Quotes about wasting
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“My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That's heaven. That's gold and anything else is just a waste of time.”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Time, Perfection

“They have terrified my poor wife and threatened my very person!"
Halt eyed the man impassivley until the outburst was finished.
Worse than that," he said quietly, "they've wasted my time.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Icebound Land

Time, Personality

“My joy grows with every soul that seeks the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Remember, you have one life. That’s all. You were made for
God. Don’t waste it.”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Source: Don't Waste Your Life

Life, God, Soul, Joy

“It's going to give you nightmares for the rest of your wasted life."
Oh, my God, I was so badass. It was all I could do not to give a”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Life, God

“Workaholics don't actually accomplish more than nonworkaholics. They may claim to be perfectionists, but that just mean they're wasting time fixating on inconsequential details instead of moving on to the next task.”

David Heinemeier Hansson (1979) programmer, racing driver, creator of Ruby of Rails, 2012-2016 World Endurance Championship driver

Source: Rework

Time

“You are wasting time by suffering twice. I mention this only to show how many things the mind cannot will itself to do, even if it wants to.”

Elizabeth Strout (1956) American writer

Source: My Name is Lucy Barton

Suffering, Time

“The wastes of snow on the hill were ghostly in the moonlight. The stars were piercingly bright.”

Maud Hart Lovelace book Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown

Source: Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown

Star

“Dear Depression, please keep your distance. Don’t be nasty. Find some other person with more reason than me to look in the mirror and say: “What a pointless existence.” Whether you like it or not, I know how to defeat you. You’re wasting your time.”

Paulo Coelho book Adultery

Source: Adultery

Time, Personality

“[No] matter what a waste one has made of one's life, it is ever possible to find some path to redemption, however partial.”

Charles Frazier book Cold Mountain

Source: Cold Mountain

Life

“Waste not want not. I am not being wasted. Why do I want?”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“It's hard to get along with people. As much as you try to like them and accept them as individuals, it becomes difficult because they keep getting out of line and wasting your time.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

People, Time

“Perhaps this is how you know you're doing the thing you're intended to: No matter how slow or how slight your progress, you never feel that it's a waste of time.”

Curtis Sittenfeld (1975) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Man of My Dreams

Feeling, Time

“[Chess] is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

1900s
Source: The Irrational Knot (1905)

People, Time

“I think about you more and more, but I don't waste my time - or yours - thinking about who you were before I knew you.”

John Irving book The Cider House Rules

Source: The Cider House Rules

Thinking, Time

“Out of love,
No regrets--
Though the goodness
Be wasted forever.

Out of love,
No regrets--
Though the return
Be never.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

Source: Selected Poems

Love

“The sad ones are those who waste their energy in trying to hold it back, for they can only feel bitterness in loss and no joy in gain.”

John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Sadness, Feeling, Loss, Joy

“If we do not live where we work and when we work we are wasting our lives and our work too.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture

“And I would do it again. I love you, Jace Wayland-Herondale-Lightwood-whatever you want to call yourself. I don't care. I love you and I will always love you, and pretending it could be any other ways is just a waste of time.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Love, Way, Time

“The NET is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it.”

William Gibson (1948) American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder of the cyberpunk subgenre

Name of an article http://www.voidspace.org.uk/cyberpunk/gibson_wasteoftime.shtml he wrote for New York Times Magazine (14 July 1996)

Time

“Isn´t it strange how wealth is always wasted on the rich?”

Bill Bryson book Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

Source: Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

Wealth

“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. Don’t waste your pain; use it to help others.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Pain, Help

“Whereas she wished more of the population were better educated, she also believed that education was largely wasted on the majority of the people she met.”

John Irving book A Widow for One Year

Source: A Widow for One Year

People, Education

“Huge organizations and me don't get along. They're too inflexible, waste too much time, and have too many stupid people.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

People, Stupidity, Time

“Adrian gave me a look that said I was wasting his time. "Because Jet sounds badass.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Time

“Remember; no matter how desperate the situation seems, time spent
thinking clearly is never time wasted.”

Max Brooks book The Zombie Survival Guide

Source: The Zombie Survival Guide

Thinking, Time

“Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Love, Time, Powerful

“The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit with out speaking. This is the great paradox.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

People, Silence, Drawing

“The tragedy is not to die, but to be wasted.”

Thomas Harris book Hannibal

Source: Hannibal

“When ours are interrupted, his are not. His plans are proceeding exactly as scheduled, moving us always (including those minutes or hours or years which seem most useless or wasted or unendurable).”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Source: Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

“Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Question, Time

“Mr. Sagunuma: We can never escape who we are. Instead of wasting time worrying about it, why don't you cut to he chase and love yourself?”

Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist

Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 4

Love, Time

“The importance of our connection, what it meant to find each other again, the way it made what happened to us and between us not be a waste, not be for nothing. He would know, he had to know, that not saying good-bye would be the worst end of all.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

Way

“It is a waste, for silence is pure.
Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are
comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great
paradox.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

People, Silence, Drawing

“To complain that man measures God by his own experience is a waste of time; man measures everything by his own experience; he has no other yardstick.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book The Mind of the Maker

Source: The Mind of the Maker

God, Time

“Every moment waited is a moment wasted….”

David Deida (1958) American writer

Source: The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire

Waiting

“Death is not a tragedy to the one who dies; to have wasted the life before that death, that is the tragedy.”

Orson Scott Card book Shadow of the Hegemon

Source: Shadow of the Hegemon

Life, Death

“Talent is more erotic when it's wasted.”

Don DeLillo book Cosmopolis

Source: Cosmopolis

“Have you been playing in toxic waste lately?”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Witch & Wizard

“Failed relationships can be described as so much wasted make-up.”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Source: Watermelon

“All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, it will not change you.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Change, Time

“Look, Sage. I don't know much about chemistry or computer hacking or photosynthery, but this is something I've got a lot of experience with." I think he mean photosynthesis, but I didn't correct him. "Use my knowledge. Don't let it go to waste.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Knowledge, Thinking

“I'll never waste my dreams by falling asleep. Never again.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

Source: Man With Bags

Dreams

“A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Source: The Books in My Life

Books, Lying

“Only half a page left now. Shall I fill it with 'I love you, I love you'-- like father's page of cats on the mat? No. Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper.”

Dodie Smith (1896–1990) English novelist and playwright

Love, Cats, Heart

“I have gone into the waste lonely places
Behind the eye.”

Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) American poet

"Meditations of an Old Woman: First Meditation," ll. 76-77
Words for the Wind (1958)

“She would not shed a tear, she would not waste the rest of her years simmering in the maggot broth of memory.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Tear, Memory

“The average american spends six months of his or her life waiting for red lights to turn green. six months wasted, waiting for permission to move on.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Life, Light, Waiting

“She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Men, Smile, Time

“Don't spend your precious time asking "Why isn't the world a better place?" It will only be time wasted. The question to ask is "How can I make it better?" To that there is an answer.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

World, Question, Time

“Worry is a waste of emotional reserve".”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands,' he answered. 'Kiss me again; and don’t let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer—but yours! How can I?”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Source: Wuthering Heights

Love, Feeling, Forgiveness, Kiss

“Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of human toil. To dissipate it in waste and extravagance is disloyalty to humanity.”

Calvin Coolidge book The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

Source: The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

Wealth

“He slowed down a bit more. "Gaia, how do you know these things?" She shrugged. "I'm smart." "And modest, too." "Modesty is a waste of time," she pronounced. "I'll keep that in mind.”

Francine Pascal Fearless

Source: Fearless

Time

“Unless you can change the past, you’re wasting the present on this guilt”

Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Change, Past

“Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Success
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870)

Beauty

“What an absurd amount of energy I have been wasting all my life trying to find out how things 'really are', when all the time they weren't.”

Hugh Prather (1938–2010) American writer

Source: Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person

Life, Time

“You know, I would date if I could find a man worth shaving my legs for. But most are such a waste of time that I’d rather sit at home and watch reruns of Hee Haw.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Fantasy Lover

Source: Fantasy Lover

Home, Time

“The preface? Why would he waste time with the preface? Skip the preface and move on to the meat of the thing!”

Kenneth Oppel (1967) Canadian children's writer

Source: This Dark Endeavor

Time

“If I gave my mother a knitted scarf she'd be worried I was wasting my time doing stupid stuff like knitting instead of school work. Presenting a homemade knitted object to my parents was actually like handing them a detailed backlog of my idleness.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Stupidity, School, Parent, Time

“I will not waste time on second thoughts. My life will not be an apology. It will be a statement.”

Andy Andrews (1959) author and corporate speaker

Source: The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success

Life, Time

“they say that
nothing is wasted:
either that
or
it al is”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“Iggy nodded. “I’m bummed we couldn’t use Big Boy,” he said. “But I don’t want to waste it. We have to actually see them first. I mean, you do.”
“Maybe tomorrow,” the Gasman said encouragingly. “We’ll go see what havoc we’ve wreaked.”
“Wrought.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Boy

“Creativity is the residue of time wasted.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Time

“Life is fleeting. Don't waste a single moment of your precious life. Wake up now! And now! And now!”

