Doing something halfway does not get you halfway there.
From The Sum of All One's Mistakes, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
Spent most of the morning on a nest I have no business building, since the season is wrong and I am too old to be starting over in a hawthorn. I got the base ring done and half the cup, then the wind came up off the field and I went and sat on the fence instead. By afternoon there was nothing in the fork but a few sticks that looked embarrassed to be there. Doing something halfway does not get you halfway there; I used to think effort was a thing you could pour in by the inch and get back by the inch, and that a half nest was at least a floor. It is not a floor. It is twigs. Switch came by and asked what it was going to be, and I said I would tell him when the wind died down.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- Nothing is worth getting done that isn't worth doing.
- Walking is for walking, not for going.
- After all is said and done, there is more to say and do.
- You don’t get extra credit for the life you meant to live.
- After you ask how much you want something, ask how wise you are to want it.
- Before you start pushing a rock up a hill, make sure it’s a hill you want to climb.