William Empson Quotes

Delay is the deadliest form of denial.

Delays in or avoidance of decision making was chronic.

Later is always my first choice.

He who hesitates is a damned fool.

If you temporize, you are lost.

There is only so much that you can kick the can down the road.

Procrastinate now, don't put it off.

Put it off for a bit. All life is putting off. Well, not entirely.

Postponement: The father of failure.

My life is a monument to procrastination, to the art of putting things off until later, or much later, or possibly never.

Inaction is perhaps the greatest mistake of all.

If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.

Never do today what you can do tomorrow. Something may occur to make you regret your premature action.

The risks of inaction are far greater than the risks of action.

The safest refuge when dealing with urgent, ticklish problems is sought in shirking responsibility, in gaining time by the formation of Committees, with the requisite Sub-Committees to tackle the problem. It is the well-known practice of Promise, Pause, Prepare, Postpone and end by letting things alone

To delay action until there Is one hundred percent certainty Is always to postpone political action forever.

It seemed better to delay thinking.

The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.

I'm not looking at anything now. I'll look at it at the time. What I have seen, what I've seen is so bad.

Reluctance to begin is quick to befriend procrastination. . . .

Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done.

So much of life [is] a putting-off of unhappiness for another time. Nothing [is] ever lost by delay.

Life lived for tomorrow will always be just a day away from being realized.

My evil genius Procrastination has whispered me to tarry 'til a more convenient season.

He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.