Daily Inspiration Quote by Robert Byrne

“Prejudices save time” lands like a throwaway quip, but it’s really a compact indictment of how the mind cuts corners. Byrne, better known for wry, aphoristic one-liners than grand theory, uses the language of productivity to expose something uglier: bias isn’t just hatred or ignorance, it’s efficiency. The joke works because it borrows the corporate virtue of “saving time” and applies it to a moral failure, turning prejudice into a perverse life hack.

The intent is double-edged. On the surface, it’s a cynical observation about human laziness: it’s faster to sort people into pre-made categories than to learn anything real about them. Underneath, it’s an uncomfortable confession about the incentives of daily life. Modern social interaction is high-volume and low-context - strangers on the street, names on resumes, faces in a feed. Prejudice thrives in those conditions because it offers instant narrative: who’s competent, who’s threatening, who belongs. It’s not that it’s true; it’s that it’s quick.

Byrne’s celebrity aphorism style matters here. He’s not preaching; he’s baiting the reader into a moment of recognition. If you laugh, you’re also admitting you understand the mechanism. The line’s subtext is that fairness takes time - attention, curiosity, patience, the willingness to be wrong. Prejudice “saves time” the way skipping seatbelts saves time: marginal gains with catastrophic costs, normalized precisely because the shortcut feels mundane.