Quotes About Priorities

And a man who discovers his pants are on fire tends to have very little time to worry about somebody else's box of matches.

Go home, Sean. Go plant some flowers and mow your grass. And maybe hatch a couple more kids. You sound like Colleen. That's what she wants. It's what we all want. Some of us just don't know it yet.

He didn't want to die on Monday. It seemed common.

If you've struck gold, why go in search of brass?

solve America's health-care and pension problems overnight." "I wish Bedell spent as much time worrying about the defense of our people as he does about their health care," said Lawrence.

Don't waste your time on life.

At my age, I feel like I'm halfway to the finish line and life's too short to do what I'm sure to hate.

You know what else I haven't seen? Home stores. I've not passed the equivalent of Restoration Hardware or Crate and Barrel or Pottery Barn, so I get the feeling that no one's killing themselves working double shifts so they can consume stuff to make their homes Pinterest-perfect. Maybe the Roman message is to not let your stuff own you.

Of everything parents must worry about today, should "keeping their children's looks fresh" be at the top of the list? How about this—maybe get them vaccinated for measles before fretting about the sell-by date of their ensembles. Why don't we operate on the premise that at age six, kids don't need to establish a personal brand?

First, I'm not getting married, so you can forget the wife. Second, if I was insane enough to get married, I wouldn't have kids. Third, if I was insane enough to get married and have kids, it would be a cold day in hell I'd let you babysit.

Mason was leaving her for a fifty-four-year-old woman who didn't moisturize

Life is more than great sex and a nice car." "Well, yeah. But not a lot more.

She wondered whether they would ever not try to have it all and do it all and do all of it flawlessly. Would the day ever come when simply doing your best would be enough?" Wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, aunt, caretaker, career women: Mrs. Everything attempts to cover it all.

She'd seen it happen to her friends, fellow PhD students, some who'd published their work. Put a ring on their finger and, through some dark magic, they turned into wives and mothers, and instead of talking about Elizabethan poetry or symbolism in Shakespeare's sonnets or how the market economy had shaped post–Civil War America, it was all teething and toilet training and which towns had the most desirable school districts.

If you would get a contented life, do not grasp too much of the world, do not take in more of the business of the world than God calls you to.

when the heart of a man has nothing to do, but to be busy about creature-comforts, every little thing troubles him; but when the heart is taken up with the weighty things of eternity, with the great things of eternal life, the things of here below that disquieted it before are things now of no consequence to him in comparison with the other-how things fall out here is not much regarded by him, if the one thing that is necessary is provided for.

people who strongly value the pursuit of wealth and possessions report lower psychological well-being than those who are less concerned with such aims.

It is only the first baby that takes up the whole of a woman's time.Five or six do not require nearly so much attention as one.

People who have tried it, tell me that a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well, and is cheaper, and more easily obtained. 

Io definisco la sua vera e propria saggezza, non soltanto per quanto concerne il nostro caso, ma anche riferendosi al viaggio che noi tutti compiamo lungo il fiume della vita. Quante persone, nel corso di tale viaggio, caricano la barca, al punto da farle correre il pericolo di colare a picco, con un intero magazzino di cose stupide ritenute essenziali per i piaceri e gli agi del viaggio ma che in realtà sono soltanto inutile ingombro!

No, what was sad in his case was that he, who didn't care for carved oak, should have his drawing-room panelled with it, while people who do care for it have to pay enormous prices to get it.  It seems to be the rule of this world. 

Of course we all try and save time. Cutting corners, little short cuts. But no matter how much time you save, at the end of your life, there's no extra time saved up. You'll be going what do you mean there's no time?

Friends, family, school, they were just obstacles in the way of getting more books.

All the clichés turned out to be true: what once had seemed important no longer mattered at all.