“Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes,” Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes claimed.
And while it’s certainly true that it can be easy for some to fall into bad habits or get caught up in unproductive thinking when we’re idle, for entrepreneurs, digital nomads and businesspeople, being busy seems like a way of life. There’s always something to do, somewhere to go, people to see. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t take some time to reflect on the wisdom of those who have come before us.
Here are some of our favorite busyness quotes from inspiring entrepreneurs, artists, explorers and philosophers.
Busyness Quotes
Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
Socrates
A bee is never as busy as it seems; it’s just that it can’t buzz any slower.
Kin Hubbard
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
John Lennon
‘Crazy-busy’ is a great armor, it’s a great way for numbing. What a lot of us do is that we stay so busy, and so out in front of our life, that the truth of how we’re feeling and what we really need can’t catch up with us.
Brene Brown
So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things.
Morrie Schwartz
It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
Henry David Thoreau
If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
Dale Carnegie
In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.
Lee Iacocca
Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we’re too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.
Steven Spielberg
Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.
Thomas A. Edison
Get busy living, or get busy dying.
Stephen King
Some people are so busy learning the tricks of the trade that they never learn the trade.
Vernon Law
Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
In the choice between changing ones mind and proving there’s no need to do so, most people get busy on the proof.
John Kenneth Galbraith
A productive employee who is kept busy working at his or her job is far more likely to be happy at that job and less likely to look for employment elsewhere.
Zig Ziglar
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
Søren Kierkegaard
While I am busy with little things, I am not required to do greater things.
Saint Francis de Sales
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thoreau
One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.
Lucille Ball
Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
Jane Austen
Being busy is a form of laziness — lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.
Tim Ferriss
When you start so young working, you build a hunger for acting, working, and a busy life.
Bonnie Wright
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
Dale Carnegie
There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.
Dag Hammarskjold
Leisure of itself gives pleasure and happiness and enjoyment of life, which are experienced, not by the busy man, but by those who have leisure.
Aristotle
When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.
Theodore Roosevelt
For everybody in their busy lives, you need to invest in sharpening your tools, and you need to invest in longevity.
Ryan Holmes
He not busy being born is busy dying.
Bob Dylan
You will become impressive the day you stop trying. You will become successful the day you stop being busy.
Maxime Lagacé
What fools call ‘wasting time’ is most often the best investment.
Nassim Taleb
Being busy is one thing however productivity is the real gem.
Hopal Green
Be a busy person. People who are active are often much more at peace with themselves than those who are inactive and inert.
Wayne Dyer
A man has always to be busy with his thoughts if anything is to be accomplished.
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
I love to keep busy. The challenge of fitting all of my activities into each day is my motivation.
Sarah Kochik
To me, ‘busy’ implies that the person is out of control of their life.
Derek Sivers
Busy is a choice. Stress is a choice. Joy is a choice. Choose well.
Ann Voskamp
We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind.
Stephen Covey
he business of living can steal away the wonder of life.
M.J. Rose
So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be.
Alfred Tennyson
Don’t mistake movement for achievement. It’s easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is: Busy doing what?
Jim Rohn
Seek not to know what must not be reveal, for joy only flows where fate is most concealed. A busy person would find their sorrows much more; if future fortunes were known before!
John Dryden
We are so busy that the truth about our lives can’t catch up.
Brena Brown
Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing
Thomas A. Edison
I try to keep it real. I don’t have time to worry about what I’m projecting to the world. I’m just busy being myself.
Demi Lovato
Friendship requires more time than poor busy men can usually command.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others.
H. Jackson Brown Jr
Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference.
Tim Ferriss
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
John Lennon
If you want to get something done, give it to a busy man.
Stephen Covey
The busy man has few idle visitors; to the boiling pot the flies come not.
Benjamin Franklin
Just because we’re busy doesn’t mean we’re being productive. Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination.
Gretchen Rubin
There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living; there is nothing harder to learn.
Seneca
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.
Albert Einstein
So many books, so little time.
Frank Zappa
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
Mae West
It is only when there is no goal and no rush that the human senses are fully open to receive the world.
Alan Watts
Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started.
David Allen
Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.
Mark Twain
Busyness is an illness of the spirit.
Eugene Peterson
Take a deep breath. Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is important this very second.
Greg McKeown
It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
Lewis Carroll
A Final Word
There you have it – a little bit of wisdom from some very accomplished folks. Do any of these quotes resonate with you? Are you feeling motivated to declutter your life and get rid of the things that are keeping you from moving forward?
What other busyness quotes would you add to the list? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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