C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Despatch
Despatch is the soul of business.
Business is bought at a dear hand where there is small despatch.
The swiftest despatch seems slow to desire.
Reason and right give the quickest despatch.
Crimes succeed by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
Generally it is good to commit the beginning of all great actions to Argus with his hundred eyes, and the end to Briareus with his hundred hands—first to watch, and then to speed.
To choose time is to save time; and an unseasonable motion is but beating the air. There be three parts of business—the preparation, the debate or examination, and the perfection; whereof, if you look for despatch, let the middle only be the work of many, and the first and last the work of few.
Despatch is taking time by the ears; hurry is taking it by the end of the tail.