Quotes about wasting
page 3

“We live in a world where our social system is old, our language is old, the way we acquire goods and services is outdated, our cities are detrimental to our health, chaotic and a tremendous waste of resource, and most of all our politics and values no longer serve us.”

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

Health, World, Way

“Up till now Muslims have tended to attribute their problems to prejudice and discrimination and to waste the better part of their time and energy in railing against offenders who often exist only in their own imaginations. What I have to say is simply that it is high time they changed their way of thinking and devoted themselves whole-heartedly to the processes of self-reconstruction.”

Wahiduddin Khan (1925) Islamic Scholar

quoted in Arun Shourie - The World of Fatwas Or The Sharia in Action (2012, Harper Collins)

Way, Imagination, Problem, Thinking

“India and Pakistan, where people starve in the streets, waste billions on military spending because of the Kashmir dispute. Now some of India’s extreme Hindu nationalists warn they want to reabsorb Pakistan, Bangladesh, and even Sri Lanka into Mother India. Previous Indian leaders have been cautious. But not PM Modi. He is showing signs of power intoxication.”

Eric Margolis (journalist) (1942) American journalist

Hair-Trigger Nuclear Alert Over Kashmir, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/11/hair-trigger-nuclear-alert-over-kashmir (11 August 2019)

People

“Every minute of our life must be lived to the full – whether enjoyed or suffered. We must study, see the good around us, and fight the bad, and not waste time writing to a 90-year-old woman to tell her you wish she’d die. Besides, nature will take care of that.”

Liliana Segre (1930) Italian Holocaust survivor and senator for life

During a seminar at Milan’s IULM University, speaking of the haters; as quoted in "Escort for Liliana Segre following insults and threats" https://www.corriere.it/english/19_novembre_07/escort-for-liliana-segre-following-insults-and-threats-2c3dea64-015f-11ea-bfaf-9602a8f3f6c1.shtml, Corriere.it (7 November 2019).

Life, Bad luck, Nature, Study

“To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Seventh State of the Union (3 December 1907)
1900s

Children, Nature

“This Five Year Plan had been drawn up after the most careful thought and investigation. The whole country had been surveyed by scientists and engineers, and numerous experts had discussed the problem of fitting in one part of the programme into another. For, the real difficulty came in this fitting in… But Russia had one great advantage over the capitalist countries. Under capitalism all these activities are left to individual initiative and chance, and owing to competition there is waste of effort. There is no co-ordination between different producers or different sets of workers, except the chance co-ordination which arises in the buyers and sellers coming to the same market… The Soviet Government had the advantage of controlling all the different industries and activities in the whole Union, and so it could draw up and try to work a single co-ordinated plan in which every activity found its proper place. There would be no waste in this, except such waste as might come from errors of calculation or working, and even such errors could be rectified far sooner with a unified control than otherwise.”

Jawaharlal Nehru book Glimpses of World History

Glimpses of World History (1949)

Error, Problem, Effort, Chance

“Knowledge without action is wastefulness and action without knowledge is foolishness.”

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic

Knowledge

“Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land. … Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left. That is to say, you cannot love game and hate predators; you cannot conserve the waters and waste the ranges; you cannot build the forest and mine the farm. The land is one organism.”

Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) American writer and scientist

"Conservation" (c. 1938); Published in Round River, Luna B. Leopold (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1966, p. 145-146.
1930s

Love, Men, Hate, Making love

“We are the world’s Pariah not because we do not have the courage to resist, but rather because out entire national energy is wasted in eternal and unproductive squabbling between the right and the left.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

1930s, Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (1932)

World, Courage

“All we are doing is looking at the time line, from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing the time line by reducing the non-value adding wastes.”

Taiichi Ohno (1912–1990) Japanese businessman and engineer

Time

“Once plants and animals were raised together on the same farm — which therefore neither produced unmanageable surpluses of manure, to be wasted and to pollute the water supply, nor depended on such quantities of commercial fertilizer. The genius of America farm experts is very well demonstrated here: they can take a solution and divide it neatly into two problems.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

The Unsettling of America : Culture & Agriculture (1996), p. 62

Problem, Water, Animals, Dependency

“Who, pray, are benefiting by all this waste and confusion? The dew, a mere small percentage of the population of the world. All the remainder submit, because they think "it always has been so and it must always be so."”

Lucy Parsons (1853–1942) American communist anarchist labor organizer

The work of those who have a conception of a true society of the future, must devote all their efforts towards disabusing the people's minds of the ancient false hoods. It can be done. Many other hoary lies have passed away, so will this one, too.

