best quotations about
Haste & Delay |

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Quotations
![]() | Come on, let’s finish, Charles is waiting. — Louis XV of France, King of France (his last words) 14 likes |
![]() | If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. — Isaac Asimov, 1920-1992, American Sci-Fi writer (in a TV show; he claimed later that he had actually said “6 months”) 11 likes |
![]() | People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves. — Albert Camus, 1913-1960, French writer, Nobel 1957 7 likes |
![]() | Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. — Lao-Tzu, 6th cent. BC, Chinese philosopher 6 likes |
![]() | It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. — Confucius, 551-479 BC, Chinese teacher & philosopher 6 likes |
![]() | Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. — Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, American President 5 likes |
![]() | I don’t like where I’m going and I don’t like where I’ve been. Why am I in a hurry? — Bertolt Brecht, 1898-1956, German writer 5 likes |
![]() | Impatience is a great obstacle to success; he who treats everything with brusqueness gathers nothing, or only immature fruit which will never ripen. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 4 likes |
![]() | Delay is the deadliest form of denial. — Northcote Parkinson, 1909-1993, British historian 4 likes |
![]() | Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him. — Lord Chesterfield, 1694-1773, English statesman & writer 4 likes |
![]() | No man who is in a hurry is quite civilized. — Will Durant, 1885-1981, American historian & philosopher 4 likes |
![]() | The best thing about being too late is that there's no more need to hurry. — Ashleigh Brilliant, 1933-, British cartoonist & epigrammatist 4 likes |
![]() | Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it. — Quintilian, 35-96 AD, Roman rhetorician 4 likes |
![]() | Delays have dangerous ends. — William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, English poet & playwright ‐ Henry IV 4 likes |
![]() | Most things which are urgent are not important, and most things which are important are not urgent. — Dwight Eisenhower, 1890-1969, American general & President 3 likes |
![]() | Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately. — Henry Kissinger, 1923-2023, American politician 3 likes |
![]() | The future is literally in our hands to mold as we like. But we cannot wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow is now. — Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962, Wife of the 32nd USA president 3 likes |
![]() | There is a slowness in affairs which ripens them, and a slowness which rots them. — Joseph Roux, 1834-1905, French clergyman & poet 2 likes |
![]() | States as great engines move slowly. — Francis Bacon, 1561-1626, English philosopher 2 likes |
![]() | Nature is a labyrinth in which the very haste you move with will make you lose your way. — Francis Bacon, 1561-1626, English philosopher 2 likes |
![]() | A right delayed is a right denied. — Martin Luther King, 1929-1968, American leader in the Civil Rights Movement 2 likes |
![]() | Be quick, but don't hurry. — John Wooden, 1910-2010, American basketball coach 2 likes |
![]() | The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences. — Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British Prime Minister, Nobel 1953 2 likes |
![]() | I appeal to parents: never, never say, “Hurry up,” to a child. — Vladimir Nabokov, 1899-1977, Russian-American writer 2 likes |
![]() | Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying “yes” too quickly and not saying “no” soon enough. — Josh Billings, 1818-1885, American humorist 1 likes |
![]() | He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year. |
![]() | Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly. — Mother Teresa, 1910-1997, Albanian-Indian nun & missionary |
![]() | The best of life is to say “It's too early” and then “It's too late”. |
![]() | There’s a virtue in slowness, which we have lost. |
![]() | We are too late for the gods and too early for Being. |
![]() | Maybe I'm lucky to be going so slowly, because I may be going in the wrong direction. — Ashleigh Brilliant, 1933-, British cartoonist & epigrammatist |
![]() | News used to come too late; now it comes too early. — Marty Rubin, 1930-1994, Canadian gay activist, author & journalist |
![]() | When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things. |
![]() | Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off. |
![]() | A gentleman is never in a hurry. |
![]() | My men don’t dig foxholes. I don’t want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don’t give the enemy time to dig one either. |
![]() | Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible. |
![]() | Hurry is the weakness of fools. |
Latin Quotes
![]() | Truth hates delay. Veritas odit moras. — Seneca, 5 AD-65 AD, Roman philosopher 55 likes |
![]() | An hour passes slowly, but the years go by quickly. Lente hora, celeriter anni. — Medieval Sundial motto 39 likes |
![]() | If glory comes after death, I hurry not. Si post fata venit gloria, non propero. — Martial, 43-104 AD, Roman poet of epigrams 30 likes |
![]() | Better late than never. Potius sero quam numquam. |
Funny Quotes
![]() | I know I'm drinking myself to a slow death, but then I'm in no hurry. — Robert Benchley, 1889-1945, American columnist 6 likes |
![]() | The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip. — Henry Youngman, 1906-1998, American comedian 3 likes |
Ancient Greek
![]() | Don’t rush when attending friends’ dinners, but hasten to their misfortunes. Επί δείπνα των φίλων βραδέως πορεύου, επί δε τας ατυχίας ταχέως. — Chilon of Sparta, 6th cent. BC, one of the 7 sages of Ancient Greece 11 likes |
![]() | The favorable conditions will not wait for our sluggishness and haughtiness . Οι δε των πραγμάτων ού μένουσι καιροί την ημετέραν βραδύτητα και ειρωνείαν. — Demosthenes, 384-322 BC, Ancient Athenian & statesman orator 8 likes |
![]() | The fight does not wait for those who delay. Αγών ου μένει άνδρας λελειμμένους. — Aeschylus, 525-456 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Glaucus of Pontus 7 likes |
![]() | Nature does not make leaps. Η φύσις ουδέν ποιεί άλματα. — Aristotle, 384-322 BC, Ancient Greek philosopher 6 likes |
![]() | Haste in every business brings failures. Eπειχθήναι μεν νυν παν πρήγμα τίκτει σφάλματα. — Herodotus, 480-420 BC, Ancient Greek historian, the “ father of History” 5 likes |
![]() | Hurry slowly. Σπεύδε βραδέως. |
Proverbs
![]() | Don't cross the bridge till you come to it. 4 likes |
![]() | Don't count your chickens before they hatch. 4 likes |
![]() | Rome wasn't built in a day. 3 likes |
![]() | Better late than never. 3 likes |
Movie Quotes
![]() | If I'm not back in five minutes, just wait longer. — from the film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) 2 likes |