John Ruskin Quotes

I have a feeling the writers who find screenwriting difficult are usually just not lazy enough for the job. They don't know how to stop before the task is done. I've always had a knack for leaving things unfinished, which makes screenwriting easier for me than most.

I suppose that there is no point wasting time being lazy, though of course indolence in a divine way, actually has its advantages.

Do not put off today's work for tomorrow.

If you can focus the energy into something valuable, put that into work ethic.

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy; and he that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.

Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes it.

A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.

Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.

The principle of work is part of self-discipline. Now, my dear young sisters, I have lived a good many years longer than you, but even back in Grandpa's time there was something to make you want to lie down and go to sleep-they called it work.

Slaying the dragon of delay is no sport for the short-winded.

Diligence increaseth the fruit of toil. A dilatory man wrestles with losses.

The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then be done.

Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all virtues. Be active in business, that temptation may miss her aim; the bird that sits is easily shot.

The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day.

Momentum is a fragile force. Its worst enemy: procrastination. Its best friend: a deadline (think Election Day). Implication no. 1 (and there is no no. 2): Get to work! NOW!

Hard work's a good distraction.

That the Devil finds work for idle hands to do is probably true. But there is a profound difference between leisure and idleness.

Short-cuts lead to long delays.

Do not put your work off till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin.

You never put off until tomorrow or even this afternoon what you can do this morning. Attack the objective when your desire is strongest.

Industriousness and conscientiousness are often at odds, because industriousness wants to pick the still sour fruit from the tree,while conscientiousness lets it hang there too long, until it falls and bruises.

Do not put off today's work until tomorrow, lest work accumulate and you achieve nothing.

Energy apparently increases with the amount of work to be done. When nothing of burning urgency is waiting, it decreases much sooner. Heaven seems to understand such economy.

There is an old saying "well begun is half done"-'tis a bad one. I would use instead-Not begun at all 'til half done.

Diligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things to industry. Work while it is called today, for you know not how much you may be hindered by tomorrow. One today is worth two tomorrows; never leave that till tomorrow which you can do to-day.