Lots of people talk to animals... Not very many listen, though... That's the problem.
Benjamin HoffRead
The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you can't save time. You can only spend it wisely or foolishly. The Bisy Backson has practically no time at all, because he's too busy wasting it by trying to save it. And by trying to save it, he ends up wasting the whole thing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Time cannot be saved; it can only be spent intelligently or wasted.
This quote highlights the futility of trying to save time as if it were a tangible resource. Instead, it emphasizes the importance of how we choose to spend our time, suggesting that those who are overly concerned with saving time often end up squandering it instead, missing out on meaningful experiences.
Themes
TimeWisdomSpendingWastingObsessionLifestyle
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about productivity, you can use this quote to emphasize the importance of wise time management.
More from Benjamin Hoff
All quotes →The masters of life know the way, for they listen to the voice within them, the voice of wisdom and simplicity, the voice that reasons beyond cleverness and knows beyond knowledge.
Benjamin HoffRead
How can you get very far, If you don't know who you are? How can you do what you ought, If you don't know what you've got? And if you don't know which to do Of all the things in front of you, Then what you'll have when you are through Is just a mess without a clue Of all the best that can come true If you know What and Which and Who.
Benjamin HoffRead
The honey doesn't taste so good once it is being eaten; the goal doesn't mean so much once it is reached; the reward is no so rewarding once it has been given. If we add up all the rewards in our lives, we won't have very much. But if we add up the spaces *between* the rewards, we'll come up with quite a bit. And if we add up the rewards *and* the spaces, then we'll have everything - every minute of the time that we spent.
Benjamin HoffRead
We don't need to shift our responsibilities onto the shoulders of some deified Spiritual Superman, or sit around and wait for Fate to come knocking at the door. We simply need to believe in the power that's within us, and use it. When we do that, and stop imitating others and competing against them, things begin to work for us.
Benjamin HoffRead
And when you try too hard, it doesn't work. Try grabbing something quickly and precisely with a tensed-up arm; then relax and try it again. Try doing something with a tense mind. The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard-one that thinks too much.
Benjamin HoffRead
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The fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful is the cause of half their errors.
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Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.
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The measure of your enlightenment is the degree to which you are comfortable with paradox, contradiction, and ambiguity.
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...the air so still it aches like the place where the tooth was on the morning after you’ve been to the dentist or aches like your heart in the bosom when you stand on the street corner waiting for the light to change and happen to recollect how things once were and how they might have been yet if what happened had not happened.
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