“Wasted strokes, like missed deadlines, are preventable and costly.”

“Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters, to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?”

“Polly was a writer of many deadlines. There were the ignorable deadlines, the not-to-be-taken-too-seriously deadlines: the deadlines-before-the-deadlines deadlines, and finally, the no-kidding-around deadlines. She set these various dates, she'd told him, to fool herself.”

“Forgiveness spares the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.”

“I say thank God for government waste. If government is doing bad things, it's only the waste that prevents the harm from being greater.”

“If you want to make a good first impression, smile at people. What does it cost to smile? Nothing. What does it cost not to smile? Everything, if not smiling prevents you from enchanting people.”