Time & Perspective Quote by George Herbert

Perfection is the most polite form of procrastination, and Herbert skewers it without sounding like a scold. “Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right’” attacks the fantasy that life will eventually hand you optimal conditions: more money, fewer obligations, clearer confidence, a cleaner conscience. Herbert frames “just right” in quotation marks like a raised eyebrow, treating it as a comforting myth people tell themselves to avoid the discomfort of beginning.

The second sentence lands the deeper point: agency is not something you acquire after you feel ready; it is something you practice while you’re not. “Start where you stand” is spatial and bodily, bringing lofty intention back to the ground. Then comes the pragmatic pivot: “whatever tools you may have.” Herbert isn’t romanticizing scarcity; he’s insisting that limitation is the default setting of human life, not a temporary glitch. The subtext is almost theological in its restraint: grace (or progress) meets motion, not hesitation.

Context matters here. As a 17th-century poet and Anglican priest, Herbert lived in a world of plague cycles, political anxiety, and precarious careers. Waiting for stability wasn’t wisdom; it was a bet against time itself. The line “better tools will be found as you go along” is quietly radical because it reverses the usual order: competence is downstream of commitment. You don’t earn the right to start; starting is how you earn the tools.