Prolonged reflection almost gives people a bad conscience. One thinks with a watch in one’s hand, even as one eats one’s midday meal while reading the latest news of the stock market; one lives as if one always might miss out on something.

“Rather do anything than nothing” this principle is merely a string to throttle all culture and good taste. One no longer has time or energy for ceremonies, for being obliging in an indirect way, for esprit in conversation, and for any leisure at all.

Living in a constant chase after gain compels people to expend their spirit to the point of exhaustion in continual pretense and overreaching.

Virtue has come to consist of doing something in less time than someone else.

Nietzsche