Ruth Ozeki book A Tale for the Time Being

Source: A Tale for the Time Being

Life

“The world is full of ways and means to waste time.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

World, Way, Time

“With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.”

William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) American journalist

Vol. I, p. 188
William Lloyd Garrison 1805-1879 (1885)

Men

“Let us save what remains: not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident.”

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

Letter to a Mr. Hazard (18 February 1791) published in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1853), Vol. 2, edited by Henry Augustine Washington, p. 211
1790s
Context: I learn with great satisfaction that you are about committing to the press the valuable historical and State papers you have been so long collecting. Time and accident are committing daily havoc on the originals deposited in our public offices. The late war has done the work of centuries in this business. The last cannot be recovered, but let us save what remains; not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident.

Time

“It is a brave and stupid thing, a beautiful thing, to waste one's life for love.”

Andrew Sean Greer book The Confessions of Max Tivoli

Source: The Confessions of Max Tivoli

Love, Life, Stupidity, Beauty

“Fang: "Have you guys been playing in the toxic waste again? Been bitten by a radioactive spider? Struck by lightning? Drink a super-soldier serum?”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Final Warning

Guy, Drink

“I am afraid of falling into hopeless despair, over my wasted life, and I am still not sure how it happened.”

Margaret Atwood book Alias Grace

Source: Alias Grace

Life, Despair

“A day without laughter is a day wasted.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Widely attributed to Chaplin and a few others, research done for "A Day Without Laughter is a Day Wasted" at Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/07/16/laughter-day/ indicate that such expressions date back to that of Nicolas Chamfort, published in "Historique, Politique et Litteraire, Maximes détachées extraites des manuscrits de Champfort" Mercure Français (18 July 1795), p. 351 http://books.google.com/books?id=N3tBAAAAcAAJ&q=%22pas+ri%22#v=snippet&q=%22pas%20ri%22&f=false: La plus perdue de toutes les journées est celle où l’on n’a pas ri. Translations of this into English have been found as early as one in "Laughing" in Flowers of Literature (1803) by F. Prevost and F. Blagdon : : I admire the man who exclaimed, “I have lost a day!” because he had neglected to do any good in the course of it; but another has observed that “the most lost of all days, is that in which we have not laughed;” and, I must confess, that I feel myself greatly of his opinion. Misattributed

Laughter, Funny, Good Morning

“Time is given us to be happy and for no other reason […] When we waste time, we waste happiness.”

L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) Children's writer, editor, journalist, screenwriter

Happiness, Time

“I know what it's like to squander all your hours and all your tears and all your heart on something which turns out to be nothing. Don't waste your time.”

Sophie Kinsella book Twenties Girl

Source: Twenties Girl

Tear, Time, Heart

“Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.”

Barbara De Angelis (1951) American psychologist

Love, Relationship, love

“We told him to get on with it. We liked wasting time, but almost nothing was more annoying than having our wasted time wasted on something not worth wasting it on.”

Joshua Ferris (1974) American author

Time

“… from what he knew about the Creatures of the Dark they wouldn't waste their time laying elaborate traps. They'd just eat someone.”

Mercedes Lackey book The Phoenix Unchained

Source: The Phoenix Unchained

Time

“If they tell you that she died of sleeping pills you must know that she died of a wasting grief, of a slow bleeding at the soul.”

Clifford Odets (1906–1963) Playwright, screenwriter, director, actor

Soul, Sleep, Depressing

“We seem to be trapped in an episode of One Life to Waste. It's all very dull.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Magnus to Alec, pg. 144
Variant: What’s going on?”
“We seem to be trapped in an episode of,” Magnus observed. “Its all very dull.”
-Alec & Magnus, pg.144-
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)

Life

“The girl is infectious human waste, and she's confused and afraid to commit to the wrong thing and so she won't commit to anything.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Girl

“Do you remember the things you were worrying about a year ago? How did they work out? Didn't you waste a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them? Didn't most of them turn out all right after all?”

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer

“Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.”

Katherine Mansfield book Je ne parle pas français

"Je ne parle pas français," http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/mansfield/bliss/bliss.html#francais from Bliss and Other Stories (1920) Variant: I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, and no one who intends to become a writer can afford to indulge in it. Context: I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, and no one who intends to become a writer can afford to indulge in it. You can't get it into shape; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.

Life

“Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all.”

Og Mandino (1923–1996) American author

Falseness

“The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)
Variant: "No life is a waste," the Blue Man said. "The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone."
Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Meniti Bianglala

Thinking, Time

“It's bad enough wasting time without killing it.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

Time

“Each person is only given so many evenings and each wasted evening is a gross violation against the natural course of your only life.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Life, Nature, Personality