Derrick Jensen Quotes

Work. Don't Think. Relax.

Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.

Establish a closing ritual. Know when to stop working. Try to end each work day the same way, too. Straighten up your desk. Back up your computer. Make a list of what you need to do tomorrow.

The truth is that as soon as we are no longer obliged to earn our living, we no longer know what to do with our life and recklessly squander it.

I think a lot of women, especially ones that want to achieve career goals, tend to worry. I don't want anyone to worry their life away.

We bore ourselves in order to earn money that we'll later spend on trying to de-bore ourselves

If any of those times you rushed around madly - trying to get somewhere faster - had ever made any real difference in the quality of your life... don't you think you'd be able to slow down by now?

While the work or play is on, it is a lot of fun if while you are doing one you don't constantly feel that you ought to be doing the other.

Too many people, too many demands, too much to do; competent, busy, hurrying people - It just isn't living at all.

We are speeding up our lives and working harder in a futile attempt to buy the time to slow down and enjoy it.

My whole thing is quality of life. . .It must always be easy and low-maintenance and stress-free, and that means not trying to fit too much in. I don’t ever want to be in a hurry. I want to enjoy the moments.

If you're not having fun - I don't care what you're doing - don't do it. Move on. Find something else, life's too short.

I only have two things in my life, my family and work. If there's any time left over, then I play sports.

I was one of those people who put too much emphasis on work and career and material possessions, and it took its toll on all my relationships, on my physical health, my emotional and mental health.

The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation.

I'm trying to figure out the trick of working to live as opposed to living to work, but I don't know if I've quite stumbled upon it just yet.

Who wants a life of ease? And who wants a life in the office that you hate, and who wants to play golf?

Things can be really empty in this world, and I don't just mean the music world. It can become a very meaningless place if you don't really understand: 'who am I? Why am I here? What am I doing?' To feel fulfilment and have a deeper level of understanding, personally, that is the most important thing.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

I enjoy spending time with my family. And when my family's not around, when I'm on the road, a lot of sleep. I get my rest. I understand how important my job is and how important rest is to that job. I'm pretty boring.

You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It's a Catch-22 kind of thing.

Life isn't a 24/7 merry go round. If it were, you wouldn't get the 7 hours of sleep necessary to keep you fit and sane.

An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.

How does one get bored of life?

'In Praise of Slowness' chronicles the global trend towards deceleration that has come to be known as the Slow Movement. Don't worry, though: it is not a Luddite rant. I love speed. Going fast can be fun, liberating and productive. The problem is that our hunger for speed, for cramming more and more into less and less time, has gone too far.