Paul Hawken Quotes

Our obsession with speed, with cramming more and more into every minute, means that we race through life instead of actually living it. Our health, diet and relationships suffer. We make mistakes at work. We struggle to relax, to enjoy the moment, even to get a decent night's sleep.

Beware the barrenness of a busy 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.

I'm always wondering: Have all these time-saving devices actually saved us any time, or have they just created a million fetishes and obsessions that keep us from the quiet half hour we should be taking to sit and do nothing every day?

The whole thing is, do as much as you can, when you possibly can, and don't stress.

We can outrun the wind and the storm, but we cannot outrun the demon of hurry.

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?

Speed is one of the great curses of modern civilization, obsession with speed leads to quantitative approach; we come to believe that more is better. This is very materialistic, we have to realize that it is the quality of life, quality of relationships, quality of food, medicine, education and everything else which matters.

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

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.

The secret to modern life is finding the measure in time management. I have two kids, career and I travel, and I don't think my life is any different than most couples. The most valuable commodity now for many people is time and how to parcel that out.

I've learned to relax more. Everybody feels pressure in what they do, maybe mine is just a little different because there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to accomplish what I want to.

There's never enough time to do nothing!

For many in the modern world, carving out time for both traditional seated meditation and exercise has become close to impossible.

I realized that I have to slow down. I work so hard, I'm so busy.

We speak continually of saving time, but time in its richness is most often lost to us when we are busy without relief.

We are all so busy and constantly trying to save time and balance everything.

We live very busy lives. But everyone has a spare minute.

Time hygiene is about finding more time for ourselves: to think, to do what we like.

We can say, 'OK, I'm going to be in the car for an hour; what can I do to improve my quality of life during that hour?'

I don't waste my time doing my head in about stupid things that don't really matter and don't waste time worrying over nothing.

I grind and I graft, but I will make sure that I get that time off here and there to unwind and relax and have a life.

I've never been very good at slowing down.

Like most women, I work too hard, spend too many hours hunched over a computer, and not enough time taking care of myself.

Here in America, our use of time is not harmonious with humanity's better spirit.