Quotes About Efficiency

Instead, statesmanlike, he applied himself to general policy and monitored the performance of lieutenants, who sent him copious reports about their activities

His life was a case study in the profitable use of time.

As we say out West, if a man can't skin he must hold a leg while somebody else does.

It is remarkable how much we all could do if we avoid hustling, and go along at an even pace and keep from attempting too much.

Extremely punctual for all appointments, he said, "A man has no right to occupy another man's time unnecessarily.

Pierpont handled the West Shore affair better than I could have done it myself.

Has anyone given you the law of these offices? No? It is this: nobody does anything if he can get anybody else to do it.… As soon as you

He always found a simple, easy way to reach the correct answer.

he realized that he could get an approximate answer that was "good enough" in a short time

Do it once and do it right and do it quickly

Nothing of value was ever achieved in the morning.

Be on as few pieces of paper as it is possible for a human being to be.

an average infantryman records one enemy fatality for every fifteen thousand combat rounds expended.

Does this thing have fast forward?" Sorenson asked. "Hold down the shift key," the kid said.

The unit had organized itself like a small-market baseball team enjoying an unlikely pennant run: talented journeymen working together, no stars, no egos, mutually supportive, and above all ruthlessly and relentlessly effective.

Why me? Why didn't you do it?" "Like they say in England, why buy a dog and bark yourself?

screaming at myself to listen to what I'd learned through thirteen hard years. The shorter the time, the cooler you've got to be. If you've only got one shot, you've got to make it count. You can't afford to miss because you screwed up the planning. Or because you ran out of blood sugar and got sick and dizzy in the small hours of the morning. So I forced the eggs down and drank

The shorter the time, the cooler you have got to be. If you've got only one shot, you've got to make it count. You can't afford to miss because you screwed up the planning.

smaller, wirier, boiled down to

Reacher] moved the mouse and sent the arrow up toward the icons. He knew they were files. Or file folders. You had to click on them, and in response they would open. He was never sure whether you had to click once or twice. He had seen it done both ways. His usual habit was to click twice. If in doubt, etcetera. Maybe it helped, and it never seemed to hurt. Like shooting someone in the head. A double tap could do no harm.

Why interstate?" "Why do you think the interstates were built? Not so the Harper family could drive from Aspen to Yellowstone Park on vacation. So the Army could move troops and weapons around, fast and easy.

Sleep when you can, so you won't need to when you can't.

She crawled on. She wanted to get closer. She knew the numbers. A thirty-round magazine would be gone in two seconds. She wanted to make both of them count. She wanted to get lucky. If she hit one and he hit one, that was two less for later. Which was good.

Reacher said, "Our nearest tanks are a thousand miles from Yemen or Afghanistan, and they take weeks and weeks and thousands of people to move. It would be easier to bring Yemen or Afghanistan to them. Also faster and less obtrusive.