"Property Rights vs. Human Rights" (Nov. 1905)

World, Thinking

“If you attended (a study session) strictly adopt three attitudes; there is no fourth. First: You can lock yourself in the silence of ignorance. Second: If you do not behave as such, ask for the questions a man seeking to learn asks…. This man will ask only about what he does not know, not about what he knows. Asking about matters one knows is making proof of ineptitude; this is only ranting, waste of time for everyone…. If the person you are questioning does not give satisfactory answers, stop questioning… Third: You can answer like a scientist, refuting clearly the other’s arguments. If you are not capable of that, do not insist….””

Ibn Hazm (994–1064) Arab theologian

ibid, 114-5

Making love, Question, Study, Silence

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry book The Little Prince

Source: The Little Prince, Chapter 21

Making love, Time

“I was waiting for something extraordinary to happen but as the years wasted on nothing ever did unless I caused it.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“If time is all I have,
I'll waste it all on you.”

James Blunt (1974) English singer-songwriter

"If Time Is All I Have", written by James Bluint and Eg White
Song lyrics, Some Kind of Trouble (2010)

Time

“Don't waste the Earth - It is our Jewel!”

Buzz Aldrin (1930) American astronaut

Buzz Aldrin, 2012, quote from interview video at 1:28, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=E3W7eVkWSs4

“Grant us the single heart once more
That mocks no sacred thing,
The Sword of Truth our fathers wore
When Thou wast Lord and King. Let darkness unto darkness tell
Our deep unspoken prayer;
For, while our souls in darkness dwell,
We know that Thou art there.”

Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet

Dedication, later published as "A Prayer in Time of War"
A Belgian Christmas Eve (1915)

Truth, Art, Soul, Heart

“Life is short. Grudges are a waste of energy.
You are taking away from your own happiness. Apologize when you should and let go of what you can’t change.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Life, Happiness, Change

“It's a waste of time to try to reason with a doltish fool.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Fools, Time

“I'm not loving you, way I wanted to
I can't keep my cool, so I keep it true
I got something to lose, so I gotta move
I can't keep myself and still keep you too No more wasting time, you can't wait for life
We're just racing time, where's the finish line?”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Love Lockdown
Lyrics, 808s & Heartbreak (2008)

Love, Life, Way, Time

“If our youths can try to dedicate more time for fruitful things, it will block spirit of goallessness. Wasting time replying and reposting useless things help kill potentials. It is better to sleep than to stay awake to use your consciousness to kill your potential.”

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach (1995)

Youth, Sleep, Time, Help

“I realized that life is so short: Why waste one minute of it worrying what other people think or say about you, or what score you got on some test? Why not believe what you want to believe, and do what you love?”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Love, Life, People, Thinking

“He was alone. He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight.”

James Joyce book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Source: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Life, Happiness, Water, Heart

“There are no secrets to success: don’t waste time looking for them. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence.”

Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general

Secret, Failure, Learning, Time

“Do not dash if you only have the strength to walk, and do not waste your time pushing on the walls that will not give. More importantly, don't shove where a pat would be sufficient.”

Brandon Sanderson Elantris

Source: Elantris

Time

“Life is too short to waste time on books that end badly”

Jayne Ann Krentz (1948) American novelist

Source: Running Hot

Life, Books, Time

“The masses-I love em-they rush for red lights, risking everything to capture a few seconds, only to get home and waste their lives.”

Arthur Nersesian (1958) American writer

Source: Manhattan Loverboy

Love, Home, Light

“I, had an excellent instructor. One that you currently have locked up. If you want to talk about skills going to waste, then go look in your own jail.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

“I feel dead, wasted, awful, broken and useless. It's not the kind of feeling you forget.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Feeling, Dead, Forgetting

“I never did learn how to live in the moment, but I did learn that moments could be wasted and the world would continue to spin on its axis.”

Eloisa James (1962) American academic

Source: Paris in Love

World, Learning

“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

Thomas Gray (1716–1771) English poet, historian

St. 14 <br class="br"> Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751) <br class="br">Source: An Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard

Flowers

“In his youth Albert Einstein spent a year loafing aim- lessly. You don’t get anywhere by not ‘wasting’ time – something, unfortunately, which the parents of teenagers tend frequently to forget.”

Carlo Rovelli book Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Incipit
Seven Brief Lectures on Physics (2014)
Source: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Youth, Parent, Time, Forgetting

“… the only difference between a young person at the height of their exuberance and a very old person who is frail and physically wasted is time.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Time, Personality

“I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon (1966)

Life, Death

“If you don't take risks, you'll have a wasted soul.”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer

Soul

“Japan never considers time together as time wasted. Rather, it is time invested.”

