You must always work not just within but below your means.
If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle only five. In that
way the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery, and you create a feeling of strength
in reserve.
— Pablo Picasso
The Law of Triviality . . . briefly stated, it means that the time spent on any item
of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.
— C. Northcote Parkinson
Every man is, or hopes to be, an idler.
— Samuel Johnson
There are only two ways of getting on in the world: by one's own industry,
or by the stupidity of others.
— Jean de La Bruyère
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.
— Albert Einstein
Success means only doing what you do well, letting someone else do the
rest.
— Goldstein S. Truism
I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for
myself that I could pay others to do for me.
— W. Somerset Maugham
If you see a snake, just kill it — don't appoint a committee on
snakes.
— H. Ross Perot
The difference between a job and a career is the difference between forty
and sixty hours a week.
— Robert Frost
One of the problems of retirement is that it gives you more time to
read about the problems of retirement.
— Anon
Ultimately nothing matters and so what if it did.
— Unknown wise person
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
— Albert Einstein
If not now, when?
— Zen Koan
Our life is frittered away by detail ... simplify,
simplify.
— Henry David Thoreau
I couldn't wait for success . . . so I went ahead without it.
— Jonathan Winters
Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It
doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that,
what have you had?
— Henry James
Call upon a man of business during hours of business only to transact your
business. Then go about your business and give him time to attend to his business.
— Unknown Wise Person
The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see
clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours.
— Jean de La Bruyére
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!
— John Milton
If you don't want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won't
have to work.
— Ogden Nash
Spend your time and energy creating, not criticizing.
— H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
It's not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy.
The bee is praised; the mosquito is swatted.
— Queen of France, wife of King Louis XVI (1755-1793)
It's better to do a sub-par job working on the right
project than a great job working on the wrong project.
— Robert J. Ringer
To get something done a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of
whom are absent.
— Robert Copeland
I am definitely going to take a course on time management . .
. just as soon as I can work it into my schedule.
— Louis E. Boone
Time is waste of money.
— Oscar Wilde
Chance is the one thing you can't buy. . . . You have to pay for it and you have to
pay for it with your life, spending a lot of time, you pay for it with time, not the wasting of time but
the spending of time.
— Robert Doisneau
Don't become a slave to non-crucial matters.
— Robert J. Ringer
Surround yourself with problem solvers, not problem creators.
— Robert J. Ringer
The great secret in life ...[is] not to open your letters for a fortnight. At
the expiration of that period you will find that nearly all of them have answered themselves.
— Arthur Binstead
Leave undone whatever you hesitate to do.
— Yoshida Kanko
Don't waste time learning the "tricks of the trade." Instead learn the trade.
— H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Nothing ever comes out as planned.
— Seay's Law
Some folks can look so busy doing nothin' that they seem
indispensable.
— Kin Hubbard
The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by
immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.
— Ezra Pound
I don't even butter my bread. I consider that cooking.
— Katherine Cebrian
Little things affect little minds.
— Benjamin Disraeli
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
— Albert Einstein
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
— American proverb
If you don't have enough time to accomplish something, consider the work
finished once it's begun.
— John Gage
If you're already in a hole, it's no use to continue digging.
— Roy W. Walters
Never do today what you can do as well tomorrow; because something may
occur to make you regret your premature action.
— Aaron Burr
The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.
— Sydney J. Harris
Choose one of these three ways to handle a task fast:
1: Do it yourself.
2: Hire an expert to handle it for you.
3: Decide that it isn't worth doing and strike it off your to-do list.
— from The Lazy Person's Guide to Success
When you are doing something difficult, tedious, or extremely time-consuming, ask
yourself what would happen if you didn't do it. If the answer is nothing, or next to nothing, stop doing
it.
— from The Lazy Person's Guide to Success
Don't' overdo things that shouldn't be done in the first place.
— Unknown Wise Person
Doing a thing well is often a waste of time.
— Robert Byrne
If you can't keep up, drag them down to your level.
— Laurence J. Peter
If there's a harder way of doing something, someone will find it.
— Ralph E. Ross
When the going gets tough, the smart get lost.
— Robert Byrne
One of the best ways of avoiding necessary and even urgent tasks is to
seem busily employed on things that are already done.
