“The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you are finished.”

Variant: The problem with doing nothing is that you never know when you're finished.

Last update Nov. 2, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you are finished." by Nelson DeMille?
Nelson DeMille photo
Nelson DeMille 9
American writer 1943

Related quotes

Ben Gibbard photo
Bram van Velde photo

“The greatest moment is when you realize that the painting you've just finished is nothing. When you manage to detach yourself from it.”

Bram van Velde (1895–1981) Dutch painter

1970's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1970 - 1972)

W. H. Auden photo

“A craftsman knows in advance what the finished result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he has finished it.”

"A Poet of the Actual", p. 265
Forewords and Afterwords (1973)
Context: A craftsman knows in advance what the finished result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he has finished it. But it is unbecoming in an artist to talk about inspiration; that is the reader's business.

Emil M. Cioran photo

“When you know that every problem is only a false problem, you are dangerously close to salvation.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

The New Gods (1969)

Dave Eggers photo
Elizabeth Kostova photo
Adlai Stevenson photo

“Do you remember that in classical times when Cicero had finished speaking, the people said, "How well he spoke"; but when Demosthenes had finished speaking, they said, "Let us march."”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

Introducing John F. Kennedy in 1960, as quoted in Adlai Stevenson and The World: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson‎ (1977) by John Bartlow Martin, p. 549

Related topics