“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.”

“We build our personalities laboriously and through many years, and we cannot order fundamental changes just because we might value their utility; no button reading “positive attitude” protrudes from our hearts, and no finger can coerce positivity into immediate action by a single and painless pressing.”

Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American evolutionary biologist

“613. An Hour may destroy what an Age was a building.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

“Then say–how come the years to seem so swift,
The days, the days so slow?”

Jan Struther (1901–1953) British writer

“In the study of history, slowness is an advantage. The scholar decelerates the fast-moving events of past days until his mind can fathom them. Then… he can demonstrate to the rashest king how he should have acted in battle.”

Sten Nadolny book The Discovery of Slowness

“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime…”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

“Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

“Precision of communication is important, more important than ever, in our era of hair trigger balances, when a false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

“We can see objects without the medium of the senses and discern relations spontaneously without building them up laboriously. In other words, we can discern every kind of reality directly.”

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) Indian philosopher and statesman who was the first Vice President and the second President of India

“I meet people who tell me things like, ‘I read your book in two days’. Please don’t do that. These things take me years to write. Slow down. Everything you read, slow down. Reading is our great act of resistance in this age of speed and carelessness.”

Philip Ó Ceallaigh (1968) Irish writer