Evan Esar Quotes

Complacency is the enemy of study.

People try to hold onto the sameness. This holding onto prevents growth.

You've got to make haste while it's still light of day. My godmother used to say, I don't want to rust out, I just want to work out. If you stand still long enough, people will throw dirt on you.

Most people are fast to stop you before you get started but hesitate to get in the way if you're moving.

The reality is, some people don't want you to change or go anywhere different.

It's stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.

I've always believed that if you don't stay moving, they will throw dirt on you.

Everyone confesses that exertion which brings out all the powers of body and mind is the best thing for us; but most people do all they can to get rid of it, and as a general rule nobody does much more than circumstances drive them to do.

It's not going to be enough, until I get out of my chair and walk.

The longer you're stuck in a position that doesn't truly challenge you, the less likely you'll be able to leave it. Inertia, in fact, is one of my worst fears.

Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

When a man is no longer anxious to do better than well, he is done for.

I refuse to sit on my laurels.

Even if we had the No. 1 video on MTV, and we had money and everything else, I think we'd always have more to do. I don't ever want to wake up in the morning and say, 'What are we gonna do today?' I'm afraid of that. I don't ever want to wake up and feel like we've conquered.

In periods when everything was going really well I may have taken my foot off the pedal and got comfortable where I was at, not carrying on to the next level.

I've never been one to stay in a complacent place where I just let the grass grow around me.

The day you are content, you will stop growing.

My 'if it's not broken, don't fix it' type attitude might have held me back and made me complacent.

If a person is too 'satisfied', then he might become complacent, not work so hard to get ahead.

If you settle in life, you don't go further.

Sometimes you can make a substantial amount of money and automatically think that you've made it, that you did everything you wanted to do. Some people just stop.

People who don't want to get on with their lives, and don't want to accept responsibility for the direction of their lives want to hang out with other people who don't want to accept responsibility or move on, and so you find that your entire culture around you are people who are just like you, because that's what's comforting.

Change doesn't happen with people sitting on their behinds, getting lazy.

Sometimes, the hardest habit to break is the habit of doing nothing beyond the necessary.

It is easy to stay the same but it is not easy to change. Most people choose to stay the same all their lives.