Unproductive Quotes

If you want to understand the nature of something, to find out the truth, that is one thing. If you want to play semantics, make up wild thought 'experiments', that is another thing. I am not so interested in the latter, though I do appreciate that it can be fun, however unproductive.

Patricia Churchland

Fun, Play, Appreciate

"Causal machines". Interview with Richard Marshall, www.3ammagazine.com. April 10, 2012.

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Man is by nature restless. When left too long in one place he will inevitably grow bored, unmotivated, and unproductive.

Ricardo Semler

Men, Long, Bored

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If my life is fruitless, it doesn't matter who praises me, and if my life is fruitful, it doesn't matter who criticizes me.

John Bunyan

Life, Criticism, Matter

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When you know something or someone in your life is unhealthy or unproductive, that you have grown beyond where they are and where they want to keep you, you must let go. If you tell yourself you do not see it when you do, or if you tell yourself it will get better, you are not being honest with yourself. Stop trying to fix things or change things. Simply let go.

Iyanla Vanzant

Letting Go, Trying, Get Better

FaceBook post by Iyanla Vanzant from Nov 22, 2015

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We were meant to grow. When we don't grow, we seek diversions--some harmless (if unproductive), others destructive--to fill the emptiness.

Jim Clemmer

Growth, Emptiness, Grows

Jim Clemmer (1999). “Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success”, p.15, Jim Clemmer

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When we set goals, we are in command. Clearly understood goals bring our lives into focus just as a magnifying glass focuses a beam of light into a burning point. Without goals our efforts may be scattered and unproductive

Ezra Taft Benson

Dream, Glasses, Light

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The prospects are dim for a society that makes mascots out of the unproductive and condemns the productive.

Walter E. Williams

Mascots, Prospects, Productive

Walter E. Williams (2015). “American Contempt for Liberty”, p.358, Hoover Institution Press

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Politics is the conspiracy of the unproductive but organized against the productive but unorganized.

Joseph Sobran

Organization, Political, Politics

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Unproductive worry - like Parkinson's proverbial law - tends to expand to fill the time available.

Neal A. Maxwell

Time, Law, Worry

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In any walk of life, a positive, upbeat outlook trumps any adversarial act. Revenge is counterproductive. Unproductive emotions limit one's ability to move forward, to focus, to think positively, to act creatively.

Jon Huntsman, Jr.

Revenge, Kindness, Moving

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If my boss knew how unproductive I am on Fridays, he wouldn't want me here either.

James Johnson

Friday, Boss, Want

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Psychologically I should say that a person becomes an adult at the point when he produces more than he consumes or earns more than he spends. This may be at the age of eighteen, twenty-five, or thirty-five. Some people remain unproductive and dependent children forever and therefore intellectually and emotionally immature.

Henry C. Link

Children, People, Forever

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Human nature demands recognition. Without it, people lose their sense of purpose and become dissatisfied, restless, and unproductive.

Ricardo Semler

People, Purpose, Demand

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[T]hroughout the ages to be educated meant to be unproductive.... our word "school" - and its equivalent in all European languages - derives from a Greek word meaning "leisure.

Peter Drucker

School, Greek, Age

Peter F. Drucker (2011). “Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New”, p.115, Transaction Publishers

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Worry is just imagination used in an unproductive way.

Andy Andrews

Imagination, Worry, Way

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No slave system has ever been able to continue to function on the slaves provided by its own biological reproduction because the rate of human reproduction is too slow and the expense from infant mortality and years of unproductive upkeep of the young make this prohibitively expensive. This relationship is one of the basic causes of the American Civil War, and was even more significant in destroying ancient Rome.

Carroll Quigley

War, Years, Rome

Carroll Quigley (1979). “The evolution of civilizations: an introduction to historical analysis”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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How you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life. Focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days - which inevitably create a successful life - in the same way that unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre mornings generate unfocused, unproductive, and mediocre days, and ultimately a mediocre quality of life. By simply changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life, faster than you ever thought possible.

Hal Elrod

Morning, Successful, Quality

"The Miracle Morning: The 6 Habits That Will Transform Your Life Before 8AM". Book by Hal Elrod, December 7, 2012.

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My counsel is, to force nothing, and rather to trifle and sleep away all unproductive days and hours, than on such days to compose something that will afterwards give no pleasure.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Writing, Sleep, Giving

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Straightway is a power word. Straightway is an action word. It means immediately, without delay or hesitation. It means at once. Also, it is associated with having no curve or turn-a straight course, track, or path. Procrastination would be the very opposite of straightway. To procrastinate is to put off intentionally and habitually something that should be done. Procrastination is unproductive delay.

Marvin J. Ashton

Procrastination, Mean, Curves

Marvin J. Ashton (1987). “Be of Good Cheer”, Deseret Book Co

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Today when the public thinks of the products of science it is likely to think about environmental problems, an unproductive armament industry, careless or dishonest 'scientific' reports, Livermore cheers for 'nukes forever' and a huge amount of self-serving noise on every subject from global warming to 'the face of God'.

Leo Kadanoff

Cheer, Science, Thinking

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As work weeks get longer and leisure time shrinks, people are becoming sicker, more distracted, absent, unproductive, and less innovative.

Brigid Schulte

People, Leisure, Becoming

Brigid Schulte (2014). “Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time”, p.32, Macmillan

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The young knowledge worker whose job is too small to challenge and test his abilities either leaves or declines rapidly into premature middle age, soured, cynical, unproductive.

Peter Drucker

Jobs, Cynical, Challenges

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The received image of a writer is that of an unproductive sensitive who suffers from the vapors, is enslaved by his gonads, falls victim to romantic swoons and passes out at deadlines.

George V. Higgins

Fall, Suffering, Vapor

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Though the man-apes often fought and wrestled one another, their disputes very seldom resulted in serious injuries. Having no claws or fighting canine teeth, and being well protected by hair, they could not inflict much harm on one another. In any event, they had little surplus energy for such unproductive behavior; snarling and threatening was a much more efficient way of asserting their points of view.

Arthur C. Clarke

Fighting, Men, Hair

Arthur C. Clarke (2012). “2001: A Space Odyssey”, p.24, RosettaBooks

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Managers’ typical response to my argument about free time is, ‘That’s all well and good, but there are things I have to do.’ Yet we waste so much time in unproductive activity—it takes an enormous effort on the part of the leader to keep free time for the truly important things.

Dov Frohman

Effort, Leader, Important

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