Time & Perspective Quote by Richard G. Scott

Scott’s line borrows its force from a familiar paradox: you need quiet to hear what matters, yet life is engineered to keep you noisy. The opening clause, “In quiet moments when you think about it,” isn’t decorative spirituality; it’s an argument about attention. He implies that most confusion about priorities isn’t intellectual. It’s environmental. Silence functions like a moral X-ray, revealing the difference between what feels urgent and what actually holds your life together.

The shrewdest move is the warning against “good things.” He doesn’t demonize vice; he targets the more socially acceptable threat: respectable busyness. “Good things” are invitations, promotions, hobbies, even service - the kind of activities that earn praise and let you feel productive. That’s why they’re dangerous. They don’t look like distractions; they look like proof you’re doing life correctly. Scott is describing a kind of ethical crowding-out effect, where the merely positive displaces the essential because it’s easier, more measurable, and more immediately rewarded.

As a Latter-day Saint apostle writing from a clerical worldview, Scott’s context leans toward a hierarchy of commitments: God, family, covenants, integrity - things not easily optimized. “Be wise” is less self-help than pastoral triage: choose deliberately before the calendar chooses for you. The subtext is gentle but firm: if your life is full, that’s not automatically a sign of success. It may be the symptom.