Timely Quotes

• Decisiveness is often the art of timely cruelty.

  Henry Becque

  Art, Cruelty, Decisiveness

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• Success is the progressive, timely achievement of your stated goals.

  Charles J. Givens

  Goal, Achievement, Progressive

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• It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.

  Richard Whately

  Wise, Wisdom, Rebuilding

  Richard Whately (1856). “Thoughts and Apophthegms: From the Writings of Archbishop Whateley”, p.71

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• Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Poor Richard's Almanack, June 1746

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• The functionaries of public power rarely strengthen in their dispositions to abridge it, and an unorganized call for timely amendment is not likely to prevail against an organized opposition to it. We are always told that things are going on well; Why change them? 'Chi sta bene, no si mueve,' said the Italian, 'let him who stands well, stand still.' This is true; and I verily believe they would go on well with us under an absolute monarch, while our present character remains, of order, industry and love of peace, and restrained as he would be, by the proper spirit of the people.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Believe, Character, Italian

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.209, Cambridge University Press

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• Timely service, like timely gifts, is doubled in value.

  George MacDonald

  One Day, Values

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• He in a few minutes ravished this fair creature, or at least would have ravished her, if she had not, by a timely compliance, prevented him.

  Henry Fielding

  Witty, Sex, Seduction

  Jonathan Wild bk. 3, ch. 7 (1743)

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• I just want it to be timeless and timely at the same time.

  John Legend

  Want, Timeless

  "R&B Artist John Legend: 'Once Again'". "News & Notes" with Farai Chideya, www.npr.org. November 20, 2006.

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• If we know where we are and something about how we got there, we might see where we are trending - and if the outcomes which lie naturally in our course are unacceptable, to make timely change.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Lying, Might, Outcomes

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• ...We need to strive to keep things in proper balance. Good balance comes in doing things in a timely way and in not procrastinating our preparation or waiting to fulfill our responsibilities until the last minute.

  M. Russell Ballard

  Responsibility, Waiting, Preparation

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• When we seek daily spiritual guidance, we are guided toward the next step forward for our art. Sometimes the step is very small. Sometimes the step is, "Wait. Not now." Sometimes the step is, "Work on something else for a while." When we are open to Divine Guidance, we will receive it. It will come to us as the hunch, the inkling, the itch. It will come to us as timely conversations with others. It will come to us in many ways--but it will come.

  Julia Cameron

  Spiritual, Art, Divine Guidance

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• It's a rare memoir that can tell a story that seems brand new, but Nina Here Nor There does it. This one-of-a-kind narrator undertakes a quest that is unmistakably timely. But in its yearning for awareness and connection, this book feels timeless.

  K. M. Soehnlein

  Book, Narrators, Connections

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• As time goes by, I'm increasingly impressed by how very special and timely it was that we got the degree of national commitment needed to put people on the Moon. For the first time, this nation was united in trying to develop an interplanetary capability. We've been trying to repeat that situation ever since.

  Buzz Aldrin

  Commitment, Moon, People

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• We are social animals. We like to feel a part of something of beauty and power that transcends our insignificance. It can be a religion, a political party, a ball club. Why not also Nature? I feel a strong identity with the world of living things. I was born into it; we all were. But we may not feel the ties unless we gain intimacy by seeing, feeling, smelling, touching and studying the natural world. Trying to live in harmony with the dictates of nature is probably as inspirational as living in harmony with the Koran or the Bible. Perhaps it is also a timely undertaking.

  Bernd Heinrich

  Strong, Party, Animal

  Bernd Heinrich, Alice Calaprice (1993). “One Man's Owl”, p.14, Princeton University Press

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• The rascal multitude are the proper targets of the mass media and a public education system geared to obedience and training in needed skills, including the skill of repeating patriotic slogans on timely occasions.

  Noam Chomsky

  Patriotic, Media, Skills

  Noam Chomsky (2011). “Deterring Democracy”, p.363, Random House

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• There must not be one law for the Jew and another for the Arabs....In saying this, I do not assume that there are tendencies toward inequalirty or discrimination. It is merely a timely warning which is particularly necessary because we shall have a very large Arab minority. I am certain that the world will judge the Jewish State by what it will do with the Arabs, just as the Jewish people at large will be judged by what we do or fail to do in this state where we have been given such a wonderful opportunity after thousands of years of wandering and suffering.

  Chaim Weizmann

  Opportunity, Israel, Years

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• There is no doubt that the time to act is now. It is now that timely action can avert disaster. It is now that with foresight and will such action can be taken without disturbing the essence of our way of life, by adjusting behaviour not altering it entirely.

  Tony Blair

  Taken, Essence, Doubt

  Tony Blair's Speech on the Environment and the 'Urgent Issue' of Climate Change, www.theguardian.com. September 15, 2004.

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• The best security against revolution is in constant correction of abuses and the introduction of needed improvements. It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.

  Richard Whately

  Abuse, Rebuilding, Revolution

  Richard Whately (1856). “Thoughts and Apophthegms: From the Writings of Archbishop Whateley”, p.71

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• The first is that good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level of your toolbox with the right instruments. The second is that while it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one

  Stephen King

  Hard Work, Writing, Dedication

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• If the awareness of our limitations begins to limit or to dim our value consciousness as well—as happens, for instance, in old age with regard to the values of youth—then we have already started the movement of devaluation which will end with the defamation of the world and all its values. Only a timely act of resignation can deliver us from this tendency toward self-delusion.

  Max Scheler

  Self, Age, Movement

  Max Scheler, Harold J. Bershady (1992). “On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing: Selected Writings”, p.126, University of Chicago Press

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• I do not wish to give the order full force without giving timely warning but I am a Widow’s Son, outlawed and my orders must be obeyed.

  Ned Kelly

  Son, Order, Giving

  Jerilderie Letter, www.nma.gov.au. 1879.

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• The practical success of an idea, irrespective of its inherent merit, is dependent on the attitude of the contemporaries. If timely it is quickly adopted; if not, it is apt to fare like a sprout lured out of the ground by warm sunshine, only to be injured and retarded in its growth by the succeeding frost.

  Nikola Tesla

  Attitude, Sunshine, Ideas

  Nikola Tesla (2013). “The Nikola Tesla Treasury”, p.564, Simon and Schuster

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• James Russell offers a timely and compelling blueprint for a realistic transformation of America's energy consumption by refusing to fall victim to conventional thinking. Accessible?pragmatic even?Russell's proposals speak to goals on the immediate horizon and underscore the role that intelligent design can play now in America. On a longer horizon, his analysis points to a range of issues about land use, transportation, and coordination of public and private investments to which the design professions have an enormous contribution to make. Here design and policy find common ground.

  Barry Bergdoll

  Fall, Thinking, Intelligent

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• I was deeply moved by Richard Blanco's reading of his inaugural poem-a timely and elegant tribute to the great diversity of American experience. And now comes this fine meditation on his experience of coming to poetry, of making the poem and the months surrounding its making-a testament to the strength and significance of poetry in American culture, something not always seen or easily measured. Today Is For All of Us, One Today is a necessary intervention into the ongoing conversation about the role of poetry in public life.

  Natasha Trethewey

  Reading, Diversity, Meditation

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• Avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, we should remember also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it

  George Washington

  Debt, Remember, Danger

  George Washington, Andrew Jackson (1862). “Washington's Farewell Address: The Proclamation of Jackson Against Nullification, and the Declaration of Independence”, p.9

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