Premature Quotes

• To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.

  Isaac Asimov

  Religious, Atheist, Ignorance

  "The 'Threat' of Creationism". www.nytimes.com. June 14, 1981.

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• Never do today what you can do tomorrow, because something may occur to make you regret your premature action.

  Aaron Burr

  Regret, May, Today

  "Wit and Humor of Bench and Bar". Book by Marshall Brown, 1899.

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• Premature optimization is the root of all evil.

  Donald Knuth

  Science, Roots, Evil

  Donald Ervin Knuth (1986). “TEX: The Program”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming.

  Tony Hoare

  Roots, Evil, Simplicity

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• To be premature is to be perfect

  Oscar Wilde

  Perfect

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.31, Oberon Books

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• [Sherlock Holmes:] The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Data, Temptation, Form

  Arthur Conan Doyle (1993). “The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes”, p.852, Wordsworth Editions

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• Nature's instructions are always slow; those of men are generally premature.

  Henri Rousseau

  Nature, Men, Instruction

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• To see the best before I have properly begun would be somewhat premature.

  Kazuo Ishiguro

  Would Be

  Kazuo Ishiguro (2010). “The Remains of the Day”, p.25, Vintage

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• Hasty work and premature decisions may lead to penalties out of all proportion to the issues immediately involved.

  Winston Churchill

  Leadership, Issues, Decision

  Winston Churchill (1952). “War Speeches: From September 11, 1943 to August 16, 1945”

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• Certainly we want to protect our children from new and painful experiences that are beyond their emotional comprehension and that intensify anxiety; and to a point we can prevent premature exposure to such experiences.

  Maurice Sendak

  Children, Emotional, Painful Experiences

  Maurice Sendak's acceptance speech upon being awarded the Caldecott Medal for "Where the Wild Things Are" (1964), as quoted in "Newbery and Caldecott Medal Books: 1956-65" edited by Lee Kingman, 1965.

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• Associated with this weight gain are increased risks in adulthood for joint problems, angina, high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, type 2 diabetes and, ultimately, premature death. Outside of the human costs, health experts estimate that treating adult obesity-related ailments will cost the American economy nearly $150 billion in 2009.

  Jeff Schweitzer

  Heart, Loss, Blood

  Jeff Schweitzer, Larry Deutsch (2011). “Calorie Wars: Fat, Fact and Fiction”, p.7, Dr. Larry Deutsch

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• We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%

  Donald Knuth

  Opportunity, Roots, Evil

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• I never can think of Judas Iscariot without losing my temper. To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature, Congressman.

  Mark Twain

  Mean, Thinking, Political

  Letter to the Editor, N.Y. Daily Tribune, 10 Mar. 1873

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• For my part, I rather distrust men or concerns that rise up with the speed of rockets. Sudden rises are sometimes followed by equally sudden falls. I have most faith in the individual or enterprise that advances step by step. A mushroom can spring up in a day; an oak takes 50 years or more to reach maturity. Mushrooms don't last; oaks do. The real cause for an enormous number of business failures is premature over-expansion, attempting to gallop before learning to creep. Sudden successes often invite sudden reverses.

  B. C. Forbes

  Success, Spring, Real

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• With longer life spans and better health and education, many feel that giving birth to a baby a mere couple of decades after they themselves were in the cradle is a little premature.

  Mariella Frostrup

  Baby, Couple, Giving

  "Let's give older mothers a break". www.theguardian.com. March 1, 2012.

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• A trend is a trend is a trend. But the question is, will it bend? Will it alter its course through some unforeseen force and come to a premature end?

  Alexander Cairncross

  Trends, Planning, Force

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• We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.

  Donald Knuth

  Learning, Roots, Evil

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• Premature as the question may be, it is hardly possible not to wonder whether we will find any answer to our deepest questions, any signs of the workings of an interested God, in a final theory. I think that we will not.

  Steven Weinberg

  Thinking, Atheism, Finals

  Steven Weinberg (2010). “Dreams Of A Final Theory: The Search for The Fundamental Laws of Nature”, p.76, Random House

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• Attempts have been made from a study of the changes produced by mutation to obtain the relative order of the bases within various triplets, but my own view is that these are premature until there is more extensive and more reliable data on the composition of the triplets.

  Francis Crick

  Views, Order, Data

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• When my babe was born, they said it was premature. It weighed only four pounds; but God let it live.

  Harriet Ann Jacobs

  Pounds, Literature, Four

  Harriet Ann Jacobs (1861). “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, p.94

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• A superstition is a premature explanation that overstays its time.

  George Iles

  Science, Statistics, Superstitions

  George Iles (1918). “Canadian Stories”

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• If we knew that we would meet the Lord tomorrow - through our premature death or through His unexpected coming - what would we do today? What confessions would we make? What practices would we discontinue? What accounts would we settle? What forgivenesses would we extend? What testimonies would we bear? If we would do those things then, why not now?

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Practice, Why Not, Today

  "Preparation for the Second Coming". Dallin H. Oaks' address at the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, www.lds.org. April 2004.

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• But before we die, how shall we live? I say with hope and dignity; and if premature death is the result, that death has a meaning reactionary suicide can never have. It is the price of self-respect.

  Huey Newton

  Suicide, Self, Dignity

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• An enemy always represents a weakness. This might be fear of physical pain, but it could also be a premature sense of victory or the desire to abandon the fight because it is no longer worthwhile.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, Pain, Inspiration

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• Networking is not about hunting. It is about farming. It's about cultivating relationships. Don't engage in 'premature solicitation'. You'll be a better networker if you remember that.

  Ivan Misner

  Hunting, Networking, Social Media

  Ivan Misner, Hazel Walker, Frank De Raffelle Jr (2012). “Business Networking and Sex: Not What You Think”, p.108, Entrepreneur Press

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