busyness quotes

Edna St. Vincent Millay: 

My candle burns at both its ends;
It will not last the night;
But oh, my foes, and oh, my friends -- 
It gives a lovely light.

Eric Hoffer: 

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else- we are the busiest people in the world.

Golda Meir: 

At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you've left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your heart is rent.

Harry Emerson Fosdick: 

The world is moving so fast these days that the one who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

Henry David Thoreau: 

It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?

Paul Gruchow: 

It is one thing to decry the rat race...that is the good and honorable work of moralists. It is quite another thing to quit the rat race, to drop out, to refuse to run any further -- that is the work of the individualist. It is offensive because it is impolite; it makes the rebuke personal; the individualist calls not his or her behavior into question, but mine. 
Our Sustainable Table, 1990 


Rabindranath Tagore: 

He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: 

To fill the hour -- that is happiness.

Zora Neale Hurston: 

I want a busy life, a just mind, and a timely death. 
(1942)