September 20

“Little minds are in a hurry when the object proves (as it commonly does) too big for them; they run, they puzzle, confound and perplex themselves; they want to do everything at once, and never do it all. But a man of sense takes the time necessary for doing well the thing he is about; and his haste to despatch a business only appears by the continuity of his application to it; he pursues it with cool steadiness, and finishes it before he begins any other.”

Lord CHESTERFIELD

“Be methodical in your use of time. Make a scheme for its regular systematic use, even if it is often impossible to carry it out.
“Be scrupulously punctual. And make a careful use of your fragments of time. It is wonderful how much can be got through by these means. A great deal of study, or writing, or other work, can be done by a resolute will in odd quarters of hours, and very often we can get no more. Nothing is more commonly said than that if you want something done, you will have a much better chance of getting it done by a busy man than by an idle one, and this simply because the former has learnt the secret of economising his time.”

Bishop WALSHAM HOW

September 19

“You need not suppose that I am in a constant hurry of business. Although my engagements have now so much increased that I scarcely know how to get through them, yet I have accustomed myself to preserve a certain quietness of mind among them all. I take up one thing in order after another. I try to fix my whole thoughts upon the one thing that lies before me, as if I had nothing else to attend to. In this way I get on very well; what is done is done systematically; my mind remains clear, and does not feel oppressed by a multitude of claims on its attention.

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“Let the duties that lie nearest you be always the most imperative; the members of your own home-circle will always have the first claim on your affection and usefulness. I lay this down as an unalterable rule.”

A. SIEVEKING

“In God’s designs there is no haste, no rest, no weariness, no discontinuity; all things are done by Him in the majesty of silence, and they are seen under a light that shineth quietly in the darkness, ‘showing all things in the slow history of their ripening’.”

Archdeacon FARRAR

September 18

“It would be well if in the freshness of the morning hour we were to arrange our engagements, as far as possible, with a little forethought and discretion, and make up the plan of our day until bedtime. . . . This is consideration beforehand – thoughtfulness; but it is not the thoughtfulness which the Lord forbids, for it lies within the horizon of to-day. What he does forbid, and what unhappily it is very hard to check in oneself, is the previous contemplation and adjustment of difficulties which stretch into that unknown tomorrow, which belong not to the cycle of the present day.”

SEWELL

“Where persons are heavily engaged there is a certain feverish fidgetiness to take up several tasks at once, which greatly interferes with quietness and thoughtfulness of mind, and so with progress. Let the aim of such persons be to do the thing well rather than to get through it fast.”

GOULBURN