Haste

Haste (or hurry) is rushed action.

Quotes

• Festina lente.
  • Hurry slowly.
  • Attributed to Augustus by Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, "Divus Augustus", sect. 25.

• Hâtez-vous lentement ; et, sans perdre courage,
  Vingt fois sur le métier remettez votre ouvrage.
  • Hasten slowly, and without losing heart,
    Put your work twenty times upon the anvil.
  • Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, L'Art Poétique (The Art of Poetry, 1674), Canto I, l. 171.

• Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be,
  That may bothe werke wel and hastily.
  • Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "The Merchant's Tale".

• The more haste, ever the worst speed.
  • Charles Churchill, The Ghost (1763), Book IV, line 1,162.

• Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
  • Max Ehrmann, "Desiderata" (1927).

• My mistake has too often been that of too much haste. But it is not the people’s way to hurry, nor is it God’s way either. Hurry means worry, and worry effectually drives the peace of God from the heart.
  • James O. Fraser, Geraldine Taylor. Behind the Ranges: The Life-changing Story of J.O. Fraser. Singapore: OMF International (IHQ) Ltd., 1998, 189.

• Saber repartir su vida a lo discreto: no como se vienen las ocasiones, sino por providencia y delecto.
  • Parcel out your life wisely, not confusedly in the rush of events, but with foresight and judgment.
    • Baltasar Gracián, Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia, § 229 (Christopher Maurer trans.).

• Som thingis that prouoke young men to wed in haste,
  Show after weddyng, that hast maketh waste.
  • Some things that provoke young men to wed in haste,
    Show after wedding, that haste makes waste.
  • John Heywood Proverbs (1546) Part I, chapter 2.

• The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing that we ought to do, we have no time for anything else—we are the busiest people in the world.
  • Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition (1973), § 156.

• He who hurries through life hurries to his grave.
  • George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings Davos (I)—Salladhor Saan

• La hastiveté se donne elle mesme la jambe.
  • Haste trips up its own heels.
  • Montaigne, Essais, Book III, Ch. 10

• Quod evenit in labyrintho properantibus; ipsa illos velocitas inplicat.
  • This is what happens when you hurry through a maze; the faster you go, the worse you are entangled.
  • Seneca the Younger, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XLIV "On Philosophy and Pedigrees"

• Celerity is never more admired
  Than by the negligent.
  • William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act III, scene 7, line 25.

• Nay, but make haste; the better foot before.
  • William Shakespeare, King John (1598), Act IV, scene 2, line 170.

• Stand not upon the order of your going,
  But go at once.
  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act III, scene 4, line 119.

• Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.
  • William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1595-96), Act III, scene 2, line 101.

• He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
  With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder.
  • William Shakespeare, Richard II (c. 1595), Act II, scene 1, line 36.

• It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;
  Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
  Ere one can say "It lightens."
  • William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act II, scene 2, line 118.

• Wisely, and slow; they stumble that run fast.
  • William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act II, scene 3, line 94.

• Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry.
  • John Wesley (1703–1791). Letter to a member of the Society, 10th December 1777, Select Letters (1837).

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 353-54.

• Festination may prove Precipitation;
  Deliberating delay may be wise cunctation.
  • Sir Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, Part I, Section XXIII (paraphrasing Cæsar).

• Then horn for horn they stretch and strive;
  Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive.
  • Robert Burns, To a Haggis.

• Festina lente.
  • Hasten deliberately.
  • Augustus Cæsar, quoting a Greek Proverb, according to Aullus Gellius, X, 11, 5.

• I'll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act I, scene 2.

• Sat cito, si sat bene.
  • Quick enough, if good enough.
  • St. Jerome, Epistle. LXVI. Par. 9. (Valler's ed.) Quoted from Cato. Phrase used by Lord Eldon. In Twiss's Life of Lord C. Eldon, Volume I, p. 46.

• Haste is of the Devil.
  • The Koran.

• Le trop de promptitude à l'erreur nous expose.
  • Too great haste leads us to error.
  • Molière, Sganarelle, I. 12.

• Stay awhile that we may make an end the sooner.
  • Attributed to Sir Amice Pawlet by Francis Bacon, Apothegms, No. 76.

• On wings of winds came flying all abroad.
  • Alexander Pope, Prologue to the Satires, line 208.

• Festinatio tarda est.
  • Haste is slow.
  • Quintus Curtius Rufus, IX, 9, 12.

• Whatever is produced in haste goes easily to waste.
  • Saadi, Gulistan (1258) Chapter 8, story 36.

• You can't hurry an oxcart. (If you lose your temper and shout, the oxen get confused and slow down.)
  • Javanese saying quoted in Opera Jawa, written by Armantono and Garin Nugroho, 2006

Anonymous

• Haste makes waste.
  • English proverb. Reported in John Heywood, Dialogue of Proverbs (1546), part 1, Chapter 2