There can be economy only where there is efficiency.

I keep a hotel room in my town, although I have a large house. And I go there at about 5:30 in the morning, and I start working. And I don’t allow anybody to come in that room. I work on yellow pads and with ballpoint pens. I keep a Bible, a thesaurus, a dictionary, and a bottle of sherry. I stay there until midday.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

Working with a lot of people at the same time is a task. I really like making stuff and getting stuff done. One of the things I really liked about Facebook was that I could always move so quickly. I wrote the original application in, like, nine days at the end of January.

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.

Learn to say ‚no‘ to the good so you can say ‚yes‘ to the best.

There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time.

World War II broke out in 1939, and many people credit that war with saving the economy.

Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.

Having unlimited choices can paralyze you creatively.

Better never than late.

I’m very much into making lists and breaking things apart into categories.

Americans want students to get the best education possible. We want schools to prepare children to become good citizens and members of a prosperous American economy.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.

Like every man of sense and good feeling, I abominate work.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

If we can boondoggle ourselves out of this depression, that word is going to be enshrined in the hearts of the American people for years to come.

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.

I don’t do meetings.

I usually get up at 3 A.M. I don’t require a lot of sleep, and if I get tired, I’ll take a powernap during the day.

We Conservatives hate unemployment.

I would venture to guess that the biggest reason creative types don’t produce isn’t because they don’t have vision… or talent… in most cases, it’s a lack of discipline.

A holding company is a thing where you hand an accomplice the goods while the policeman searches you.

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.

Taxation is just a sophisticated way of demanding money with menaces.

People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.

What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.

Labor gives birth to ideas.

The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.

I can have people around a lot more because I’m not always chasing them away so I can work on my novel. My non-novel, I mean.

Most of the time, songs that I write end up being finished in 30 minutes or less.

I don’t think people are going to switch over to bikes because it’s good for them or because it’s politically correct. They’re going to do it because it gets them from A to B faster.

I like to work.

In December, I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle-class Americans. But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. We can’t afford it. And I refuse to renew them again.

You may delay, but time will not.

Energy begets energy.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

Never mistake motion for action.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency.

No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.

When I get on a roll with something, it’s really hard for me to put it down unfinished.

My task over the last two years hasn’t just been to stop the bleeding. My task has also been to try to figure out how do we address some of the structural problems in the economy that have prevented more Googles from being created.

I love being busy.

When I finish something, I want it out that day. Pop music is like the daily paper. Its got to be there then, not six months later.

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

In one way, I suppose, I have been ‚in denial‘ for some time, knowingly burning the candle at both ends and finding that it often gives a lovely light.

The simplification of anything is always sensational.

There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch.

Whatever you have, you must either use or lose.

Before the 1970s, banks were banks. They did what banks were supposed to do in a state capitalist economy: they took unused funds from your bank account, for example, and transferred them to some potentially useful purpose like helping a family buy a home or send a kid to college.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

I can’t say that my disability has helped my work, but it has allowed me to concentrate on research without having to lecture or sit on boring committees.

For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.

Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.

No matter what time it is, wake me, even if it’s in the middle of a Cabinet meeting.

One today is worth two tomorrows.