— John Kennett Galbraith
Men are disturbed not by things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that
happen.
— Epictetus
There is no more futile punishment than futile and hopeless labor.
— Albert Camus
The rich don't work for money
— Robert T. Kiyosaki
I grew up in New England. I think I was brought up with the Puritan ethic:
that if you worked really hard in life, then good would come to you. The harder you work, the luckier you
get. I've come to believe that it's the smarter you work, the better.
— Ken Blanchard
It's a good rule to follow the first law of holes: if you are in one, stop
digging.
— Denis Healey
It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done.
— Oscar Wilde
The less of routine, the more of life.
— A. B. Alcott
My philosophy is that anything worth doing is too hard.
— Wally in Dilbert Cartoon
Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest
accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your
sense of balance, humility, and commitment.
— Ross Perot
There is nothing brilliant nor outstanding in my record, except perhaps
this one thing: I do the things that I believe ought to be done .... And when I make up my mind to do a
thing, I act.
— Theodore Roosevelt
So many worlds, so much to do,
So little done, such things to be.
— Lord Tennyson
If it's never your fault, you can't take responsibility for it. If you can't take
responsibility for it, you'll always be its victim.
— Richard Bach, Illusions
There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.
— Bill Watterson
Remember that nothing matters very much, and few things matter at all.
— Arthur Balfour
The more you think, the more time you have.
— Henry Ford
The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world
makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone is aiming for base hits.
— Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek
Having served on various committees, I have drawn up a list of rules:
Never arrive on time; this stamps you as a beginner. Don't say anything until the meeting is half over;
this stamps you as wise. Be as vague as possible; this avoids irritating the others. When in doubt, suggest
a subcommittee be appointed. Be the first to move for adjournment; this will make you popular; it's what e
eryone is waiting for.
— Harry Chapman
Management by objectives works if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the
time you don't.
— Peter Drucker
A debator becomes impotent if he has not one with whom to debate.
— Robert J. Ringer
I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours
of the waking day to the making of money for money's sake.
— John D. Rockefeller
To attempt too many things at once is to end up completing none.
Instead of putting mediocre effort into a lot of things, place excellent effort into a few significant
ones.
One important project carried to home plate will always feel much more satisfying than three projects
remaining on first, second, and
third.
— from Life's Secret Handbook
Work as Hard as You Have to for a Comfortable Living — and as Little as You Can Get Away With
— from Life's Secret Handbook
You can't earn more time, no matter how hard you work.
And you can't buy it, no matter how much money you have.
So spend it wisely, much more so than money.
— from Life's Secret Handbook
A day is a span of time no one is wealthy enough to waste.
— Unknown Wise Person
I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured
to nothing with perpetual motion.
— William Shakespeare
Well-arranged time is the surest mark of a well-arranged mind.
— Sir Isaac Pitman
It is the superfluous things for which men sweat.
— Seneca
What I do, I do very well, and what I don't do well, I don't do at all.
— Unknown Wise Person
Success means only doing what you do well, letting someone else do the rest.
— Goldstein S. Truism
Perfection is an elusive butterfly. When we cease to demand perfection, the business of being happy
becomes much easier.
— Helen Keller
It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.
— William of Occam
Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast — you also miss the sense
of where you are going and why.
— Eddie Cantor
Most people complicate their lives more than they care to admit.
Keep in mind that all it takes is a muddlehead to make the simple
complicated. It takes a genius to make the complicated simple, however.
The choice is yours:
Muddlehead or genius?
— from Life's Secret Handbook
We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities.
— Norman Vincent Peale
There is no greatness where there is not simplicity.
— Leo Tolstoy
More than enough is too much.
— Unknown Wise Person
Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little.
— Epicurus
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford
to let alone.
v Thoreau
Identify the important.
Also identify the unimportant.
Then filter out the unimportant.
And concentrate on the important.
You are now on your way to all the success you need in life.
— from Life's Secret Handbook
If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best
season of your life.
— Wu-Men
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that
the necessary may speak.
— Hans Hofmann
People waste more time waiting for someone to take charge of their lives than they
do in any other pursuit.
