesterday?", Originality and Other Essays
The truth is that we live out our lives putting off all that can be put off; perhaps we all know deep down that we are immortal and that sooner or later all men will do and know all things.
JORGE LUIS BORGES
"Funes El Memorioso", Ficciones
If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you'll find you've done it.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing
As a writer, I need an enormous amount of time alone. Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write. Having anybody watching that or attempting to share it with me would be grisly.
PAUL RUDNICK
attributed, Pinterest
I'm an expert in procrastination, but the last thing I want you to think is that I'm incompetent, too. Because I'm actually pretty good at what I do.
NICHOLAS SPARKS
Safe Haven
Procrastination is the lazy man's apology.
L. E. DE VERGNE TRESSAN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Procrastination is like a credit card: it's a lot of fun until you get the bill.
CHRISTOPHER PARKER
attributed, The Psychology of Procrastination
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
MARTHE TROLY-CURTIN
Phrynette Married
Procrastination has been called a thief, the thief of time; I wish it were no worse than a thief. It is a murderer; and that which it kills is not time merely, but the immortal soul.
WILLIAM NEVINS
Earnest Appeals
Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing!
DONALD GARDNER
attributed, The Psychology of Procrastination
Procrastination is opportunity's natural assassin.
VICTOR KIAM
Going for It!
We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.
ERICA JONG
Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life
Time is a created thing. To say "I don't have time" is to say "I don't want to."
LAO TZU
attributed, O Magazine, January 2007
By the streets of "by and by" one arrives at the house of "never."
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment.
NASSIM N. TALEB
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
When faced with two equally tough choices, most people choose the third choice: to not choose.
JAROD KINTZ
This Book Title is Invisible
Some persons appear to have been born half an hour too late, and chase that half hour through life, and are finally distanced in the race; for by procrastinating, they are always behind hand in everything.
L. C. JUDSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
Beware of the thief of time, procrastination; this day is as convenient as tomorrow; this day is yours, tomorrow is not; this day is a day of mercy, tomorrow may be a day of doom.
EDWARD IRVING
For the Oracles of God: Four Orations
My advice: Procrastinate now. Don't put it off.
ELLEN DEGENERES
attributed, The Stand-up Comedy Festival: Send in the Clowns
Almost all indolence and fickleness spring from procrastination; while thinking about what we shall do, and doubting whether we can do it or not, we allow the opportunity of action to slip through our hands. What thou doest, do quickly, is the maxim of human as well as of divine wisdom.
GEORGE GILFILLAN
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1854