Donald Richie (1924–2013) American writer

Source: A Lateral View: Essays on Culture and Style in Contemporary Japan

Time

“It is now your duty to hone that talent, because a person who wastes his God-given talents is a donkey.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Variant: God has granted you a special talent. It's now your duty to hone that talent, because a person who wastes his God-given talents is a donkey.
Source: The Kite Runner

God, Personality

“I’m so sorry that I wasted your time because you really do mean a lot to me and I hope you have a very nice life because I really think you deserve it. I really do. I hope you do, too. Okay, then. Goodbye.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Life, Hope, Thinking, Time

“They were connoisseurs of boredom. They savoured the various bouquets of the subtly differentiated boredoms which rose from the long, wasted hours at the dead end of night.”

Angela Carter (1940–1992) English novelist

Source: Burning Your Boats: Collected Short Stories

Night, Dead

“I don't think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won't be good at it.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Thinking, Time

“It is better than going on loving someone who cannot love me back. Better wasting all that feelings"
-Tessa gray”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel

Love, Feeling

“I'd have wasted a lot of time and trouble before I learned that the best way to take all people, black or white, is to take them for what they think they are, then leave them alone.”

William Faulkner book The Sound and the Fury

Source: The Sound and the Fury

People, Way, Thinking, Learning

“Don't waste the pretty”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

“No matter what you do it's bound to be a waste of time in the end so you might as well go mad.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Time, Madness

“100 years ago, buying something you could make was considered wasteful; now making something you could buy is considered wasteful. I am not convinced this is a step in the right direction.”

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (1968) Canadian writer

Source: All Wound Up: The Yarn Harlot Writes for a Spin

“Eric turned to me, kissed me on the lips very lightly, and looked at my face for a long moment. “He’ll spare you,” Eric said, and I understood he wasn’t really talking to me but to himself. “You’re too unique to waste.”
And then he opened the door.”

Charlaine Harris book From Dead to Worse

Source: From Dead to Worse

Kiss

“Why waste time learning when ignorance is instantaneous.
---Hobbes”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

15 Nov 90
Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons

Learning, Time

“Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.”

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter

Intelligence

“For women, the best aphrodisiacs are words. The G-spot is in the ears. He who looks for it below there is wasting his time.”

Isabel Allende Of Love and Shadows

Source: Of Love and Shadows

Women, Time

“It is better to lose your life than to waste it.”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Life

“Life is like a fruit basket. You can eat some of it or wast it and throw some of it out. Only you can chose on wat to do with that fruit basket.”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 23

Life

“The longer I live, the more I realize that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time!”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Pain, Time

“I hardly ever talk- words seem such a waste, and they are none of them true. No one has yet invented a language from my point of view.”

Aleister Crowley book Diary of a Drug Fiend

Source: Diary of a Drug Fiend

“Why do they not teach you that time is a finger snap and an eye blink, and that you should not allow a moment to pass you by without taking joyous, ecstatic note of it, not wasting a single moment of its swift, breakneck circuit?”

Pat Conroy (1945–2016) American novelist

Time

“I've never really understood why people sleep. Wasting a third of your life and becoming vulnerable for almost 8 hours every night. Doesn't seem very appealing to me.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Life, People, Sleep, Night

“The dull people decided years and years ago, as everyone knows, that novel-writing was the lowest species of literary exertion, and that novel reading was a dangerous luxury and an utter waste of time.”

Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) British writer

Source: My Miscellanies

People, Time, Reading

“Talking to you is like -- like talking to an eel!"

"No, is it? I've never tried to talk to an eel. Isn't it as waste of time?"

"Not such a waste of time as talking to you!”

Georgette Heyer book Black Sheep

Source: Black Sheep

Time

“Don’t waste time waiting for inspiration. Begin, and inspiration will find you.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Time, Waiting

“Do not cry for me, Azrael. Do not waste your tears. You made your decision. And this is mine. Sacrifice seems to be my destiny. A funny thing for a selfish man, isn't it? They always called me weak back then…”

Melissa de la Cruz book The Van Alen Legacy

Source: The Van Alen Legacy

Decision, Tear, Cry, Selfishness

“Not even waste/is inviolate./The day misspent,/the love misplaced,/has inside it/the seed of redemption./Nothing is exempt from resurrection.”

Kay Ryan (1945) American poet

Variant: The day misspent,
the love misplaced,
has inside it
the seed of redemption.
Nothing is exempt
from resurrection.
Source: Say Uncle

Love

“For is there any practice less selfish, any labor less alienated, any time less wasted, than preparing something delicious and nourishing for people you love?”

Michael Pollan book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation

Source: Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation

Love, People, Time, Selfishness

“You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.”

Matt Damon (1970) American actor, screenwriter, and producer

Source: Good Will Hunting

Education

“Most world religions denounced war as a barbaric waste of human life. We treasured the teachings of these religions so dearly that we frequently had to wage war in order to impose them on other people.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Life, War, People, World

“You know, he told me once, completely exasperated, you've got one glass of water inside your head, with all the tears for a lifetime. If you waste them over nothing, then you won't be able to cry for real when you need to.”