— Gloria Steinem
Time is what we want most, but …. what we use worst.
— William Penn
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
— Laurence J. Peter
I cannot afford to waste my time making money.
— Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (nineteenth-century Swiss naturalist when asked to give a lecture for a
large fee)
The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed.
— Sebastian Roch Nicolas Chamfort
If you burn the candle at both ends, you are not as bright as you
think.
— Unknown wise person
Nothing matters very much, and few things matter at all.
— Earl Balfour
Do what's right, the right way, at the right time.
— Arnold Glasow
It's easier to stay out of trouble than get out of trouble.
— Unknown wise person
Refuse to be intimidated by the adage, "Anything worth doing is worth doing well."
This is one of the most ridiculous statements ever made.
The truth is, most things worth doing aren't worth your best efforts.
There are just a few really important things that are worth doing well.
After that, a greater number of things are worth doing adequately.
Even more things are worth doing in the most haphazard fashion possible just to get by.
Of course, most things aren't worth doing at all, best left for the misfits of this world to pursue.
— from Life's Secret Handbook
Always take an emergency leisurely.
— Chinese proverb
Never learn to do anything: if you don't learn, you'll always find
someone else to do it for you.
— Mark Twain
What I do, I do very well, and what I don't do well, I don't do at
all.
— Unknown wise person
It is not worth while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.
— Henry David Thoreau
Make good use of bad rubbish.
— Elizabeth Beresford
Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
— Thomas Jefferson
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
— G. K. Chesterton
The really efficient laborer will be found not to crowd his day with work,
but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure.
— Henry David Thoreau
The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.
— Sydney J. Harris
It was Einstein who made the real trouble. He announced in 1905 that there was no
such thing as absolute rest. After that there never was.
— Stephen Leacock
The quickest way to finish a project is not to do it
at all.
— Robert J. Ringer
One of the saddest things is that the only thing that a man can do
for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can't eat eight
hours a day nor drink for eight hours a day nor make love for eight
hours — all you can do for eight hours is work. Which is the reason
why man makes himself and everybody else so miserable and unhappy.
— William Faulkner
Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be
sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
— Robert Louis Stevenson
The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.
— Bruce Lee
People who know how to employ themselves, always find leisure moments, while those
who do nothing are forever in a hurry.
— Jeanne-Marie Roland
Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.
— Benjamin Franklin
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem,
see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Drive thy business, or it will drive thee.
— Benjamin Franklin
It is paradoxical but nonetheless true that the nearer man comes to his goal to make
his life easy and abundant, the more he undermines the foundations of a meaningful existence.
— Franz Alexander
Success is important only to the extent that it puts one in a position to do more
things one likes to do.
— Sarah Caldwell
If you are losing your leisure, look out! You are losing your soul.
— Logan Pearsall Smith
Always do one thing less than you think you can do.
— Bernard Baruch
It was such a lovely day I thought it was a pity to get up.
— Somerset Maugham
A lazy person gives the workaholic something worthwhile to do and
someone to feel happily superior to.
— Julia Swiggum
Instead of expending time to train yourself not to be afraid of snakes,
avoid them altogether.
— Richard Koch
If you want a faster or easier way to do something, give it to a lazy person.
— Unknown wise person
I am the laziest man in the world. I invented all those things to save
myself from toil.
— Benjamin Franklin
The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.
— Samuel Smiles
Think of many things to do — do one.
— Portuguese proverb
One principle reason why men are so often useless is that they divide and shift
their attention among a multiplicity of objects and pursuits.
— G. Emmons
Understand the difference between being at work and working.
— Unknown wise person
After all is said and done, more is said than done.
— Unknown wise person
You cannot mandate productivity, you must provide the tools to let people become
their best.
— Steve Jobs
Do every act of your life as if it were your last.
— Marcus Aurelius
Don't interfere with something that ain't bothering you.
— Unknown wise person
The biggest trouble maker you will ever meet watches you shave or put makeup on your
face in the mirror every morning.
— Unknown wise person
Almost anything is easier to get into than to get out of.
— Agnes Allen
No one can solve problems for someone whose problem is that they don't want problems
solved.
— Richard Bach
To do nothing is also a good remedy.
— Hippocrates
