On the whole, the enjoyment of leisure is something which decidedly costs less than the enjoyment of luxury.

A man who has to be punctually at a certain place at five o’clock has the whole afternoon from one to five ruined for him already.

The three great American vices seem to be efficiency, punctuality and the desire for achievement and success.

Our quarrel with efficiency is not that it gets things done, but that it is a thief of time when it leaves us no leisure to enjoy ourselves and that it frays our nerves in trying to get things done perfectly.

I have often thought of formulas by which the mechanism of human progress and historical change can be expressed. They seem to be as follows: Reality—Dreams = Animal Being Reality + Dreams = A Heart-Ache (usually called Idealism) Reality + Humor = Realism (also called Conservatism) Dreams—Humor = Fanaticism Dreams + Humor = Fantasy Reality + Dreams