Slow Down Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old slow down quotes, slow down sayings, and slow down proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Life is not a race, so take it slower, / Hear the music before the song is over. David L. Weatherford
We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking. We move along the surface of things... [but] there are times when we stop. We sit still. We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper. James Carroll
A day out-of-doors, someone I love to talk with, a good book and some simple food and music—that would be rest. Eleanor Roosevelt
Downtime is where we become ourselves, looking into the middle distance, kicking at the curb, lying on the grass or sitting on the stoop and staring at the tedious blue of the summer sky. I don’t believe you can write poetry, or compose music, or become an actor without downtime, and plenty of it, a hiatus that passes for boredom but is really the quiet moving of the wheels inside that fuel creativity. Anna Quindlen
This art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of energy in our great men. J.A. Hadfield
Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen. Leonardo da Vinci
Running too fast does not guarantee that you reach your destination. Shona Proverb
Hurry and well-done never go hand in hand. Haitian Proverb
Trouble, turmoil, tribulation and temptation: that’s the given, that’s the context. What is the response tor calamity? Endurance. Don’t rush, don’t panic. What are we to do in calamitous times? We are to slow down. We are to inquire. We are to endure. Tribulation does not invite haste; it invites contemplation, reflection, perseverance, endurance. Peter J. Gomes
We rush from one task to the next ignoring the flashing yellow lights in our subconscious mind, which caution us to slow down. Doing nothing or just being overwhelms us with guilt. Roderick Terry
One way to slow down and begin to change our perspective is to begin to measure our lives by each breath we take, rather than by each day, month, or year . . . It won’t make a better you or a worse you. But it will reveal you. Angel Kyodo Williams
Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed. G.H. Lewes
Even if you go slow, you can make it to the top. Junko Tabei