Procrastination

Procrastination refers to the deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Quotes I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt (2002) God has promised forgiveness to your repentance; but He has not promised to-morrow to your procrastination. Augustine of Hippo, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 486. 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"] (Funes the Memorious), in Ficciones (1944); also published in Labyrinths (1964) Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), pt. I, bk. IV, ch. 2 Faith in to-morrow instead of Christ, is Satan's nurse for man's perdition. George B. Cheever, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 486. Qui recte vivendi prorogat horam,Rusticus exspectat dum defluat amnis. He who postpones the hour of living rightly is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses. Horace, Epistles. Bk. i, epis. 2. l. If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Thomas de Quincey,"Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts", in Blackwood's Magazine, November 1839 Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. Don Marquis Don Marquis Archy and Mehitabel 1927 Certain Maxims of Archy Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement. Henry Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart (1947), "The Enormous Womb" Do you want to learn holiness with terrible struggles and sore affliction and the plague of much remaining evil? Then wait before you turn to God. Frederick William Robertson, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 486. "I will go today" is what a herdsman says; I will go tomorrow is what a shepherd-boy says. I will go is I will go, and the time passes. Sumerian proverb, Collection III at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, 3rd millennium BCE. Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 8. Few understand that procrastination is our natural defense, letting things take care of themselves and exercise their antifragility. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012) Ch. 7. Naive Intervention, p. 122. Procrastination is the thief of time. Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742–1745), Night 1, line 393 External links procrastination Category:Vices