Claire Messud Quotes

Sloth is most often evidenced in busyness ... in frantic running around, trying to be everything to everyone, and then having no time to listen or pray, no time to become the person who is doing these things.

I have fun when I want to have fun, but I am learning how to balance my life out.

I can't play bridge. I don't play tennis. All those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn't seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.

When you focus on life, on enjoying and connecting with other people, that's when work comes. When you focus on work, you can never work. I'm always going through waves of that.

Give yourself permission to get the most out of your life. If you're spending all your time scrubbing corners with a toothbrush, you're kind of missing the point. Taking shortcuts doesn't mean shortcutting the end result.

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.

I don't waste my time doing my head in about stupid things that don't really matter and don't waste time worrying over nothing.

We are so busy that the truth about our lives can't catch up.

The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give.

The whole thing is, do as much as you can, when you possibly can, and don't stress.

I'm learning that you have to make time for what's important. You have to fight to carve little pieces of happiness out of your life, or the everyday emergencies will eat up everything.

While the work or play is on, it is a lot of fun if while you are doing one you don't constantly feel that you ought to be doing the other.

We are speeding up our lives and working harder in a futile attempt to buy the time to slow down and enjoy it.

I've found that motherhood helps you figure out what absolutely needs to be done and what doesn't. You just learn to do everything quicker and quicker - your style and your makeup gets more refined and generally easier.

I need to recharge creatively, and get off the clock of having to be somewhere just because, and having to keep juggling all these things.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Nobody's life is ever all balanced. It's a conscious decision to choose your priorities every day.

Make treating yourself a priority and always remember your life is happening now. Don't put off all your dreams and pleasures to another day. In any balanced personal definition of success there has to be a powerful element of living life in the present.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

Having my priorities in order has really helped me look better, fresher, and more relaxed.

Make space in your life, space for health and happiness.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren't enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.

We all have a finite amount of energy and time to give, and must figure out the best way to have an impact on the things that matter to us most - and it's okay that each one of us will do it differently.

I learned early that you only have so much energy to give. You have to spend it correctly.

Free time keeps me going.