Jodi Picoult book Lone Wolf

Source: Lone Wolf

Tear, Water, Cry

“It can’t eat him. I forbid it. (Artemis)
She can do as she pleases. I taught her to waste not, want not. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

“Satan never wastes a fiery dart on an area covered in armor.”

Beth Moore (1957) American evangelist

Source: Daniel Audio CD Set: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy

“Don't waste your time with fear.. Fear won't keep you safe from being hurt.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: God-Shaped Hole

Fear, Time, Hurt

“I'll tell you this —
No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

"The Wasp (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)" on the albums L. A. Woman (1971) and An American Prayer (1978)
Variant: No heavenly power will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.

Forgiveness

“The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and the vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. Loving makes love. Loving makes itself. We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Leigh-Cheri to Bernard, in Phase III, Ch. 46.
Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)
Context: I’m not quite twenty, but, thanks to you, I’ve learned something that many women these days never learn: Prince Charming really is a toad. And the Beautiful Princess has halitosis. The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and the vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. Loving makes love. Loving makes itself. We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love. Wouldn’t that be the way to make love stay?

Love, People, Making love, Way

“I waste at least an hour every day lying in bed. Then I waste time pacing. I waste time thinking. I waste time being quiet and not saying anything because I'm afraid I'll stutter.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Lying, Thinking, Time, Sad

“Do you believe in fairy tales?"
"What… what kind of fairy tales?"
"The kind you aren't supposed to waste your life on.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Life

“I just don't want you to worry about me, or think you've met me, or waste your time anymore.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Thinking, Time

“Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted.”

John Marsden book Tomorrow, When the War Began

Source: Tomorrow, When the War Began

Time

“There is absolutely no substitute for the best. Good food cannot be made of inferior ingredients masked with high flavor. It is true thrift to use the best ingredients available and to waste nothing.”

James Beard (1903–1985) American chef

Food

“Owen meany who rarely wasted words and who had the conversation-stopping habit of dropping remarks like coins into a deep pool of water… remarks that sank, like truth, to the bottom of the pool where they would remain untouchable.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany

Truth, Water

“Time spent arguing with the faithful is, oddly enough, almost never wasted.”

Christopher Hitchens Letters to a Young Contrarian

Source: 2000s, 2001, Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001)

Faith, Time

“What a pair they were - a Mistborn who felt guilty wasting coins to jump and a nobleman who thought balls were too expensive.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Well of Ascension

“The future is just wasted on some people.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

People, Future

“Anything less than mad, passionate, extraordinary love is a waste of time. There are too many mediocre things in life to deal with and love shouldn't be one of them.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Love, Life, Passion, Time

“I didn't seem to have that effect on anyone but it would have been a waste for both of us to be saints.”

Meg Rosoff book How I Live Now

Source: How I Live Now

“If a relationship is on-and-off within the first year, that’s an immediate sign you are wasting your time.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl-A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

Time

“What being home-schooled has taught me, more than anything, is what a waste of a life high school is.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Source: House Rules

Life, School, Home

“Don't waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

People, Time, Wise, Attitude

“I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or defending.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

God, Faith, Question, Time

“The waste of intelligence. A community that finds it natural to suffocate with the care of home and children so many women’s intellectual energies is its own enemy and doesn’t realize it.” I waited in silence”

Elena Ferrante (1943) Italian writer

Source: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

Women, Children, Home, Intelligence

“We tried not to smile, for smiling only encourages men to bore you and waste your time.”

Sheila Heti book How Should a Person Be?

Source: How Should a Person Be?

Men, Smile, Time

“My head is killing me, my throat is killing me, my stomach bubbles with toxic waste. I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid if this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Sleep

“Today is the last day of some of your life. Don't waste it." quote from Tara Daniels”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: The Sweetest Thing

Life, Quotes

“Number of empty Ben & Jerry's containers: 3 -- two mint chocolate cookie, one plain vanilla. (Who buys plain vanilla ice cream from Ben & Jerry's, anyway? Is there a greater waste?)”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

“Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared. a”

George S. Clason (1874–1957) British businessman and writer

Time

“But to be quite oneself one must first waste a little time.”

Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) Irish writer

Time

“He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Life, Happiness, Water, Heart

“I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others--young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Life, Loneliness, Night

“I'm staying," Henry said, annoyed.

"Why?"

"Because, if I leave, it would be like abandoning two mentally challenged people in a nuclear waste dump.”

Lisa Lutz (1970) US author

Source: Curse of the Spellmans

People

“You’re seventeen,” Magnus said. “You can’t have wasted a life you’ve barely lived.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Life

“I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Thomas Cooper (29 November 1802)
1800s, First Presidential Administration (1801–1805)
Variant: If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.

Happiness, People, Future